A pair of young artists from Retreat hope their artworks can breathe new life into apartheid’s cruel past and spark a new conversation about the suburbs and communities that were oppressed and forcibly removed from their homes.
Matriculants from across the Southern Suburbs, including Grassy Park and False Bay, were tasked with investigating these suburbs and historic buildings haunted by systemic spatial discrimination through their artworks.
All the matriculants who took part in this year’s exhibition Area Codes: Against the Grain, was hosted by the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA) Art Club. Photos: supplied. 
Michael Roman alongside his artwork titled, Mirror of the Soul, made from found glass and mirror, mosaic tiles. 
!Khuboab Lawrence and his artwork Hû Khoese Haka Koro (7945). 
Eve O’Connor (Fish Hoek) with her artwork, Tied Between, features found branches, grasses, vines, string with cable ties intermingled and natural cotton string. 
Ilané Kotze from Capri Village. Her art piece involves a tyre with 36 drawings inside it that rotates like a zoetrope, which creates the illusion of motion by displaying of sequence of images in rapid succession. Her artwork tells the story of migration, her ansestors and visualises a surrealistic image of Kalk Bay Harbour.
Previously, People’s Post reported that a university student from Diep River’s camera skills in capturing wildlife crowned her as one of the winners of a photography competition (“Student’s camera conquers Zeitz art exhibition,” 10 June).
This exhibition, dubbed, Area Codes: Against the Grain, was hosted by the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA) Art Club after it launched on Saturday 28 June and is currently available for viewing until Sunday 31 August, said museum spokesperson, Talia Naicker.
“Our area codes cannot capture the legacies of history, oppression and memories of each person who stays there. What if we were to reimagine the boundaries of what defines an area code?
People’s Post spoke with Michael Roman, !Khuboab Lawrence, both from Retreat as well as Eve O’Connor (Fish Hoek) and Ilané Kotze (Capri Village) to talk us through the preparations that inspired their artworks.
O’Connor attends Rustenburg Girls High School. Her artwork, Tied Between, features found branches, grasses, vines, string with cable ties intermingled with natural cotton string.
“I live between three homes – Observatory (7925), Fish Hoek (7975), and Rondebosch (7700) – and with each place, I carry routines, memories, and objects that form part of who I am.
“This movement between spaces led me to think about how home is not always fixed. Instead, it can be built, adapted, and carried with us, like a nest,” O’Connor explained.
Kotze says she was born in Bloemfontein, but grew up in Cape Town.
She is inspired by Vincent Van Gogh as well as the artists of the Renaissance and Romantic eras.
“Going into this project, I knew I wanted to do an animation as it was a medium I had begun exploring within the last year. However, we were told we could unfortunately not do a video or sound piece due to the exhibition space being a historic landmark and, therefore, unable to support the equipment and wiring needed. However, I did not let this deter me and was inspired by a memory I had of a zoetrope animation in the Science Museum,” she explained.
Her art piece involves a tyre with 36 drawings inside it that rotates like a zoetrope, which creates the illusion of motion by displaying of sequence of images in rapid succession.
The tyre was prepared by Lawrence Gower, a blacksmith who works for her uncle, Mornay Verster.
“This animation depicts the surrealistic image of Kalk Bay harbour placed in my swimming pool and myself as a child standing on the edge of the pool and then jumping in. This then causes a splash which crashes over the sailing ship which the rest of the animation focuses on. The ship sailing through the ocean while waves crash against the hull symbolises my area due to the significance of harbours/beaches/oceans, playing into the given theme of Area Codes, as well as symbolises my own history/culture due to my ancestors arriving in South Africa by ship in 1691. The ship further links to movement. This plays further into my own lineage and history as my ancestors moved inland from the coast due to the arrival of the British and this movement is mirrored and contrasted by my family and I moving to the coast. As a result the work strongly indicates the themes of migration as well as cycles/history repeating itself,” she explained.
Roman attends Wynberg High School.
“I mainly used pencils, colour pencils, markers and fine liners as my drawing mediums when I was younger, but now I mainly use pens. The work I made for the workshop was a mosaic-like work, using broken glass as my medium.
“The message I aimed to convey from my work was to question what we as people, more specifically our souls – as the eye is the window to the soul, truly find beautiful and pristine and what we deem as trash and ugly,” he explained.
“When I was searching for material to use in my work, shattered glass came to my attention. This is often seen on the streets of my childhood home in Ottery.
“Shattered glass has a duality to it. Clean, uncracked glass is viewed as pristine and elegant, while in contrast, shattered glass is seen as common trash, dangerous and ugly to look at. My work aims to speak to the duality and interpretation of objects. Although broken glass is not pretty to look at, it can hold its own unique beauty,” he says.
Lawrence says his artwork, Hû Khoese Haka Koro (7945) comprises wooden railway sleepers, found sign, rope and enamel paint.
“The Simon’s Town railway runs straight through the 7945 area code, splitting it in half. On the left side sit areas like Tokai, Constantia and many more affluent areas. On the right lie areas like Retreat, Heathfield, and the Cape Flats. Every day I cross this railway on my commute between my home in Retreat and school in Tokai.
“The effects of spatial segregation are clear as I see the landscape change from greenery to brown-grey. The railway line still divides two areas that starkly contrast each other,” he explains. This artwork is constructed from a handmade railway sign with real railroad sleepers.
“The work’s connection to train tracks links it to my area code, 7945, representing the modernised division that can be seen, symbolising the lingering effects of apartheid and colonialism.
“The use of an old sign, not fully cleaned or polished, but simply painted over in an attempt to be made to look new, speaks to how the full extent of apartheid’s consequences and the effects of the historical mistreatment of people of colour,” he said.
Cape Town-based schools who offer visual art in matric interested in next year’s Matric Workshop can email to:
education@zeitzmocaa.museum for applications.
