Sue Williamson (b. 1941, Lichfield, UK) emigrated with her family to South Africa in 1948. In the 1970s, Williamson started to make work which addressed social change and by the late 1980s she was well known for her series of portraits of women involved in the country’s political struggle, titled A Few South Africans (1980s).

A major retrospective of her five-decades long career will be shown at Iziko South African National Gallery in 2025 following her UK and US institutional exhibitions in 2023 at The Box, Plymouth and The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia.

Postcards from Africa is a series of ink drawings based on postcards from the early 1900s, produced for residents and travellers in Africa as well as for collectors who had never set foot on the continent. These postcards, which peaked in popularity at that time, now contribute to understanding political and cultural changes in Africa as the rise of the new medium coincided with the expansion and consolidation of colonial rule. In Williamson's re-drawn scenes from these postcards, all the figures have been left out: a reference to the scourge of slavery, which saw 12.5 million people shipped from the continent to the Americas.

Sue Williamson (b. 1941, Lichfield, UK) emigrated with her family to South Africa in 1948. In the 1970s, Williamson started to make work which addressed social change and by the late 1980s she was well known for her series of portraits of women involved in the country’s political struggle, titled A Few South Africans (1980s).

A major retrospective of her five-decades long career will be shown at Iziko South African National Gallery in 2025 following her UK and US institutional exhibitions in 2023 at The Box, Plymouth and The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia.

Postcards from Africa is a series of ink drawings based on postcards from the early 1900s, produced for residents and travellers in Africa as well as for collectors who had never set foot on the continent. These postcards, which peaked in popularity at that time, now contribute to understanding political and cultural changes in Africa as the rise of the new medium coincided with the expansion and consolidation of colonial rule. In Williamson's re-drawn scenes from these postcards, all the figures have been left out: a reference to the scourge of slavery, which saw 12.5 million people shipped from the continent to the Americas.

Sue Williamson (b. 1941, Lichfield, UK) emigrated with her family to South Africa in 1948. In the 1970s, Williamson started to make work which addressed social change and by the late 1980s she was well known for her series of portraits of women involved in the country’s political struggle, titled A Few South Africans (1980s).

A major retrospective of her five-decades long career will be shown at Iziko South African National Gallery in 2025 following her UK and US institutional exhibitions in 2023 at The Box, Plymouth and The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia.

Postcards from Africa is a series of ink drawings based on postcards from the early 1900s, produced for residents and travellers in Africa as well as for collectors who had never set foot on the continent. These postcards, which peaked in popularity at that time, now contribute to understanding political and cultural changes in Africa as the rise of the new medium coincided with the expansion and consolidation of colonial rule. In Williamson's re-drawn scenes from these postcards, all the figures have been left out: a reference to the scourge of slavery, which saw 12.5 million people shipped from the continent to the Americas.

Important international solo exhibitions include: Between Memory and Forgetting, Plymouth (2023); Can’t Remember, Can’t Forget, Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg (2017); Other Voices, Other Cities, SCAD Museum of Art, Georgia (2015), Messages from the Moat, Den Haag, (2003) and The Last Supper Revisited, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C. (2002).

Williamson’s new series of drawings, Postcards from Africa, continues the artist’s interest in the power of a small printed image to carry news of a specific moment in time to a far off audience, sometimes current, sometimes separated from the event by a century. Her early series of etchings The Modderdam Postcards (1978) was based on sketches made over seven days while witnessing the destruction by the apartheid state of an informal settlement near the airport in Cape Town.

Postcards made from A Few South Africans (1983-86), mixed media portraits of heroic women active in the struggle for liberation, were distributed not only across the country, but the world. Most recently, the artist has turned her attention to vintage postcards of photographs taken by European colonisers in Africa in the first decades of the 20th century, who used the postcards as examples of the success of their missions, supposedly demonstrating the civilising effect of colonisation on the colonised, or presenting views of exotic Africa for the edification of folks back home.

Sourcing these postcards from museum archives or from the internet, Williamson reverts to classic drawing techniques. She dips her pen into a bottle of ink, building up images with layers of intricate cross-hatching, adding colour from a limited palette to reproduce the rural landscapes on the postcards, or capture the scenes of daily community life: harvesting, swimming, gathering wood.

Williamson’s new series of drawings, Postcards from Africa, continues the artist’s interest in the power of a small printed image to carry news of a specific moment in time to a far off audience, sometimes current, sometimes separated from the event by a century. Her early series of etchings The Modderdam Postcards (1978) was based on sketches made over seven days while witnessing the destruction by the apartheid state of an informal settlement near the airport in Cape Town.

Postcards made from A Few South Africans (1983-86), mixed media portraits of heroic women active in the struggle for liberation, were distributed not only across the country but the world. Most recently, the artist has turned her attention to vintage postcards of photographs taken by European colonisers in Africa in the first decades of the 20th century, who used the postcards as examples of the success of their missions, supposedly demonstrating the civilising effect of colonisation on the colonised, or presenting views of exotic Africa. 

Sourcing these postcards from museum archives or from the internet, Williamson reverts to classic drawing techniques. She dips her pen into a bottle of ink, building up images with layers of intricate cross-hatching, adding colour from a limited palette to reproduce the rural landscapes on the postcards, or capture the scenes of daily community life: harvesting, swimming, gathering wood.

