Caring for the Past: Curatorial Proposals for Judith Mason's Blue Dress

In 1998, in response to the excavations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), Judith Mason exhibited a series of artworks, many of which were dedicated to Phila Ndwandwe, who was executed by the security police during the apartheid era. One prominent work from Mason’s 1998 exhibition is now held in the Constitutional Court Art Collection. Colloquially termed the “Blue Dress”, the work comprises two paintings and an actual blue dress, stitched from plastic bags in homage to Ndwandwe, who was reported to have fashioned a pair of panties out of a blue plastic packet after being stripped by her executioners. However, the story was recently unstitched: the panties seem to be an exaggeration of mythological proportions, placing the artwork in a precarious position. In this practice-led article, the author offers several curatorial proposals for how the artwork might be exhibited—or not—in future. The proposals evoke interconnected aspects of curatorship: exhibition-making, critical positioning, and care. Through a “see-feel-think-know” mode, the author uses these proposals to challenge readings of exhibitions as resolved knowledge transfers rather than as opportunities to open up spaces for conflict. In this sense, the author cautions those wanting to quell the hauntings of difficult works such as the Blue Dress.