Morning After Dark - David Lurie by Sulger-Buel Lovell

Morning After Dark

Dav i d Lu r i e

Morning After Dark Dav i d Lu r i e

“Because I know that time is always time … And place is always and only place …” TS Elliot – Ash Wednesday

Morning After Dark David Lurie

“Morning After Dark” is a series of urban landscapes of the formal and informal parts of Cape Town, all of which have been photographed in early-morning light, when (mostly) no-one was present. The moments I have chosen to isolate, when the protagonists of the photographs are absent, was deliberate and something of a departure for me; while recording what is seen, what is shown invokes what or who is not shown. They are at the centre of this narrative: the true subjects of the photographs are, in this sense, invisible, yet contained within the photographs. What began ostensibly as a documentary project, places I visited in my travels around the city, turned into a visual essay

and meditation on time, place, memory and personal history; a mixture of journey and dream, bringing together – for me – the political, the philosophical and poetic. This journey was an intensely personal experience, making observations about what I saw, a photographic diary of sorts, where non-linear and disparate images and symbols of startling modernity are linked to other stories and experiences of increasing chaos, dislocation and displacement in an ever-evolving, bewildering and dizzy co-existence. The images form part of an ongoing book project about urbanization and the marginalized of Cape Town, provisionally entitled The Right to the City, to be published in 2015.

‘Joe Slovo Park’, Langa, Cape Flats, Cape Town (2013)

View of city centre from N2 Motorway (2013)

Morning After Dark: Structures, Infrastructures and Structural Inequality Dr. Camaren Peter

As the pressures of rapid urban growth have assailed cities and national governments the world over, a key question that has arisen over urban development is quite simply, “who are we building cities for?” The structures and infrastructures that underpin a city determine the degree to which a city is either inclusive or splintered. Structures hold more power than is commonly recognized over interactions between people, and between people and the city. They are the backdrop to daily life and interactions in the city, and sculpt out the space of those interactions. That is, while people are actively engaged in the processes of establishing, organising, enlarging and restricting control of city spaces (i.e ‘territorialisation’), structures and infrastructures are at the same time, but even more insidiously, also determinants in this same power struggle. Sometimes these processes converge. For example, while graffiti and murals have historically been viewed as an instrument of protest, or ‘de-territorialisation’, and express this historic resistance through its mere presence, it can be also be deployed as an instrument of territorialisation, where graffiti is commissioned to ‘beautify’ or ‘uplift’ spaces in the service of gentrification projects and programmes. On the other hand, these processes may diverge radically; for example, where the “inner city” accommodates foot traffic and is therefore accessible to the poor, other parts of the city, (e.g. the Foreshore and the ‘financial district’), are characterized

by structures that don’t facilitate, and even hinder, this access. The “fixtures” of the city may seem passive, but access, mobility and liveability are profoundly dictated by them. Simply put, they dictate who holds the balance of power in the splintered urban form of post-Apartheid South Africa. Apartheid legislation may have ended, but apartheid’s spatiality, or “assemblage”, remains resolutely with us, deeply encoded in the structures that mediate city life. When the city is abuzz at midday, it may seem like it never sleeps or ever awakens to a different reality; as if it is always being made, unmade and remade in myriad interactions between people, amidst the structures and infrastructures of the city. The moments after dark therefore expose these city’s structures and infrastructures in stark relief; when the forces that simultaneously constrain and facilitate the city’s inhabitants – and their interactions – during the day are exposed, for a brief period. In the absence of people, the structures and infrastructures of the city become more conspicuous, and are made profoundly present; they are no longer a passive backdrop to the life of the city, but the very skeleton upon which the soul of city is brought to life. David has chosen to capture the early moments of the day, as it reminds us of what isn’t there; this is when the absence of the city’s people becomes louder, more pronounced amidst the overwhelming silence of the city’s structures.

