Speaking Through Small Silences

About

This exhibition is in part a response to a residency at Spaza Art Gallery and TwilSharp Studios, Johannesburg in 2020 which was cut short
by the COVID-19 pandemic. The galleries situated in the historical neighbourhoods of Troyeville and Jeppestown are at the epicentre
of a hugely diverse and evolving pan-African community. These are, however, highly contested districts. Where old colonial-era buildings house diverse stores and restaurants there are movements of hostility against those who are seen as outsiders.
It is against this background that I began to investigate the convergence of these histories as well as conduct a personal investigation of
my connection to the city. Johannesburg is a city whose identity is
in motion. I identify with this flux not only because I come from Johannesburg but also was dislocated from my life there at an early age. Like me, there has never been one Johannesburg, and never will be, but a multitude of different names, dialects and dialogues. Like me, it’s a place that is at once linked to an idea of the past but through a stream of internal and external pressures is at a process of reinvention.