power that caused the death of the child soldier in the name of war. Coetzer does not side with the child soldier, nor with the call-up, but rather exhibits them both on public view for our scrutiny (Coetzer 2007:66).
In a similar way, in September of 1992 after the release of Barend Strydom (‘Die Wit Wolf’),5 Coetzer anonymously added red dye to the fountains of Strijdom Square in downtown Pretoria. His anonymous act is open to interpretation (as with much of Coetzer’s work): Was it the pro-supremacist supporters or the beFigure 3: Jacques Coetzer, Blood Fountain, 29 September 1992.
reaved families of the black slain victims who perpetrated this
Red pigment in the water of Strijdom Square, Pretoria.
visceral and visual reminder? The public would never really know.
Photographed by Richard Nezar for Pretoria News.
Coetzer later claimed responsibility in the name of Art – not as a supporter of either right or leftist ideology, but as a commentator who wished to remind the public of the violence and im-
not being able to distinguish between two types of class-specific
balance of power within our society. His actions could have been
accommodations (Coetzer 2007:42).
interpreted in many different ways but were quietly left as a questioning reminder of an important historical event. Derek
In his tableaux Life and death and when to stop playing (1992.
Hook (in Coetzer 2007:70) notes in an extract from his article
Figure 2), Coetzer invokes a sense of defiance to authority on
Monumental space and the uncanny (2005) that “reluctant to
several levels. This provocative work challenges the call to con-
be stereotyped as of left or right political persuasion, Coetzer
scription and the power of authority over life. The sculpture brico-
said that his motivation was ‘to wrench South Africans from a
lages an actual skull of a slain child (obtained from a friend who
placid and spineless acceptance of horror’”. I suggest his artistic
had been in the Angolan bush war and illegally smuggled it back
act was intended to evoke memories of the event, and cause
to South Africa) with the folded call-up paper requiring him to
viewers to question historical abuses of power, the violence and
report for conscription to the SADF. This bizarre and macabre ob-
lives lost, and by implication, the fairness of the amnesty granted
ject is housed in a vitrine (with LED fairy lights) atop a maypole
a mere two years later (Coetzer 2007:69).
Pop Art-styled base. On its top, a wind-up sniper toy soldier lies in wait on a blue globe whereon the map of Africa appears. This
Fast-forward 14 or so years later, and the anonymous interven-
work comments on the futility of war, the loss of life, the poten-
tionalist once again makes a public appearance with two works
tial loss of innocence (through the call-up papers), and through
which challenge accepted systems of society and their associated
the Pop Art style, is rendered playful, toy-like, or even carni-
power relations. Although quite different in visual outcome,
valesque. The light-heartedness of the presentation mocks the
the simplicity of their careful crafting left viewers or passers-by
92
