Urban Testaments I, II & III

ood and sheet metal gathered from demolished buildings in New York City's Harlem neighborhood provide the materials with which Rudzani Nemasetoni creates his poetic sculptural series Urban Testaments. He uses these bits of detritus to frame pages taken from his father's apartheid-era passbook‹the identification papers his father was required to carry at all times as a black South African. The juxtaposition of materials is both ironic and powerful, and speaks to the restricted movements of the father and the international travels of the son.

Rudzani Nemasetoni
b. 1962, South Africa
Urban Testaments I, II & III
1995
Mixed media
I: 36 5/8 x 20 1/16 x 2 3/4 in.
II: 35 13/16 x 20 5/16 x 3 15/16 in.
III: 38 3/8 x 20 3/8 x 1 3/4 in.
Museum purchase, 95-13-7 to 95-13-9