KHWEZI. Caster Semenya. One could list hundreds, thousands of other names — but these two have been particularly prominent on screens and in headlines across SA recently. They are names that remind us in different ways of the pervasive operation of patriarchal violence, both physical and ideological, the consequence of a self-authorising system telling women that their bodies are public property. Bodies are portrayed as the beginning and the end of female identity: they are denigrated, idealised, hypersexualised, desexualised, objectified, praised, pitied, insulted.This is an ancient pathology, as Majak Bredell shows in Codex Magdalene + (at the University of Johannesburg Art Gallery until September 7). Bredell’s fascination with the figure of Mary Magdalene spans about two decades, and the result is an exhibition that is almost encyclopaedic. The artist was herself christened Maria Magdalena. Her deep investment in her subject is evident in a contemplative collection of work that a...
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