Sue Williamson

Sue Williamson was born in 1941 in Lichfield, United Kingdom. Her family immigrated to South Africa in 1948, where she studied printmaking and now creates installations, photography, and videos. She graduated from the University of Cape Town’s Michaelis School of Fine Art in 1983. In the 1970's, she began to create work that addressed social transformation during apartheid, and by the 1980's, Williamson was well-known for her series of portraits of women involved in the country's political struggle, titled A Few South Africans (1983).

Williamson was struck by the severity of the socio-political relations taking place in South Africa at that time, for which she critically recorded her experiences and gathered information that she uses to challenge the present. She witnessed government officials destroying a squatter community on Cape Town's outskirts. Years later, in the same city, the destruction of the remaining houses in District 6 inspired her to create The Last Supper Revisited in 1993. The artwork depicts collected items from the demolition, personal belongings, oral descriptions of the event, bulldozer sounds, calls to prayer, and testimonials from displaced locals. This installation was aimed at restoring the memory of the destroyed community.

Williams' Messages from the Atlantic Passage, a large-scale installation of shackled, suspended glass bottles etched with details derived from the 19th century slave trade documents, was exhibited at the Art Basel in Switzerland in 2017 and at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in India in 2018. She was also the featured artist for Goodman Gallery at the FNB Joburg Art Fair in 2018, where she exhibited Messages from the Atlantic Passage. Her work is included in numerous public collections across the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Tate Modern in London, the Constitutional Court Art Collection in Johannesburg, and the Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town. Williamson has received various awards and fellowships, such as the Bellagio Creative Arts Fellowship in 2011, Italy, the Visual Artist Research Award Fellowship in 2007, and the Lucas Artists Residency Fellowship in 2005.

Sue Williamson lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa.

Sources:

https://www.sue-williamson.com/about Accessed 30 August 2024

https://www.goodman-gallery.com/artists/sue-williamson#about Accessed 30 August 2024

https://awarewomenartists.com/en/artiste/sue-williamson/ Accessed 30 August 2024