'In wake of' forms part of a series called ‘Into the dark’, which was conceived in the period following the Marikana massacre in 2012, when striking mineworkers were gunned down by the South African police. Referring to ‘Into the dark’, South African academic and curator Nomusa Makhubu writes:

Here she delves into that devastating blow to the South African body-politic: Marikana. In one of the images in this series, Searle’s body is coated in coal dust while gold Kruger Rand coins seal her eyes, while in another image, called In wake of, the coins are held loosely in her hand, the position of the body alluding to a body lying in wake. The gold coins are a poignant metaphor for the inequities caused by the pursuit of mineral commodities, which has been at the epicentre of the migrant labour system and its attendant racial, gender and class segregations including the erosion of family and community structures for African workers. The obscene wealth generated by gold, diamond and platinum mining in South Africa is also symbolized in the dead bodies of workers. Again, it is not only gold or coal that is presented as a commodity but also the body as a unit of labour. In 2012 platinum mineworkers at Lonmin in the Marikana area went on a strike that resulted in the death of over thirty people. Almost all the miners were shot at close range by the police.