'Her name was Saartjie | Not Sara’

This object was selected for the collection as part of an annual student-led collecting initiative undertaken by the Block Museum Student Associates (BMSA), an interdisciplinary group of Northwestern undergraduates.

‘Her name was Saartjie | Not Sara’ (2015, printed 2020) and “and she was to be ‘seen’, not watched…” (2015, printed 2020) present Woods-Morrow sitting as subject, clad in a faux fur cloak atop a bed of lettuce. The artist refuses the gaze of his audience as he turns away, hiding the contours of his body from the viewer. These photographs evoke Saartjie Baartman (1789– 1815), a South African Khoikhoi woman who was paraded as an attraction in 19th century Europe where she was referred to as “Sara Bartman” and the “Hottentot Venus.” Her brain, skeleton and sexual organs remained on display in a Paris museum until 1974. Her remains weren’t repatriated and buried until 2002. Collectively, ‘Her name was Saartjie | Not Sara’ and “and she was to be ‘seen’, not watched…” refer to the denial of Saartjie’s personhood. What Woods-Morrow puts forth with this work is that Saartjie was to be seen as a person, that she should have been seen as a person.

Mayán Alvarado-Goldberg, Neuroscience and Global Health ’24
Solome Bezuneh, Communication Studies ’24
Gabrielle Bliss, Chemical Engineering and Data Science ’25
Carolina Carret, Legal Studies ’23
Zayn Elmasry, History and Science in Human Culture Program ’24
Kevin Foley, Gender & Sexuality Studies ’24
Elle Gordon, English Literature ’23
Zeki Ülgür Hirsch, Art History ’24
Ipsita K, Art History and Social Policy ’24
Katy Kim, Art History and Political Science ’23
Jaharia Knowles, Journalism ’25
Rowan McCloskey, Dance and Political Science ’26
Nozizwe Msipa, Communication Studies ’24
Margeaux Rocco, Economics ’23
Bengi Rwabuhemba, Cultural Anthropology and Global Health ’2023
Meena Sharma, Learning Sciences ’25
Toy Suliman, Asian American Studies and Radio, Television, Film ’23
Tamara Ulalisa, Journalism and Political Science ’24
Joyce Wang, Economics, and Radio, Television, Film ’24
Bobby Yalam, Comparative Literary Studies and Economics ’24
Hank Yang, Journalism and Religious Studies ’24

Block Museum Student Associates select work by Derrick Woods-Morrow as 2023 Student Acquisition