Cape Town train station, from N2 Motorway (2013)

Langa, Cape Flats, Cape Town (2013)

View of the city centre, Zonnebloem (formerly District 6) and Woodstock from above De Waal Drive (2013)

Philippi, Cape Flats, Cape Town (2013)

Hout Bay valley, from Imizamo Yethu, Hout Bay (2013)

Imizamo Yethu and the Hout Bay valley, from my home (2013)

Cape Town 'City bowl' and beyond, from Tafelberg Road (2013)

Zonnebloem (formerly District 6), Woodstock, city centre, Cape Town harbour and beyond, from above De Waal Drive (2013)

Imizamo Yethu, Hout Bay, Cape Town (2013)

Foreshore, V & A Waterfront, from BoKaap, Cape Town (2014)

'Silo', home of the new Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA), V&A Waterfront, from the Cape Town harbour ship-repair facility (2014)

Isiqalo informal settlement, Philippi, Cape Flats, Cape Town (2013)

Entering the city centre from the N2 Motorway, Cape Town (2013)

Living under a bridge, city centre, Cape Town (2014)

Isiqalo informal settlement, Philippi, Cape Flats, Cape Town (2013)

Harbour, Cape Town (2013)

Container harbour, Cape Town (2013)

Hout Bay harbour, Cape Town. Diptych 1 (2013)

Hout Bay harbour, Cape Town. Hangberg in the background. Diptych 2 (2014)

Young boy and his 'home', station precinct, Cape Town city centre (2014)

Members of the “Ilitye Zion Church of God”, Sunday morning, Hout Bay beach, Cape Town (2014)

Cape Town city centre, diptych 1 (2013)

Cape Town city centre, diptych 2 (2013)

Construction site, Foreshore, Cape Town (2014)

Construction site, Foreshore, Cape Town (2013)

Homeless, station precinct, Cape Town city centre (2014)

“Sunshine Boy”, derelict building, Woodstock, Cape Town (2014)

Khayelitsha, Site B, Cape Flats, Cape Town (2014)

Refugee from DRC, Zonnebloem, Cape Town (2014)

'Joshua', refugee from Zimbabwe, Cape Town (2014)

Joshua's home, BoKaap, Cape Town (2013)

Imizamo Yethu, Hout Bay, Cape Town (2013)

Forest, Tafelberg Road, City bowl, Cape Town (2013)

Imizamo Yethu, Hout Bay, Cape Town (2013)

Electricity grid from the N1 Motorway (2013)

Forest, Tafelberg Road, City bowl, Cape Town (2013)

Imizamo Yethu, Hout Bay, Cape Town (2013)

Ysterplaat Airforce base, Milnerton, from the N1 Motorway, Cape Town (2014)

Former municipal building, Hout Bay, Cape Town (2013)

“We All Have Bad Days”, near Blue Downs, Cape Flats, Cape Town (2014)

Container storage, Paarden Island, Cape Town (2013)

Harbour, Cape Town (2013)

Financial district, Cape Town (2013)

A different day: Cape Town 'City bowl' and beyond, from Tafelberg Road (2013)

Woodstock, Lower Main Road, Cape Town (2014)

Selected solo exhibitions ‘Bitter Harvest’ 1992 (UK, Europe, US, South Africa)* ‘Life in the Liberated Zone’ 1993 (UK, Europe, US, South Africa)* ‘After Apartheid: South Africa’s black middle class’ 1995 (Commissioned by the Getty Museum, Los Angeles; toured US with ‘Life in the Liberated Zone’) Black Gallery, Los Angeles. ‘Struggling to Share the Promised Land’ 2001 (UK, Germany, Bahrain, South Africa)* District Six Museum, Cape Town. Museum Africa, Johannesburg. Woolfson & Tay, 2011 ‘Cape Town Fringe: Manenberg Avenue is where it’s Happening’ (Side Gallery, Newcastle, March - May, 2004), Cape Town (SA National Gallery), Johannesburg (PhotoZA Gallery), Amsterdam* *commissioned by Side Photography Gallery, Newcastle ‘Images of Table Mountain’ Cape Town International Book Fair (2006); Bell Roberts Gallery, Cape Town (2006); Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg (2007), Hereford Photography Festival, UK (2007) ‘Fragments from the Edge’ Joao Ferreira Gallery, Cape Town (2008, for the Month of Photography), Cape Town International Book Fair, CTICC, Cape Town (June, 2009) ‘The Right To Refuge’ Holocaust Museum, Cape Town, June & July, 2010 ‘Off Side: Cape Town 2010’ Association of Visual Arts (AVA) Gallery, Cape Town, June & July, 2010 ‘The Long Street Show’ Association of Visual Arts (AVA) Gallery, Cape Town, March, 2011 ‘Encounters at the Edge’ Photographers’ Gallery, Cape Town, 11 July – 31 August, 2012 Bekris Gallery, San Francisco, USA, 1 November 2012 - 7 January 2013 Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, April, 2013 ‘Morning After Dark’ Commune.1 Gallery, Cape Town, SA (23 September – 23 October, 2014)

