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ART EXHIBIT
 Breathing
Spaces: Environmental Portraits of Durban’s Industrial South
Venue: Good Hope Gallery, Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town. Tel:
(021) 464 1262.
Gallery Hours: Mon - Sun: 9:30am - 4:00pm
Duration: 16 Jan - 1 Mar 2009
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This is a photographic exploration of three Durban neighbourhoods
which form part of the city’s residential-industrial hinterland.
Images by Jenny Gordon of the Rhodes School of Journalism and Media
Studies, combined with the research material of Marijke du Toit of
Historical Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, offer compelling
insight into three neighbourhoods: Wentworth, Merebank and Lamontville.
Jenny’s panoramic landscape photographs and her portraits of South
Durban residents provide powerful viewing and illustrate how individuals,
despite living within highly challenging environments, succeed in creating
personal ‘breathing spaces’ for themselves.
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The exhibition also brings together very different photographic
genres. Jenny’s photographs are juxtaposed with decades-old studio and
other family photographs drawn from the personal collections of people
living in the South Durban neighbourhoods. These are accompanied by images
taken by residents - adults and teenagers - during photography workshops
taught by Jenny.
Marijke du Toit explains: ‘Durban's urban geography reflects race and
class inequities that persist beyond apartheid. Wentworth, Merebank and
Lamontville (formerly categorised under apartheid as 'coloured', Indian'
and 'African') are located in the immediate vicinity of refineries and
other industry. The area has been the centre of much controversy and
activism about the levels of industrial pollution experienced by
residents.
The exhibition inquires into what it means to live in an environment
still strongly structured by the geographies of apartheid city planning,
by poverty and industrial pollution.’
Despite its rich local cultures and histories, these neighbourhoods
have remained excluded from Durban's visual identity as a city.
‘Environmental injustice’, says Marijke, ‘translates into day-to-day
living’.
The exhibition includes extracts from interviews with those affected
by these circumstances.
Curated by Jenny and Marijke, the project whch was initiated in 2002,
has been sponsored by the Royal Netherlands Embassy, the Centre for Civil
Society (UKZN) and the National Research Foundation of South Africa and
the Global Greengrants Fund.
On Friday 16 January and Saturday 17 January, the exhibition curators
and community activists from Lamontville, Merebank and Wentworth will
conduct exhibition walkabouts.
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