Hlala Nami by Thato Toeba
On Our Radar showcases images from today’s photographic talent—works that challenge, inspire, connect, and excite us.
In this work by Thato Toeba, faces and figures, silhouettes and colours, patterns and textures, all come together to form a dreamlike composition. Their process of collage-making is intended to be disruptive; to raise questions about the supposed reliability and objectivity of archival material, particularly photographic archives.
Hlala nami demands repeated examination in order to detect the subtle dialogues between the fragments in the frame: crowds, garments, and landscapes intermingle, dissolving clear boundaries between individual portraiture and collective memory. The deliberate obscurity between the various outlines and figures signal to those who have historically been omitted, or underrepresented, in visual archives. Toeba’s process of erasing, layering, and recomposing produces a new way of seeing, and serves as a reminder to question what is assumed to be objective.
About the author
MARIE GOTO is a photographer and assistant curator at Foam. She co-founded Ito Collective, a Rotterdam-based collective rooted in the Asian community. Ito Collective pushes to create more narratives around Asian entrepreneurs/creatives based in NL and Asian cultures in general to encourage empowerment.