Altar at Kliprivier, Soweto

2011 - Photography (Photography)

38 x 38 cm

Santu Mofokeng


Santu Mofokeng is a South African photographer. Mofokeng was born in 1956 in Soweto. He began his career as a street photographer when he was still a teenager, then worked as an assistant in a darkroom and later became a news photographer, working on the Apartheid. He was part of the collective Africapix From the “Radiant Landscapes” series, this work is part of Santu Mofokeng’s investigation on water. Polluted to a great extend in South Africa, water remains a synonym of purity and is part of many rituals.


The photographic artwork of Santu Mofokeng (b. Soweto, South Africa, 1956), also known as Mofokengâ, explores the complicated societal paradigm of South Africa. Exploring rural farm life, townships, religious rituals and the quotidian life of Black South Africans, Mofokeng’s artwork significantly contributes to a greater understanding of development and identity in the South African context. Mofokeng’s acute insight into the cultural meanings in landscape is testified in his mastership of the photographic medium. Using black and white film as a reference to the documentary genre and a gesture of resistance to the color-rich saturation of consumer culture, Mofokeng’s work presents new meanings on the trodden landscapes Soweto, favoring memory and identity over ownership and power. In highlighting the impoverishment of South African landscape in the face of capital expansion, Mofokeng’s photographs implore emancipation from the global oppression of greed.


Colors:



Other related works, blended automatically  
» see more

Miriam Maine’s funeral, ca 1990
© » KADIST

Santu Mofokeng

1990

Mofokeng’s experiences during the turbulent time of the 1980s in South Africa led to a turn in his practice, opting to turn to the crowd, focusing on individual faces and bodies within the masses to tell a story of the collective resistance that is present in the daily life and surroundings of South African townships...

Related works sharing similar palette  
» see more

Human Quarry
© » KADIST

Leslie Shows

Human Quarry is a large work on paper by Leslie Shows made of a combination of acrylic paint and collage...

Carla Zaccagnini, El presente, mañana (The present, tomorrow)
© » KADIST

Carla Zaccagnini, El presente, mañana (The present, tomorrow) Available to view from February 23, 2022, 10 am PST Carla Zaccagnini’s iconic lecture-performance El presente, mañana (2018) is newly produced as a finished video made exclusively for KADIST...

John Waters on How He Built His Art Collection—and Then Gave It Away - via artnet news
© » LARRY'S LIST

With his wife Anne Stringfield, he’s now amassed a collection of 100 works....

German Academy of Arts opens Otto Dix archive—and recalls a scandal
© » THEARTNEWSPER

German Academy of Arts opens Otto Dix archive—and recalls a scandal Art market Museums & heritage Exhibitions Books Podcasts Columns Technology Adventures with Van Gogh Search Search Otto Dix news German Academy of Arts opens Otto Dix archive—and recalls a scandal Dix’s war painting The Trench, lost during the Second World War, is in focus at the opening Catherine Hickley 7 February 2024 Share Otto Dix's Der Schützengraben (The Trench) (1923) provoked a strong reaction when it was first displayed 100 years ago Photo: Hugo Erfurth, Akademie der Künste Berlin, Otto-Dix-Archiv A century after Otto Dix’s First World War painting The Trench (1923) provoked an outcry when it was displayed at the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin, the institution's successor, the Germany Academy of Arts , is opening to the public the inventory of the artist's works that he compiled—somewhat grudgingly...

Other works by: » Santu Mofokeng  
» see more

Miriam Maine’s funeral, ca 1990
© » KADIST

Santu Mofokeng

1990

Mofokeng’s experiences during the turbulent time of the 1980s in South Africa led to a turn in his practice, opting to turn to the crowd, focusing on individual faces and bodies within the masses to tell a story of the collective resistance that is present in the daily life and surroundings of South African townships...

A taste for life, Baragwanath Terminus, Diepkloof
© » KADIST

Santu Mofokeng

1985

Since the global capital expansion, billboards have been the medium of communication between the rulers and the residents of townships...

Saturday afternoon in Sunward Park, Boksburg
© » KADIST

David Goldblatt

1979

David Goldblatt’s “Boksburg series” is a telling portrait of the small town that became a notorious symbol of racism in South Africa...

Zanele Muholi’s Potent Portrait of South Africa’s
© » ANOTHER

Zanele Muholi

Zanele Muholi’s Potent Portrait of South Africa’s Queer Community | AnOther As their new exhibition opens in San Francisco, Zanele Muholi talks about their powerful photos of queer survivors of hate crimes, couples in everyday moments, and self-portraits referencing history February 02, 2024 Text Emily Steer Zanele Muholi creates potent portraits...

“Brave Beauties” series - Dimpho Tsotetsi, Parktown
© » KADIST

Zanele Muholi

2014

As a visual activist for the rights of Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LBGTQI), Muholi’s photographs radically transgress the conventional perception of lesbian and transgender communities in South Africa...

“Brave Beauties” series - Eva Mofokeng I, Parktown, Johannesburg
© » KADIST

Zanele Muholi

2014

As a visual activist for the rights of Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LBGTQI), Muholi’s photographs radically transgress the conventional perception of lesbian and transgender communities in South Africa...

Related works found in the same semantic group  
» see more

Untitled (Stanley Kubrick, 1945)
© » KADIST

Tim Lee

2010

Part of Tim Lee’s practice involves envisioning himself reenacting key moments from iconic peoples’ lives...

Elliott Erwitt, photographer who captured Marilyn Monroe and New York City, has died at 95.
© » ARTSY

Elliott Erwitt, photographer who captured Marilyn Monroe and New York City, has died at 95...

At 90, Photographer Fred Baldwin Still Has ‘So Much Work Left to Do’ (Published 2019)
© » NYTIMES LENS

At 90, Photographer Fred Baldwin Still Has ‘So Much Work Left to Do’ - The New York Times Lens | At 90, Photographer Fred Baldwin Still Has ‘So Much Work Left to Do’ https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/29/lens/fred-baldwin-photography.html Give this article Share Advertisement Continue reading the main story Fred Baldwin reckons he could have become a writer — if the manual Olivetti typewriter he used while studying at Columbia in 1955 had spell-check...

Hat with photograph
© » KADIST

Hans-Peter Feldmann

The types of objects Feldmann is interested in collecting into serial photographic grids or artist’s books are often also found in three dimensional installations...