gerda louw gerda louw · 2016. 6. 23. · mop5 pg66 mop5 pg67 gerda louw private world in this body...

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gerda louwprivate world

In this body of work I present images that

explore fantasies, basic urges

and desires, that which are often

suppressed or denied.

I have incorporated elements of fairy tale

and urban mythology to emphasize

the idea of a hidden world of wonder,

terror and desire, the mirror where in

to enter and where the ‘other’ persona

may act out.

YOUNGBLOODBeautiful Life Building, 70-72 Bree Street, Cape Town

4 October 2012

gerda louwexposure

As a woman who creates images, verse

and dance I often feel skinned, revealed

to the world with my feelings, thoughts,

wishes, desires, ideals and dreams laid

open to all. As an artist and performer, this

is unavoidable.

This series aims to illustrate what lays

beneath that, within that, another even

deeper layer of yearning, passion,

sensitivity and vulnerability. A layer

hidden, untold and perhaps even

unfathomable


4 - 16 October 2012

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Hanna orlowskiFrom the outside in

While the three images were all taken at completely different times and places, they have in common an outer force

representing a deep inner feeling or bond.

A burning path to love is a photograph taken in Cape Town, which seeks to display the pathway of passion, curiosity, longing

and perhaps pain that either brings two people together or breaks them apart.

A fingertips promise was taken in Swaziland during world peace day. It represents an outer and inner bond between two

friends, leading to a strengthened weapon in a fight for peace.

Between time planes is a photograph of a couple in Germany, a few minutes before the train leaves to Paris. It displays the

effects that circumstance and time have on people and their relationships.


4 - 16 October 2012

HarrIS sTEiNMANunseenincluded in “a celebration of land and city scapes”

In this series, UNSEEN, I have sought out quieter, unspoilt spaces: areas that people drive past without necessarily noticing or

visually engaging with. I am interested in creating compositions that evoke the fuller extent of the visual potential of each spot,

conveying my personal engagement and connection with the scape at the exact moment and conditions of encounter.

Although the spaces are unfamiliar to me, I am arrested in each case by the energy, identity, the particulars of character and

the relationship to the elements of these otherwise random environments. I am intrigued, captivated and intent on exposing

the otherwise ‘unseen’ event, rather than allowing them to go on being unnoticed as ‘non-events’.

The project is also an attempt to parallel my own struggle with quietness and feelings of self-invisibility. Perhaps my urgency

lies in the parallel of my own internal spaces that I am aware balance the scale between the unseen significance and the non-

event of existence, as well as an attempt to realise the non-realisation of full potential.

IZIKO SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM25 Queen Victoria St, Cape Town28 September - 3t October 2012

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gOrdOn ClArkEturner: the outCome

COMMUNE 134 Wale Street, Cape Town

14 September - 14 October 2012

COMMUNE 134 Wale Street, Cape Town


rOeLOF PeTrUS VAN wYkatlas/aFriCa

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SOUTH AFRICAN jEWISH MUSEUM88 Hatfield Street, Cape Town


anne FisChEr / daLe YudElMAN / davId GoldblATT OLIver NuroCk & gerard Gouws / PaUL wEiNbErG davId luriE / gary sChNEidEr / ILan GodFrEYMIcHaeL MEYErsFEld / nevILLe dubowJenny AlTsChulEr / JILLIan EdElsTEiNrOger bAllEN / Svea JosEphYhome: roots en route

Home: Roots en Route, is an

exhibition of works by 15 South

African image makers most of whom

are second or third generation

South Africans of Lithuanian jewish

decent, having committed to this

country as their place of belonging

and who are consistently producing

work that references a large range

of subject matter encompassed

by the complex notion of ‘Home’.

The exhibition speaks about

relationships to place, whether or

not in the geographical sense; to

matters of ethics and human rights;

displacement, or a connection to

the core, the psyche, the substance

of human identity. Photographers

engage with such topics as

belonging and alienation, comfort

and lack of privilege, disconnection from or intimacy with the core, the hearth and the ‘home’, as a place of refuge and safety or

its opposite.

Historically, jews have cultivated strong ties and given active input into the countries of their naturalization, proving to be

exemplars in cultural, political, economic and intellectual spheres. It is also a well known trait that jews speak up, and speak out.

It has been no different in South Africa, particularly within socio–political platforms where the jewish voice has been significantly

audible in the struggle against apartheid and inequitable balances of power, and through continued activism towards democracy.

One of the strongest articulations of this has been through visual expression, attesting to the photographer’s personal experience

of the world, and an individual commitment to engage and share with the viewer.

Issues of territorial power are discussed in a number of the series on the show. Dale Yudelman’s i am video and print series

attest to the consideration of the plight of the refugee, involving scenarios familiar to jews: flight from pogroms, the holocaust,

political exclusion from places of home, and seeking a ‘better life’ for their families. A refugee herself, having emigrated from

Germany in 1933, Anne Fischer’s interest was directed towards the underdog enduring extreme hardship, perhaps identifying

with her subjects through her own experiences of dislocation from home at a young age. Sometimes reflections on their social

plight, her images are nonetheless collaborations with subjects in strong character performances. David Goldblatt’s triptych,

Willem Vorster with friends and family, home and garden, Merweville, speaks to his continued dedication to commentary on his

environment and ‘going beyond the surface of things’1 while Ilan Godfrey’s Legacy of the Mine sharply weighs the irreversible

social and ecological damage caused by mining waste and the imbalances inherent in the rise of wealth in the history of the

South African mining industry.

More personal aspects of the relationship to ‘home’ are brought out in several series, such as David Lurie’s set, titled for this

exhibition, Living in the Shadow of the Mountain, connoting his rekindled relationship with and recent move back to Cape Town,

as well as his autobiographical standpoint on the larger published project, which, amongst other things, uses the distance from

Table Mountain as a gauge with which to measure standards of living and power balances. jenny Altschuler’s portraits in the set,

Gardens: My 30 year relationship, are selected from her ongoing ‘street photographs’ that portray people living in or passing

through her home neighbourhood, photographed from the early 1980s up until the late 2000s. Paul Weinberg’s Dear Edward:

Family Footprints and jillian Edelstein’s Here and There: An Expedition of Sorts turn inwards from socio- political commentary

on South African society, to the autobiographical tracings of family homes and ancestral roots.

