Sanity Loses its Head

CCAC #: 0465
Artwork title: Sanity Loses its Head
Artist(s): Michael Meyersfeld
Year made: 2014
Artwork type: Photography
Medium: Platinum / palladium print
Framed dimensions (in mm): 650 x 845
Edition: 5/12
Source: Donated by the artist
Year acquired: 2017
Installation type: Movable artwork
Current location: On private display
Signage:

The horrors and injustice of the apartheid system are addressed in light of the artist’s visit to Number Four, a prison block adjacent to the Constitutional Court. This staged work speaks about the madness that was apartheid.

Themes: Collective memory of apartheid-era trauma
Political violence and intimidation
State violence
Anti-apartheid
Art as social practice
Human Rights
Intergenerational trauma
Johannesburg
Memory and memorialisation
Photojournalism
Prisons
Constitutional links: Human dignity - constitutional value (section 1a, section 10)
Freedom and security of the person (section 12)
Freedom of expression (section 16)
Access to courts (section 34)
No one may be subjected to slavery, servitude or forced labour (section 13)
Related constitutional cases: S v Makwanyane & Another (1995)
Minister of Health and Others v Treatment Action Campaign and Others (2002)

CCAC 436746

Photographer: Unrecorded
Photo copyright: Consult with CCT curatorial team

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NOTE: The process of photographing artworks in the CCAC is underway - we are currently working to improve image quality and display on the CMS but have included internal reference photos for identification purposes in the interim.