Bubblegum Club

Tag: Displacement

  • Dahlia Maubane: Woza sisi, woza nice!

    Dahlia Maubane: Woza sisi, woza nice!

    Woza Sisi is an exhibition that explores the ways in which women hairstylists working in Joburg CBD and Maputo manoeuvring through their days, as well as their strategic use of urban spaces. I caught up with photographer Dahlia Maubane to find out more about the project.

     

    What exactly inspired the ‘Woza Sisi’ project?

    I lived in Johannesburg CBD, and was fascinated by the influx of women doing hair. I was captivated by their idea of the mobile studio, comprising of a stool and a display board. I wanted to explore how they negotiate and navigate the space, those intersections and pavements in a busy town. There are so many street hairstylists everywhere, some in cliques of the same ethnicity. At first, it seemed interesting to investigate whether the hairstyles would differ in technique according to the hairstylist’s background or not as time progressed, I got interested in sharing their experiences as working mothers, breadwinners and wives. Also, one cannot miss their persuasive calling – Woza sisi, woza nice.

     The project ‘Woza Sisi’ has been an ongoing body of work since 2012, what has the process been like from then till now?

    Woza Sisi is an on-going body of work that explores women working as street hairstylists. I have been exploring how these women shape and navigate urban spaces, how they exist in these environments. I have produced four chapters of the project, looking at different spaces across Johannesburg, Mahikeng and Maputo.

    Throughout the years I have noticed how things have shifted, buildings have been developed, technology playing a role by making the process of attaining customers more convenient and also it has become more difficult to engage with the women because they want to be remunerated.

    I went back and photographed Johannesburg CBD and explored a bit of Maputo, the first time going across-boarder. This was the fourth segment of Woza Sisi, through the support of the Market Photo Workshop Alumnus Award.

    Through the critique sessions, I was told by my mentors to loosen up and experiment more. I have been photographing environmental portraits of the women street hairstylists, being conscious of who my subject is, and briefly understand her relationship with her surroundings. This time around I used a 4-way action sampler, a camera that develops a series of 4 images in one moment using 34mm film. The camera is compact, and enabled me to be invisible and steal moments in the vibrant cityscape. This is the only chapter where I didn’t interact with the women.

    Lastly, I have showcased the work in open-air exhibitions in proximity to where the women operate. It felt good introducing photography as visual language to the general public, seeing people read images and also become critical to what they are looking at. During these activations I would hand over customized business cards and t-shirts to the women that have participated, as a token of gratitude. This depends on funding. I want to empower them, and help them realise that branding is also important when building a business. I have also produced two editions of Woza Sisi zines.

    Most of the work was photographed in central town, Johannesburg. How do you approach your subjects?

    It’s always a thrilling experience going out to go photograph. I have to mentally condition myself before, visualize the type of images I would like to capture. I am also quite shy, so approaching a potential subject is not the easiest.

    At first, I would identify which women I would like to photograph, mostly determined by their character, or their surroundings – which visual elements stand out in that instance. It was much easier when I introduced myself as a photography student wanting to document women street hairstylists, because they wouldn’t want any payment. Nevertheless, I have now collected years of visual reference, so I can show them the type of work I have done previously. Its also a challenge explaining myself, the language barrier played a role. The trick is to have one woman agree and buy into the idea, the rest will definitely follow, plus I printed out their images and gave them without a fee.

    As a photographer, do you find it difficult to detach yourself from a project upon completion?

    It’s not the easiest thing to detach myself from a project, unless it’s commissioned work. All of my personal projects are ongoing. Although, I have not worked on them for years, I know I can go back and continue where I left off.

    Through most of your work, what would your main intention be?

    The main themes I explore are around the displaced, bringing visibility and interrogating stereotypes experienced by women. So, from women soccer players, who experience gender inequality, not given the same opportunities compared to men, foreign traders in small townships, who had to settle in our country because of political disputes or seeking greener pastures, to migrant street hairstylists negotiating spaces in the city of Johannesburg.

    What influences your work as a whole?

    As a woman in photography, I am interested in story-making and exploring issues around women, trying to be an advocate for their daily encounters. Be it, migrant women trading in busy Joburg CBD, interrogating concepts around strangeness and foreignness, how people come to function themselves in new or different spaces.

     What challenges have you faced throughout your career as a practicing photographer?

    The photography field is quite small, and we have witnessed how digital SLR cameras have become more accessible, and photography training is no longer a requirement when looking at commissioned work.

    Working as a commercial photographer, in my opinion, now depends on how much influence you have on social media. Some clients now feel they can negotiate lesser payments because “there is someone who will do the job less than the industry rates”.

