Arrested - SOLD
Richard Mudariki (b 1985)
Arrested - 2013
Acrylic on canvas
100 x 100,5 cm
Signed and dated bottom left
Sold - 2014
This painting presents a scene in which a woman is rescued from a violent gang rape as the police reveal the evil act in full sight of onlookers. One of the rapists, a man still in his suit, laughs as he is arrested, unconcerned about the violated woman lying naked on a rough wooden floor. The detective looks around for other rapists who might have escaped.
Three different visual references are used in this painting; firstly the young female figure borrowed from Gauguin’s painting ‘Nevermore O’ Tahiti’, secondly, the suited figure resembles the pose of the nude male in Michelangelo’s ‘The Creation of Adam’, and lastly, the composition of the work is derived from the Max Beckmann painting, ‘The night’.
The juxtaposition of the visual reference of Adam – the first man to have ever sinned, here portrayed with a suit to symbolize power – with one of Gauguin’s many under-aged concubines, readdresses the age-old sexual objectification of the female body. This contributes to a behaviour learnt from society’s glorification of dominant masculinity and forced docile femininity: Violence against women is widespread and deeply entrenched in most societies, with rape being one of its most conspicuous forms. Of greater concern is the phenomenon of gang rape, which is also becoming increasingly common. In these instances, it seems the intention of the rapists is not sexual gratification, but rather domination and control. During the late 1980s in Soweto, South Africa, jackroll, was the word used to refer to the forceful abduction of women in the townships by gangs of men, who would then rape them, often in public places – shebeens, nightclubs, schools, or in the streets – to earn respect for the gang. The compositional reference to Beckman’s ‘The Night’, completed after World War I, draws a comparison with Beckman’s views of a tragic world, and man’s inhumanity to man.