Title: Another Jim comes to Joburg in the 60’s
Medium: Collage, Oil and Acrylic on Canvas
Date: 2015
Unframed: 150cm x 180cm
“For me, it’s part of my future to look back. I cannot go forward without taking my history with me” – Sam Nhlengethwa (Smith 2006:87).
As far back as the nineties Nhlengethwa made social documentary work that talked about the harsh heyday of Apartheid in the fifties and sixties in South Africa. All these work were created using sombre muted colours. It has become a theme the artist often revisits in his work.
The artwork, Another Jim comes to Joburg in the 60’s, has been made with material sourced from Drum magazine archives. The use of collage really comes to it’s wright in these documentary pieces. Alex Dodd (Smith 2006:87) sums it up perfectly: “In South Africa, where the population has been torn apart by half a century’s worth of Apartheid social engineering, this kind of communicative gesture is also a healing one. Nhlengethwa’s images resume unspoken histories from the archive, offering viewers the opportunity to see and witness lives, times and places they may never have been part of.”
