For those who have read my previous reviews/posts, it’s quite apparent that I appreciate chronology in any work. It adds a realistic storyline that keeps the piece coherent as well as interesting. It’s easier to follow a story than a collage and more meaningful than a single work or piece of art. International Center of Photography’s Rise and Fall of Apartheid exhibit used a chronological technique to tell the story of Apartheid in South Africa and used the chronology to manipulate the audience’s emotions.
When I entered the photography exhibit, I picked up on a few things instantly. First was the order in which the works were set up. Unlike museums or art galleries, the International Center of Photography wanted the audience to start and end in specific destinations, making the entrance to the actual exhibit very small. Other galleries will keep the layout open so that people have agency and the freedom to walk around on their own desire. Here, the work was essentially dictating the method of interpreting the work, which in my opinion made the experience that much better.
To continue, the entrance leads to the first section of a series of works. Here is where the viewer is supposed to gather background information and an idea of what life was like before the conflict surfaced. There is a poster hanging on the first wall with a list of significant dates and what major events occurred at the time. A old movie plays constantly on a small screen, incorrectly depicting the natives of South Africa as animals and cruelly poking fun at them. The section showed the foundation of the tension between two groups, as well as how their lives were separately. The natives lived peacefully, with pride in their background, while the whites preferred to stay apart from the blacks.
The work moves on to show an era of mixture and prosperity. We see minor occurrences of the two races coming together and working together. This all takes place during a period of economic progression in South Africa, a plausible reason as to why the people didn’t object as much to the races mixing. As the work makes a turn, we see the emergence of the arts and the value of creative thinking in South African society. What came across as striking was the presence of numerous native figures in these new arts.
However, the work also created an abrupt entrance into the section covering the prevalence of violence in society. The photographs often involve a strong inclusion of blood and gore to evoke a sense of empathy from the eyes of the audience. They want those looking at the photographs to understand the pain the natives were going through during Apartheid.
The second, lower level took a very different approach as compared to the first. I found that because it served numerous purposes, it let go of the concept of chronology and allowed people to walk freely.
Overall, the exhibit at the International Center of Photography was a great experience which really helped me understand and experience the events that surrounded Apartheid in South Africa.
Credits to www.icp.org
