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1982 -1987

My work in South Africa was mainly concerned with an imminent threat of violence caused by the refusal of the minority White rulers engaged in a policy of Apartheid to recognise the legitimate Black heirs of the country.

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Dead Meat was painted on my arrival in the UK.

Based on Rembrandt's 'The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Tulp', I've replaced the Dutch figures with Afrikaans ruling figures, some of which are impaled by the railings of the Voortrekker Monument rising behind them. The main figure is demonstrating how to dissect and eat the body of a black man. Painted in warmer hues than those surveying his body, he has, unintentionally, facial features that remind me of Biko. The number on the body tag is in honour of Simeon Katisi Sambo, killed far from his home in the Kinros mining disaster of 1987.

The title 'Cold Meat' is a link to SA's Minister of Police Jimmy Kruger's response when he heard of Steve Biko's death during a brutal police detention in 1977, that it "..it leaves me cold"

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