Encompassed in the showcase are conceptual statements engaging the viewer on discursive and philosophical levels, including

Neville Dubow’s academic contemplations on the dynamics of composition and the relationship between the 2D surface of an

image and its 3D counterpart in the structures and spaces pictured2 Dome and Tree Variations were photographed in jerusalem

in 1980, on a sabbatical in the holy land. Employing a marriage of documentary and conceptual approaches inherent in the

juxtaposition of images in diptych format, is the work of Svea josephy, titled Home from Home in this compilation, which invites

reflection on the parallels, contrasts and connections between South African Cities and the places they have been named after,

that historically have experienced violent conflict.

Challenging the visual definition and symbolic representations of human identity are Gary Schneider’s Handprints, which are

selected for their symbolic identifications of the individual as well as being actual processed prints of the hands of some South

African artists, including fellow exhibitor, David Golblatt. The psyche and the boundaries of reality are underlying topics unraveled

in the work of Roger Ballen’s Boarding House and Michael Meyersfeld’s Life Staged series. Lastly we have Oliver Nurock and

Gerard Gouws’ short film, The Seder, a comedy which brings up relevant issues regarding changing times and threats to tradition.

All the sets in this exhibition are highly individual and different to the rest; however, underlying, common elements to all of them

are the author’s commitment to the photograph as a medium of response to his or her world, both personal and communal, its

use as an instrument of self expression and as the vehicle through which to challenge issues close to the heart and hearth. jenny

Altschuler 2012.

1O’Toole, S. (2002) David Goldblatt Biography [online] Available at: artthrob.co.za [last accessed 29 August 2012]2Martin, M. (1992) The Architecture of an Image [in] Neville Dubow: Sequences, series, sites: photographs, 1971-1992. Standard Bank National Arts Festival publication, South Africa. 1992.

oliver nurock & Gerard Gouws

Gary schneider

neville dubow

ilan Godfrey

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Inge priNsCover. beijinG, paris, cape town, oslo

CASTLE OF GOOD HOPE ALLEMANS BARRACKSCnr Darling & Buitenkant Street, Cape Town


OLD F-STOP CAFé15 Maynard St, Gardens

6 - 31 October 2012

Jade ViCTorseCrets in suburbia

People have always interested me. One of the things I find most interesting and have thought about at length is how well do

you really know someone? This project is concerned with the untold, secrets, the hidden parts of ourselves. Secrets in Suburbia

is a personal family portrait. While discovering one personal aspect about my family I think that in doing this series they, in turn

discovered a few things about themselves. Removing the mask to show the viewers who they are took a lot of courage. The

translation of the private into the public. The subject showing the viewer a piece of who they are.

This series was photographed digitally and are all portrait format. I only used the available light when shooting and

photographed each subject in a different environment. I have only exhibited eight images which have all been box mounted.

I feel that this body of work has so much room to grow and right now I am just scratching the surface. Although I have known

these people all my life, I know that there is so much more to discover. Yes, you can know someone inside out and back to front

but there are always going to be little things left to discover about them which makes knowing them that more exciting. You

will never stop learning.



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JabULanI dhlAMiNiamawele (the twins)

Throughout history, across all cultures, people have been fascinated with twins. I am not a twin but my mother is, and people

often ask how I know whose who between the two. They think it is possible to mistake one for the other, but what I realize is

that it easy to spot the difference if you are familiar with them. I don’t think they look alike because that is not what I see. So

as it is easy to tell the similarities and differences between twins, especially if you know them, I began to realize that as I spent

time with them, regardless of how identical the twins appear to be, the camera can freeze and depict their reality and allows

the viewer to see that there are a specific uniqueness to each. Intermittently since 2008 I have interviewed and photographed

a number of Africa identical, twins and most of them are identical. Identical twins share all of their genes; it is the environment

rather than genetics, accounts for any differences between them. These differences are often as fascinating as the similarities.

According to most twins, their twin-ship presents certain problems, the major one being the confusion of identity and similar

names can only add to the confusion. For this project I decided to concentrate on identical twins, whose relationships seemed

emotionally the most intense and thus the most interesting.

Identical twins occur when one cell, very soon after fertilization, splits off from the sub diving cluster of cells to plant itself

on another side of the wall in the womb, there itself to subdivide and become a second foetus in nearly perfect parallel

development with the first. The split, occurring with the same frequency across all the human races, happens for still

undetermined reasons, making a twin nature’s mysterious clone. Identical twins will experience the same morals, expectations

and experiences when raised together, yet they develop separate identities, however tied together and mirrored in each other.

With this body of work, the aim is to portray the nuanced nature of shared identity between two individuals, who, genetically,

are essentially the same.



JacKIe MurrAYpositivelY inFeCted



I’ve been going for my CD4 cell and viral load blood tests every 3 months for the past 6 years. In january my count dropped

quite significantly. On one particular I came away from my doctors consultation with the sobering realization that at some

stage in the near future I will need to begin antiretroviral medication.

When I returned home that evening I Googled ‘ARV’ in an attempt to inform myself about these life saving yet toxic drugs.

My search led me to “Alien Reproduction Vehicle” (how the hell am I going to swallow one of those every day?), “Anglican

Retirement Village” (is that where I’m goin?), and “Installing ARV’s” (apparently vertically?).

Wow, Google sure knows a lot about the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. All I need to do is sit in my room on my computer

late at night and Google.

So, in a nutshell, that’s what I’ve been doing. And it’s called a blog.

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JanSJe wissEMAretrospeCtive

DISTRICT SIx HOMECOMING CENTRE15 Buitenkant Street, Cape Town24 September - November 2012

In 1970 when it became evident that the government was determined to eradicate District Six, the Cape Provincial Institute of

Architects commissioned jansje Wissema, living at the time in Cape Town, to record the buildings, street life and people of the area.

