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Empathy.
The ability to understand and share the feelings of another may be the most challenging heroic power.
South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) offered a radically new approach to human rights violations, promoting restorative justice in the form of reconciliation over retribution. To achieve the amnesty offered to those who confessed their crimes and sought forgiveness, however, the TRC first had to unearth some truly chilling evils. This assemblage refers to two cases brought before the TRC. Using images taken from newspapers, Williamson intended the prints to appear "as they might perhaps be displayed in a courtroom for the information of the jury." Eugene de Kock, a police commander known as "Prime Evil," was reputed to be the apartheid state's most efficient killer, responsible for the death of numerous activists. De Kock asked to testify before the TRC in the hope that he would be pardoned, but spoke instead without remorse. Images of a pig's head in the second line symbolize the victim of a bombing for which de Kock was responsible. In an experiment, a bomb placed in a cassette recorder blew up a pig's head; a similar bomb killed human rights lawyer Bheki Mlangeni. De Kock was convicted on 89 charges and sentenced to 212 years in prison. Poison Victim tells the story of activist Sipho Mtimkulu, who was arrested for distributing pamphlets. Fed rat poison while in jail, he was hospitalized after his release and recovered. The second line of images shows a jubilant Mtimkulu going home to a hero's welcome -- only to disappear soon thereafter, and never be seen again. |