Through our eyes, we interpret the world—often selectively. We process, filter, and sometimes unconsciously distort what we see based on the perspectives, experiences, and narratives we’ve absorbed. What we choose to see—or not see—shapes our understanding of history and the people within it.

Who is the subject of an image?

What happens when an image is stripped of its context?

Who are we not seeing?

These questions point to the lens through which we engage with history. Our views are shaped by personal bias, cultural narratives, and systems of power that determine whose experiences are remembered.

In this work, I focus on the history of apartheid in South Africa—a regime of institutionalized racial segregation and oppression that lasted from 1948 to the early 1990s. Black South Africans were systematically marginalized, denied basic rights, and forcibly separated from white populations through legislation and violence. The legacy and violence of this period continues to shape South African society today.

By smudging historical images from apartheid and drawing over them with charcoal, I aim to illustrate how we often obscure or look away from uncomfortable truths. The smudging reflects the erasure of not only images, but of lives, stories, and humanhood. The eye of the front layer represents both complicity and the possibility of conscious witnessing.

This project invites viewers to reflect on how easily historical realities can be blurred, omitted, or reinterpreted—especially when we are not directly implicated in them.