Microreview: Segopotso sa Gomora: A Form(less) Archive

Nyakallo Review 1
Images courtesy of the artist and Reshma Chhiba.
Nyakallo Review 2
Images courtesy of the artist and Reshma Chhiba.
Nyakallo Review 3
Images courtesy of the artist and Reshma Chhiba.
Nyakallo Review 4
Images courtesy of the artist and Reshma Chhiba.
Nyakallo Review 5
Images courtesy of the artist and Reshma Chhiba.
Date
2022 October
Subtitle
Nyakallo Maleke reviews Refiloe Namise, Segopotso sa Gomora, mixed media installation and performance, The Point of Order & Johannesburg, 31 March–17 April 2022.
Type
microreview
Author / Publisher
Nyakallo Maleke for NewsLibrary
Author Info

Nyakallo Maleke is an artist and writer based in Johannesburg. Her practice is grounded in an expanded concept of drawing, which she views as a means to tell stories about vulnerability and moving through the public space. Website

Language

English

Also published here

Newsletter No. 49

Instagram @sarn_switzerland

Reviewed Publication

Refiloe Namise, Segopotso sa Gomora, 2022 (mixed media installation and performance, The Point of Order & Johannesburg, 31 March–17 April 2022.

Links

More on the artwork at thepointoforder.org

I’m about to rewind to a number of scenes from Segopotso sa Gomora, a trilogy of episodes containing re-enactments of scenes documented in the Alexandra Township archive. Segopotso sa Gomora, by Refiloe Namise, was shown as part of Namise’s MFA in Creative Research exhibition at The Point of Order in Johannesburg. In 'Episode 3: Ditshwantso tsa rona', the artist distributes black and white copies of sand bricks to the audience while intimate dialogues about Alex are transmuted into a mural drawing in 'Episode 1: Conversations that happened at #39.'

The archive is 'republished' in a visceral material language as processes of maintenance repair marginalised narratives about this place. In 'Episode 2: Bus ea ko 7 The Inauguration', audiences observe a still bus becoming rejuvenated. These red vessels for remembering transform into form(less) threads that connect past narratives with the present. Red demands visibility where there is a hint of forgetfulness. Echoing repeatedly, these red vessels should not be treated as a spectacle, but as gestures towards finding other means of re-commemorating the past with simplistic approaches. However subtle or overt the gestures may appear; how can we hold ourselves responsible for our own remembering?