Dry and windswept, Robben Island lies just under ten kilometres off of the Atlantic coast of Cape Town, its grim history as a prison dating back to the late 17th century, when the Dutch began dispatching their convicts there. Over the years, it served as a hospital, a leper colony and an asylum for the mentally ill. In 1959, it was repurposed as a prison again, and more than 3 000 political prisoners served time there during the fight against apartheid. Its inmates included African National Congress (ANC) Secretary-General (1949 – 1954) and ANC Deputy President (1991 – 1994) Walter Sisulu, Pan African Congress Founder Robert Sobukwe and former South African president and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Nelson Mandela, who spent nearly two decades in a tiny, spare cell in the Island’s maximum-security building after being found guilty of sabotage in 1964. All the prisoners’ accommodations were meager, and many of them worked long hours in the prison’s limestone quarry.

This stark black-and-white etching captures something of the flat, barren institutional oppressiveness of the place. The building depicted is Section B, which housed Cell No. 4 in which Mandela was confined.

‘I spent a weekend on the Island in 1997 with a group of fellow artists – the first group of artists to visit the Island, post decommissioning. During the weekend, I had access to sit in the courtyard and draw the Section B Building from which I produced the etching,’ says Comerford. ‘It was a very special experience and I believe it is the only contemporary etching done of the building to date.’

Today, this grim island outpost is a tourist attraction and a living history lesson visited by ferry by thousands of people from around the globe.