Demolitions had already begun so there was a widespread air of apprehension among the residents, but a considerable part of the

district was still inhabited and Wissema vividly and perceptively captured what remained of the atmosphere and ethos of the place.

Unfortunately she did not live to print the photographs in her own unique manner, but the negatives were kept and stored by the

Cape Provincial Institute of Architects in the hope that they would one day be printed and exhibited. Until 2012 this had not been

realised.

Her iconic images of the place and it’s people have remained a powerful chronicle of the area, capturing the essence of this

once vital community. The Cape Institute of Architecture was invited to mount an exhibition of depth of Wissema’s photographs

for showcase on the Cape Town Month of Photography 2012, through a chance meeting between the director of the SACP and

the chairman of the institute, Andre Durand van Graan, on a flight out of Cape Town. Months later the fruition of an encouraged

partnership with the District Six Museum’s Homecoming Centre resulted in this substantial showcase, printed up and presented

during the Month of Photography. The exhibition shares Wissema’s sensitive archive with a wider public.

Jenny sChNEidErpathwaYspart of ‘a celebration of land and city scapes’

“Before it can ever be the repose for the senses, landscape is the work of the mind. Its scenery is built up as much from strata

of memory as from layers of rock.” (S. Schama)

This work is more than an artistic portrayal of nature and land. It is a metaphor for a personal journey both outward and

inward. A physical, geographical journey back to South Africa after a long absence, 23 years of living away, and an inner

journey of returning home and what that means in terms of both dislocation and re- integration. It has been symbolic of a

complex process of exploring the notion of reconnection, of return and home. It is the terrain where I am most ‘at home’.

This journey has been a process of becoming re-bonded which is reflected or evoked in the work. Starting with

photographing in places close to home and then moving further away to other parts of the country,in particular Venda in May

2011, in a process of reforming a relationship with the land.

Some of the work is focused on textures and patterns in nature and the medium of black and white medium format and the

use of film involves a considered and selective decision process, sometimes spontaneous and sometimes premeditated, with

more conscious awareness of light on texture and pattern.

There are elements of nostalgia, and hope for a meaningful relationship to home, as well as hope for a worthwhile positive

future of a place I have loved and yearned for. A place which is ‘lovely beyond any singing of it.” (Alan Paton evoking his home

in Cry the Beloved Country)

IZIKO SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM25 Queen Victoria St, Cape Town28 September - 31 October 2012

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Jenny AlTsChulErGardens: mY 30 Year relationship

1998: long st baths, 3 boys with wall motif 1979-80: kiki at home a week before killing herself

woman in water long st baths

Mary

2006: lazari, two men at a table

1980-81: Mrs de klerk and daughter

I have lived in a number of Cape Town places over the past 30 years: Mowbray, Woodstock, Rondebosch but I have kept

re-establishing homes in Gardens, over a number of different periods of my life. I am back living here, in 2012 and since 2001,

and this has been my longest period. Wherever I have lived, I have photographed in those streets, seeking photographic

encounters, short and extended, to collaborate with subject: the neighbor, the acquaintance and the stranger and to picture

my environment. I am often invited in, to the terrace, the communal space, the home where the photographic relationships can

develop trust and collaboration achieve equal satisfaction for the subjects and myself.

It has been important to contain a sense of the near, of my immediate environment, society and communal family. However my

practice has oscillated between inviting a depth of factual information from my subjects which colours the way I portray them,

or avoiding this same engagement, seeking the sense of the unknown and a purely photographic encounter, compositional,

mood and sense orientated. I am intrigued by the layers of description that build almost on their own through the mystery

generated by the reliance on the senses, the employment of environmental and compositional structures, angle of view and

time of day, to formulate an intuitive and visual understanding of the subject and the significance of that moment. The people

in this set I have included for the Home show, have been integral to the areas I have lived in, in my road and even right next

door to my home, in the suburb of Gardens, Cape Town, South Africa, over the past 30 years. Some of them have moved on, or

passed away, and time has circled me on to encounter others.



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JILLIan EdElsTEiNhere and there: an expedition oF sorts

I was born in South Africa in the same

year that my great aunt Minna died in

the Ukraine. This coincidence is rather

poignant because, until 2002, I had no

idea of Minna’s existence.

All my life I have had people query

me about my heritage. As they study

my thick, dark hair, dark skin and dark

eyes, they usually suggest that I am of

Mediterranean origin. Finally I have replied

Russian jewish without any knowledge

of what it actually meant. Russian jewish

is all I knew with certainty. I knew it was

a shtetl type place somewhere in Russia.

My paternal grandparents were a solid

blank in my mind. What they looked like,

the places they lived, what kind of people

they were.

It was at a family reunion in 2002 after my book Truth and Lies: Stories from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was

published , that I discovered that Minna’s decendants had made contact with the family in South Africa and that some of them

were living in the Ukraine.

At the same time, working in a Valley on the Lesotho –South African border. the Sangoma had explained to me how they were

called by their Ancestors to heal. It seemed as if I was similarly being called by my Ancestors to investigate what had happened

to the lost part of the family – how and why they had disappeared. And it once again flagged up the great duality that I have

always felt – that of my jewish East European and my African roots.

I became the first Edelstein family member to travel to the family in the Ukraine and to the family birthplace in Latvia. It was,

as if, I was fitting the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle together. I used old photographs that had inspired me to start the searching,

documents, film and stills to tell the story. It allowed me to explore this family mystery I had sensed – that of Eastern Europe-

meets-Africa and its concomitant spin offs. The irony is that I too had become an ‘exile’ while moving from my home in Cape

Town, South Africa, in the apartheid years, to live elsewhere, in London, UK.



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JOHan VoETsshort stories From the CitY oF rosespart of ‘a celebration of land and city scapes’

Short Stories from the City of Roses is meant to be approached as a collection of photographic diary entries, gathered during

several visits to Mangaung between 2005 and 2011.

