“We invite them to tell their story, to share the photos with the audience.“ Harris is present to direct the event, but the floor is for the people. They talk, they respond. “They want to listen with their heart. They want their hearts to be open. There is no fear.”
“I begin to understand that perhaps it is not so much that she is against interpretations that deem her drawings sinister or dark, but rather that she hopes a few intuitive spectators will understand that they project their own emotions on to what they see. More than that, she wants me to acknowledge that the agony and the ecstasy can be felt simultaneously and equally, and that life often exists in the grey.”
Insulated in the bubble, Kannemeyer does not see the causal connection between ruling party’s political compromise and his own sanctuary. That his paint runs dry on this matter isn’t an accidental omission, but a typical white attitude.
“It’s possible that a novelist begins a novel in an attempt to open up a photograph, or several photographs. I will like to write such a novel. It’s this sort of future I wish to imagine for photographs—a world in which they are bound up with novels.”
I was struck by the historical and geographical rootedness of particular artists even as they (or their work) may travel across borders. In a world where borders are rigidly controlled, which of the artists have enjoyed relatively free movement, and which have not? Exhibitions that are so deliberately curated would benefit from giving more attention to their texts. There is potential for critical and creative dialogues between curators, artists, writers and art historians.