Williamson’s new series of drawings, Postcards from Africa, continues the artist’s interest in the power of a small printed image to carry news of a specific moment in time to a far off audience, sometimes current, sometimes separated from the event by a century. Her early series of etchings The Modderdam Postcards (1978) was based on sketches made over seven days while witnessing the destruction by the apartheid state of an informal settlement near the airport in Cape Town.

Postcards made from A Few South Africans (1983-86), mixed media portraits of heroic women active in the struggle for liberation, were distributed not only across the country but the world. Most recently, the artist has turned her attention to vintage postcards of photographs taken by European colonisers in Africa in the first decades of the 20th century, who used the postcards as examples of the success of their missions, supposedly demonstrating the civilising effect of colonisation on the colonised, or presenting views of exotic Africa. 

Sourcing these postcards from museum archives or from the internet, Williamson reverts to classic drawing techniques. She dips her pen into a bottle of ink, building up images with layers of intricate cross-hatching, adding colour from a limited palette to reproduce the rural landscapes on the postcards, or capture the scenes of daily community life: harvesting, swimming, gathering wood.

The ongoing series ‘Postcards from Africa’ engages with vintage postcards from the early 20th century, originally produced by European colonists and photographers. Part of a global craze for this new form of communication, these postcards were intended to demonstrate colonisation’s civilising effect on the dark continent, or to depict Africa as an exotic landscape for European audiences. Sourcing these images from archives, Williamson reimagines them through intricate ink drawings, layering cross-hatching and a faded palette. The drawings retain traces of habitation or recent activity — ripples in the water suggest children at play, a canoe floats on a lagoon at dusk, on a deck, fish are being chopped up, a load of wood floats in mid air, —but the people once pictured as part of the landscape are absent.

In a text by Nkopoleng Moloi for Williamson’s exhibition, ‘Distant Visions’ in 2021, “Postcards hold traces of historical memory, and through her evocative ink drawings with their deliberate erasures, Williamson seeks to confront the painful and unresolved legacies of colonialism — an important juncture in world history that has never been fully reckoned with, and whose catastrophic effects continue to be felt by millions of dispossessed peoples across the globe. In this instance, the absence makes the violence visible”.

Postcards from Africa is a series of new ink drawings based on postcards from the early 1900s, produced for residents and travellers in Africa as well as for collectors who had never set foot on the continent. These postcards, which peaked in popularity at that time, now contribute to understanding political and cultural changes in Africa as the rise of the new medium coincided with the expansion and consolidation of colonial rule. In Williamson's re-drawn scenes from these postcards, all the figures have been left out: a reference to the scourge of slavery, which saw 12.5 million people shipped from the continent to the Americas.

'The Diaries of Lady Anne B' is a series of unique monotypes made by the artist in the studios of master printers Mark Attwood of the Artists Press and Zhane Warren of Warren Editions in 2010 -11. The unconventional and progressive Lady Anne Barnard was the wife of Andrew Barnard, who was appointed first colonial secretary of the Cape of Good Hope in 1797, when the British won the Cape from the Dutch. The Barnards sailed to Cape Town and took up residence in the Castle of Good Hope.

Incidents drawn from the three volumes of Lady Anne's diaries are illustrated with lively images casting a light onto life in Cape Town at the turn of the 18th century ... a hyena chases Lady Anne's chickens, visitors like Lord Mornington pass through and are commented on, the hangman inconveniently carries out his job ten yards from Lady Anne’s drawing room window, a mutiny at sea is described, a careless cook allows the family dogs to eat all the cold meats prepared for guests.

In a 2023 reworking of these prints, notes in a facsimile of Lady Anne’s handwriting give clues to these events, floating over cream rectangles in the images.

'The Diaries of Lady Anne B' is a series of unique monotypes made by the artist in the studios of master printers Mark Attwood of the Artists Press and Zhane Warren of Warren Editions in 2010 -11. The unconventional and progressive Lady Anne Barnard was the wife of Andrew Barnard, who was appointed first colonial secretary of the Cape of Good Hope in 1797, when the British won the Cape from the Dutch. The Barnards sailed to Cape Town and took up residence in the Castle of Good Hope.

Incidents drawn from the three volumes of Lady Anne's diaries are illustrated with lively images casting a light onto life in Cape Town at the turn of the 18th century ... a hyena chases Lady Anne's chickens, visitors like Lord Mornington pass through and are commented on, the hangman inconveniently carries out his job ten yards from Lady Anne’s drawing room window, a mutiny at sea is described, a careless cook allows the family dogs to eat all the cold meats prepared for guests.

In a 2023 reworking of these prints, notes in a facsimile of Lady Anne’s handwriting give clues to these events, floating over cream rectangles in the images.

'The Diaries of Lady Anne B' is a series of unique monotypes made by the artist in the studios of master printers Mark Attwood of the Artists Press and Zhane Warren of Warren Editions in 2010 -11. The unconventional and progressive Lady Anne Barnard was the wife of Andrew Barnard, who was appointed first colonial secretary of the Cape of Good Hope in 1797, when the British won the Cape from the Dutch. The Barnards sailed to Cape Town and took up residence in the Castle of Good Hope.

Incidents drawn from the three volumes of Lady Anne's diaries are illustrated with lively images casting a light onto life in Cape Town at the turn of the 18th century ... a hyena chases Lady Anne's chickens, visitors like Lord Mornington pass through and are commented on, the hangman inconveniently carries out his job ten yards from Lady Anne’s drawing room window, a mutiny at sea is described, a careless cook allows the family dogs to eat all the cold meats prepared for guests.