    Also, I am yet to see photography appreciated as an art form, and have art buyers bring audiences to invest in the prints. It’s a challenge to work as an exhibiting photographer, producing work through the guidance of an art gallery in South Africa in my opinion.

     

  • Artist Wanja Kimani’s interrogations of private and public power

    Artist Wanja Kimani’s interrogations of private and public power

    Kenyan-born artist Wanja Kimani has a visual practice that strings together stories and visual histories which comment on the idea of home, displacement, trauma, memories and imaginations.

    While imposing elements of her own life in public spaces, she occupies the positions of both narrator and character. This is evident in the various media she uses to construct her work, including installation, performances, text, film, textiles and sound.

    One of her recent works Expectations, a collaboration with Annabel McCourt, is a performance that was presented at Dak’Art 2018 – Biennale of Contemporary African Art. It was performed in response to Annabel McCourt’s Electric Fence. The work dives into the complexities surrounding borders, immigration, race, as well as private and public power, and how these forms of power are constructed. These larger themes are interwoven with explorations of mortality as well as personal and physical boundaries.

    In the video of the performance online, the first few seconds create the impression of eyes opening after a long sleep, with shots of lights hanging from the ceiling and wire fencing coming in and out of focus. The voice of the narrator recalls memories from a childhood, presumably the childhood of the character (played by Kimani) that appears on screen. As the narrator goes on to explain how walls will come separate the children mentioned in the recollection of memories, the viewer sees Kimani maneuvering between wire fences and throwing rocks and bricks on top of each other, as if intending to build a wall or to examine what remains of the structure these bricks once constituted.

    The poetic narration speaks of silencing, leaving home, crossing borders, and the traumas that accompany this. The interaction between the words and what the viewer sees create a heaviness, the relevance of which becomes apparent as the story of Charles Wootton is told. The narrator shares how Wootton has died as a result of a racially motivated crime in Liverpool in 1919. He was thrown into the water at Kings Dock, and as he swam, trying to lift himself out of the water, he was pelted by bricks until he sank. Kimani writes his name on a blackboard during the performance. She then goes on to write down the names of many other victims of hate crimes. In this way the victims are mourned and celebrated at the same time.

  • Robyn Kater: the intersection between history, identity and the city as a living organism

    Robyn Kater is a bold, passionate and multifaceted artist who is deeply inspired by the city of Johannesburg and all those who live within it. She views her home city, Johannesburg as the compelling and rich space that has greatly influenced her personal identity as well as artwork. The 23-year-old freelance artist, who recently graduated from WITS University with her Fine Art degree, relates her journey as that of self-discovery, learning and unlearning as well as one of trial and error.

    The use of Johannesburg as Robyn’s leading inspiration has motivated her to produce a powerful body of work titled, ‘Toxic Playground’. Robyn describes ‘Toxic Playground’ as a mixed media installation that comprises of photography, video and found objects through which she examines how the Johannesburg mine dumps become palimpsests of personal memory and toxicity. The ‘Toxic Playground’ installation consists of 100kg of sand which was collected over three months from the Riverlea mine dump – this is of significant sentiment to Robyn as she grew up in the community situated right next to the dump.

    ‘Toxic Playground’ is emblematic of the socio-economic and environmental issues currently facing the residents of the area, and essentially speaks to the community’s concerns. This is because the city’s mine dumps have been normalized to be included in the community’s everyday landscape, yet they are severely toxic. They symbolize the exploitative deep-rooted nature of the city. Robyn’s body of artwork raises important questions that require effective answers such as: “what should be done with remnants of the city’s division post-conflict, post-apartheid state? What influence do memory and remembrance of these places have on transformation of the city’s spatial morphology (formation), identity and flows of everyday urban life?”.

    In all aspects of this work Robyn does the job of detecting the intersection between history, heritage, identity, displacement and space. Robyn eloquently expresses how she is “interested in the city as a living organism and how the tangible and intangible fragments meet and overlap to form a lived experience”. An in-depth interpretation of Robyn’s artwork demonstrates that she thinks of Johannesburg in various ways. She sees the city as a complex living organism in which certain spaces act as remnants of personal memory and of an overlapping history. In addition to this, her unique artwork illustrates a vivid relationship that the city of Johannesburg presents between space and identity.

    Robyn is open to collaborate with people outside of the art industry such as historians, architects and urban planners. She would also like to have to the opportunity to exhibit her work at more experimental spaces. Having showcased at Wits Art Museum, The Point of Order as well as Nothing Gets Organised and with the hopes of showcasing at Zeitz MOCAA someday, Robyn is truly one fearless trailblazer who is more than ready to get her message across.

