This painting references an exhumation of the skeletal remains of enforcibly disappeared persons who were killed during South Africa’s apartheid regime and whose final whereabouts remain unknown. The number of disappeared listed in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Final Report (477) is reflected in the number of shapes taking flight, after which the painting is titled. The search for their remains continues today in post-apartheid South Africa through the work of the Missing Persons Task Team.