In a 2023 reworking of these prints, notes in a facsimile of Lady Anne’s handwriting give clues to these events, floating over cream rectangles in the images.

'The Diaries of Lady Anne B' is a series of unique monotypes made by the artist in the studios of master printers Mark Attwood of the Artists Press and Zhane Warren of Warren Editions in 2010 -11. The unconventional and progressive Lady Anne Barnard was the wife of Andrew Barnard, who was appointed first colonial secretary of the Cape of Good Hope in 1797, when the British won the Cape from the Dutch. The Barnards sailed to Cape Town and took up residence in the Castle of Good Hope.

Incidents drawn from the three volumes of Lady Anne's diaries are illustrated with lively images casting a light onto life in Cape Town at the turn of the 18th century ... a hyena chases Lady Anne's chickens, visitors like Lord Mornington pass through and are commented on, the hangman inconveniently carries out his job ten yards from Lady Anne’s drawing room window, a mutiny at sea is described, a careless cook allows the family dogs to eat all the cold meats prepared for guests.

In a 2023 reworking of these prints, notes in a facsimile of Lady Anne’s handwriting give clues to these events, floating over cream rectangles in the images.

'The Diaries of Lady Anne B' is a series of unique monotypes made by the artist in the studios of master printers Mark Attwood of the Artists Press and Zhane Warren of Warren Editions in 2010 -11. The unconventional and progressive Lady Anne Barnard was the wife of Andrew Barnard, who was appointed first colonial secretary of the Cape of Good Hope in 1797, when the British won the Cape from the Dutch. The Barnards sailed to Cape Town and took up residence in the Castle of Good Hope.

Incidents drawn from the three volumes of Lady Anne's diaries are illustrated with lively images casting a light onto life in Cape Town at the turn of the 18th century ... a hyena chases Lady Anne's chickens, visitors like Lord Mornington pass through and are commented on, the hangman inconveniently carries out his job ten yards from Lady Anne’s drawing room window, a mutiny at sea is described, a careless cook allows the family dogs to eat all the cold meats prepared for guests.

In a 2023 reworking of these prints, notes in a facsimile of Lady Anne’s handwriting give clues to these events, floating over cream rectangles in the images.

'The Diaries of Lady Anne B' is a series of unique monotypes made by the artist in the studios of master printers Mark Attwood of the Artists Press and Zhane Warren of Warren Editions in 2010 -11. The unconventional and progressive Lady Anne Barnard was the wife of Andrew Barnard, who was appointed first colonial secretary of the Cape of Good Hope in 1797, when the British won the Cape from the Dutch. The Barnards sailed to Cape Town and took up residence in the Castle of Good Hope.

Incidents drawn from the three volumes of Lady Anne's diaries are illustrated with lively images casting a light onto life in Cape Town at the turn of the 18th century ... a hyena chases Lady Anne's chickens, visitors like Lord Mornington pass through and are commented on, the hangman inconveniently carries out his job ten yards from Lady Anne’s drawing room window, a mutiny at sea is described, a careless cook allows the family dogs to eat all the cold meats prepared for guests.

In a 2023 reworking of these prints, notes in a facsimile of Lady Anne’s handwriting give clues to these events, floating over cream rectangles in the images.

'The Diaries of Lady Anne B' is a series of unique monotypes made by the artist in the studios of master printers Mark Attwood of the Artists Press and Zhane Warren of Warren Editions in 2010 -11. The unconventional and progressive Lady Anne Barnard was the wife of Andrew Barnard, who was appointed first colonial secretary of the Cape of Good Hope in 1797, when the British won the Cape from the Dutch. The Barnards sailed to Cape Town and took up residence in the Castle of Good Hope.

Incidents drawn from the three volumes of Lady Anne's diaries are illustrated with lively images casting a light onto life in Cape Town at the turn of the 18th century ... a hyena chases Lady Anne's chickens, visitors like Lord Mornington pass through and are commented on, the hangman inconveniently carries out his job ten yards from Lady Anne’s drawing room window, a mutiny at sea is described, a careless cook allows the family dogs to eat all the cold meats prepared for guests.

In a 2023 reworking of these prints, notes in a facsimile of Lady Anne’s handwriting give clues to these events, floating over cream rectangles in the images.

'The Diaries of Lady Anne B' is a series of unique monotypes made by the artist in the studios of master printers Mark Attwood of the Artists Press and Zhane Warren of Warren Editions in 2010 -11. The unconventional and progressive Lady Anne Barnard was the wife of Andrew Barnard, who was appointed first colonial secretary of the Cape of Good Hope in 1797, when the British won the Cape from the Dutch. The Barnards sailed to Cape Town and took up residence in the Castle of Good Hope.

Incidents drawn from the three volumes of Lady Anne's diaries are illustrated with lively images casting a light onto life in Cape Town at the turn of the 18th century ... a hyena chases Lady Anne's chickens, visitors like Lord Mornington pass through and are commented on, the hangman inconveniently carries out his job ten yards from Lady Anne’s drawing room window, a mutiny at sea is described, a careless cook allows the family dogs to eat all the cold meats prepared for guests.

In a 2023 reworking of these prints, notes in a facsimile of Lady Anne’s handwriting give clues to these events, floating over cream rectangles in the images.

