Colin Richards (born 1954)

Biko Series II, 2008

Series of 8 images donated by the artist, May 2008

'I first encountered the post-mortem photographs of Steve Biko while working as a medical illustrator at Wits in late 1977. A medical doctor required labelling to be done. At first I could not identify the person in the photographs, discovering much later that they were of Steve Biko. This disturbed me, a feeling made worse by the escalating political situation at the time and memories of a stint of active duty as an army conscript in Angola.

Almost twenty years later I was invited to participate in the exhibition Faultlines, curated by Jane Taylor and held at the Castle in Cape Town. The broad brief was to articulate a 'cultural response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission'. The archive at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) was opened to all the artists. The archive contained hitherto hidden, obscure or forbidden histories which few had seen. It was there that I came upon post-mortem photographs I recognised, and others I did not. Some were official photographs of cells, passages and diagrams telling of the fate of detainees at the hands of the security police.

I worked through this material, publications by Biko and other writers on Black Consciousness for the Faultlines installation. That installation comprised the so-called 'Biko' series (lazer printed photographs and texts on domestic bed sheeting), two watercolours of sleeping dogs, another of a 'veil' called the Veronica, as well as objects related to my Angolan service. I used mainly images of cells, maps and diagrams, but also - importantly - two close-ups of the body not identifiable on their own. Even though the TRC process opened some space to explore subjective experiences of violence, detachment and complicity (in my case), using body images like this raises profound ethical questions. The work is now in the collection of the South African National Gallery (SANG).

In the Adler Museum series I selectively cannibalised the work in the SANG. I have also added two 'found' texts. Both are literally cut from their sources and pasted - the first repeated and scrambled - on each work. One, by Xolela Mangcu, implicitly brings my or any artist's use of such body images into question, while the other comes from Biko's Black Consciousness and the Quest for a True Humanity, first published in book form in 1978.'

Colin Richards was born in Camps Bay, Cape Town in 1954. Raised and educated on the West Rand near Johannesburg, his post-matriculation education was at the University of South Africa, the University of London (Goldsmith's College) and Wits University, where he was awarded his PhD in 1995. He worked as medical illustrator, Department of Medicine, from 1977 to 1985, after which he joined the Fine Arts Department at Wits. He currently lectures art criticism, studio art practice and art theory in Fine Arts, Wits School of Arts. He was awarded a personal professorial chair in 2002.

As well as being consultant for a number of local and international exhibitions involving South African art and artists, he has also curated and co-curated many important exhibitions. He is a practising artist, and has exhibited in South Africa, England and North America. His work is represented in most the major public collections in the country and a number of corporate collections.