Thandiwe Msebenzi’s photographs are enigmatic. A sense of lack is evident: images that are without being or filling, coats that are empty, are haunting; chairs without seated bodies and a sense of vacuousness.
Yet, in times such as ours where there is an over-abundance or deluge of imagery with but a click or “touch” or swipe, these photographs instead display or employ new ways of exploring images through the photographic medium, and therefore an awareness of the medium as more than simply a record of mere superficiality. At times, an arm or hand appears in these images and creates a certain energy or dynamic dance - gesticulating humaneness, if you will - that comes to the fore. So, there is some tangibility, not simply a forlorn emptiness.
The backgrounds add to the effect as they are bland, blank and muted. Clothes take a life of their own, inhabited by a ghost of what was and what is yet to be.
Nobukho Nqaba continues that theme. There are empty spaces, ominous electric lights and an eerie night that pervades many of the works. There are interesting figurative aspects and, particularly in the case of the photograph entitled “deep in thought” (English translation), an image that inspires a sense of an African equivalent or correspondence to Rodin’s iconic “thinker” sculpture.
Only here the body is implicated while intriguing fashion/blankets appeal to the eyes with a resolute charm, rather than a sculptural mass that is heavy and static.
Sitaara Stodel’s work is highly innovative. In her video piece she plays with a cityscape and nature scene by adding cut-out bits such as houses, doors, landscape bit by bit, or frame by frame, in effect changing, manipulating and transforming what then becomes a mindscape of sorts. The sequence concludes with a wall barricading entry into the “landscape”, but then added windows and doors lead to further ventures.
This alternative way of making images is further creatively explored in her seemingly haphazard cut-and-paste style; a fragmented image emerges, where the spaces between defy a clear linear narrative, as if memory is piecemeal, and not consciously available to recall. Stodel’s playfulness sets up an interesting notion that images themselves grow, or are in a state of flux, and expand as memory and experience are activated tinged with a certain emotional flavour.
The subject matter may have to do with the insane fact that we must barricade ourselves against others, against intruders, for there to be security, at once transforming the landscape and even psychological well-being. Time changes the way one negotiates space so that a welcome physical expression in this form negates or argues against the tamed, digital format wherein everything fits snugly into a screen that is rectangular and cannot expand beyond the borders of whatever technological device in physical terms.
The three artists are all recent Michaelis School of Fine Art, UCT, graduates and contribute an interesting and dynamic photographic expression. Perhaps one of the most undervalued (categories) of the Fine Arts, assuming one accepts such a category in the first place, these photographic images are both intriguing and enjoyable to encounter.
They “force” the viewer to recognise the physicality of the image - that it is a sign - and thus the proliferation of photographic images on social media and the like is challenged to venture into new and exciting creative dimensions of aesthetic possibilities.