'The Diaries of Lady Anne B' is a series of unique monotypes made by the artist in the studios of master printers Mark Attwood of the Artists Press and Zhane Warren of Warren Editions in 2010 -11. The unconventional and progressive Lady Anne Barnard was the wife of Andrew Barnard, who was appointed first colonial secretary of the Cape of Good Hope in 1797, when the British won the Cape from the Dutch. The Barnards sailed to Cape Town and took up residence in the Castle of Good Hope.

Incidents drawn from the three volumes of Lady Anne's diaries are illustrated with lively images casting a light onto life in Cape Town at the turn of the 18th century ... a hyena chases Lady Anne's chickens, visitors like Lord Mornington pass through and are commented on, the hangman inconveniently carries out his job ten yards from Lady Anne’s drawing room window, a mutiny at sea is described, a careless cook allows the family dogs to eat all the cold meats prepared for guests.

In a 2023 reworking of these prints, notes in a facsimile of Lady Anne’s handwriting give clues to these events, floating over cream rectangles in the images.

'The Diaries of Lady Anne B' is a series of unique monotypes made by the artist in the studios of master printers Mark Attwood of the Artists Press and Zhane Warren of Warren Editions in 2010 -11. The unconventional and progressive Lady Anne Barnard was the wife of Andrew Barnard, who was appointed first colonial secretary of the Cape of Good Hope in 1797, when the British won the Cape from the Dutch. The Barnards sailed to Cape Town and took up residence in the Castle of Good Hope.

Incidents drawn from the three volumes of Lady Anne's diaries are illustrated with lively images casting a light onto life in Cape Town at the turn of the 18th century ... a hyena chases Lady Anne's chickens, visitors like Lord Mornington pass through and are commented on, the hangman inconveniently carries out his job ten yards from Lady Anne’s drawing room window, a mutiny at sea is described, a careless cook allows the family dogs to eat all the cold meats prepared for guests.

In a 2023 reworking of these prints, notes in a facsimile of Lady Anne’s handwriting give clues to these events, floating over cream rectangles in the images.

'The Diaries of Lady Anne B' is a series of unique monotypes made by the artist in the studios of master printers Mark Attwood of the Artists Press and Zhane Warren of Warren Editions in 2010 -11. The unconventional and progressive Lady Anne Barnard was the wife of Andrew Barnard, who was appointed first colonial secretary of the Cape of Good Hope in 1797, when the British won the Cape from the Dutch. The Barnards sailed to Cape Town and took up residence in the Castle of Good Hope.

Incidents drawn from the three volumes of Lady Anne's diaries are illustrated with lively images casting a light onto life in Cape Town at the turn of the 18th century ... a hyena chases Lady Anne's chickens, visitors like Lord Mornington pass through and are commented on, the hangman inconveniently carries out his job ten yards from Lady Anne’s drawing room window, a mutiny at sea is described, a careless cook allows the family dogs to eat all the cold meats prepared for guests.

In a 2023 reworking of these prints, notes in a facsimile of Lady Anne’s handwriting give clues to these events, floating over cream rectangles in the images.

'The Diaries of Lady Anne B' is a series of unique monotypes made by the artist in the studios of master printers Mark Attwood of the Artists Press and Zhane Warren of Warren Editions in 2010 -11. The unconventional and progressive Lady Anne Barnard was the wife of Andrew Barnard, who was appointed first colonial secretary of the Cape of Good Hope in 1797, when the British won the Cape from the Dutch. The Barnards sailed to Cape Town and took up residence in the Castle of Good Hope.

Incidents drawn from the three volumes of Lady Anne's diaries are illustrated with lively images casting a light onto life in Cape Town at the turn of the 18th century ... a hyena chases Lady Anne's chickens, visitors like Lord Mornington pass through and are commented on, the hangman inconveniently carries out his job ten yards from Lady Anne’s drawing room window, a mutiny at sea is described, a careless cook allows the family dogs to eat all the cold meats prepared for guests.

In a 2023 reworking of these prints, notes in a facsimile of Lady Anne’s handwriting give clues to these events, floating over cream rectangles in the images.

Ray Alexander was one of the founders of the Federation of South African Women, and a lifelong trade unionist. In 1941, she helped launch the Food and Canning Workers Union, which fought for the rights not only of workers in the fruit canning industry, but also of fishing communities along the coastline.

In 1990, as part of a project carried out during an artist residency at the South African National Gallery, Sue Williamson worked with Ray Alexander to make a photographic portrait of her based on a polaroid photograph. Two years later, when Williamson was asked to make a chair for a charity art auction, she chose to honour Alexander’s reputation for listening and helping people to solve their problems by creating a chair on which anyone could sit to converse with her. The text above the chairs is taken from an article about Alexander in Learn and Teach, a struggle era magazine founded in 1982 for people who wanted to learn to read and write and speak English. Part of the installation is a portrait of Alexander from the All Our Mothers series.

In 1990, Sue Williamson was offered the groundbreaking Canon CLC500 Co- lour Laser Copier on loan for an artist residency at the South African National Gallery. As an artist trained first as a printmaker, Williamson immediately realised the potential of the machine to act as both a camera and a printing press. The copier would add each of the four layers of colours one by one, so interrupting this process and manipulating the original master image lying on the glass screen as it was being copied could lead to unexpected results. Each one would be different. Williamson stamped each one of these unique prints with a rubber stamp which read ‘ORIGINAL PHOTOCOPY 1990’. A polaroid photo of Ray Alexander was the source of one of these experiments, and the resulting sequence portrays Alexander first seated on a chair, but gradually becoming an essential feature of the landscape.