It is a work in progress. The photos in this exhibition are part of a much larger body of work, dealing mainly with faith and its

prominent place in the daily lives of the people of South Africa.

I owe a great deal to the people who trusted me with my camera and gave me a feeling of belonging.

The black box helps me break through isolation; it is a tool to confront myself and my fellow travelers, making it easier to reach

out and be touched, to listen and learn, to interact and relate. By framing the world in my viewfinder and breaking it down into

split-second trails of light, I try to make sense of chaos and come to an understanding of what being human is about.

Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu.

IZIKO SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM25 Queen Victoria St, Cape Town


JOn riordANidentitY and the CemeterY

“You know if living was a thing that money could buy,

the rich would live and the poor would die.” joan Baez

These words illustrate the starting point to this body of my work. They emphasise for me, how as humans we endeavour to live

forever and how, as with so many things, this is inevitably connected to financial means. As we are faced with the reality that

we cannot physically live forever, we try and find ways to leave a lasting legacy.

This body of work examines how people aim to memorialise themselves and their loved ones through the creation and usage

of grave markers. It can be argued that the dead, or their kin, raise these monuments as deliberate expressions of their ideals

concerning death, class, and family stature. The markers are intended to establish and perpetuate a dialogue with the living;

a dialogue between the dead and the living to continue and reinforce the beliefs and worldviews that have been taken to the

graves. I feel that through examining these monuments one will not only be able to view how the self and one’s self image can

be physically constructed and carried over after death, but how one’s individual identity can be accommodated within the

community as a whole.



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JOHan wilkEi am You are

It is customary for a parent to take photos of their children, to document their growth from baby to adult. But photographs

can say as much about the photographer as the subject, and I want to explore that idea through this series of portraits of

my daughter.

As she matures, and develops from a young girl to a woman, so our relationship changes. This is suggested by transformative

elements, such as fire, and photographic techniques where she is obscured – the person she is becoming is an unknown, she is

discovering herself, and I am constantly re-discovering my relationship with her.

The portraits include objects such as dolls and rocking horses, whimsical elements from her childhood, and through the ar-

rangement of these objects and her interaction (or just as importantly, lack of interaction) with them, I want to create a surreal

landscape – removed from the every-day – where these ideas can be expressed in a symbolic way.

Through the series, I want to convey a positive message about this continual transformation of our relationship. It is an impor-

tant part of raising a child, that we should encourage their discovery of self and be aware enough to evaluate our relationship

with them – and adapt if necessary – instead of clinging to a certain idea of who they are or who we want them to be.

kind sponsor of the sa centre for photoGraphy workshop studio 2012

THE LOVELL GALLERY139 Albert Rd, Woodstock


JOHan wilkEmnemoniC

For my documentary work, I often travel to other countries, where I encounter people with different values, lifestyles and

cultures – the “other”. Despite the differences, there are always enough similarities to relate, to identify with this “other”.

The psychoanalyst jacques Lacan wrote about this process of identification with an “other”. He called it the mirror-stage and

describes it as the process where a baby first recognizes itself in a mirror, and the difference between the image it sees (the

“other”), its perception of its own body (the “self”) and the fact that it identifies with this “other” image, which results in the

formation of its Ego or identity. Lacan explains that this process does not only occur in the life of an infant, but remains as a

structure of subjectivity. We perceive a reflection of ourselves, an “other” or reflection of our Ego, in other people or things and

assimilate that “other” through identification to validate our identity.

When I travel, I find these reflections in the everyman, the mundane, or the spectacular – moments in the lives of strangers that

engage me. In this way, I construct an identity of the country and its people. This constructed identity will necessarily differ

from how the subjects see themselves and their country, since it is a subjective, transitory view – I am an outsider looking in for

a short while.

But what I choose to observe is a reflection of my identity, what I decide to experience and remember. In this way, it is like a

mnemonic device – a personal shorthand for remembering something – the series of images that, together, constructs my

experience and memories of the country and it’s people for the viewer.

HALDANE MARTIN176 Sir Lowry Rd, Woodstock8 October - 31 October 2012

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KaLI VAN dEr MErwEdark liGht. imaGes oF re-awakeninG



Scientists have discovered the visible world accounts for less than 5%

of the matter in the universe. They have little understanding of what

the other 95% is composed of and termed it dark matter and dark

energy. We are in the dark and the cosmos is composed of the dark.

Analogous is the genesis of my images, which are birthed at night

and emerge from a subliminal place in myself.

I use a photographic technique called Light Painting to give image

form. It employs long exposure and movable light sources, breaking

away from the literal into the interpretive, allowing for the visionary

to manifest.

My process is one of inner awakening, searching for intersections

where personal meets primal, individual becomes archetypal, human

touches divine.

I use my female body to explore these depths. Invariably I am naked,

casting off culture for a more essential reality.

This solitary creativity frees me from inhibition and translates my

inspiration directly without the gaze of another.

My rational self is confined to the technical details of the camera,

allowing my unconscious self, freedom to surface through gestural

performance in front of the lens.

Painting in light enables me to transcend corporeal reality,

transforming flesh into vital energy forms and allowing the mythic

to manifest. In this space, I find intuitive dialogue with a myriad of

primordial selves.

My images are forged directly in camera. There is no digital

manipulation involved. I prefer to work with mediated chance, fusing

locality with temporality.

My intention is to re-awaken and re-invigorate the female spirit in all

her ancient and contemporary multiplicity.

JUan sToCkENsTrooMthe YounG Champions

This body of work depicts five amateur boxers between the ages of 12 and 17 from various parts of Cape Town, South Africa.

As a keen club boxer myself, I noticed these young boys sparring one day in my local boxing gym. Their speed, accuracy and

abundance of energy in the ring was phenomenal to watch and I thought to myself, this is boxing.

It turned out that these young boys were being trained by my coach and were local amateur boxers. I decided to photograph

them as I was admired their hard

work, discipline and courage. During the photo session I would shout out a number

of punching combinations and each boxer would execute it flawlessly.

