Mikhael Subotzky exhibits in Pollsmoor
By Kim Gurney
The rhetoric of Freedom Day took on a deeper resonance for visitors to Mikhael Subotzky's one-day photographic exhibition at Pollsmoor Prison, 'Die Vier Hoeke', on April 27. The venue could easily have overwhelmed less striking work. In this case, the decision was inspired.
The exhibition became more than just a visual experience. Every sense was primed to the broader context in which the photographs of prisoners were made. The echo of specific elements within both the photographs and the exhibition space played between reality and representation. This repetition reinforced a ritualistic aspect to the work, while underscoring the strangely surreal notion of viewing art in a prison.
Getting to the exhibition was an experience in itself. The rigmarole of institutional bureaucracy fed into the meaning. Tenacity and perseverance are obviously character traits Subotzky possesses. Viewers were taken to a waiting area, had their cellphones confiscated, forearms stamped with 'Pollsmoor Management Area', and were eventually locked behind heavy gates in relays for registration.
Long, dimly lit corridors led to the old cell where Nelson Mandela was once held during which time he began negotiations for South Africa's transition to democracy. Subotzky's photographs lined the walls. Voter X showed a prisoner casting his ballot in last year's elections. It was an important day for the prisoner and an important trigger for Subotzky's own work.
It was at the Dwarsrivier Prison near Wolseley that Subotzky's interest in prisons was first aroused - the weekend before the 2004 elections. That led to his Pollsmoor project in August and September last year, which became his final-year submission in 2004 for his Fine Art degree at UCT's Michaelis School. This show is an extension of that body of work.
Pressing issues within correctional services have put prisons in the media spotlight recently. Problems like overcrowding turn from cold statistics to gritty reality in Subotzky's photographs. One image depicts 54 prisoners about to sleep in a prison cell built for 25. We come face to face with the underbelly of society, and in that moment must confront our own failure to find a better solution.
This particular photograph is an example of Subotzky's striking 360-degree panoramas, which are taken with a special tripod head. The camera rotates around a particular point and the composite image is made up of 18 photographs 'stitched' together using computer software.
The panoramas are technically proficient but also conceptually astute. The photographer surveys the entire scene but the resulting image shows all eyes of the prisoners watching him instead. The viewer in turn is forced into the role of the photographer and becomes the uncomfortable subject of this unrelenting mass gaze.
Subotzky was at Pollsmoor when a fire broke out and three inmates died. One photograph shows the charred aftermath of their burnt cell; another, the haunting Eastern Cape cemetery with the grave site of one of the dead men, Loyanda Motomi.
Down the passage, photographs taken by inmates during workshops facilitated by Subotzky were evocatively displayed in single prison cells - complete with toilet and basin. Black-and-white portraits hung alongside body maps, facilitated by Jane Solomon. The outline of the bodies of prisoners were traced on to brown card, with facial features, drawings and observations superimposed by the prisoners themselves
These workshop images formed an interesting extension to Subotzky's show. They gave a voice to the mute subjects of his photographs and extended that voice to women.
Subotzky says his next aim is to document how prisoners integrate back into families and communities: �It is very important that conditions in prison are seen in context with conditions in the community - poverty, unemployment and the way society is set up with its power structures ... and hangovers from apartheid ... A very interesting interface happens when a person goes home - there is often a real fear after spending a 15 or 20 year sentence."
International viewers will get an opportunity to see Subotzky's work on the Goodman Gallery stand on Art Basel, in June, and he will exhibit at the gallery later this year. A fine example of his work is on offer as this month's Editions for ArtThrob choice.
View a Quicktime panoramic view of the exhibition space (opens in a new window).
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Opened and closed: April 27
Pollsmoor Prison Admissions Centre, Steenberg Road, Tokai