'In September 1999, I was sitting in a rented room in New York watching the news on an old television set, when suddenly the presenter switched to South Africa and coverage of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission inquiry into the St James Church massacre in Cape Town. Four young and armed black Azapo activists had burst into a church service and fired into the congregation, killing 11 people.

On the screen in front of me, the police were surveying the post-shooting scene in the church. Wrapped bodies lay on the floor. We were listening to the voice of Dawie Ackermann, the husband of one of the victims. To watch this from far off New York was disorientating. I grabbed my Sony Handycam and filmed the screen.

In playback, the technical clash between TV and Handycam became apparent as green bands floated down the camera screen and the soundtrack hissed, but the low tech result had an interesting immediacy.

I printed out frames on my Canon colour laser copier, and added vinyl lettered captions to

make this piece.'

Sue Williamson, 2024

The ongoing series ‘Postcards from Africa’ engages with vintage postcards from the early 20th century, originally produced by European colonists and photographers. Part of a global craze for this new form of communication, these postcards were intended to demonstrate colonisation’s civilising effect on the dark continent, or to depict Africa as an exotic landscape for European audiences. Sourcing these images from archives, Williamson reimagines them through intricate ink drawings, layering cross-hatching and a faded palette. The drawings retain traces of habitation or recent activity — ripples in the water suggest children at play, a canoe floats on a lagoon at dusk, on a deck, fish are being chopped up, a load of wood floats in mid air, —but the people once pictured as part of the landscape are absent.

5 pieces damaged from mould

All Our Mothers is an extended series of portraits of women with whom Sue Williamson has worked with over the years, a series which grew out of the artist’s wish to make the crucial role of women in the struggle for liberation recognized and acclaimed. Some were taken as starting points for other series, like the portraits of Helen Joseph, Virginia Mngoma, Caroline Motsoaledi and Annie Silinga, to be transformed into photo etchings for the A Few South Africans series. Elizabeth and Nyameka Goniwe, mother and wife of the slain activist Matthew Goniwe, were photographed while Williamson was staying with Nyameka in Cradock, beginning work on the piece that became A Tale of Two Cradocks. Anti-apartheid artist and AIDS activist Judy Seidman was part of the From the Inside series, bringing the voices of people living with HIV to the streets.

The first photograph in the series is Naz Gool-Ebrahim, taken in her home in District Six in 1981, the year before the house was demolished. The most recent portrait, taken in 2024, shows the writer Sindiwe Magona, presiding over a table piled with the books she has written. Central to the series is the passage of time, with figures like Amina Cachalia appearing in portraits taken decades apart. The contrast between black-and-white and colour photographs underscores these temporal shifts.

Some subjects, such as Cheryl Carolus and Annie Silinga, are depicted in clothing that denotes their political affiliations, such as the United Democratic Front insignia or the robes of the Federation of South African Women. Yet, each portrait also preserves a strong sense of individuality.

The Cold Turkey works were the first Sue Williamson made in a long series which addressed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its outcomes. For these early pieces, she adopted a police station aesthetic: a wooden frame with wires onto which small images could be clipped in order to consider the evidence of each case.

Williamson’s new series of drawings, Postcards from Africa, continues the artist’s interest in the power of a small printed image to carry news of a specific moment in time to a far off audience, sometimes current, sometimes separated from the event by a century. Her early series of etchings The Modderdam Postcards (1978) was based on sketches made over seven days while witnessing the destruction by the apartheid state of an informal settlement near the airport in Cape Town.

Postcards made from A Few South Africans (1983-86), mixed media portraits of heroic women active in the struggle for liberation, were distributed not only across the country but the world. Most recently, the artist has turned her attention to vintage postcards of photographs taken by European colonisers in Africa in the first decades of the 20th century, who used the postcards as examples of the success of their missions, supposedly demonstrating the civilising effect of colonisation on the colonised, or presenting views of exotic Africa. 

Sourcing these postcards from museum archives or from the internet, Williamson reverts to classic drawing techniques. She dips her pen into a bottle of ink, building up images with layers of intricate cross-hatching, adding colour from a limited palette to reproduce the rural landscapes on the postcards, or capture the scenes of daily community life: harvesting, swimming, gathering wood.

Williamson’s new series of drawings, Postcards from Africa, continues the artist’s interest in the power of a small printed image to carry news of a specific moment in time to a far off audience, sometimes current, sometimes separated from the event by a century. Her early series of etchings The Modderdam Postcards (1978) was based on sketches made over seven days while witnessing the destruction by the apartheid state of an informal settlement near the airport in Cape Town.

Postcards made from A Few South Africans (1983-86), mixed media portraits of heroic women active in the struggle for liberation, were distributed not only across the country but the world. Most recently, the artist has turned her attention to vintage postcards of photographs taken by European colonisers in Africa in the first decades of the 20th century, who used the postcards as examples of the success of their missions, supposedly demonstrating the civilising effect of colonisation on the colonised, or presenting views of exotic Africa. 

Sourcing these postcards from museum archives or from the internet, Williamson reverts to classic drawing techniques. She dips her pen into a bottle of ink, building up images with layers of intricate cross-hatching, adding colour from a limited palette to reproduce the rural landscapes on the postcards, or capture the scenes of daily community life: harvesting, swimming, gathering wood.

