Casey Kaplan
AGAINST ERASURE AND FORGETTING: SABELO MLANGENI AND IGSHAAN ADAMS AT BLANK PROJECTS
A review by Nkgopoleng Moloi
11 February 2020
In an essay titled “Pasting over the Holes of My Soul: Transformation in the Work of Igshaan Adams,” Justin Davy remarks “that at the outset of his journey it became clear Igshaan Adams was not always going to travel alone, that he would take members of his family and community with him.” Adams grew up in Bonteheuwel, Cape Town. In his latest show at blank projects – “stukkinne stories” – it is once again the community of Bonteheuwel that he is bringing with him. He does this through a combination of sculptures and tapestries, all of which gradually begin to untangle piecemeal stories of the place where he grew up. More specifically ‘stukkinne stories’ is built around the intimate narratives and domestic lives within specific homes in Bonteheuwel with works titled like “11B Larche weg.” Intimacy is further explored and brought to light through the personal manner in which Adams titles the works: “By die voordeur” (transl. at the front door), “Sit kamer” (transl. lounge), “Op sy eie fokken tyd” (transl. At his own fucking time), “Muis neste” (transl. mouse nests). In splinters and fragments, we’re let into the comings and goings of the residents of the homes and feel a sense of lighthearted familiarity.
Adams’ show is curated and presented together with Sabelo Mlangeni’s latest body of work, ‘The Royal House of Allure.” “The Royal House of Allure” is a name of a (safe) House on mainland Lagos where members of the queer community live and make a life together. A House is a family unit that one is able to select into; a place of gathering for those who are not allowed to gather anywhere else. Houses are more than just places of survival, they are a physical embodiment of radical queer expression that encourage solidarity. House culture – which has been popularized through media such as Jennie Livingston’s 1990 documentary “Paris is Burning” and FX’s drama series “Pose” – originates from New York’s ballroom culture which emerged in the 1920s and reached an apex in the 1980s.
A matriarch, referred to as house mother, provides housing as well as a support system for members of the LGBTQIA+ community (referred to as her children). These establishments actively advocate for inclusivity and provide members of the community with a space to construct a sense of self through artistic practices within beauty, fashion, music and the wider ballroom culture. Mlangeni spent six weeks in 2019 in Lagos cultivating relationships and documenting the domestic lives of members of the House. Toward the end of the year, the collection of images was presented at the second edition of the Lagos Biennale.
Mlangeni succeeds in piercing through the cartilage of insider and outsider, photographer and subject dichotomies. He becomes part of the community he is interested in. This is evident in one particular image “Afternoon visit Ola and I playing nipple” (Photo by Sodiq) (2019). Here, Mlangeni is caught in an unguarded and cherished moment of delight and joy. This image gestures towards a dismantling of the gaze and the psychological anxiety that may come with looking and being looked at.
Taken together, “stukkinne stories” and “The Royal House of Allure” generate interesting associations; “stukkinne stories” documents family history through narrative, “The Royal House of Allure” frustrates accepted narratives of a nuclear family. Both bodies of work gently guide us towards contemplation of familial relations, of objects, of fiction and of intimacy but they don’t always move in the same direction. They are strung together by points of convergence and divergence, moving towards each other at various points and pulling away from each other at other points while also creating tension that points us to oppositions inherent in the works. This happens conceptually as well as in how the work is installed. Mlangeni’s investigations into notions of family and belonging are two dimensional and centre the figure while Adams’ explorations are rendered through abstraction, materiality and the sculptural. Mlangeni is documenting bodies in space through time, while Adams is tracing and piecing together residues left behind through time.
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