All Photos By Gail

Land – the division, ownership, and control of this limited resource – is central to an understanding of South African history and culture. Under the former apartheid regime (1948 to 1994), land was carefully demarcated and controlled through a system of racial division and violence.

Cities and the most prosperous farmland were largely allocated to whites, while black Africans were concentrated into “reserves“ on the outskirts of these areas. While this system was dissolved with the advent of democracy in 1994, the deeper social divisions established still persist today in much of South Africa.

The prevalent use of steel razor wire in fences and gates is a physical reminder of those lingering divisions. Artist Walter Oltmann, who lives and works in Johannesburg, comments on his Razor Helmet I (2014). “My woven suits reflect very overtly on our current preoccupations with barriers and defenses in our society. I think my work certainly does hold a sense of the uncanny which speaks of “neither this, nor that” and blurs distinction between categories.”

Photographed in the Brooklyn Museum