it is a gathering of the elders
George Hallett, Peter Clarke’s Feet, 1979.
it is a gathering of the elders is an exhibition centred around 17 photographs by George Hallett that form part of the Art Collections of the University of Cape Town (UCT), following their acquisition in 2020 by UCT’s Works of Art Committee (WOAC).
The title, it is a gathering of the elders*, is borrowed from a poem by James Matthews, a longtime friend of Hallett, who is also one of the few living elders included in this Hallett-WOAC collection and exhibition.
Hallett’s practice as a photographer was influenced by a range of artists working in different media and forms, many of whom were also his friends and collaborators. His archive can be said to be a testament to his appreciation for these rich influences, with much of his work including evocative portraits of this artistic community, such as his series on African writers or jazz musicians. This exhibition project is guided by a similar ethos – a nod to Hallett’s contributions, and also as an acknowledgement, of the contributions made by the other elders in the photographs, whether part of his artistic community or not. Instead of letting the photographs speak for themselves, as if they ever do/can, this exhibition is an invitation for others to participate in the construction of various biographies of Hallett and those he photographed, from multiple voices and positionalities.
The 17 photographs in the exhibition span several decades of Hallett’s practice between the 1960s and 1990s; they represent several bodies of work, such as his documentation of South African artists in exile or in his role as the official photographer for the South African Truth and Reconciliation Committee (TRC) in the 1990s. In a way, these photographs allude to the rich life that Hallett lived, as an artist, traversing multiple spaces and locations (mobility). But what of the lives of his photographs (and their kin, from the same body of work)? And what of those lives that he photographed?
The exhibition does not attempt to resolve or answer these questions but again offers a space to contemplate our relationships to photographs and photographers, privately and within institutions. It is also a prompt to interrogate who speaks for photographs. Is it the artist? Those represented/photographed? Or even those who are left behind? The curator(s)? The collector(s)? As we grapple with issues of representation and voice, and of custodianship and archiving within our institutions, these questions seem critical.
*The poem it is a gathering of the elders is included in the publication Age is a Beautiful Phase by James Matthews, edited by Siona O’Connell and published by Centre for Curating the Archive, 2014.
it is a gathering of the elders
25 June – 16 July 2022
Michaelis Galleries
Hiddingh Campus,
31–37 Orange Street,
Gardens,
Cape Town
