Tending to the scab covering humanity and its violence
SCRATCH the surface of just about any human endeavour and you find frailty. This heartbreaking humanity exudes from artist Mikhael Subotzky’s work. From his photographs of Pollsmoor prisoners, through his photographic explorations of former prisoners’ lives and the lives of ordinary people in Beaufort West, to dealing with Johannesburg’s emblematic Ponte City in photographs and other media, there is this scratching, as if at the scab covering the enduring vulnerability in South African life.It is Ponte City, the 54-storey building that defines the Johannesburg cityscape, and Subotzky’s fascinating, edgy exploration — with UK-based arts editor Patrick Waterhouse — of it, that has earned both men a short-listing for this year’s Deutsche Börse Photography Prize.Also this year, Subotzky has been invited to participate in the 56th Venice Biennale’s central exhibition: All the World’s Futures.He is one of 136 artists from 53 countries invited by Venice Biennale curator Okuwi Enwezor to sh...
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