A colony of sacred ibis clouds the sky above Robinson Deep, Johannesburg's oldest and largest landfill, circling above the trash, thetrucks, the people sifting through dumped discards. The site is an eerily dystopian convergence of human and more-than-human waste picking, united in professional determination, desperation. This dump sits atop a subterranean secret: a 130-year-old gold mine, where imperial industrialist Ceil John Rhodes first pioneered deep mining exploration, tapping into the gold veins of what we now know as Joburg to bring forth the devastating dynastic wealth of ‘Randlords’ and the accompanying (not to mention ongoing) dispossession of the Mineral Revolution. Here, the optics of the gold mine inaccessible to those not employed by it and lethal to those who are; inconspicuously gouging out both minerals and men, chewing up Black bodies and decimating Black worlds across southern Africa are reversed above ground in the uncanny reflection of the city’s bountiful consumerism. As above, so below.
Jamal Nxedlana’s new body of work, Made in Joburg, take this site as one of many cues for curiosity to travel across scales of time and space, using fashion as an interscalar vehicle to survey the aes- thetics and materiality of desire, identity expressions, consumerism, and subcultures. Produced on site at this landfill and other mine dumps across Johannesburg, his still and moving images invite consideration of the symbols and codes embedded not only in dress and performance, but also the global logistics, labour dynamics and class concerns often obscured from view when we talk about fashion.
Foreing Agent will be present with Jamal Nxdedlana at the unique and beautiful venue for the Art Fair, Shepstone Gardens which spans three acres in the heart of Johannesburg. From 24 - 26 May 2024,