Boxing is one of the hardest sports both mentally and physically. Finding ways to go through fear without panicking is a game

of self-control and skill. These boxers possess these qualities that make there fighting and movement seem effortless.



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KaTe dAViEsthe livinG Years an infrared portaiture exhibition by kate davies in collaboration with leda wriGht

After spending 2011 shooting landscapes using an Infrared modified Canon DSLR camera, I decided to spend 2012 exploring an

even lesser understood genre of the IR process, Portraits.

As there isn’t a vast amount of information on shooting portraits in the Infrared spectrum, myself and stylist/choreographer

Leda Wright collaborated on this project so as to make full use of all aspects of the process, to create images that spoke

without words.

The journey for us was a new, educational and beautiful one. The visual differences between organic and synthetic substances

through the IR spectrum are immense and therefore we had to rethink most of our preconceived compositions and ideas in

order for the images to portray the message we had intended. From fabrics like linen, toule and silk to skin, metal, rock, bark,

leather, water and sand – the effects are quite often ethereal.

We worked with various locations, fabrics and styles in order to is a collection of portraits of ordinary people in a range of daily

rituals that range from regular and accepted to those that are a little more exaggerated and perhaps staged. I believe that

audience members will all connect with each image in a variety of ways and it is this range of underlying emotions that I am

hoping audience members will leave with.

The Infrared process itself is one that removes quite a large amount of ordinary photographic process and invites both the

photographer and the audience to see the world in a way that we do not with the naked eye.

IMAGO VISUAL219 Lower Main Rd, Observatory

9 - 31 October 2012

KaTarIna bAlGAVYkeep it seCretpart of ‘a celebration of land and city scapes’

The urge to have experiences is translated into the

urge to make pictures. The desire for other places

and landscapes, the urge to create memories are

shown in two combined Series: ‘Romantic Space.

Romantic Architecture’ and ‘Raw’ a journey of raw

analogue Photography.

Raw is an untouched analogue Series translated

in our desire for travel and distance. The longing

for other places exist in our longing for another

world. The imagery ‘Romantic Space. Romantic

Architecture’ insists on a feeling of desire, serenity

and calmness. The emotional space of both Series

draw a Picture of Human Beings’ aspirations.

“Dancing is the loftiest, the most moving, the most

beautiful of the arts, because it is no mere translation

or abstraction from life; it is life itself.” Havelock Ellis

Our nature consists in motion; complete rest is death.

Following the work of French philosopher Maurice

Merleau-Ponty the dualism and separation of mind

and body is called into question as our primary way

of existing in the world and is ultimately rejected in

favour of an intersubjective conception or dialectical

concept of consciousness. What is characteristic of his

account of perception is the centrality that the body

plays. We perceive the world through our bodies; we

are embodied subjects, involved in existence.

references: Merleau-ponty, Maurice. trans: colin smith. phenomenology of perception (london: routledge, 2005)


in the waY oF danCe

US ART GALLERYcnr Dorp & Bird Streets, Stellenbosch

5 October - end October 2012

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LaMbrO TsiliYiANNishimba utanaka: the beautiful people

For the past decade Lambro Tsiliyiannis has been

documenting the inevitable transformative effects

of modernization upon the Himba tribe in Northern

Zimbabwe, creating a photographic memory bank of the

residues of tradition and the changing elements creeping

into one of the most fascinating communities living in the

world today. “I know first-hand how much there is to learn

from these unique people. The images serve as an attempt

to chronicle their presence and depict their integrity

against overwhelming modern day forces.”

The Himba have remained resistant to Western influence,

as evidenced in their strongly maintained traditional dress

and physical adornment, and retained immense dignity

and presence in the face of continuous gawking visitors

and commercially interested photographers. However,

change is inevitable. Over his more recent photographic

expeditions, Lambro has noticed the slow erosion of certain

Himba traditions, while confirming the continued character

and quality of the people that he has come to know well,

their mannerisms, their presence and innate sense of style.

The utanaka (Himba for transformation) stays strongly

‘Himba’ despite the changes in visual code, he notes.

“The process of this project sparked my own discovery

and awareness of what it takes to survive…to thrive. I am

interested in the anthropological significance of this record

as well as its expose of and possible influence upon urban

fashions as well as in relation to urban lifestyle and life

views. Himba philosophy fascinates me as does the Himba

ecological intelligence and the astute observations about human/environmental relations which should be shared by many.”

If you ask a Himba what the distance is to a destination, he will reply ‘How much time do you have?’ And so the journey begins.


part of ‘a celebration of land and city scapes’

LIndeKa QAMpibelievinG in ourselves

My project is inspired by the daily lives of people in the townships, rural and suburban areas. I use my camera as a tool to

capture the social issues and everyday lives of these people. There is certain warmth in being surrounded by so many people.

My cause is to capture these moments and document the lifestyle.The popular phrase umuntu umuntu ngabantu loosely

translates to every person needs someone else to get them where they need to be. This brings in the element of respect for

different cultures. Culture is the source of building the nation, fighting poverty and crime from a different angle. Self – respect

and confidence are necessary aspects in all communities. It is a tool for change through great humanity, ritual and custom.

Ignorance results in the failure to understand one another.

Culture is an important instrument, reminding us who we are and where we come from. It is through this we can work together

as a nation. Our nation is amongst the most varied in the world, with over many different cultures, creeds and languages.

Naturally, such diversity causes confusion amongst different people and their beliefs. Although people have deep scars

through poverty, they beat poverty by being hard working. Here you see people giving their best in order to provide for their

loved ones. The youth is thirsty to drink the waters of culture which can lead them to successful futures that can build the

nation. Growing up with poverty has made people strong and resilient but has also created a hardened and distrusting nation.

Walking through different townships, it is amazing to witness many families sharing a small space and treating each other as

relations. Children will be outside playing with litter, which they put together to create customized toys. They are happy and

vibrant despite the fact that they come from poor families who not only struggle to make do with the most basic of daily living

but also troubled about their children’s future. This is a truly inspirational way of living. Much positivity surrounds the people in

their everyday lives. Despite their circumstances they continue to be a happy with what they have.

