Perhaps the artwork that most aptly sums up where Brett Murray is at is Call and Response, two panels featuring schoolboyish cursive admonishments. On the left, repeated over and over, is written, "I must not make political art". On the right, "You are a corrupt f**k!" The controversy about The Spear, a painting depicting President Jacob Zuma with his genitals exposed, has faded away like a bad dream over the past five years. The ANC’s backlash to this satirical work "was a profound eye-opener", he says as we chat in his sunny studio in Woodstock, Cape Town. He regards the debates that emerged as "positive" and carefully followed the "vibrant conversation" and believes "that can only inform me and whoever looks at making similar works or works around uncomfortable, difficult issues going forward". "Hopefully, it’s made me a bit wiser; not scared. And I don’t think it has," he says. Being a white South African means "you are in an uncomfortable position of privilege that you always h...