Notes

Stanley Pinker recalls "When we arrived in Seeheim Namibia, the place resembled a ghost town. The buildings surrounding this railway junction were all intact but there weren't any people to be seen. In this painting I have tried to reconstruct my sense of place. At the time I was very conscious of the ambiguous connotations of traffic signs and danger signs, and in some I have shown their reverse side, the side that is not intended to be seen. They appear as grey forms, as do the oil drum, windmill, dam and some of the houses. I did not want anything alive in this painting, so the man I invented in characterless, bland persona. He utters 'JA', indicated in type made up of fragmented road signs. The square yellow sign warns of the railway level crossing, the triangular sign to the left of it indicates a bumpy ride. This place was eerie and disturbing, which I hope these elements convey."

Provenance

Mrs B Robinson collection, Cape Town.

Private Collection.

Exhibited

South African National Gallery, Cape Town, Stanley Pinker Exhibition, July 1983, catalogue number 31.

King George VI Art Gallery, Port Elizabeth, A Selection from Stanley Pinker’s Work to Date, 1983. catalogue number 5.

Literature