“Stop Nonsense is a night documentary project in which I seek to document the changes induced by the wall built around my grandmother’s house. The vocable “Stop Nonsense” which is generally used in South African townships refers to any wall constructed with bricks and cement with the intention of providing protection and avoiding conflicts between neighbours. The project site in a small township called Phola Park located in Thokoza, east of Johannesburg, South Africa. It was established in the early 1950’s under the racial segregation government act Native Urban Area Consolidation Act. The Township is a place with distinct ethnic groups but is predominated by low-class Xhosa people. I started this project in late 2015 when the wall was built up, I was spellbound by the sudden change after the wall had been constructed. Things were not the same anymore, particularly at night. The yard had a different ambiance, beyond the borders of the wall existed a vibrant township during the night. In this body of work, I have been capturing what is happening, but I have also been trying to recreate artfully pictorial scenes of the events prior to the construction of the wall as well as the events leading to its creation.”
Biography:
SIBUSISO BHEKA was born in 1997 in Thokoza, South Africa. He discovered photography in 2012 while in secondary school, with the Of Soul and Joy project. He studied photography at the Vaal University of Technology through a Rubis Mecenat and Easigas scholarship grant. In 2013, he exhibited in the group show In Thokoza organized by Rubis Mecenat at the Ithuba Arts Gallery in Johannesburg. He also joined ‘Live magazine’ as a part photographer. In 2014, his work was exhibited at the Addis Foto Fest in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In 2015, he participated in the group show “Free From my Happiness” at the Ghent International Photo Festival, Belgium which was later shown at the Perignem Studio in Beernem, Belgium (2016) and at the Johannesburg Art Gallery in South Africa. The same year, he took part in the group show “Fresh Produce” organized by Assemblage and VANSA at the Turbine Art Fair in Johannesburg. In 2017, his photographic series “Stop Nonsense” was exhibited in the Pan-African exhibition at the 11th edition of the Rencontres de Bamako, African Biennale of Photography and in 2018 at the National Museum of World Cultures in the Netherlands. In 2018 he was shortlisted for the Magnum foundation Photography and Social Justice Fellowship and in the present year 2019 he was nominated for the Joop Swart Masterclass and the CAP Prize for Contemporary African Photography 2019.
WORKS:
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