An exhibition titled Proclamation 73, opens tomorrow (December 10, 2018, at 18h00) in
the Durban Art Gallery with Afrapix photographers Jeeva Ragjopaul and Rafs
Mayet as well as UZKN senior lecturer in education and gender, Dr Bronwyn
Anderson, in conversation
There will be public walkabout of the
exhibition with the curators Zara Julius and Chandra Frank on December 11 at 10h00:
Proclamation
73, a new exhibition, comes forth out of a project
initiated by Julius and Frank that explores the family archives of people
racialised as coloured and Indian in Durban under the 1950 Group Areas Act.
Inspired by their own family histories,
Julius and Frank set out to collect family photos of everyday lived
experiences. Proclamation 73 portrays
narratives on the meaning of loss, kinship and home through drawing on the
family album. The presented collection includes photos of weddings, beach days,
ballroom dance contests, street portraits, and other snapshots.
The exhibition investigates and challenges
how different racial histories and segregation continue to operate within the
city of Durban and its surroundings. Through weaving representations of “the
everyday” together with photos of the aftermath of forced removals, Proclamation 73 seeks to disrupt static
racial categories, especially taking into account how categories such as
‘coloured’ and ‘Indian’ were used as tools of anti-blackness.
The exhibition takes its title from the
Proclamation 73, issued in 1951, in which Indians were further categorised as a
subdivision of people racialised as coloured. This further complicates the
arbitrary nature of racial classification under the apartheid regime.
Proclamation
73 covers a large time period, and takes a
non-linear approach to the fragmented narratives and histories that emerge out
of this project - working with archives that are rarely viewed alongside each
other. Through portraying a wide variety of images, archival materials, and
selected work from the collection of Afrapix documentary photographers Peter
McKenzie and Rafs Mayet, this exhibition invites viewers to think through
questions of representation, erasure, and intimacy.
All included images are donated by Durban
community members or are part of existing archival collections. Proclamation 73
has set up collaborative partnerships with the Old Court House Museum and Art
for Humanity DUT in order to realise this exhibition. Proclamation 73 is a not-for-profit
project in partnership with the Goethe-Institut South Africa as part of the
Goethe-Institut Project Space (GPS).
The exhibition runs until February 15, 2019.
For more information contact zara.julius@gmail.com or chandrafrank@gmail.com
The Durban Art Gallery is situated on the 2nd
floor of the Durban City Hall. The entrance is in Anton Lembede (formerly Smith)
Street, opposite The Playhouse.
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