Doreen Southwood

Doreen Southwood (born 1974) is a South African artist, designer, and boutique owner based in Cape Town. She works in a wide variety of media in her artwork, producing sculptures, objects, prints, film, and more, which she often bases on personal experiences and self exploration. Her candidness regarding personal flaws and the cycles of repression and coping that accompany conservative, middle class, Afrikaans upbringing inform much of her work, calling attention to ways in which women are silenced or otherwise repressed in that space.

Quotes

• If I had something I always wanted something else, I’m just that sort of person.
• Shopping and clothing is part of my family’s culture. If something is wrong, you go buy a dress.
  • Steyn, Lisa. "Doreen Southwood". Book of South African Women. Archived from the original on 8 February 2012. Retrieved 27 March 2025.

Quotes About Her

• She works in a wide variety of media in her artwork, producing sculptures, objects, prints, film, and more, which she often bases on personal experiences and self exploration.
  • Steyn, Lisa. "Doreen Southwood". Book of South African Women. Archived from the original on 8 February 2012. Retrieved 23 April 2012.
• Her candidness regarding personal flaws and the cycles of repression and coping that accompany conservative, middle class, Afrikaans upbringing inform much of her work, calling attention to ways in which women are silenced or otherwise repressed in that space.
  • Edmunds, Paul. "Doreen Southwood". Artthrob. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
• It's difficult to talk about Southwood's work without talking about the artist herself because she so unashamedly bares herself, warts-and-all, to an audience. Plumbing the depths of her conservative, white, middle-class Afrikaans upbringing, Southwood unearths a nasty cycle of repression, abuse and the coping mechanisms offered her by this society where women occupy a silent and haunted interior. Southwood's candidness about her own disposition leaves a viewer trapped between doubting her sincerity and wanting to know less about a near stranger. 'Too close for comfort', her first one person show, held in 2000, presented the viewer with this dilemma in an all too attractive way.
  • Edmunds, Paul, September 2002. "Doreen Southwood". Artthrob. Retrieved 9 July 2013.