Selected Group Exhibitions ‘From Pierneef to Gugulective’ 1910-2010: Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town Group show, April – September, 2010 ‘Present History II’ Photographers’ Gallery, Cape Town, September, 2011 ‘On the Beat – Photography Now’ Photographers’ Gallery, Cape Town, 2012 ‘Home’, Jewish Museum, Cape Town, Month of Photography/5, 2012 ‘In the Blink of An Eye’ Luoca Art Museum in Xiamen, China, 2013

Selected Art Fairs ‘Hereford Photography Festival’ UK, 2007 ‘Jo’burg Art Fair’ 2011 (Sovereign Art Foundation ‘finalists’ exhibition) ‘Photo LA Art Fair’ Los Angeles, January, 2012 ‘Contemporary Art Fair’ Zurich, Switzerland, 12-14 October, 2012 ‘Photo LA Art Fair’ Los Angeles, January, 2013 ‘Cape Town Art Fair’ Cape Town, February, 2014 ‘Jo’burg Art Fair’ Johannesburg, August, 2014

Awards Including: Arts Council of Great Britain Grant Awards (several) ‘Pictures of the Year International’ (POYi) [Magazine Feature]: 1992 Ilford Profoto (South Africa) [documentary features]: 1992 Nikon UK [Feature story]: 2000 “World Understanding Award” at the 61st Annual ‘Pictures of the Year International’ (POYi) Competition, for “Cape Town Fringe: Manenberg Avenue is where it’s Happening”, 2004 Sovereign Art Foundation / Sovereign African Art Prize: Finalist, 2011

Public Collections Iziko National Gallery Side Gallery, Newcastle Bradford Museums & Galleries Getty Centre for Arts & Humanities, Los Angeles Black Gallery, Los Angeles Essl Museum, Klosterneuburg, Austria

Books ‘Life in the Liberated Zone’ (Cornerhouse, UK, 1995) ‘Cape Town Fringe: Manenberg Avenue is where it’s Happening’ (Double Storey Books, 2004) ‘Images of Table Mountain’, (Bell-Roberts, 2006) ‘Encounters at the Edge’, (exhibition catalogue, Erdmann Contemporary, Cape Town, 2013) ‘Morning After Dark’, (exhibition catalogue, Commune.1 Gallery, Cape Town; ARTCO Art Gallery, Germany, 2014) ‘The Right to the City’, To be published in 2015

dr. Camaren Peter Camaren Peter (PhD)Â is engaged with theories of complexity, sustainability and urbanisation. He works closely with the Sustainability Institute (Stellenbosch University) and the African Centre for Cities (University of Cape Town) on issues relating to urbanisation and urban sustainability in African cities. He is an extraordinary senior lecturer in the School of Public Leadership in Stellenbosch University. Camaren has also worked closely with a wide range of local and global institutions (eg, UN-Habitat), and has published widely.

Acknowledgements My immense appreciation and thanks to: Tamzin Lovell Camaren Peter, for the numerous inspiring and informative conversations, long (and healthy) lunches. It has been a profound and weighty challenge living up to the privilege of collaborating with you. Sean Robertson, brilliant designer (and always an immense pleasure to work with). Janet Walt, for reading and editing all texts, for support and patience, your wisdom and intelligence.

DAVID LURIE www.davidlurie.co.uk Sulger-Buel Lovell CAPE TOWN www.sulger-buel-lovell.com Tamzin Lovell Miller (Director) Tel: +27 21 447 5918 Cel: +27 79 176 4292 tamzin@sulger-buel-lovell.com Sulger-Buel Lovell london www.sulger-buel-lovell.com Christian Sulger-Buel (Director) Tel: +44 203 268 2101 Cel: +44 7775 782 955 christian@sulger-buel-lovell.com Art director SEAN ROBERTSON seangraeme@gmail.com Printed and bound by HANSA PRINTING (PTY) LTD www.hansaprint.co.za

DAVID LURIE www.davidlurie.co.uk