Dumile Feni (b. 1942, Worcester)

Railway Accident

1966, conté crayon on paper, 107 x 237 cm.

Iziko South African National Gallery. Photo courtesy of Iziko South African National Gallery. ©Dumile Feni Family Trust 2021.

In this work, Feni graphically depicts the aftermath of a derailed train. People’s bodies are flung all over the page, their limbs are contorted and those whose faces are visible look like masks of pain. Their bodies are framed by the ominous train hovering above, all wheels and bent doors, and the mess of the broken railway tracks below. We can’t tell where this scene has taken place, because there is no background. Maybe it is nighttime because the figures are surrounded by an unknown darkness. It is as if the accident takes place in a nightmare - the alignment of the wheels doesn’t make sense, the railway tracks don’t connect, and the sizes of all the elements in the artwork don’t fit in relation to each other. Feni is using expressionist artmaking techniques to convey the feeling of a railway accident, rather than depicting it realistically. Expressionism is an art movement where artists distort reality to show the feelings and suffering of others. With this in mind, perhaps this artwork is not depicting an actual railway accident - perhaps Feni is using expressionist techniques so that we can feel the confusion, chaos and pain of people living in apartheid South Africa at that time.