HAIDEE NEL
Haidee Nel’s Infantry, a series of sculptures of girls and boys in quirky military uniforms are subversively playful and even colorful. They are also thought-provoking. The figures are presented and installed in formation to an unknown battleground.
Like protesting students, vulnerable gunshot victims, police brutality victims, guerrilla army fighters, war shields, survivors of family violence, or victims Catholic sexual abuse and so much more; they are vulnerable, hopeful, but not innocent. Their masks of control are unconvincing.
This future into which they are blindly and tentatively moving, is dangerous and very deeply uncertain.
Each sculpture is unique, with characteristic colour and style variations.
“Infantry” is the 'unspoken voice' of these mute warriors.