  • Unpacking feelings of displacement

    I interviewed photographers Nobukho Nqaba, Thandiwe Msebenzi and Sitaara Stodel about their upcoming exhibition, Displacement.

    Having met while studying at Michaelis School of Fine Art at UCT and being exposed to each other’s individual creative practices, being awarded the Tierney fellowship solidified their desire to thread together the similarities in their work.

    They each create work based on their own experiences, with their art practices providing an avenue for reflection, questioning and unraveling. Sitaara’s current work revolves around the themes of home, identity, memory and exploring the subconscious. Nobukho prefers not to box her work into fixed themes, but has created work that focuses on migrant life, movement and otherness, and has recently made a body of work about mourning, letting go and “finding my own self”. Thandiwe’s recent work addresses rape culture and the silencing of womxn in places of comfort.

    The title of their exhibition refers to displacement both figuratively and literally, and the impact that comes from feeling out of place. “We talk about issues of being lost and this loss comes from being in spaces that are not permanently ours. These are often spaces that are supposed to provide comfort and those spaces include the home,” Nobukho explained. Their work addresses how in these places of comfort issues of power arise and manifested through enactments of particular understandings of masculinity in relation to the female presence. “We felt that we need to have this collective voice and bring about this educational exhibition to bring issues around movement, otherness and displacement to the fore,” Nobukho explained.

    A House is Not a Home, 1 – Sitaara Stodel

    In Sitaara’s series of works titled Suburban Dream she uses photography as a “tool for suspension of belief”. In her work A House Not A Home, 1 Sitaara uses collage and photography to create the illusion of looking at a landscape of houses. However upon closer inspection the viewer notices that it is in fact a small set with cut outs of images of different houses, lit up to look like middle class suburbia at night. This brings into question the understanding of photography as a form of documentation that reveals ‘the truth’. Sitaara also explains that this work is part of her exploration of her memories of constantly having to move with her mother and sisters as a result of being evicted from middle class houses they could not afford. “This photographic series is almost like looking at all of the homes I lived in and the cross-over of memories that I have with these houses,” she explains. The theme ‘eviction’ is used in her work as an “echo” to her own experiences of growing up but also speaks to South Africa’s history of evictions, which has a large influence on her feelings around the importance of unpacking feelings of displacement. “All of us being woman of colour, I feel that we have an understanding of how people treat us differently, struggling to feel like we have a ‘place’ – a place in South Africa, a place in the art world, a place to exist safely etc.”.

    Ndiyayekelela Undibizela kuwe IV – Nobukho Nqaba

    Nobukho uses photography to document her performativity. “I perform and document what I do and the final work becomes the photograph of the actual performance,” she explains further. In her current body of work displacement happens as the result of a state of mind because of longing for her father who has passed on. “At the same time I am fighting certain emotions that hold me back and I use material that is reminiscent of a migrant and a miner which speaks a lot about the history of [migrant life] in South Africa. I use my own female body to fight a male presence that is haunting me both in a good way and in a bad way”. The materials that she uses contain the narrative of being displaced from a place of familiarity for her father who worked on the mines. Nobukho wraps herself with these materials, “often burdening myself with an absence that is continuously present in my mind and also trying to let go but finding it difficult because I am my father’s child.”.

    “indawo yam”- my place – Thandiwe Msebenzi

    Thandiwe has two works on show that dissect displacement. A photograph of her standing on a ladder carrying a man’s blazer in her hand titled “kwawze kubenini”- for how long reflects on the question “how long will I have to climb ladders as a woman to be seen?”. This works unpacks the sense of displacement womxn feel when trying to exist in anti-feminine spaces. In the work “indawo yam”- my place Thandiwe is photographed sitting on a small hill covering herself with a lace curtain, creating her own place of safety.

    Thandiwe expressed the importance of this exhibition outside of the themes that they unpack. She highlighted the difficulty in finding womxn photographers of colour as references or sources of inspiration in the library besides the work of Zanele Muholi. “It becomes important to have this exhibition because we are all individual photographers working in a variety of creative and exciting ways,” she expressed. Thandiwe added that they thinking about working on an idea after the exhibition in the spirit of opening up a space for womxn photographers of colour, and creating an archive. So watch this space!

    Displacement will open on the 4th of May at 99 Loop Gallery in Cape Town.

    Dreamscape – Sitaara Stodel

     

    “kwawze kubenini”- for how long – Thandiwe Msebenzi