Hans Haacke: "A Breed Apart" in South Africa
About this video
Hans Haacke describes how his ideas form in an uncontrolled way, and why his Condensation Cube was about a physical exchange rather than an object. He then explains 'A Breed Apart', which paired British Leyland's advertising with photographs of its Land Rovers used by South African forces under apartheid, so that the public could see these connections.
You'll be able to
- explain why Haacke saw the Condensation Cube as a process rather than an object.
- describe how 'A Breed Apart' used juxtaposition to make a political point.
- explain why Haacke wants viewers to have the information they need.
Key words
- Condensation Cube
- Haacke's sealed acrylic box in which water condenses and evaporates in response to the room and the people in it.
- juxtapose
- To place two things side by side so that the contrast between them creates meaning.
- boycott
- Refusing to buy from or deal with a country or company as a form of protest.
- apartheid
- The system of racist segregation enforced by the South African government until the early 1990s.
Transcript
I do not work systematically. All sorts of things go through my head and pieces fall into place. And then I have to focus on these pieces and refine them and make something coherent out of it. But the ideas are born in an uncontrolled manner. I became interested in things that actually perform independent of the viewer.
And in the case of the 'Condensation Cube' it was important for me that it was not the object, namely a cube made of acrylic plastic but the actual physical exchange between the environment, including the viewer and what is enclosed in the cube. I was invited to have a solo exhibition at the museum in Oxford In spite of a growing boycott of the racist regime in South Africa British Leyland was also making military vehicles which were still supplied to the South African military forces.
British Leyland also had a major factory near Oxford and one of the slogans called it 'a breed apart'. And, I drew from some of the advertisement, for the breed apart and juxtaposed them alternately with black and white photographs of the Land Rover in action against the back indigenous population of South Africa.
Well, I believe it is necessary for the public for the voters to become aware of these interdependencies and come up with, hopefully, an alternative to it. I would like the visitors to have, more or less, all the information they need in order to make sense of what they are exposed to.
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