Within the ArtBankSA collection, through annual acquisition cycles and Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme (PESP) art creating initiatives, an archive of photography-based artworks has been built. These artworks are more than traditional camera-to-print images, as the material life of the photograph through experimental and hybrid forms employed by the artist has resulted in new ways of presenting an image.
It’s a humid and humming Tuesday night. People spill out and slide into the main gallery space of the KwaZulu-Natal Society of Arts (KZNSA) to hear the opening speeches for Izihlahla Ziyokhuluma (Fig. 1), a 10-year anniversary celebration of the Durban-based Amasosha Collective[1] and their artists’ works. Once one makes it through the entry, portraiture made with beads to blue painted and purple hue faces dominate the white walls of the KZNSA gallery.
KwaZulu-Natal is a home to many well-known historical sites and landmarks. The province has been a stronghold to several political factions that have shaped South African politics, identities and beliefs. Like its people, the province’s landscape is also diverse, changing from lush sub-tropical Indian Ocean shoreline to the gentle rolling hills of the Midlands and the alpine areas of the Drakensberg and Lebombo mountains.