Aba té Home: Journey to Robben Island

Fortuin, Sam Seth

Aba té Home: Journey to Robben Island

Master Thesis

2022

Abstract

Aba té Home – Journey to Robben Island, is a memoir, reflecting how my creative practise and research leads to a recollection from my childhood. I recalled how the elements of fire, whiskey and the soil came together to create a form of storytelling that rooted my sense of home. By following the conceptual thread of my recollection, I found myself in my father's former communal prison cell holding on Robben Island. My understanding is that our contemporary social imaginary in Africa is influenced by the remnants of colonial archives. The form of this project is therefore inspired by the need for an alternative perspective, that is rooted in indigenous sensibilities (Harris, 2002:84). As an artist, stories prompt my encounter with new perspectives. Therefore, this story offers a window into the elements of my community's storytelling practices and how they have come to shape my understandings. Overall, Aba té Home allows for the convergence of a variety of themes, ranging from the social complexity of archives, indigenous healing modalities, ancestral dreams and the layered meaning of the body through space and time. The telling of this story through written text is accompanied by my creative expressions in the form of visual journal entries, black ink encodings, mixed media paintings, installation and a video which was taken inside the space of the prison cell.

Keywords

Fine Art

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