Mixed media installation, solo show, Gallery Delta, Harare, Zimbabwe.
an ordered absence is a site specific work made for and within the new location of the Gallery Delta.
The Gallery Delta had moved into a new location, at the time, an old colonial house in Harare. The installation addresses the inclusions and exclusions of colonial history embedded within its architecture.
I chose to work in a section of the house that was under renovation because the older architecture was all still there and the recent layers had been torn away. The remnants that spoke about the history of the house were exposed; it was suspended in this moment of transition. I occupied the space and responded to the physical elements and the history in various media.
The work engages in an interplay of presence and absence. The title comes from a Margaret Atwood poem.
“He thought it was/ An absence of order/ But it was/ An ordered absence.
—Margaret Atwood, “Progressive Insanities of a Pioneer”
an ordered absence evolved from a process of living in the space over time and responding to elements of the physical and social environment. Various materials including felt, plaster, and paint were used, as well as found stones from the property. These stones were then painted with photographic emulsions, and later placed back in the space. The images on the rocks were images of the land in Zimbabwe and a pair of watchful eyes.
This piece is about repression and exclusion. I was working with a lot of women in southern Africa coming out of resistance movements and there was a phrase, “When you strike a woman, you strike a rock.”
