I first visited David Goldblatt’Äôs most recent works, shown at the Goodman Gallery, a few weeks ago. Being a photographer myself, I have known his works since I can remember. He started off in the fifties as being a documentary photographer but his work was soon appropriated by the fine art community as ’Äòmore than a document’Äô.
In her book Regarding the pain of others, Susan Sontag makes the statement that ’Äòeven to the extent that it is a trace (not a construction made out of disparate photogaphic traces), cannot be simply a transparency of something that happened. It is always the image that someone chose; to photograph is to frame is to exclude’Äô. In Golblatt’Äôs latest works, one feels this exclusion acutely. Not because he excludes essential information, but because he actively uses exclusion of the human form to critically highlight human existence.
With a retrospective in the Johannesburg Art Gallery, spanning practically the whole of downstairs, as well as recent works exhibited in the Goodman gallery, we are living in ’ÄòGoldblatt times’Äô. And rightly so. For information overload, visit the retrospective. If you are looking for pathos, irony, as well as sharply critical commentary on South African society all embodied into empty landscapes, don’Äôt miss the last few days of the Goodman Gallery Recent Works exhibition.
The Intersections series, especially the road between Joh’Äôburg and Cape Town (in the ’Äòtime of Aids’Äô), plays havoc with one’Äôs emotions. I believe that no-one who is living in our country currently can be left unmoved by these works. See it for yourself. You will not be disappointed.
