Girl on the Edge

Author: Ruth Carneson
Publisher: face2face
Reviewer: Nancy Richards
Ruth Carneson is an artist. I was reminded of her work recently when she posted an image on facebook. This in turn reminded me of her book ‘Girl on the Edge’, first published in 2014 and which I read a while ago. Ruth is an established artist now, but her book tells of the long, bumpy ride she had to get there.
Briefly, but significantly, Ruth is the daughter  ​​of anti-apartheid activists Fred and 

Sarah Carneson. Copy on the back of the book says ‘Ruth was four years old when her father was arrested for high treason and her world was turned upside down…(she) learned how to keep her mouth shut, to look out for microphones in the walls and to beware of friends who could betray her trust.’ This was in the mid 1950’s. Many young children had parents who were arrested, detailed, tortured or exiled then. Each would have had their own experience, but not all have written them, nor have a body of artwork that tells their story.
The four year olds fear of the Special Branch knocking on the door turned into a troubled, rebellious childhood and expulsion. At 14, teddy in hand, Ruth was flown alone to England ‘for her own safety’ to stay with her brother and sister, Lynn and Johnny. This is London in the swinging 60’s. Things don’t go well. Psychiatric hospitals and suicide attempts make an appearance – as does Samson, two sons, a caravan in Wales, Dartington Art College in Devon, protests, and a solo exhibition. Soon after Nelson Mandela is released, she makes the return pilgrimage and later takes up the role of artist-in-residence on Robben Island.
Ruth’s life has been a roller-coaster as she openly and disarmingly reveals in her book. In it are  included a telling selection of photographs as well as letters she wrote to her father in prison between 1968 and 1971.
Throughout all this, art has been her companion and her means of expressing her fears and feelings, and her pictures, like her book, tell a layered back story of emotional and mental turmoil that reflect the complex psyche of South Africa. Good news is that the now smiling and  gentle Ruth is still producing art – and in a much happier head space back home in Cape Town. It’s quite a story.