Goodman Galllery
27.01 - 06.03.2024

A dual exhibition, with selected works from David Goldblatt and Kiluanji Kia Henda, Goodman Gallery’s ‘Frameworks’ interrogates land and settlement in Southern Africa. The exhibition engages the viewer in a dialogue between the work of Goldblatt and Kia Henda in the context of historical land dispossession and land insecurity — Kia Henda’s approach is speculative, and Goldblatt’s decidedly documentarian. 

Goldblatt’s photographs depict the fragility of human settlement, as well as the violence of the colonial project. In Mother and child in their home after the destruction of its shelter by officials (1984), the devastation caused by the Group Areas Act of 1950 is made clear. A woman and her child recline on a mattress in the ruins of their home, their possessions at the mercy of the elements, unprotected by the shelter that once existed there. The photograph documents the precarity of Black life during Apartheid and serves as a chilling premonition. Thirty years after independence, the legacy of Apartheid lives on in cities like Johannesburg, where Goldblatt grew up. 

In Thirteen kilometres of this coastline were a White Group Area (1986), the viewer is presented with a seemingly insignificant view of a Cape coast. But in this case, the title indicates Goldblatt’s intention. The photograph is shot from a viewpoint above someone’s garden. The coastline curves away into the distance, the sea dreamy under muted light, Table Mountain looming on the horizon. Implicit in the composition is the vastness of White-reserved land. Long flat lines show the breadth and depth of the shoreline, and the viewer is brought into the world of the privileged White population through the colonial motif of the private garden. This provides a stark contrast to the photographs depicting the forced removal of Black communities from their homes happening around the same time. The two realities are worlds apart. 

In Sheep farm, near Edenburg (1982), the flat grassland of the Free State stretches towards the horizon, the sky crowded with white clouds. The land seems to go on forever until the shadows of soft hills disappear into the sky. The image implies a similar meditation on White-owned land as Thirteen kilometres of this coastline were a White Group Area. The landscape is expansive, indicating once again the reach of White domination over land.

In Kia Henda’s work, the viewer is presented with similar scenes of desolation. However, all of his landscapes are peopleless, imbuing them with a sense of loss and emptiness. In Structures of Survival (2022), the half-formed foundations of shacks stand stark against the red sand of the Namib desert. The photographs are arranged in such a way that they seem to be a progression. The ghostly relics of broken-down domiciles are left empty and gutted, the lines of wooden frames making angular shapes against an endless sky. They represent both the ‘permanence and impermanence of human settlement¹Goodman Gallery . (2024). David Goldblatt & Kiluanji Kia Henda: Frameworks . Johannesburg. ’. The title of the work indicates the nature of land and settlement in Angola, where the main population was largely excluded from the construction boom which followed the civil war (1975 – 2002). 

Kia Henda’s film Concrete Affection – Zopo Lady (2014) is a dystopian take on modern-day Luanda. The African city is reimagined in a different reality. Drawing inspiration from writer Ryszard Kapuscinski, the film features a fictitious Luanda, devoid of its human inhabitants. The speaker seems to be caught in a fever dream, wandering alone through empty streets, reflecting on the nature of the city’s ever-changing landscape. The city is left exposed, ‘pure.’ The buildings become something else, still and silent against the backdrop of the urban sprawl, artworks in and of themselves. 

The film highlights the architectural style of Luanda – rows of windows, balconies, and terraces producing repeated imagery. Concrete Affection reflects the quirks of Luanda’s urbanity. Sometimes one building fills the whole frame, suffocating the viewer and depriving them of sky, and at other times the frame opens up and the viewer is graced with wide lanes, portions of sky peeking through. This emphasises the closeness of the city, with apartment blocks stacked almost on top of one another, the endless rows of windows creating dizzying patterns. The only respite is scenes with trees and streets. The continued absence of people gives the city a ghostly quality, coherent with Kia Henda’s earlier photographs. 

Walking through the exhibition, I cannot help but think of the parallels between Johannesburg and Luanda. The cities mirror one another, both marked by the legacy of the colonial project. Their historical contexts are slightly different, presenting the viewer with an interesting interplay of Southern African histories. 

While loss and devastation are themes found in both Goldblatt and Kia Henda’s work, there are also distinct differences between their styles. Kia Henda’s photographs feature empty domiciles, emphasising the humanitarian crisis which arose after the civil war. His film references the desertion of Angola by the Portuguese and White populations in 1975. In Structures of Survival (Kilometer 19, Namibe) III (2022), it seems as though there has been human intervention in the composition. A half-finished home is pictured with bricks arranged artistically where a window should have been. Kia Henda’s work is speculative, dynamic and compositionally interesting. By contrast, Goldblatt used photography to document the destruction and fragility of life under Apartheid. The dwellings were not abandoned; they were destroyed, the land stolen from underneath them. Goldblatt’s black-and-white photographs are more like records, showing specific moments in history. He used his lens as a medium through which to bear witness. The use of greyscale in many of his photographs is significant to me. The limited tonal palette makes the images more striking while adding to their sombre mood. They seem timeless and enduring. 

Frameworks presents the colonial relationship to space through the lens of land dispossession. In both Goldblatt and Kia Henda’s work, there are themes of loss and devastation, interpreted differently by each artist. The dialogue between the two bodies of work makes the exhibition feel synergistic to a certain degree, while still facilitating quiet reflection in the viewer. However, the irony of pristine gallery walls holding evidence of the colonial relationship to space was ever present for me. 

 

Notes

1. Britannica. (2024, January 29). Independence and Civil War . Retrieved from Britannica : https://www.britannica.com/place/Angola/Independence-and-civil-war
2. Goldblatt, D. (1998). The Structure of Things Then . Cape Town: Oxford University Press.
3. Goodman Gallery . (2024). David Goldblatt & Kiluanji Kia Henda: Frameworks . Johannesburg.