Lindokuhle

Sobekwa

Maps

the

Layers

of

a

Nation

Writer Zada Hanmer reviews Lindokuhle Sobekwa's Cape Town solo exhibition 'Shifting Sands', an exhibition including new work by the photographer.

‘Shifting Sands’ holds a quiet but insistent political charge. In the triptych' Inside the Erosion: iNdonga, Tsomo, Eastern Cape I, II & III' (2023), yawning dongas signify drought as a group of goats loiters on its steep slopes. In the third image, an empty jar of Purity baby food lies abandoned in the sand, hinting at human presence. In contrast, 'Ku Ndaba Sigogo, Qumbu Eastern Cape I, II, III & IV' (2024) spans the green, rolling hills of the artist’s ancestral home region. Located in the same province and photographed in consecutive years, the landscapes depicted in the two works appear as if from different worlds. Yet Sobekwa’s treatment of them remains the same: sweeping wide angles offer us a panoramic view. Throwing the dry and rainy seasons of the Eastern Cape into stark relief, the two sets of images become mirrors of one another and perhaps metaphors for the differing socio-economic dynamics that exist side by side in South Africa.