Description
The title of this piece, Die wit onderpens (“The white underbelly”), is the key to its harrowing and profound message. It refers to a place of ultimate vulnerability, and in this scene, that vulnerability is embodied by the small child sitting on the ground, exposed and innocent.
The child looks up, not with terror, but with a quiet curiosity at the scene before them. A kneeling figure, part man and part beast with a horned animal skull for a face, acts as a shamanistic guide or gatekeeper. This figure gestures towards a grotesque tree of suffering, where tormented, emaciated figures are entwined with the bark, writhing in silent agony. This tree represents a terrible truth, perhaps it is ancestral trauma, the horrors of history, or the pain inherent in the world.
The painting masterfully captures the moment a soul’s “white underbelly” is exposed to the harsh realities of existence. It is a powerful and unsettling commentary on the loss of innocence and the dark knowledge that is passed down through generations. The work forces us to question what horrors we are born into and how the pure gaze of a child processes a world so full of suffering.
Artist: Irda-Adri Rademeyer (SA 1989)
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