Historical background to the work 'Room 619'
"The security services took Biko to the Walmer police station in Port Elizabeth, where he was held naked in a cell with his legs in shackles. On 6 September, he was transferred from Walmer to room .619 of the security police headquarters in the Sanlam Building in central Port Elizabeth, where he was interrogated for 22 hours, handcuffed and in shackles, and chained to a grille. Exactly what happened has never been ascertained, but during the interrogation he was severely beaten by at least one of the ten security police officers. He suffered three brain lesions that resulted in a massive brain haemorrage on 6 September. Following this incident, Biko's captors forced him to remain standing and shackled to the wall. The police later said that Biko had attacked one of them with a chair, forcing them to subdue him and place him in handcuffs and leg irons.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Biko
Artist's Statement
The figure depicted in the work represents the many detainees who had experienced torture and death by apartheid security police officers during their struggle for freedom against apartheid. The title of the work 'ROOM 619' is derived from the interrogation room in which anti apartheid activist, Bantu Stephen Biko was brutally assaulted, tortured and subsequently murdered by security forces in 1977.
The work attempts to evoke a sense of peacefulness and quietude, and contrast the dramatic experience by which detainees were tortured and subsequently murdered while in custody at Room 619, Sanlam Building in Port Elizabeth.
Artist's Statement
The figure depicted in the work represents the many detainees who had experienced torture and death by apartheid security police officers during their struggle for freedom against apartheid. The title of the work 'ROOM 619' is derived from the interrogation room in which anti apartheid activist, Bantu Stephen Biko was brutally assaulted, tortured and subsequently murdered by security forces in 1977.
The work attempts to evoke a sense of peacefulness and quietude, and contrast the dramatic experience by which detainees were tortured and subsequently murdered while in custody at Room 619, Sanlam Building in Port Elizabeth.
