Alice Mann - Photographs London Tuesday, November 22, 2022 | Phillips

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  • “It is important to me that these images can communicate the pride, confidence and sense of empowerment these young women have achieved through identifying as ‘Drummies’.”
    —Alice Mann

    From 2017 to 2020, South African artist Alice Mann (b.1991) photographed the aspirational, all-female teams of her homeland's drum majorettes, affectionately known as ‘Drummies’. Perfectly capturing the spirit of this unique sport, the present work represents one of the first teams that Mann worked with at Dr Van Der Ross Primary School in Cape Town. ‘I was struck by how confident and self-assured the girls were,’ recalls Mann, ‘and how they instructed me on how they wanted me to make the portraits.’ Here, we see a moment of pure joy as the girls dance together in their white-heeled boots and matching silver-sequined uniforms, complemented by their fluffy, colourful busbies. In her series Drummies, Mann ‘challenges the view of young South African women as disempowered victims’ by expressing the pride, determination and empowerment of these young female athletes. Mann has received numerous awards, notably the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize for this series in 2018. Drummies has been widely exhibited, most recently at the Kunsthal Rotterdam, and is the subject of her first monograph, published in 2021. Another print from the edition is held in the JPMorgan Chase Art Collection. 

     

     

     Video interview with Alice Mann on Drummies, 2021.

    • Exhibited

      Come Together, Right Now: The Art of Gathering, 11 October 2020 - 3 January 2021, The Chrysler Museum of Art, Virginia, another
      Portraits in Dialogue: South African Contemporary Photography, OCT Boxes Art Museum, Foshan City, 9 April - 20 May 2021, another
      Drummies, Kunsthal Rotterdam, 2 October 2021 - 23 January 2022, another

    • Literature

      A. Mann, Drummies, London: Gost, n.p.

ULTIMATE

52

Dr Van Der Ross Drummies, Cape Town, South Africa

2017
Archival pigment print, mounted.
Image: 81.3 x 101.6 cm (32 x 40 in.)
Frame: 88 x 109 cm (34 5/8 x 42 7/8 in.)

Signed in ink, printed title, date and number AP1 on an artist label and a Certificate of Authenticity, both accompanying the work.

This work is AP1 from the sold-out edition of 5 + 2 APs.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
£10,000 - 15,000 

Sold for £11,970

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Photographs

London Auction 22 November 2022