Feet Under Fire

2017 - Film & Video (Film & Video)
<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;">14:54 minutes</span>

Feet Under Fire by Lungiswa Gqunta depicts the artist’s lower legs swinging in and out of frame, above a bed of charcoal. She wears a pleated white dress, two identical white anklets, and a set of bristle brushes as shoes. Affixed to the base of each scrubbing brush is a black strap so that the brushes don’t fall off of her feet. In the video, Gqunta recalls the frequent occurrences of devastating fires, accidentally ignited by open cooking flames, that decimate informal settlements in South Africa. The fires have resulted in thousands of fatalities, some people are even consumed by flames whilst asleep in their beds. The video is accompanied by the artist singing a childhood nursery rhyme in isiXhosa, an official Bantu language of South Africa. The rhyme, titled Umzi Washa , translates to “The house is burning” “Go look there; there is a fire, pour water!” It is an instructional song used to teach children who live in informal settlements about safety and survival. Gqunta’s video illustrates how domesticity and danger commingle in everyday South African life. Due to their frequency, such unintentional fires have, over time, united communities living in settlements. The fires often travel quickly throughout the area and therefore inhabitants are required to work together to put out the flames, as well as remain vigilant about potential fires. The artist states that these burning homes are indicative of widespread systemic inequities in South Africa and that Black communities must collectively organize to initiate change. As it poses such a potent symbol of community responsibility and resilience, for Gqunta, the element of fire acts as both a metaphor and a catalyst for change.

Lungiswa Gqunta’s practice addresses issues concerning South African post-colonial culture and the country’s contemporary political landscape. Through performance, printmaking, sculpture, and installation, the artist’s work exposes the systemic inequality and violence in her home country. Gqunta constructs multimodal experiences that call attention to and critically reflect upon the varied forms of oppression that continue in present-day South Africa due to the hegemony of patriarchal and colonial legacies. Gqunta is also one of the founding members of iQhiya.

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