Thembinkosi Hlatshwayo
b.1993, Johannesburg
Thembinkosi Hlatshwayo’s first encounter with his parents’ tavern, an extension to his family’s home in the Lawley township outside of Johannesburg, was through a window – his view obscured by burglar bars and a lace curtain. “Nothing was clear,” says Hlatshwayo. “That influenced how I started working with the layering of the photos. The not-so-easily-accessible image.” Resisting ideals of scenography, Hlatshwayo photographs aftermaths – the marks leftover after actions. This is not a forensic investigation on the part of the artist, where these marks could be sought for evidence, the path rewound in the hopes of reconstructing past events. Instead, Hlatshwayo asserts the marks’ primacy – as fascinating in and of themselves – by placing the photographs he has printed in compromising situations. On a table in a bar, drink and ash fall on the surface. Intervention is inevitable, he seems to be saying through this action: we may as well invite it, as willing participants in time’s march. “Things are always moving, things never die, they move, and my role in this movement is to accept it all, the impermanence of things, that for me is an act of love.”
