CURRENT PROJECT
Ke Dirang Ha? What am i doing here?
WHAT AM I DOING HERE? KE DIRANG HA? Ann Gollifer 2010
A series of monoprints on paper using block printing (lino) and intaglio (scratch perspex) over photocopy transfer.
I made a series of vignetted, photographic self portraits which I transferred to paper and then overprinted. In the self portraits I wear only high heels and hold various objects; wine glass, cigarette, my grandmother's mirror or a little ornamental windmill I once bought at Craddok on my way to Grahamstown in South Africa. I then put an acrylic wash over the figure and overprinted it with images that represent Botswana for me, a line of village dogs, a Brahmin bull, a woman collecting firewood ( the old woman holding a tree), two children, one wearing a paper mask, or the Three Chiefs; Khama, Sebele and Bathoen. The Three Chiefs were the founding fathers of Botswana and travelled to England in the late 1890s, to ask Queen Victoria for her protection from Boer Trekker and Rhodes expansion. They are represented by the only major contemporary public scultpture commissioned in Gaborone in the last decade. The statues were erected in the new Central Business District which is currently being constructed around them.
I have lived and worked in Gaborone as a practising artist since 1985. I have permanent resident status in Botswana. I wanted to address issues surrounding the condition of being an exotic in the exotic. I am seen but not seen. I see but do not see. The images I superimpose one upon the other allude to relationships or the lack of relationships. They set up dialogues with each other that form questions in the viewers mind.
The concept of working with a nude female image came from a second hand book of photographic nudes from the 1950s. The nudes are positioned under studio lights and shot in pin up mode sometimes with random domestic action. They are mundane images made strange by the photographers gaze.
Ann Gollifer is a permanent resident of Botswana. She has lived and worked in Gaborone since 1985. Born in British Guiana, (Guyana), 1960, she has an English father and an Amerindian mother. In 1983 she graduated from Edinburgh University with a Masters degree in History of Art. An Artist member of the Thapong Visual Art Centre, Gaborone, Ann was part of the executive committee, responsible for the building of the centre.
I am a painter and printmaker. I draw on photography, music, dance and literature for my work which is inspired by the human condition; history, identity, both personal and collective. 2010