Africa Is a Country

Zwelethu Mthethwa @ The Studio Museum

Zwelethu Mthethwa @ The Studio Museum

By
Sean Jacobs

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy_ri7XJik0&w=500&h=281&rel=0]

Via Todd Johnson: Opening on Thursday, July 15, at the Studio Museum in Harlem, some new work by South African photographer, Zwelethu Mthethwa. (For the opening night, Mthethwa will be present for a conversation with curator Naomi Beckwith.  It’s free, but you got to RSVP.)

The works are on display till October 24.

Here’s the description from the Museum:

Zwelethu Mthethwa: Inner Views brings together three series by South African photographer Zwelethu Mthethwa (b. 1960). “Interiors” and “Empty Beds” document the domestic lives of migrant workers around Johannesburg, South Africa, while “Common Ground” focuses on the shared experience of natural disasters in urban areas, featuring houses in New Orleans, Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina and on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa, after wildfires.”

* The video above is the highlight reel of a fascinating 4-part video conversation between Mthethwa and Okwei Enwezor, hosted recently by the Aperture Foundation. Links to parts one, two, three and four.

— Sean Jacobs

Further Reading

No one should be surprised we exist

The documentary film, ‘Rolé—Histórias dos Rolezinhos’ by Afro-Brazilian filmmaker Vladimir Seixas uses sharp commentary to expose social, political, and cultural inequalities within Brazilian society.

Kenya’s stalemate

A fundamental contest between two orders is taking place in Kenya. Will its progressives seize the moment to catalyze a vision for social, economic, and political change?

More than a building

The film ‘No Place But Here’ uses VR or 360 media to immerse a viewer inside a housing occupation in Cape Town. In the process, it wants to challenge gentrification and the capitalist logic of home ownership.