Over brunch II, 2026
Screenprint
41,5 cm x 37 cm
Artist’s Statement
In Over brunch II, I confront the origins of South Africa’s present, tracing the link between casual historical decisions and the enduring trauma that shapes our contemporary landscape. The composition centres on a more or less empty table where the action unfolds, surrounded by figures laughing and gazing into objects and the distance, while the background is filled with the debris of our history. A reminder that what isn’t physically seen isn’t acted against. The title itself is ironic; I hint at the unsettling notion that the foundations of apartheid and the struggles leading to its abolition were once discussed with a disregard for their consequences. This artwork serves as a visual meditation on the “labour after memory” that still reverberates through the Black working class. The abstracted and fragmented, draws parallels to the lingering and active decay of colonial and apartheid systems.
I engage with the aesthetic of ruination not to sensationalise suffering, but to provoke contemplative engagement with how such casual decisions orchestrated the systemic abandonment we see today. My intention is to resist the reductive gaze often associated with “poverty porn,” instead creating an alternative archive that compels an ethical reckoning with the past. Over brunch II is a testament to the idea that our present reality is a direct consequence of historical decisions, acknowledge the enduring weight of a history decided around a table.
