Hybrid Identities | 2008

‘Hybrid’ derives from the Greek hybris, meaning violence and excess. A combination of parts, a new subject and identity emerges. Use of human body as a site for contesting history and identity and deconstructing memory. Masks become a means to change identity, disguise it, and form a new enigmatic entity, outside of the commonplace conduct of ordinary men. A human/animal boundary represents a dichotomy between the civilised self and the instinctive, untamed self. Fractured, fragmented and disembodied components emphasise the displacement and disconnectedness from a cultural history. An exploration of myths of homogeneity by conceiving personal and fantastical mythologies.

Etchings and woodcut.
Exhibited as Bevan de Wet: Hybrid Identities, Graduation exhibition, Rhodes University, Observatory Museum, Grahamstown, 2008.