'Remembrance'
Hasan and Husain Essop at Goodman Gallery CapeIn an exhibition of new photographs titled 'Remembrance', Hasan and Husain Essop explore the notion of memory, specifically in relation to the history and practice of religion. Tracing their travels to Mecca, Jerusalem, Amsterdam, Hamburg and Senegal, the photographs seek to uncover and engage with the particular and unstable memories of each location — the birthplace of Islam in Mecca, inaccessible to most non-believers, and now paved over with parking lots and luxury hotel chains; the sacred sites of Jerusalem, fought over, destroyed and restored time and again for centuries; the ostensibly liberal cities of Western Europe, where paranoia, surveillance and religious profiling are becoming normalised; and Dakar, where the legacies of slavery and colonialism gave rise to unique Islamic identities and practices, which are increasingly under assault by globalizing forces.
Being concerned with the notion of remembrance – particularly with reference to religious sites, ancient and modern – and with the tensions inherent in the act of photographing and recording memory, the exhibition raises a number of important and topical questions relating to history, heritage, religious identity, and the politics of place in the context of globalisation and xenophobia.
11 August - 15 September
