Zip Zip My Brain Harts: Photographs by Angela Buckland, text by Kathleen McDougall, Leslie Swartz and Amelia van der Merwe
reviewed by Carol Brown
When I first saw Angela Buckland's photographic exhibition 'Where�s Nikki?' which was exhibited with her Jacobs Men's Hostel series a few years ago at the KZNSA, I was intensely moved by both installations. The Jacobs Mens' Hostel series comprised over 300 small photos of identical, individual empty beds in a men's hostel in Durban, but her eye had caught something in each bed which personalised the space while suggesting a strong human presence through absence. The book,Zip, Zip my Brain Harts, which takes its title from the wordplay of a child who has cerebral palsy, reproduces a series of works from that same exhibition called The Sticky Tape Juice Collection and, looking at them again, I see a similar quality.
Each photo presents a magnified view of an article of clothing which is stripped from an outside context and, like the beds, empty of apparent human presence while subtly suggesting it. The way in which each article of clothing is composed in the frame makes it seem to float in space in a similar fashion to a picture of a religious icon. They are, at first glance, not easy to read and I am not sure whether, when they were first exhibited, they were accompanied by text and, if they were, I have forgotten it. That is where showing in a gallery is different from presenting a picture in a book - in a gallery the picture is superior whereas in a book such as this the context is altered and this can shift the meaning.
One of the items of clothing is a T-shirt which at first glance is just that, but the lighting of the image brings to attention a concealed bib lining the fabric which initially reads as a shadow. In the text of the book Buckland explains how, when Nikki, her son, who is classified as a disabled child, was a toddler he dribbled noticeably causing stains to appear on his clothes. To others this became a sign of his disability and marked him as different. His grandmother sewed him special T-shirts with concealed bibs so that he would look the same as other children. That gesture was one which marked a sensitivity fuelled by love and compassion illustrating one of the many ways in which family members and carers strive to make life's path a little easier for a disabled child. Each item of clothing photographed shows how different families have done similar things to make sure their children fit in and can be part of a peer group.
The photographer then continues this exploration of how, like any other child, the family dynamics shift according to each different member. The Where's Nikki? series, where the original photos were produced on a large overwhelming scale (4 x 2.7m each), capture the many complex emotions and relationships which are brought to the fore when parents find their child is 'different'.
The scale of those photographs created a sense of involvement with the viewer which doesn't happen looking at the reproductions in the book. However the book brings another dimension to them. The power of the photos is shared with the power of the written word and the art of the layout artist, in this case, Garth Walker whose design and use of imaginative text reinforce the message. When books are about art, too often the quality of the layout is not given sufficient attention but in this case the layout adds significantly to the book. Garth Walker (well known for hisiJusipublication) has taken great care to ensure that the sensitivity of the photographs and text is matched by an inventive layout and high quality paper and images. The integration of informative and sensitive text by Kathleen McDougall, Leslie Swartz and Amelia Van der Merwe, affords a greater understanding of the different experiences which are not always easy for an 'outsider' to understand.
I use the term 'outsider' here consciously because it is so often the disabled or diseased or differently pigmented body which groups of people consider the 'other'. This is because our power relations have been built up and perpetrated through many different ways of writing in the media, so-called scientific research and also writing of medical pathologies in text books where images have been used to exaggerate and make unattractive anything which departs from a stereotype of the healthy and ideal body. We are now beginning to understand this and also to realise how psychologically and physically dangerous this viewpoint can be.
The final section of the book shows the photographer's most recent work about her 'journey with Nikki'. These photographs depict him playing with his shadow which to her suggest those moments of lightness, darkness and spaces in-between. In short, the traits associated with photography and her photographs speak also of magical moments, the transitoriness of different states of being and the fact that there are many things which are simply intangible. She seems to suggest that, despite her intensive involvement and exploration of the condition of disability, there are no answers or certainties in that condition.
The book brings many photographic installations to a wider public and allows the viewer access to a world which is so often invisible.
The series Where's Nikkiand Jacobs Men's Hostel are in the permanent collection of the Durban Art Gallery. Zip Zip My Brain Harts is available at Exclusive Books, Adams, Kalahari.com, HSRC Press and is also available as a free download.
Hardcover: 91 pages
Publisher: HSRC Press ( 2006)
Language: English
ISBN: 0-7969-2159-8