All Our Mothers is an extended series of portraits of women with whom Sue Williamson has worked with over the years, a series which grew out of the artist’s wish to make the crucial role of women in the struggle for liberation recognized and acclaimed. Some were taken as starting points for other series, like the portraits of Helen Joseph, Virginia Mngoma, Caroline Motsoaledi and Annie Silinga, to be transformed into photo etchings for the A Few South Africans series. Elizabeth and Nyameka Goniwe, mother and wife of the slain activist Matthew Goniwe, were photographed while Williamson was staying with Nyameka in Cradock, beginning work on the piece that became A Tale of Two Cradocks. Anti-apartheid artist and AIDS activist Judy Seidman was part of the From the Inside series, bringing the voices of people living with HIV to the streets.

The first photograph in the series is Naz Gool-Ebrahim, taken in her home in District Six in 1981, the year before the house was demolished. The most recent portrait, taken in 2024, shows the writer Sindiwe Magona, presiding over a table piled with the books she has written. Central to the series is the passage of time, with figures like Amina Cachalia appearing in portraits taken decades apart. The contrast between black-and-white and colour photographs underscores these temporal shifts.

Some subjects, such as Cheryl Carolus and Annie Silinga, are depicted in clothing that denotes their political affiliations, such as the United Democratic Front insignia or the robes of the Federation of South African Women. Yet, each portrait also preserves a strong sense of individuality.

All Our Mothers is an extended series of portraits of women with whom Sue Williamson has worked with over the years, a series which grew out of the artist’s wish to make the crucial role of women in the struggle for liberation recognized and acclaimed. Some were taken as starting points for other series, like the portraits of Helen Joseph, Virginia Mngoma, Caroline Motsoaledi and Annie Silinga, to be transformed into photo etchings for the A Few South Africans series. Elizabeth and Nyameka Goniwe, mother and wife of the slain activist Matthew Goniwe, were photographed while Williamson was staying with Nyameka in Cradock, beginning work on the piece that became A Tale of Two Cradocks. Anti-apartheid artist and AIDS activist Judy Seidman was part of the From the Inside series, bringing the voices of people living with HIV to the streets.

The first photograph in the series is Naz Gool-Ebrahim, taken in her home in District Six in 1981, the year before the house was demolished. The most recent portrait, taken in 2024, shows the writer Sindiwe Magona, presiding over a table piled with the books she has written. Central to the series is the passage of time, with figures like Amina Cachalia appearing in portraits taken decades apart. The contrast between black-and-white and colour photographs underscores these temporal shifts.

Some subjects, such as Cheryl Carolus and Annie Silinga, are depicted in clothing that denotes their political affiliations, such as the United Democratic Front insignia or the robes of the Federation of South African Women. Yet, each portrait also preserves a strong sense of individuality.

All Our Mothers is an extended series of portraits of women with whom Sue Williamson has worked with over the years, a series which grew out of the artist’s wish to make the crucial role of women in the struggle for liberation recognized and acclaimed. Some were taken as starting points for other series, like the portraits of Helen Joseph, Virginia Mngoma, Caroline Motsoaledi and Annie Silinga, to be transformed into photo etchings for the A Few South Africans series. Elizabeth and Nyameka Goniwe, mother and wife of the slain activist Matthew Goniwe, were photographed while Williamson was staying with Nyameka in Cradock, beginning work on the piece that became A Tale of Two Cradocks. Anti-apartheid artist and AIDS activist Judy Seidman was part of the From the Inside series, bringing the voices of people living with HIV to the streets.

The first photograph in the series is Naz Gool-Ebrahim, taken in her home in District Six in 1981, the year before the house was demolished. The most recent portrait, taken in 2024, shows the writer Sindiwe Magona, presiding over a table piled with the books she has written. Central to the series is the passage of time, with figures like Amina Cachalia appearing in portraits taken decades apart. The contrast between black-and-white and colour photographs underscores these temporal shifts.

Some subjects, such as Cheryl Carolus and Annie Silinga, are depicted in clothing that denotes their political affiliations, such as the United Democratic Front insignia or the robes of the Federation of South African Women. Yet, each portrait also preserves a strong sense of individuality.

All Our Mothers is an extended series of portraits of women with whom Sue Williamson has worked with over the years, a series which grew out of the artist’s wish to make the crucial role of women in the struggle for liberation recognized and acclaimed. Some were taken as starting points for other series, like the portraits of Helen Joseph, Virginia Mngoma, Caroline Motsoaledi and Annie Silinga, to be transformed into photo etchings for the A Few South Africans series. Elizabeth and Nyameka Goniwe, mother and wife of the slain activist Matthew Goniwe, were photographed while Williamson was staying with Nyameka in Cradock, beginning work on the piece that became A Tale of Two Cradocks. Anti-apartheid artist and AIDS activist Judy Seidman was part of the From the Inside series, bringing the voices of people living with HIV to the streets.

The first photograph in the series is Naz Gool-Ebrahim, taken in her home in District Six in 1981, the year before the house was demolished. The most recent portrait, taken in 2024, shows the writer Sindiwe Magona, presiding over a table piled with the books she has written. Central to the series is the passage of time, with figures like Amina Cachalia appearing in portraits taken decades apart. The contrast between black-and-white and colour photographs underscores these temporal shifts.

Some subjects, such as Cheryl Carolus and Annie Silinga, are depicted in clothing that denotes their political affiliations, such as the United Democratic Front insignia or the robes of the Federation of South African Women. Yet, each portrait also preserves a strong sense of individuality.