CAPE TOWN SCHOOL OF PHOTOGRAPHY62 Roeland St, Cape Town

24 October - mid November 2012

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LIndSay GriErurban Girl – at home, alonepart of ‘love & other druGs’

My self-portrait series is a succession of frames - showing the steady beat of the regular routines of an urban girl, at home,

alone. The individual images capture quiet, ‘wide eyed’ moments as I go about doing the things I do in a rhythmic, repetitive

way. A soothing pulse weaves through my every day actions reinforcing my emotional and creative life.


4 - 16 October 2012

wednesdaY 9pm

LIOna NYAririperForminG blaCkness

In a place were blackness has become a social construction filled with various stereotypes; this body of work aims to

look at these stereotypes in a way that questions their validity as well as their origin. This work is both a performance

and is performative. The performance is continuous in the non-blackface characters, because they represent themselves

as individuals, while the characters in the blackface are being performative, as they are portraying the stereotype. I am

questioning the relevance of these stereotypes, as they help to form racist beliefs and discriminations. How often do we still

hear phrases such as, ‘she got into this school because she’s black’ or ‘all black people either love chicken, or are always late, or

too loud and dance very well?’

In social media these stereotypes are often played with and perpetuated as the way black people are. They are

misrepresentations, but they still come from somewhere. My question becomes an open ended one that asks: what came

first, the human being or the stereotype? It seems as though both the performative and performance of blackness coexist,

but how do we eliminate the stereotype so that only the human remains? Blackface was a theatre form used to portray black

characters in American theatre before the civil rights movement. The characters were usually the ‘jolly, happy-go-lucky,

ignorant, submissive negro.’ We have seen how these qualities have been used to oppress the black psyche and artist – Renee

Cox discusses how she aims to regain a ‘self-love’ for the black female body (an idea written about by Bell Hooks in Sisters of

the Yam) in her work. I believe that this idea of regaining ‘self-love’ is important, because it is one of the ways we can reclaim

blackness and rename it. It is one of the ways we can remove the stereotypes.



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LISa kiNG“….sometimes i make moneY one daY oF the week”

The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) is one of the last remaining exchanges in the world with a manual “open-outcry” or “call-

over” system.

The ZSE is situated in a contradictory environment. It symbolizes the economic heart of the country and occupies an iconic yet

somewhat removed place in the minds of many Zimbabweans.

The ZSE is the second oldest stock exchange in Africa and currently conducts one “call-over” daily between 10:00 and

10:45am, where approximately 20 traders begin the day’s haggling with the ringing of a bell.

IZIKO GOOD HOPE GALLERYCnr Darling & Buitenkant Street, Cape Town


LUIgI di sArroit’s mY liFepresented by the italian consulate

Between the mid-sixties and the late seventies the art system underwent a decisive transformation. Not only for the use of

non-conventional techniques and materials, but also for a new relationship between the artist and art critics, market, exhibition

spaces, audience and reality.The work of art as an object dissolves. It may be presented as an image, an installation, an event,

a behavior. What becomes crucial and significant is the idea behind it. Photography, thanks to its versatility and its nature

as a technological medium, comes out in this context and offers to the experimental artists a new possibility to process

shapes, colors and movement. Luigi Di Sarro is a witness and a protagonist of this new era. His work is an example of the new

artist’s attitude: the appropriation of the technical, linguistic and expressive matters of the photographic medium. In his case,

photography adds to a long and previous research through drawing, painting, graphics and sculptures: a performative stroke

which makes his art more alive. During the last ten years of his life, Di Sarro produced an imposing body of photographic works

about subjects such as: body, light, movement, space and time. Often using his own image and working on it, almost to testify

a strong, autobiographical and introspective will. The process uses constant laboratory exercise which transforms the camera

lens into a mirror of feelings and reality.

CASTLE OF GOOD HOPE OLD RECRUITMENT CENTRECnr Darling & Buitenkant Street, Cape Town

11 - 21 October 2012

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LUKe dANiEllanGa

The wind has swept the colour green from grounds surrounding homes. Sports fields and parks are a dull brown – dirtscapes

containing scattered patches of hard grass.It’s nestled along the highway, a wide stretch of tar which carries travellers up-

country, and welcomes international arrivals. There’s a constant dreary roar, which filters through the air of Skomline, as

aeroplanes arrive and depart just a few kilometres away. What a miserable and incessant affliction it must be, to witness

countless travellers coming and going as they please, while one is stuck in such an unforgiving and harsh environment. Dreams

of voyage, or at least a getaway, saturate the imagination.Regardless, Langa is home.

Bordered by national highways, and a rail line, Langa is one of the oldest Townships in South Africa. As with most Townships in

the country, Langa is a bastard child of the Apartheid regime - A piece of arid land where Black South Africans were confined

to live throughout the 1900’s. Denied access to proper healthcare and education, the community has always been plagued by

unfathomable adversity. It’s a vicious cycle that continues to rob most Township residents of a quality life, a situation which

revolves around unemployment and a lack of valuable education. For the most part, residents born in Langa will spend their

entire lives in poverty. Below the bread line, struggling to survive - struggling to support themselves and their families.

This emotive light-projected installation

of Lynton Francois Burger’s evocative

underwater photo-art is an exploration of

the Ocean Feminine. His collection of work

celebrates the sea as she. From aboriginal-

like “coralglyphs” - strange, naturally-formed

etchings on coral reefs to abstract portraits

of sea creatures and divers, Lynton has

gone beyond the technical and physical

challenges of working undwewater at depth,

to capture something of the essence of

“mother ocean” in a fresh, contemporary

photographic narrative.

The works flow as a journey, an exploration

of a place that is magical, colourful,

abundant. It’s a personal journey down

there. “When I dive silently into the

ocean, my housed camera in hand, I am

immersing myself in that rich, primordial

feminine place from whence all life evolved.

