CHRIS THURMAN: The pieces missing from the coloniser’s voyeuristic gaze
Sue Williamson’s Turning the Pages exhibition invites visitors to dwell on the relationship between text and image
Situated on a picture-perfect corner of Stellenbosch, in a lovingly renovated historical building, Oude Leeskamer is a treat for those who love books and art. With a gallery downstairs and a reading room upstairs, the space invites visitors to dwell on the relationship between text and image — an ideal setting for Sue Williamson’s exhibition, Turning the Pages.
The works displayed cover a 20-year period stretching back to 1992. Though most are new or recent, placing these in conversation with older material gratifyingly demonstrates the complexity of Williamson’s decades-long preoccupation with visual and textual archives. More specifically, she asks us to think about (and to feel) what is missing from the historical record: who and what has been forgotten, deleted, misplaced or replaced? What forms of restitution and reimagining can the artist undertake?..
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