ALWAYS MOVING FORWARD: CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN PHOTOGRAPHY FROM THE WEDGE COLLECTION
CONTACT 2010, TORONTO, CANADA
MAY 1–29 2010
Always Moving Forward: Contemporary African Photography from The Wedge Collection, is a selection of images by contemporary photographic artists of African origin.
Through a wide range of photographic practices, Always Moving Forward speaks to a world in which migrations, economies and cultures have all gone global. In these photos, emerging technologies, urbanization, and the influence of corporate advertising become source material for explorations of African identity.
Product packaging is used as wallpaper in Zwelethu Mthethwa’s powerful images of urban residents in post-apartheid South Africa. In Mohammed Bourouissa’s carefully staged tableaux, cellphones serve as documentation device and social signifier. In his survey of the new moneyed subculture from Soweto known as the “Black Diamonds”, Antony Kimani presents a t-shirt that re-imagines the ubiquitous “I (Heart) NY” as “I (Africa) NY”. Globalization is the subject of Hassan Hajjaj’s mash-up of corporate logos. Each of the artists in this exhibition responds to the realities of African societies in transition and the ever-present forces of capitalism. In doing so, they rework the codes of visual culture into their own relevant vocabularies.