Curatorial Text
When we look at these images, we believe them, for they tell us a little about how these people imagine themselves. We see these images in terms determined by the subjects themselves, for they have made them their own. They belong and circulate in the domain of the private – Santu Mofokeng in The Black Photo Album/Look at Me: 1890- 1900s. In his sophomore solo exhibition Mwaiseni Mukwai, Maingaila Muvundika continues his critical exploration of the quotidian and fraught aspects of Zambian life. The exhibition is a literal open invitation to engage with the family album as a conceptual, personal and political vehicle through which Black Zambian families and individuals curate intimate perusals of their lives. Questioning the result of this personal intervention on how one is perceived by others, Muvundika simultaneously asks: “how has the Black Zambian’s relationship with photography evolved over time?”
Photographs are a distinct medium of documentation in that they demand immediate belief, which entails that images – as presented in photo albums – construct seemingly uncontested narratives. This point is excellently driven home in the obscured and shadowy musings that appear in the pages of the exhibition. Muvundika probes the accuracy and evolution of memory and the archive through image (re)productions made on linocuts and photographs. He is equally concerned with the fragility of these concepts and how susceptible they are to intangible and tangible damage and/or decay. The subjects of the images in this exhibit are just as important as the state in which they are presented. Some images appear discoloured, punctured, torn or generally bear signs of wear and tear. Here, Muvundika draws us to the complexities of the archival process and remembering.
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