Reliquary Cabinets: woodcut on silicone, found objects and electrical light, 900 x 470mm

Collection: Mucosa in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Museum

The objects placed on the upper level of the containers function as sanctified ‘relics’ due to their placement. “Electrical illumination of each ‘reliquary’ performs a similar function: while red light conveys a sense of the mystical glow of candlelight in sacred shrines, white light is suggestive of a surgical theatre. Word­ing carved on the base of each object, likewise, offers a conflation of the religious and the medical. ( Brenda Schmahmann, 2007)

Further Reading:

Schmahmann, B. 2007. Figuring Maternity: Christine Dixie’s Parturient Prospects. Johannesburg, de Arte 75, University of South Africa Press.