The Johannesburg Art Gallery is pleased to present 1:1 by Alinka Echeverría, the British-Mexican artist’s first solo exhibition on the African continent.
Drawing from bodies of work created over the past five years, 1:1 brings into conversation photographic works developed in seemingly disparate locations within the global South. Mexico, South Sudan, and South Africa are sites that the artist has engaged with closely to interrogate contemporary ideas of the nation state, the formation of identity, the relationship between knowledge and belief, and the deep undercurrents of interconnection that run through the human experience.
Placed in the context of the colonial-era building of the Johannesburg Art Gallery her works engage in a re-appropriation of space that speaks to changing modes of seeing and the globalised linkages being made between south-oriented cultures.
In the award-winning series Becoming South Sudan, Echeverría takes us to a specific moment in time in the creation of the world’s newest nation state. Photographed in the weeks preceding the declaration of independence in 2011, this three-chaptered series explores the act of wearing as a mode of becoming, self determination, and self-reflection in a monumental shift in this society. Through powerful and sometimes confrontational portraits Echeverría captures the revealing gaze of individuals at a pivotal time in their lives and country.
Curated by Medeine Tribinevicius and Thato Mogotsi. Exhibition runs until 25 October 2015.
Alinka Echeverría – artist résumé:
Alinka Echeverría is a Mexican-British artist, working primarily in photography and video. Recently selected as 2015 BMW Photographer-in-Residence at the Nicéphore Niépce Museum, she was named ‘International Photographer of the Year’ of 2012 by the Lucie Awards, and won the HSBC Prize for Photography in 2011. She has been shortlisted for the FOAM Talent Award, the Magnum Expression Award and nominated for the FOAM Paul Huf and Prix Pictet Awards. Her work has been widely exhibited at international venues, including Maison European de la Photographie in Paris, the National Portrait Gallery in London and the Moscow Photobiennale. Echeverría earned her MA in Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh prior to studying photography at the International Center of Photography in New York.
