Willie Bester (South African, born 1956)


The Truth and Reconciliation Commission signed and dated 'W BESTER/ 99' (lower right)mixed media 81 x 118cm (31 7/8 x 46 7/16in).
|This artwork is titled after The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a court-like body assembled in South Africa following the end of Apartheid. Any individual who felt they had been victimised or abused by the National Party and its governing arms could raise their grievance with the TRC. Perpetrators of violence could also give testimony and request amnesty from prosecution in return. Formal hearings began in April 1996, and many were broadcast on national television. The TRC was seen as a pivotal moment in the country's transition to a full and free democracy. Whilst the initiative was generally considered a success, Willie Bester challenges the accepted narrative that it brought about radical social change overnight. Decades of institutionalized discrimination and racial division under apartheid had left deep rifts that would take many years to heal.Bester's artwork references the continued hardship of many black South Africans' lives following the ANC's election in 1994, recreating the physical environment of the township through his choice of materials: barbed wire, tin cans, newspapers, old motor parts and discarded cloth.