All Our Mothers is an extended series of portraits of women with whom Sue Williamson has worked with over the years, a series which grew out of the artist’s wish to make the crucial role of women in the struggle for liberation recognized and acclaimed. Some were taken as starting points for other series, like the portraits of Helen Joseph, Virginia Mngoma, Caroline Motsoaledi and Annie Silinga, to be transformed into photo etchings for the A Few South Africans series. Elizabeth and Nyameka Goniwe, mother and wife of the slain activist Matthew Goniwe, were photographed while Williamson was staying with Nyameka in Cradock, beginning work on the piece that became A Tale of Two Cradocks. Anti-apartheid artist and AIDS activist Judy Seidman was part of the From the Inside series, bringing the voices of people living with HIV to the streets.

The first photograph in the series is Naz Gool-Ebrahim, taken in her home in District Six in 1981, the year before the house was demolished. The most recent portrait, taken in 2024, shows the writer Sindiwe Magona, presiding over a table piled with the books she has written. Central to the series is the passage of time, with figures like Amina Cachalia appearing in portraits taken decades apart. The contrast between black-and-white and colour photographs underscores these temporal shifts.

Some subjects, such as Cheryl Carolus and Annie Silinga, are depicted in clothing that denotes their political affiliations, such as the United Democratic Front insignia or the robes of the Federation of South African Women. Yet, each portrait also preserves a strong sense of individuality.

All Our Mothers is an extended series of portraits of women with whom Sue Williamson has worked with over the years, a series which grew out of the artist’s wish to make the crucial role of women in the struggle for liberation recognized and acclaimed. Some were taken as starting points for other series, like the portraits of Helen Joseph, Virginia Mngoma, Caroline Motsoaledi and Annie Silinga, to be transformed into photo etchings for the A Few South Africans series. Elizabeth and Nyameka Goniwe, mother and wife of the slain activist Matthew Goniwe, were photographed while Williamson was staying with Nyameka in Cradock, beginning work on the piece that became A Tale of Two Cradocks. Anti-apartheid artist and AIDS activist Judy Seidman was part of the From the Inside series, bringing the voices of people living with HIV to the streets.

The first photograph in the series is Naz Gool-Ebrahim, taken in her home in District Six in 1981, the year before the house was demolished. The most recent portrait, taken in 2024, shows the writer Sindiwe Magona, presiding over a table piled with the books she has written. Central to the series is the passage of time, with figures like Amina Cachalia appearing in portraits taken decades apart. The contrast between black-and-white and colour photographs underscores these temporal shifts.

Some subjects, such as Cheryl Carolus and Annie Silinga, are depicted in clothing that denotes their political affiliations, such as the United Democratic Front insignia or the robes of the Federation of South African Women. Yet, each portrait also preserves a strong sense of individuality.

All Our Mothers is an extended series of portraits of women with whom Sue Williamson has worked with over the years, a series which grew out of the artist’s wish to make the crucial role of women in the struggle for liberation recognized and acclaimed. Some were taken as starting points for other series, like the portraits of Helen Joseph, Virginia Mngoma, Caroline Motsoaledi and Annie Silinga, to be transformed into photo etchings for the A Few South Africans series. Elizabeth and Nyameka Goniwe, mother and wife of the slain activist Matthew Goniwe, were photographed while Williamson was staying with Nyameka in Cradock, beginning work on the piece that became A Tale of Two Cradocks. Anti-apartheid artist and AIDS activist Judy Seidman was part of the From the Inside series, bringing the voices of people living with HIV to the streets.

The first photograph in the series is Naz Gool-Ebrahim, taken in her home in District Six in 1981, the year before the house was demolished. The most recent portrait, taken in 2024, shows the writer Sindiwe Magona, presiding over a table piled with the books she has written. Central to the series is the passage of time, with figures like Amina Cachalia appearing in portraits taken decades apart. The contrast between black-and-white and colour photographs underscores these temporal shifts.

Some subjects, such as Cheryl Carolus and Annie Silinga, are depicted in clothing that denotes their political affiliations, such as the United Democratic Front insignia or the robes of the Federation of South African Women. Yet, each portrait also preserves a strong sense of individuality.

All Our Mothers is an extended series of portraits of women with whom Sue Williamson has worked with over the years, a series which grew out of the artist’s wish to make the crucial role of women in the struggle for liberation recognized and acclaimed. Some were taken as starting points for other series, like the portraits of Helen Joseph, Virginia Mngoma, Caroline Motsoaledi and Annie Silinga, to be transformed into photo etchings for the A Few South Africans series. Elizabeth and Nyameka Goniwe, mother and wife of the slain activist Matthew Goniwe, were photographed while Williamson was staying with Nyameka in Cradock, beginning work on the piece that became A Tale of Two Cradocks. Anti-apartheid artist and AIDS activist Judy Seidman was part of the From the Inside series, bringing the voices of people living with HIV to the streets.

The first photograph in the series is Naz Gool-Ebrahim, taken in her home in District Six in 1981, the year before the house was demolished. The most recent portrait, taken in 2024, shows the writer Sindiwe Magona, presiding over a table piled with the books she has written. Central to the series is the passage of time, with figures like Amina Cachalia appearing in portraits taken decades apart. The contrast between black-and-white and colour photographs underscores these temporal shifts.

Some subjects, such as Cheryl Carolus and Annie Silinga, are depicted in clothing that denotes their political affiliations, such as the United Democratic Front insignia or the robes of the Federation of South African Women. Yet, each portrait also preserves a strong sense of individuality.

