Photo exhibition explores social boundaries

MAUREEN ODUBENG
Staff Writer | Friday April 11, 2008 00:00

 

The exhibition, which opened on Tuesday night, showcases exquisite photographic images sure to catch anyone's eye, at the same time giving someone a memorable picture of certain events, people or some aspects of certain cultures. The exhibition simply termed 'Other Sides: An Investigation of Boundaries' explores various types of social boundaries.

'Political boundaries and tribal boundaries are sometimes obvious, sometimes not. Temporal boundaries separate an old Us from a new Us, creating a Them out of an older version of ourselves. Children are the most versed in this particular boundary. Linguistic boundaries instrumentalise the Other using a difference in communication. Then there is the intelligence boundary, including the 'idiots' who don't wear condoms. A recognition of one's own identity and community is a prerequisite for Otherness. Images of the Old and of the New elucidate some activities through which one affirms identification as X individual, member of Y community. Discrepancies in the concepts of identity and community between Then and Now between Here and There, between Them, and Us and between photographer and subject will present themselves to the idle viewer. As will harmonies,' explains the exhibition foreword.

While difference forms of art have an importance and significance in society's lives, and can capture many aspects of a given society's lives and evolution, photographic images are undeniably very important tools in capturing realities, and stand a visual history of certain cultures, historic events, just to mention a few.

Sandick explains his photographs currently on display as 'mining the contemporary semiotic terrain', probing the ways in which foreign and non-foreign symbols have been appropriated into conceptions ('Ours? Their?') of local identity and community.

'We all know those guys who sit under the tree and drink Chibuku. They have their own community and they certainly aren't us,' he explains.

Sandick's photo exhibition is quite illuminating and challenges the viewers to use their mind. Apart from photographs, Sandick also displays articles from Wikipedia, detailing the history of various signs and logos that are universally recognisable and used. His pictures on one side of the gallery show, Stop signs as an evident constant feature, through their evolution, challenging the view to go deep into why the photographer seemed obsessed with following certain signs. The photographs, naturally, have other elements like human beings. The other part of his exhibition displayed on the other side, shows Coca-Cola logos as yet another constant feature, yet something, which a viewer can easily mistake for an obsession.

'Why is this guy obsessed with Coca-Cola,' was a comment from a youngster who attended the opening night.

Grant's photographs on the other hand are a collection of images in Botswana, which he has built up over a long period of time. His interest has been in observing and sometimes participating in the life of a rural community, mostly in the years before the introduction of the money economy and the resultant Western influences. Grant has been keen to record images of the major social mechanisms, which provide and underpin community and individual identity.

Grant's pictures on display are not only exciting but simply breathtaking. One of them that seemed extremely popular with enthusiasts who attended the opening night, is simply titled: A Song of Freedom Mochudi 1966. Another photograph that is likely to catch everyone's eye during the month-long exhibition is that of a young boy with a home-made banjo, taken in Serowe in 1989.

'We found him wandering around whilst cattle were being watered at a well in the dry bed of the Metsemasweu river just north of Serowe,' explains the caption provided by the photographer.

Another photograph that deserves mention is that of Women's Mophato, taken in 1968 in Mochudi. The note given by Grant shows a community's pride in its identity.

'In the 1970s in particular it was repeatedly noted in the local press that Mochudi was different from anywhere else in the country. The observations were undoubtedly correct. Mochudi was different and it was special not least because, encouraged by Kgosi Linchwe, it utilised every opportunity to assert its identity. One of those opportunities came with the birth of his daughter, Seingwaeng, in 1968, when the women's mophato, the Machama came to Ntsweng, Kgosi Linchwe's home to pay their respects and greet their new grand child.'

As previously mentioned, Grant's exhibition has a total of 36 photographs, which capture different aspects of community life, cultures and articles such as winnowing baskets, while others show making grain baskets, having matimela thrash, and bogwera. And yet another interesting photograph shows donkey carts right at the centre of the mall. This particular picture was taken in 1972. The Editor of the Botswana Guardian, Mike Mothibi, officially opened the exhibition.