Photographer Andile Phewa hosts small group exchanges in A4's library. Limited to twelve participants, Phewa discusses the exhibition Missing Subject in the context of the Reading Room and Library at A4.

Exchanges take place on October 15 and 29, and November 12, 2020.

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With a love of landscapes and architecture, Andile Phewa personifies the buildings that occupy the city. By removing the subject, Phewa places the scenery into the foreground. 

Developed from his time at The Market Photo Workshop, his themes of memory and absence are an attempt to understand the absence of his father. The defined boxed lines of a building cut the sky with a vulnerable softness, and Phewa reminds us of what the city used to look like; portraits of those he once looked up to.

A nostalgia-induced chemically exhausted colour palate – the discolouration of dulled greens and pale pinks – gives the newly digitised images a modern retro-like filter, consistent with the vintage appeal of pop culture.

The artist sets out to create his own visual family photo album – an intimate and personal document of a piece of his history he knows little about. Since becoming a father, there is an urge to understand and learn from this lost patriarch.

About Circle Series

Circle Series invited emerging artists to work with an emerging curator towards an exhibition in A4’s Reading Room. The location of the Reading Room (as a site of knowledge and learning, as well as exchange, and adjacent to the Library) was intended to play a role in the staging of the work. The A4 team supported the artists throughout this engagement and offered insight into working with an arts institution. The artists were paired with a writer from the team to create an exhibition text that considered the coordinates of their practice.