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Lot 23

Mikhael Subotzky
(South African, born 1981)
Strip Search, Pollsmoor Maximum Security Prison, 2004

2 May 2019, 14:00 EDT
New York

US$5,000 - US$8,000

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Mikhael Subotzky (South African, born 1981)

Strip Search, Pollsmoor Maximum Security Prison, 2004
Inkjet print
50 x 75cm (19 11/16 x 29 1/2in).

Footnotes

Exhibited
London, Saatchi Gallery, Pangaea II: New Art from Africa and Latin America, 2015

Literature
Saatchi Gallery, Pangaea II, 2015, p. 151-153


Subotzky has been depicting South African life through the prism of prisons since 2004. Located in the suburb of Tokai in Cape Town, Pollsmoor Maximum Security Prison is one of South Africa's most dangerous, exceeding its maximum capacity. Whilst still a student at the renowned Michaelis School of Fine Art, Cape Town, Subotzky travelled with members of the Elections Commission to documents prisoners at the polling booth. As a result, Subotzky created a number of panoramic images, including 'Strip Search', from as many as eighteen negatives. All of which were exhibited at the prison on Freedom Day, 27 April 2005, in the same cell that once housed Nelson Mandela.

His work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the South African National Gallery, Cape Town and the Johannesburg Art Gallery. Subotzky continues to live and work between Cape Town and Johannesburg.

Bibliography
Okwui Enwezor, Contemporary African Photography from The Walther Collection: Events of the Self: Portraiture and Social Identity, Steidl. Pp 381-382.

Additional information

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