![]() Brown also posits that as much as the archive is produced from memory, the latter relies on it to continue to exist. Through understanding that the archive is produced, or rather constructed, it brings the fallacy of it being intrinsic historical fact to light.The archive is a “both less real or a ghost-like manifestation of memory” and a “crutch on which memory can rest and move forward.” The comparison of the archive to a phantom implies that, firstly, it is an incarnation of the past that not only prevails in but also haunts the present and secondly, that it is of a nebulous, ambiguous nature. The misconception that the archive is automatically synonymous with empirical evidence has paved the way for subjective, politically motivated historical accounts to be interpreted as objective truths. Various artists and curators alike in contemporary art have been delving into historical records to interrogate, critique and comment on monolithic representations of the past. The misconception of the photographic archive as objective truth Thus, the aim of this essay is to highlight how reconstructing the archive encourages new ways to see the Self, outside of the confines of a repressive historical gaze, and the impact that the reclamation of Self has on the processes of grieving and healing trauma through reconstructing collective memory and renewing collective identity. It is at this juncture that inherited trauma is healed through self-representation. ![]() The role of the archive is crucial: it blends the past and present to create the opportunity to retrace history and assemble the pieces of distorted contexts, which allows for Black people to reimagine and redefine who they are, instead of how they are told to be. I will also explore Makhubu’s body of work Trading Lies (2006) which further engages with the gaping holes in the way history is presented as universal truth as opposed to various perspectives of a given time and place. In Self-Portrait Project, Makhubu speaks to the power of the archive in shaping history, collective memory, identity and dignity. Representing Black bodies as people without social context is a way of objectifying them, and therefore dehumanising them. By so doing, Makhubu addresses the sense of alienation that has trickled down generations of ruthless efforts to dispossess and erase Blackness, to ultimately strip Black people of their sense of Self. ![]() ![]() To make this point, the artist inserts herself into the projection of images of unknown Black bodies captured by the colonial lens under the guise of anthropology. I pose this question in relation to Nomusa Makhubu’s work Self-Portrait Project (2011), where she explores how the anthropological ‘documentary’ photographic practices mentioned above consciously removed the identity of people of colour in the way they were represented. Courtesy: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Lindt, Untitled (Aboriginal man holding an axe), c.1873. Would it be true to say that such documentary photography captured in a wildly adorned studio through the western gaze is an accurate depiction of an undisputable truth? Lindt captioned the photographs such as “Aboriginal man” without even attempting to place them in the context of their respective cultures or mentioning their names. ![]() Lindt where he took portraits of various First Australian groups of people in the 1800s, in a studio that was dressed to look like the subjects were out in the wild, in their ‘natural habitat’. The extent of the subjectivity of the photographer can be noticed in anthropological photographic archives, where European photographers documented the indigenous people they encountered on their explorations without providing much context as to who they were, to which cultures they belonged or what their names were.Ī prime example, is the archive of J.W. It is through the eyes and the lens of the photographer that the image is constructed and captured. The issue with such a simplified definition is that it disregards the subjectivity and perspective of the photographer. The key word in this understanding is ‘accurate’, which gives the impression that what is documented is fact or undisputable truth. Collective Healing through the Archive: Nomusa Makhubu inserting the erased POSTED ON: FebruIN On Artists, Sibongile Oageng Msimango, Word Viewĭocumentary photography serves to present accurate accounts of historical events. ![]()
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