Baby Doll, series number 9 (from a series of 12)

Senzeni Marasela, South African, born 1977

Share

2006

Six digital prints on mat archival paper

3

Image: 15 3/4 × 23 9/16 in. (40 × 59.9 cm)

Sheet: 19 × 26 in. (48.2 × 66 cm)

Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Charles F. Vernick 1936 Fund

© Senzeni Marasela

2008.8.4

Geography

Place Made: South Africa, Southern Africa, Africa

Period

21st century

Object Name

Photograph

Research Area

Africa

Photograph

Not on view

Inscriptions

(9): signed and dated, in graphite, lower right: Senzeni M. Marasela '06; inscribed in graphite, bottom center: Baby Dolls; inscribed in graphite, lower left: 1/3

Label

A Black baby doll against bright green grass is captured as it unravels—or perhaps, as it is sewn together. Senzeni Marasela gestures toward the uncertainty and violence of being a Black child growing up under South African Apartheid. These photographs are from a series of twelve, each of which pictures the doll at a point of deconstruction. The ripped-apartness mirrors the artist’s own childhood: she was sent to a boarding school to avoid Apartheid atrocities and her mother was sent to be a domestic worker in a white household, a fate of many Black women during the era. There is certainly a feminist politic and emotional release being generated in the tearing apart of the doll. What does it mean to unpack, or dismantle, the symbols of one’s childhood?

From the 2023 exhibition Homecoming: Domesticity and Kinship in Global African Art, curated by Alexandra Thomas, Curatorial Research Associate

Course History

HIST 66/AAAS 15, History of Africa Since 1800, Naaborko Sackeyfio-Lenoch, Winter 2021

First Year Student Enrichment Program – Cultures, Identities and Belongings, Colleen Lannon, Summer 2023

First Year Student Enrichment Program - Cultures, Identities and Belongings, Mokhtar Bouba, Summer 2023

Philosophy 1.11, Art: True, Beautiful, Nasty, John Kulvicki, Summer 2023

Writing 2.05, Why Write, Anyway?, Erkki Mackey, Fall 2023

Writing 5.24, Photographic Representations, Amanda Wetsel, Fall 2023

Writing 5.25, Photographic Representations, Amanda Wetsel, Fall 2023

Exhibition History

Homecoming: Domesticity and Kinship in Global African Art, Harteveldt Family Gallery, Owen Robertson Cheatham Gallery, and Northeast Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire, July 22, 2023–May 25, 2024.

Publication History

Brian P. Kennedy and Emily Shubert Burke, Modern and Contemporary Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2009 p.209, no.275.

Provenance

The artist; Axis Gallery, West Orange, New Jersey; sold to present collection, 2008.

This record is part of an active database that includes information from historic documentation that may not have been recently reviewed. Information may be inaccurate or incomplete. We also acknowledge some language and imagery may be offensive, violent, or discriminatory. These records reflect the institution’s history or the views of artists or scholars, past and present. Our collections research is ongoing.

We welcome questions, feedback, and suggestions for improvement. Please contact us at: Hood.Collections@dartmouth.edu