'Photographs 1924-2005' by Terry Kurgan
by Rika La Grange
Terry Kurgan's exhibition of photographs comprises two main series. The first deals with the awkwardness of teenagers, and the second with the ties of family, specific to Kurgan's personal history.
The positioning and size of the works in the gallery space contributed well towards giving the works meaning. The series of full-length photographs of teenagers, entitled Some Jo'burg kids was located at the exhibition's logical start, and grabbed the visitor's attention immediately.
The majority of these images were taken at a St. Valentine's Day disco at a school. The children are bound together by their appearance of discomfort and the images demonstrate the fragility of the veneer of bravado specific to the strange time between childhood and adulthood.
The stark light in each of the images illuminates the doubts these teenagers might be feeling about the changes taking place within and around them. The pressure to fit in with the 'crowd' vies with their desire to find a position in the world: for a teenager, the self is not yet fixed. These photographs leave one feeling unsettled and voyeuristic, almost answerable for the adolescents' discomfort, a sense of responsibility induced in the viewer by the simple gesture of looking.
For me, the photographs with only one subject were strongest. One feels that the presence of the lens is almost unbearable for the subject. Removed from friends who could help to contextualise their presence, the solitary subjects are unsure of how to pose.
The enlarged photographs of Kurgan's family, collectively entitled Scene of a crime were dealt with in a completely different manner and almost disappeared amidst the drama of Some Jo'burg kids. Scene of a crime describes Kurgan's childhood feelings about her family's photographs. She explains the series: very few family photographs survived when her grandparents emigrated to South Africa from Poland during the time of the Second World War, and the ones that remained always fascinated her.
These old family photographs are presented in a space in the gallery which is not obvious from the outset. When one 'finds' them, they lure one in. The enlargement enhanced their sense of mystique, as well as their sense of importance, and the big format is scrutiny-friendly. It's almost as if you are being forced by the artist to be fascinated by these images.
The Family affairs series consists of mother and baby photographs of three consecutive generations in Kurgan's family, photographs of Kurgan's two small children, and correspondence about these images between the artist and her mother. When I read the letters and the explanation of the series, I understood that the artist sees photographs as a monument from the past with inexhaustible clues to offer the viewer.
Kurgan's show was evocative and moving. The organisation of works in the gallery space contributed well to the feeling of intimacy in the pieces.
April 24 - May 14, 2005
Goodman Gallery
163 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood
Tel: (011) 788 1113
Fax: (011) 788 9887
Email: goodman@iafrica.com
Hours: Tues - Fri 9.30am - 5.30pm, Sat 9.30am - 4pm
