Birth of a New Nation 

Walter Battiss, a white South African artist, made *Birth of a New Nation* without a specified date, capturing the complexities of identity and power in apartheid-era South Africa. This work presents a stylized, peach-colored figure, seemingly birthing a multitude of small, ambiguous figures in shades of pink and black. Battiss, who once said, “I have tried to live my life as far as possible outside the bounds of any system,” often challenged social norms through his art. Here, he seems to play with ideas of creation and national identity. The birthing figure may evoke the idea of a nation producing its people, yet the racial coding of the emerging figures raises uncomfortable questions about race, reproduction, and power dynamics within South Africa's political landscape. The ambiguity and discomfort of this piece leave us to ask: Whose nation is being born, and at what cost? Battiss's work encourages us to reflect on the emotional and historical weight of these questions.