The Butcher Boys Analysis

As defined by Steinhardt New York University “Contemporary art is the art of today, produced by artists who are living in the twenty-first century. Contemporary art provides an opportunity to reflect on contemporary society and the issues relevant to ourselves, and the world around us.”

Apartheid is a word almost synonym to South Africa, as that is what generally comes to mind for most people, whether living in South Africa, or just hearing about it. The word refers to “a state of being physically apart” and represents a time of racial segregation between white and black South Africans. Jane Alexander’s surreal artwork, The Butcher Boys, is dated back to 1984, yet it is still relevant to South Africans living in the twenty first century; although

The expression in their dark, bestial eyes is aggressive, yet it also betrays their suffering and that do not seem ‘alive’. All three figures are sitting together on a bench, but there is no communication between them. Even their body language suggests how withdrawn they are from the outside world. Each figure’s arms and body are tilted in a slight different direction, barely naked. This could be a direct comparison to the humiliation and belittling of black South Africans during Apartheid. The fact that these figures do not resemble those of a human, and are so dehumanized with having no actual facial features with which we can identify, represents the way black South Africans were not seen as deserving their own identities and were often given different ‘simple’ names on their pass books, than those given to them at birth and used by those who know

They emerge from the apartheid period in South Africa. This was a pre-democratic era in South Africa, where white race was seen as superior and the black African culture was undermined by white minority. These figures portray the brutal dehumanization many black South African had to endure during this period, the way they were mutated by the cruel acts and behavior showed towards them. Their dignities often decreased or taken away by the embarrassment and shameful lives and acts they had to go through in that