Erased History

History is a living thing, often with an agenda. The characters can be hero’s or villains depending on who is telling the story. This work was inspired by an incident I experienced as a child, a further meditation on my work Recanted History. I sourced South African primary school textbooks from 1980 till 2002 - A time spanning 2 years before I was born to two years after I finished high school.

I faithfully copied out pages from these books, covering specific battles and key characters. And then I began to erase to see what persisted. I erased the older history harder and the more recent pages with a lighter touch. These images were framed and displayed on shelves, much like the displays of team photos and past pupils found in the schools I attended.