Are the fees gonna fall or nah? Installation Image

“I wanted to find a tool and a voice that would allow me to contribute to, and transform, critical and progressive narratives about my country and people. Visual arts and photography, in particular, became the vehicles that have given me the edge to make it happen.”

Musa N Nxumalo’s energised photographs are wallpapered across the entrance wall to the Grand Courts, projecting a youthful vibrancy that is infectious and transformative. The placement of these photographs is deliberate in acting to re-configure the space and energy of the ground floor of the Gallery, while also in dialogue with Barbara McGrady’s photographs across the room. Nxumalo chooses to depict the movements of young people across collective spaces, capturing a common spirit and energy. Clubs can become fertile spaces for the sharing and testing of politics, while jubilant bodies in motion that gesture towards dance energise sites of protest.
Nxumalo’s photographs capture the joy of individual and collective expression, presenting a positive image of youth culture that dissolves the binary of idleness and productivity through which young people are often reductively framed. Whether it be the student-led #feesmustfall movement or a jubilant moment of dance, these motions transform the future and both celebrate and activate change.