Opening Remarks
at the Tension Torsion: 20 Years On group art exhibition of new works
by
Farieda Nazier, Gordon Froud, Avitha Sooful and Oupa V. Mokwena -
curated by
Farieda Nazier,
Ithuba Art Gallery,
100 Juta Street,
Braamfontein,
Johannesburg,
South Africa.
Prof. Garth Stevens (Assistant Dean: Humanities Research)
Department of Psychology, School of Human & Community Development, University of the Witwatersrand
Thank you
Farieda, Gordon, Avitha and Oupa, for inviting me to make a few remarks at the
opening of your exhibition this evening.
I am here
this evening not as an artist, but as a social scientist whose work intersects
with much of what you see here tonight, and that work is located in an
initiative called the Apartheid Archive Project – a project that explores the
enduring effects of our racialised past on contemporary South Africa, but
through the lens of the everyday, the ordinary and the quotidian.
When I
saw the exhibition title, I immediately thought that this was such an apt
description of the complex and often contradictory effects of our past and the
ways in which we are trying to live with
and through this legacy in the
current period. This period is of course one that is marked by racialised
flashpoints in higher education, in communities in which the threat of
xenophobic or Afrophobic violence looms large, and in the everyday mutations of
racialised social interactions; by service delivery protests; by rolling
strikes in the mining sector across the Platinum Belt; by growing inequality
between the wealthiest and poorest sectors of South Africa; by violence that
has become endemic; by recalcitrant forms of gender discrimination; and by
reduced confidence in the structures of governance in South Africa. But to mention
only this would be Afro-pessimistic at least, and so we have to recognise the increased
access to basic services since 1994, genuine attempts at community integration,
changing subjectivities, and the emergence of a new layer of youth who are
relatively untainted by the explicit and overt institutional manifestations of
racism and racialisation.
This is
therefore a timely exhibition that contributes to us reflecting on the gains
and challenges facing South African society some 20 years after our transition
to an enfranchised, democratic dispensation, but it is also a time of reckoning
for the political leadership and for ordinary South Africans, the latter who
have perhaps too easily relinquished and ceded the rights of citizens in the
face of this new found freedom.
And so
the question that arises is: How do we
live with and through this legacy, or stated differently, how do we ‘do’ or
perform freedom today? The answer of course is simple: in complicated ways! There
are no doubt tensions and distortions associated with this past in South Africa
today, but there are also genuine attempts at rapprochement and refiguring
South African society, as illustrations of this complicatedness.
Over the
last 20 years, the discourse of reconciliation has perhaps become such a lofty
ideal that it has in many ways become a free-floating signifier that now encapsulates
so many meanings, interests and agendas, that it is hard to discern what we
actually mean by it, let alone how to attain it. Perhaps the idea of
entanglement as spoken about by writers such as Mbembe, Nuttall and Straker is
one way to think about this complicated present. Entanglement refers to the
complex ways in which our histories, our past and present, our subjectivities,
and indeed our lives, are so intertwined that that disentanglement leading to a
‘clean slate’ amongst South Africans is perhaps not possible, nor necessarily
desirable. As an entry point into the complicated nature of our present, maybe
an acknowledgement of these complex relationships, leading to an understanding
and mutual recognition, is perhaps a less lofty ideal to pursue, as it compels
us to not only live with this complexity, but also to recognise that this
complexity is not necessarily only a problem but also has a range of future
possibilities. It can indeed open up moments of dialogue, intercommunal spaces
of participation, alternative subjectivities, and also the possibilities of a
critically engaged citizenry, who if necessary, may act in insurgent ways to
hold those in power accountable.
Tension Torsion: 20 Years On offers
one such space for promoting and provoking dialogue. As a social scientist, and
not an artist, let me briefly add that in my humble view, art offers us a
different medium through which to articulate, contest and express experiences
in the world. It cuts across the intellectual, cultural, academic and public
realms in ways that can often not be accomplished through the traditional,
formal registers and formats associated with the academy today. The arts open
up spaces for a performative social science that can promote a truly
public-intellectual engagement, making it as important, if not more important
to the project of cultural revitalisation and renewal that is central to the
social transformation project.
So as you
enjoy each other’s company, but most importantly the installations that are
part of this exhibition tonight, I hope that you will be provoked into dialogue
about the continued impact of our past on our present, the complexities and
challenges of this present, but also the possibilities of a future that is yet
to be imagined and is yet to unfold.
Thank you
and congratulations to all of you.
Garth
Stevens, 20/03/2014
Please follow the links to view latest publications
Edited by Garth Stevens, Norman Duncan and Derek Hook
http://www.palgraveconnect.com/pc/doifinder/10.1057/9781137263902
