Notes

Image Courtesy of Ruth Simbao and Athi Patra Ruga.

Photographer: Ruth Simbao.

The present lot derives from a collaborative work between Athi-Patra Ruga and Mikhael Subotzky, curated and photographed by Ruth Simbao in 2012, titled Performance Obscura. It was a compelling and thought-provoking performance that encapsulated the artist's exploration of identity, gender and post-colonial narratives. In this site-situational performance, Ruga confronted the potential furtive gaze associated with the 19th-century camera obscura, subverting its historical function as a tool of surveillance.

In a 2014 analysis of the performance, Ruth Simbao highlights the dynamic interplay between expectation and reality in live art. The paying audience, anticipating a privileged view of Ruga's character through the camera obscura, found themselves redirected on a standard tour of Grahamstown. While Ruga, defiantly parading the streets in his elaborate balloon attire, reclaimed agency by engaging with casual bystanders who captured the performance on their cellphones.¹

The artwork is a part of Ruga's larger body of work that delves into the complexities of South Africa's history and the intricate interplay between race, culture and personal identity. Azania, an alternate name for South Africa, becomes a symbolic landscape in Ruga's narrative - a realm where the artist reimagines and deconstructs preconceived notions of the continent and its people.

^1. Ruth Simbao (2014) Site-Situational Performances in Cosmolocal Places: Athi-Patra Ruga and Anthea Moys, paper presented at the Art Council of the African Studies Association conference, Brooklyn Museum of Fine Art.

Exhibited

Yerba Buena Centre for the Arts and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, Public Intimacy: Art and Other Ordinary Acts in South Africa, 14 February to 8 June 2014, another example from the edition exhibited.

Literature

Glen Helfand (2014) Photograph Mag, Public Intimacy: Art and Other Ordinary Acts in South Africa, online, https://photographmag.com/reviews/publicintimacy-art-and-other-ordinary-acts-insouth-africa/, accessed 24 November 2023.