Embossing on Fabriano Rosaspina, 35 x 39,5 cm
The impact of the first series makes connections to the Stonewall riots that took place in New York City in June 1969. The riots are believed to have begun with a trans woman throwing the first brick during a police raid. This riot played a large role in gay liberation and remains a significant moment of resistance within broader histories of social and political struggle.
Through the prints, Milne Swart is looking at the impact of the brick and the force that it holds and the trace that it leaves behind. This everyday object can be seen as durable, powerful, an object for construction and protection, while at the same time the object speaks to ideas of destruction, violence and decay. Within contemporary contexts marked by social tension and instability, the brick can also be understood as a symbol of resistance and rupture.
Kate Milne Swart (b. 1995, South Africa). Swart received an Honours BA Degree in Fine Art from the University of Pretoria in 2017. Swart is a queer artist working within experimental printmaking, installation and sculpture. Swart’s practice focuses on found materials, their mark-making, and the impact of leaving a trace, viewed through a queer lens.
Swart has participated in group exhibitions such as Plurality at the Javett Bridge Gallery at the University of Pretoria in 2024, Textured Surfaces at Pretoria Art Museum in 2022, Graduate Exhibition and Parabilis, at the University of Pretoria in 2017, Sasol New Signatures Finalist Exhibition and Interim in 2016.