‘Between Shadows’ – small acts of resilient remembering

In an effort to re-imagine the painful histories of the enslaved communities at the site of the former Slave Quarters at the historic Leeuwenhof Estate, Between Shadows emerges as the fifth and final exhibition in a series curated by the Association for Visual Arts (AVA).

The exhibition hopes to get viewers to think about the legacies of slavery in spaces that extend beyond Leeuwenhof – into the tough neighbourhoods of the Cape Flats, the emptying garment factories of Salt River, the ruinous housing projects of the apartheid government, the dilapidated former slave trading post in Guinea, and the site of the first concentration camp in Namibia.

“It also highlights how personal stories captured in family photo albums, tenderly collected shards of china and carefully stitched textiles are in themselves small acts of resilient remembering.

“They may not be found in the official records, like the arrival of Amersfoort, the first slave ship to anchor at the Cape, nor do they have the power or intention to erase the past.

“By interrogating official histories, by claiming their right to memory and to remembering, by imagining and telling their own stories and the stories of those, who are marginalised, the artists in this series have invited us to acknowledge the shadows of the past, to walk between them and to honour those who walked here before us,” AVA curator, Olga Speakes, said.

The project is a collaboration between the provincial Department of Sport, Arts and Culture and the AVA, which re-imagines the site’s painful histories by bringing in the voices of contemporary artists, including Ashley Walters, Zyma Amien, Rory Emmett, Haroon Gunn-Salie, Ruth Seopedi Motau, Sitaara Stodel, Boyce Magandela, Graeme Williams and Igshaan Adam.

“They engage these histories by working imaginatively with archives, physical spaces and objects, as well as intangible legacies of slavery underpinning so much of what we live with and from today – in our city, in our country and in our global interconnected modern world.

“Their practices make the visitors to the historic sites consider the multitude of ways in which the history of slavery shapes our present, and how it continues to cast its shadow in the lives of individuals, as well as our society more broadly,” Speakes said.

Gunn-Salie, an artist and activist who believes that art has real potential to effect change in society, features Crying for Justice (2019, ongoing), Giclée print on cotton rag (2022), and Overboard (2021) Return of the Amersfoort project, an archival print on ceramic tiles, enamel paint with Aline Xavier.

Overboard erases the presence of Dutch colonists arriving in the Cape and comprises a hand-painted intervention onto tiles in the style of Delft pottery, printed with an image of the Amersfoort.

The original image, courtesy of the National Library of South Africa, was produced during the making of Die Bou van ’n Nasie (1938) (The Building of a Nation), a nationalist film depicting South African history following Jan Van Riebeeck’s arrival in the Cape in 1652.

The artwork forms part of a re-vistation of the artists’ project, Return of the Amersfoort (2017-).

The project, staging a symbolic repatriation, presents a reoriented perspective on the historic and contemporary connections shared between South Africa, the Netherlands and Brazil.

Conceived as a site-specific installation in a contemporary art museum in Amersfoort, Netherlands, the project sought to anchor the ghost of the Dutch East India Company merchant ship, the Amersfoot, in the city it was named after.

“Between Shadows” runs until December and is free of charge, but booking is essential and can be made via 021 424 7436 or admin@ava.com

Cape Times