Sa Main Charmante

Sa Main Charmante offers a tribute to Sarah Bartmann (1790-1815), the so-called Hottentot Venus who was put on public display in early nineteenth-century Europe. A ladder-like structure with text, a soapbox bearing footprints, a peep box, and a klieg light form a challenging inquiry into the West's relationship to Africa, and into the role of scientific classification in the colonization of African peoples. Brought to England in 1810, Bartmann was displayed as a side-show attraction in London and Paris to demonstrate the alleged anatomical distortions of the black female, particularly the size and shape of her buttocks. Bartmann was subjected to the pseudoscientific investigations of European researchers, including an infamous dissection after her death at the age of twenty-five, as well as to the voyeuristic and judgmental gaze of the general public. Created during the artist's residency at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1988-89, Sa Main Charmante is one of a series of works by Green that offer powerful and poetic tributes to women of African descent.