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Berry Bickle
b. Zimbabwe, 1959
Bickle was educated at the Durban Institute of Technology and Rhodes University in
South Africa. She works between Zimbabwe and Mozambique, addressing the region's long history of colonialism
that has been, in part, documented, regulated and perpetuated through the written word of the colonizers.
She is most fascinated by the fragments of history that remain from both official scripts as well as
personal, everyday notes, cookbooks, scrapbooks and almanacs of the generations of Africans living
under colonial rule. Her works range from delicate, mixed-media pieces that refocus our attention
on snippets of script (often reproduced on what look like old parchments) to playful ceramic works
upon which a loose cursive script is written to large-scale installations of mixed media, layered
with fragmented stories, poems, testimonials, diary excerpts and edicts to video projections and
photography. Indeed, her artwork is "archaeology" of the present, incorporating everyday material
into spectacular tableaux. A versatile artist, Bickle asks her viewers to question the potency,
the prevalence and the differences between senses of memory and history, both personal and collective.
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Sarungano
2000
Mild steel and mixed media
Collection of the artist, courtesy Dieleman Gallery
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