All Our Mothers is an extended series of portraits of women with whom Sue Williamson has worked with over the years, a series which grew out of the artist’s wish to make the crucial role of women in the struggle for liberation recognized and acclaimed. Some were taken as starting points for other series, like the portraits of Helen Joseph, Virginia Mngoma, Caroline Motsoaledi and Annie Silinga, to be transformed into photo etchings for the A Few South Africans series. Elizabeth and Nyameka Goniwe, mother and wife of the slain activist Matthew Goniwe, were photographed while Williamson was staying with Nyameka in Cradock, beginning work on the piece that became A Tale of Two Cradocks. Anti-apartheid artist and AIDS activist Judy Seidman was part of the From the Inside series, bringing the voices of people living with HIV to the streets.

The first photograph in the series is Naz Gool-Ebrahim, taken in her home in District Six in 1981, the year before the house was demolished. The most recent portrait, taken in 2024, shows the writer Sindiwe Magona, presiding over a table piled with the books she has written. Central to the series is the passage of time, with figures like Amina Cachalia appearing in portraits taken decades apart. The contrast between black-and-white and colour photographs underscores these temporal shifts.

Some subjects, such as Cheryl Carolus and Annie Silinga, are depicted in clothing that denotes their political affiliations, such as the United Democratic Front insignia or the robes of the Federation of South African Women. Yet, each portrait also preserves a strong sense of individuality.

All Our Mothers is an extended series of portraits of women with whom Sue Williamson has worked with over the years, a series which grew out of the artist’s wish to make the crucial role of women in the struggle for liberation recognized and acclaimed. Some were taken as starting points for other series, like the portraits of Helen Joseph, Virginia Mngoma, Caroline Motsoaledi and Annie Silinga, to be transformed into photo etchings for the A Few South Africans series. Elizabeth and Nyameka Goniwe, mother and wife of the slain activist Matthew Goniwe, were photographed while Williamson was staying with Nyameka in Cradock, beginning work on the piece that became A Tale of Two Cradocks. Anti-apartheid artist and AIDS activist Judy Seidman was part of the From the Inside series, bringing the voices of people living with HIV to the streets.

The first photograph in the series is Naz Gool-Ebrahim, taken in her home in District Six in 1981, the year before the house was demolished. The most recent portrait, taken in 2024, shows the writer Sindiwe Magona, presiding over a table piled with the books she has written. Central to the series is the passage of time, with figures like Amina Cachalia appearing in portraits taken decades apart. The contrast between black-and-white and colour photographs underscores these temporal shifts.

Some subjects, such as Cheryl Carolus and Annie Silinga, are depicted in clothing that denotes their political affiliations, such as the United Democratic Front insignia or the robes of the Federation of South African Women. Yet, each portrait also preserves a strong sense of individuality.

All Our Mothers is an extended series of portraits of women with whom Sue Williamson has worked with over the years, a series which grew out of the artist’s wish to make the crucial role of women in the struggle for liberation recognized and acclaimed. Some were taken as starting points for other series, like the portraits of Helen Joseph, Virginia Mngoma, Caroline Motsoaledi and Annie Silinga, to be transformed into photo etchings for the A Few South Africans series. Elizabeth and Nyameka Goniwe, mother and wife of the slain activist Matthew Goniwe, were photographed while Williamson was staying with Nyameka in Cradock, beginning work on the piece that became A Tale of Two Cradocks. Anti-apartheid artist and AIDS activist Judy Seidman was part of the From the Inside series, bringing the voices of people living with HIV to the streets.

The first photograph in the series is Naz Gool-Ebrahim, taken in her home in District Six in 1981, the year before the house was demolished. The most recent portrait, taken in 2024, shows the writer Sindiwe Magona, presiding over a table piled with the books she has written. Central to the series is the passage of time, with figures like Amina Cachalia appearing in portraits taken decades apart. The contrast between black-and-white and colour photographs underscores these temporal shifts.

Some subjects, such as Cheryl Carolus and Annie Silinga, are depicted in clothing that denotes their political affiliations, such as the United Democratic Front insignia or the robes of the Federation of South African Women. Yet, each portrait also preserves a strong sense of individuality.

All Our Mothers is an extended series of portraits of women with whom Sue Williamson has worked with over the years, a series which grew out of the artist’s wish to make the crucial role of women in the struggle for liberation recognized and acclaimed. Some were taken as starting points for other series, like the portraits of Helen Joseph, Virginia Mngoma, Caroline Motsoaledi and Annie Silinga, to be transformed into photo etchings for the A Few South Africans series. Elizabeth and Nyameka Goniwe, mother and wife of the slain activist Matthew Goniwe, were photographed while Williamson was staying with Nyameka in Cradock, beginning work on the piece that became A Tale of Two Cradocks. Anti-apartheid artist and AIDS activist Judy Seidman was part of the From the Inside series, bringing the voices of people living with HIV to the streets.

The first photograph in the series is Naz Gool-Ebrahim, taken in her home in District Six in 1981, the year before the house was demolished. The most recent portrait, taken in 2024, shows the writer Sindiwe Magona, presiding over a table piled with the books she has written. Central to the series is the passage of time, with figures like Amina Cachalia appearing in portraits taken decades apart. The contrast between black-and-white and colour photographs underscores these temporal shifts.

Some subjects, such as Cheryl Carolus and Annie Silinga, are depicted in clothing that denotes their political affiliations, such as the United Democratic Front insignia or the robes of the Federation of South African Women. Yet, each portrait also preserves a strong sense of individuality.