Color in the Representation of the South African Townships

COLOR IN THE REPRESENTATION OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN TOWNSHIPS Michael Godby T his article explores the function of color in the representation of South African townships in three projects, namely Craig Fraser's Shack Chic: Art and Innovation in South Africa's Shack-Lands, which was published in Cape Town in 2002;1 Zwelethu Mthethwa's Mbkweni photographs of the second half of the 1990s;2 and Chris Ledochowski's Cape Flats Details of 2003.3 We will dwell particularly on Mthethwa's photographs because of the extraordinary variety of critical response they have generated, especially in the United States. Despite its truly appalling title and despite Fraser's previous publication being Stylish Living in South Africa, Shack Chic does not quite offer the interior styles of the poverty-stricken as a design resource for the affluent. In fact, Shack Chic uses text to both explain something of the social conditions of Cape Town's informal settlements and give a voice—albeit in catchy soundbites —to some of their inhabitants. But Shack Chic obviously does not aim to be a sociological account of the townships. It is primarily a picture book, and the sheer brilliance of the photographs and the strength of the design overwhelm verbal communication in favor of spectacle. Thus the reproduction of most texts in stylized typography on brightly colored paper tends to reduce those statements to decorative design elements. And any social potential of the photographs themselves is subsumed by the insistent glamour of the production. The photographer himself clearly has a predilection for views that combine a largely planar surface with a sudden recession into space; 7 2 * N k a Jo u r n al o f Co n t e m p o r a r y A f r i can A r t Z w e l e t h u M t h e t h w a , Untitled, f rom t he Mb k w en i series, 1 9 9 6 - 1 9 9 9 . and the book designer on both single-page and double-page layouts appears to delight in juxtaposing discrete images that are connected by no more than a certain continuity of color while, in terms of subject matter, scale, and perspective, the combination seems intended to cause momentary confusion to the viewer. A similar addiction to spectacle is apparent in the arbitrary reproduction of colorful details as anecdotes of township life, and their invariable juxtaposition with interior views in disjunctions of scale that tend to reduce both forms to meaningless elements of surface design. These strategies for creating spectacular visual impact that is, of course, in no way inherent in the subject matter itself, make one aware on every page that the hands of the photographer and his designer are composing the raw material of the townships into their own aesthetic product. Moreover, the smiling faces of most of the portrait images in the book also indicate the presence of the photographer, for the subjects are obviously responding to him. These faces obviously lend a cheerful note to the publication but their response to the photographer seems also to imply an unwitting approval of his project of transforming their homes into aesthetic statements . The suggestion here is not that Shack Chic knowingly abused or took advantage of the township subjects, rather that it simply reinvents this material for its own ends. Zwelethu Mthethwa's Mbkweni photographs are exhibited—and published—with no verbal explanation other than their habitual appellation of "Untitled.1 ' On one level, this refusal to name IM k a'7 3 Z w e l e t h u M t h e t h w a , Untitled, f r om t h e Mb k w en i series, 1 9 9 6 - 1 9 9 9 , the subject disturbs the apparent portrait reference of his work but, on another, the strategic use of the artistic label demands that the image be considered in much broader terms. Thus, although the subjects would appear to think that they are sitting for their portrait, an impression no doubt confirmed by the artist's practice of always returning with a copy of the...