In Sea Through Skin, artist Bianca Baldi (SA, 1985) looks at the complex phenomenon of white passing. Being perceived, or made to be perceived, as part of another racial group was dubbed playing white in South African vernacular. The ability to play white relies on one’s proximity to whiteness and was deeply shaped by colonial hierarchies of visibility. Through her image-making practice, Baldi reflects on how identity, perception and power construct how we see – and are seen.

The sea runs through the exhibition as a quiet undercurrent. It evokes fluidity, depth and resistance: a force that refuses to be bordered or contained. For Baldi, the ocean is both metaphor and memory: tied to her mother’s fear of water, rooted in childhood trauma and the racially segregated beaches of Apartheid South Africa. Under that regime, even the coastline was divided by race.

At the heart of the exhibition is the cuttlefish: a cephalopod that changes colour, texture and shape to adapt to its surroundings. It becomes a symbol of camouflage and fluid identity. For Baldi, the cuttlefish offers a lens through which to think about passing – not only as a strategy of survival, but as a challenge to the visual codes we use to read identity. The project began with a personal discovery in her own family history, an encounter with the complexities and consequences of racial classification under Apartheid that sparked years of artistic inquiry.

Drawing from popular culture, literature and historical contexts, Baldi’s work invites us to reflect on how we perceive, label and define one another. In Sea Through Skin, she brings together film, textiles, glass, photography, drawing and installation to look at identity as something not fixed but shifting, shaped by history, context and appearance.

This solo exhibition marks the culmination of Bianca Baldi’s PhD in the arts at Sint Lucas Antwerpen (KdG) and ARIA (University of Antwerp), titled Play-White: Racial Passing and Embodied Images.