She is incredibly beautiful down there - her

colours, patterns, designs, play of light - are

Lynton’s work is inspired by the sense of

magic realism one feels diving down on the

ocean reefs, packed as they are with the life

and movement and colour. Lynton seeks out

symbolism and depictions of sea mythology.

she down there is in fact the name given to

Sedna, the oldest of mermaids, as captured

in ancient Inuit mythology. “When I am down

there creating my undersea photo-art I am

always aware of her presence.” The world’s oceans and her reefs are under major threat from human activity. One of Lynton’s

primary motivations is that his images assist in bringing greater collective appreciation and respect for her incredible beauty.


IZIKO PLANETARIUM25 Queen Victoria St, Cape Town29 October - mid November 2012

LynTOn burGErshe down there

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gerT-Jan VAN dEN bEMd / MeagHan doiG Hanna orlowski / MargUerITe VENTErgerda louwlove and other druGs

YOUNGBLOODBeautifull Life Building, 70-72 Bree Street, Cape Town

4 - 16 October 2012

MeaG

h

en d

oiG

hanna orlowski

Gerda louw Gert-jan van den beMd

MarGuerite venter

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MaLcOLM JoNEsaFter dark - koeberG road

Anyone driving along Cape Town’s Koeberg Road during the day may be unaware of the Brooklyn underworld of gangs, drugs,

prostitution robbery and theft. But, as darkness falls, the invisible nature of its underworld activity and the vulnerability of its

victims become visible as second

hand furniture emporiums,

pawn shops and corner grocery

stores transform themselves into

brightly lit protective steel cages

and prostitutes emerge from the

side streets to furtively take up

their positions in the shadows of

street corners.

This body of work explores

the way that certain Brooklyn

underworld activities become,

paradoxically, more visible under

cover of darkness.

6 SPIN STREET6 Spin Street, Cape Town


ManIe wEssElsmY pleasures

This series is the result of a workshop on After Dark photography that challenged me to just not photograph what’s out

there, but to focus more on myself and what really matters to me.

I focused on what gives me satisfaction when I have free time, whether it is the vibrancy of people around me or just the

quietness of relaxing at home. Some of my favourite hobbies that I enjoy are also portrayed in the series.

I have attempted to let you in my space and if you can identify with some of these, we have more in common that you

initially may have thought.

6 SPIN STREET6 Spin Street, Cape Town


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MIcHaeL MEYErsFEldliFe staGed

The body of work in this exhibition is made up of images taken from a number of different projects I have constructed over the

last few decades. The different series face a number of facets of our society from the conditioning of man and his vulnerability

and the continuous changing role of women to our long history of attempts to understand the human need for judgment.

The viewer glimpses aspects of love, danger, fun and nihilism that weave the tapestry of our society. The home is sometimes a

playground, sometimes as battleground but a constant blurring between what is real, and what is perceived.

These are not random photographs. Each image is planned, sculpted, structured and directed to the point where the desired

tension is captured. Intentionally ambiguous and inviting interpretation, each of the images form part of a collective story.



MarcUS VilJoENGestalt

The Brain is holistic, parallel and analog. It has a self-organising tendancies. The human eye sees an object as an entity before

perceiving their individual parts.

Photography is regarded as a form of documentation. When viewing painted faces, one tends to pick up an obscurity in

a matter of seconds. By cutting into the photographs I am able to create an obscurity within the medium of photography,

tricking the viewers eye. Thus one can argue that, the whole is other than the sum of the parts.

YOUNGBLOODBeautifull Life Building, 70-72 Bree Street, Cape Town


the poolMute

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MeLInda sTuurMANkalksteenFontein

Unemployment, crime, gangsterism, drugs.....It’s a battle everyday in my community, where life is often nasty, brutal, hard and

cut short violently! So many tears shed as families and friends finds it difficult to come to terms with innocent lives ended

through drug wars.....

‘Kalka’ is also home to hardworking and friendly people, making ‘alternative’, honourable and hopeful choices, and who feel

that although it may not always be rosy, this place is their heartfelt home.

STUDIO227 Edison Way, Century City

13 October - 10 November 2012

MIcHaeL wYEThtwelve new works

“all we can do is cultivate a state of awareness within ourselves, and allow the images to come through unfettered. amongst the dross the

pertinent ones will serve as hints or signposts to a state of greater visual perception”.

- raymond Moore (1920-1987)

“Twelve New Works ”, is a selection of black & white photographs taken from a large body of work created over the past two

years. The work reflects a particular visual concern for structures within the urban landscape of Cape Town and surrounds.

For this work, I have chosen to photograph with careful deliberation, spending time sensing the atmosphere that the

structural elements generate, before considering the framing. The visual concern in the images show screens, walls, billboards,

backdrops, poles and playing fields. The subject matter is generally photographed ‘straight on’, and symmetrically composed.

What is of interest to me is the unifying and cohesive pattern of structural elements that emerges as a thread through many

of the images. This pattern establishes a certain dream like surreal quality, suggesting notions of calmness and safety. The

formality of the composition unifies the disparate objects in each photograph.

“to see something spectacular and recognise it as a photographic possibility is not making a very big leap. but to see something ordinary,

something you’d see every day, and recognise it as a photographic possibility - that is what i am interested in”.

- stephen shore (1947- )


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MIcHaeLa TaLIa liMbEristhe spaCe between

The work is about the space between our perceived reality and the illusive space of dreaming: the complete shift in

understanding oneself within a dream and upon waking. The abstract images are taken digitally using varied shutter speeds

and out of focus images in order to create a dreamspace using the direct/tangible physical world as reference. The images

are distorted only within the limits of the camera: the camera acts as an agent of perception. Although disparate, the images

are combined and presented in a connected strip creating a cinematic feel, in the same way that unrelated segments combine

within a single dream. The chosen subjects include shadow, distorted technological communications, water, pathways, nature,

etc.

Scientific sleep studies reveal mere abstract representations of brain activity during this wonderful (sometimes threatening)

space we inhabit during sleep. The same wave represents the endless images that occur... failing to capture the essence of

dreaming. Combined with the photographs, REM brain waves (taken from my personal sleep study) are overlayed at intervals

between images, sometimes bold and sometimes lost within the image. The strip opens and closes with images of myself

under observation (connected to electrodes and monitors).

