Mikhael Subotzky

Goodman Gallery, London
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2011

Cape Town, Goodman Gallery, Beaufort West, 2007
New York City, Museum of Modern Art, New Photography 2008: Josephine Meckseper and Mikhael Subotzky, 2008 (another example exhibited)
London, Saatchi Gallery, Out of Focus: Photography, 2012, illustrated in the catalogue
London, Saatchi Gallery, Pangaea II: New Art from Africa and Latin America, 2015

Mikhael Subotzky, Jonny Steinberg, Beaufort West, London, 2008, illustrated p. 10

Please note that this work has not been examined outside of its frame. However, the work appears to be in very good original condition.
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Intent on exploring post-apartheid life in South Africa, this work by Johannesburg-based photographer, Mikhael Subotzky, is part of a larger photographic series that focuses on the South African town of Beaufort West.  Concentrating on this run down town, located 200 miles from Johannesburg in the expansive and arid Great Karoo Region of the Western Cape, ‘these photographs give expression to something one understands—even while choosing to forget—whenever one passes through a distant rural town: that the South African countryside has lost the discrete identity it once possessed; that it is becoming a repository for the people and things cities cannot contain’ (Jonny Steinberg, Beaufort West, p.74). At the same time, Beaufort West is also an example of another ongoing issue in South Africa, whereby the rural areas are being drained of much needed workers as communities continue to migrate towards larger cities in order to make a living.

As with many of his works, the artist imbues this image of four township children clinging onto a white plastic sheet as the blustery weather threatens to carry it away, with an immense theatrical quality; it is clear that these are not simple representations of life in rural South Africa. Subotzky’s images grant the viewer the privilege of being privy to the imaginative minds of the people he photographs. The artist presents rural life in the Great Karoo through the creative and inventive eyes of his subjects, who use the shoot as an opportunity to reimagine and transport themselves. Here, we witness four children expanding the boundaries of a utilitarian object and carrying themselves past the confines of their location to a destination that is unknown to the viewer.

Tackling various themes, such as the South African penal system or the photographic process and perception of an image, the artist has created a broad repertoire of work consisting of photography, video and film.