Pamela Phatsimo SunstrumDraft - Scene 29, 2024
‘Study Scene 29’ captures a charged, intimate moment between two figures caught in the suspended gesture of a kiss or perhaps the final moments of a lingering embrace. As with much of Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum’s preparatory work for ‘It Will End in Tears’, the scene is rich with ambiguity, inviting the viewer to consider not just what is seen, but what is felt and withheld. The figures are positioned with theatrical precision, drawing on Sunstrum’s deep engagement with cinematic language, where narrative unfolds not through action alone but through mood, shadow, and the weight of unspoken emotion.
‘Study Scene 29’ reflects the artist’s ongoing interest in the complexity of human relationships within systems of power, longing, and resistance. The image is less about romance than it is about proximity: how two bodies navigate desire, vulnerability, and trust in a world shaped by inherited narratives and social structures. As part of her ‘It Will End in Tears’ series, this scene contributes to a broader meditation on identity and performance, where gestures become acts of defiance, tenderness is political, and intimacy reveals what history often obscures.