My work explores ideas of the intangible and inexplicable; the boundaries of both perception and science as a means of access

to the unseen; limits that restrict the understanding of ones self.

In dreams I feel that I know. I feel in control, even when I’m not; there is always a means of escape.. and the choice to forget.



MIKe rossishadows over stones

View a seven-year journey, chasing cumulus nimbus clouds over koppies that were disappearing across the South African

landscape, through industry changing nature.

NEDBANK CLOCKTOWERV&A Waterfront, Foreshore

28 September - end October 2012

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MILIa LOrraIne khourYCirCumnaviGatinG the Great divide & waterY Gravespart of ‘the seainG eye’

Much of this body of work was driven by a process of trying to re-negotiate spaces and places within my immediate surrounds.

Particularly the re-negotiation of familiar sites on the South African landscape, like Table Mountain and Robben Island in Cape

Town. These activities have been centred on a project under the title of Circumnavigating the Great Divide. This project’s

main purpose being to present a dialogue between the mainland Cape Town and Robben Island. It is meant as a means to

reconcile the history of the island (from leper to penal colony) with the peninsula. Additionally, it aims to reconcile the psycho-

geographical memory of the island as a prison for political prisoners during the Apartheid years.

Circumnavigating the Great Divide (2006 - 2007), is loosely based on the concept of the lighthouse as a signalling device to

communicate a message. As each strobe of light of the lighthouse beam acts as parcels of information to be disseminated, the

staccato flickering nature of the light behave like visual Morse code sending out messages or signals. Circumnavigating the

Great Divide consists of a cinematic circular/panoramic projection of an animated panoramic image of Table Mountain and the

city as seen from East Pier at the Victoria & Albert Waterfront moving 360º to Robben Island.

Watery Graves, 2005 explores the notion of death by drowning. It consists of close-up seascape images taken again within the

space from the peninsula to Robben Island, with the idea that as the graves of those who perished by drowning are unmarked,

the sea surface acts as the tombstone.

IZIKO PLANETARIUM25 Queen Victoria St, Cape Town29 October - mid November 2012

naOMI hArrisoh Canada

sponsored bY

There has been a long history of photographers undertaking road trips: Walker Evans (Let Us Now Praise Famous Men), Robert

Frank (The Americans), joel Sternfeld (American Prospects), Alec Soth (Sleeping by the Mississippi) and Simon Roberts (We

English). With the exception of Frank, a Swiss, these photographers were all photographing familiar ground: their own country.

I, like Robert Frank, am looking at the landscape and her people through the eyes of a stranger, everything being fresh and

new thus avoiding clichés and the predictable.

I am also a woman. The documentary road trip has traditionally been a male dominated genre. Whether it’s because of the

lonely solitary nature of being on the open road, the danger associated with road trips or that women typically are caregivers

with family obligations, this form of photography has long been a practice undertaken by men.

In addition to bringing my own unique vision, I have experienced my own personal voyage and growing as an artist as well.

Before I took on this project I felt like a stranger living in the US yet estranged from Canada. I felt I’d lost touch with my

heritage. I felt it was time to come home… and I feel that I did..



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sue kraMer

lindsay Grier nina alexia brazzo

yvette stephen

caITLIn lE roiTh / gerda louwLIndSay GriEr / MIcHaeLa VEriTYnIna aLexIa brAzzo / SeTHeMbILe MsEzANE SHarMLa NAidoo / SUe krAMEryveTTe sTEphENmaniFestations oF selF: selF portraits bY 9 womencurated by jenny altschuler


4 October 2012

sharMla naidooGerda louw Michaela verity

Defining the parameters of who and what we are, to ourselves and yet again to others, or in view of others, is a delicate

process that requires the setting up and dissolution of boundaries of the relationship between the self and the world. This is

an exhibition resulting from a 5 month Self Portrait masterclass where the participants explored a number of processes and

practical scenarios related to the search for portrayal the ‘self’. Using the camera as the tool for discovering ways to search

for, see, uncover, relate to and connect with an understanding of self, and yet construct ways to express and share the results

of the investigation, is what this workshop involved. Through facilitation of the processes engaged with, as well as group

discussion and critique of the weekly images submitted, representations of self were negotiated, as well as the different

possible scenarios for presentation of private projects in public exhibition arenas. - jenny altschuler

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nIna aLexIa brAzzo


4 October 2012

neL dE FrANÇAlost moments

The installation ‘Lost Moments’ was in search my personal mythology using photographs & mixed media. I have little to no

memory of my childhood & the events, due to traumatic personal circumstances. These events shaped the manner in which I

view past family events, letters & photographs. The installation is divided into sections that evoke nostalgia, personal history &

the death of a metaphoric family.

‘Forgotten Family’; are night-lights that house old family photographs which distort & focus at the same time. This motion

illustrates the method in which I remember my memories. The light is influenced by Catholicism which represent the spirit of

the individuals who have past.

‘Hollow Hallucinations’ is a slideshow that was created to have a home movie atmosphere by using a video projector. The show

is old photographs that were overlaid then re-photographed. This overlaying technique produced the best results in evoking

nostalgia. The 1983 audio tape is relevant because it is the only evidence of a dynamic family & it unifies the installation.

‘Sacred Souls’ are five wooden boxes that hold memorabilia of each family member. The trinkets in the boxes are memory

triggers. They are positioned in a shrine-like structure so that the dead will be remembered & respected. The light here

represents the spiritual link between life & death. But at the same it represents the idea of ‘new hope’.

What’s clear here is that the past may not be as important as the future therefore, ‘Lost Moments’ is a universal past that we

can all relate to.

CASTLE OF GOOD HOPE OLD RECRUITMENT CENTRECnr Darling & Buitenkant Street, Cape Town


winner of the biennial award for the best new body of work on Mop5.

gerda louw gerda louw · 2016. 6. 23. · mop5 pg66 mop5 pg67 gerda louw private world in this body...

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