Commune.1 is pleased to announce the upcoming solo exhibition titled Groot Geraak by South African photographer and filmmaker Gordon Clark.
Groot Geraak (Became Big) examines the life of Quentino, a young boy growing up in Elsies River on the Cape Flats, an area that has been plagued by endemic gang violence. Quentino and his peers are photographed at various stages over a three-year period in an attempt to locate defining moments in their lives. Clark expresses a personal interest in these defining moments and their potential implications; here the individual is pitted against powerful collective agents. In areas where these agents have a strong presence, individual identity gives way to survival and the need to conform.
Despite the careful staging of each image, Groot Geraak is an expression of Quentino’s life, complete with portents of his future. The tension resides between a staged performance on the one hand and the re-enactment of actual moments on the other, hence the...