LUNGISWA GQUNTA – POOLSIDE CONVERSATIONS
2017-09-25In Poolside Conversations Gqunta invites us to reconsider the suburban garden as a space reserved for leisure activities as experienced by the privileged – a private space reserved for the landowner. Through her practice she seeks to disturb these spaces of privilege and highlight the structures of colonialism that are still in place today.
Central to the installation is the notion of the swimming pool – a common design element found in the suburban gardens of South Africa and a visceral symbol of privilege. In a country where basic resources such as water are increasingly rare it
epitomises the luxuries afforded to the few and in effect becomes a racialized signifier of wealth.
Collectively the works in the installation narrates a resistance against the structures of colonialism that remain in place today and the inequality that surrounds us. These privileges are directly linked to issues of racial segregation and other long term effects of colonialism that continue to subtly spread and imprison a large number of South Africans whether its physically or psychologically.
Opposite – Lawn 1 , 2016 (Detail)
Exhibition runs from October 5th through to December 17th, 2018
KELDER
Basement of Mercer & Co.
26A Chapel Market
London
N1 9EN
