Iyatsiba Gallery Annexe hours:
Monday to Friday 09h00-16h00
Exhibition run:
3 September – 25 September
Venue:
Iyatsiba Lab,
Centre for Humanities Research,
66 Greatmore Street – entrance on Regent Street,
secure parking available
Enquiries:
centreforhumanitiesresearch@uwc.ac.za
The Iyatsiba Gallery Annexe at CHR is a participant venue for the city-wide Cape Town Photography Festival during September, hosting a solo exhibition by Naoya Yoshikawa. HOME: IE comprises a series of photographs (2020-2026) that speaks to notions of home as a more intimate landscape shaped by memory, change and belonging. This body of work began during Covid-19 as the pandemic transformed the meaning of home around the world and deepened for the artist his own reflections about its significance. Not only as a physical place but a repository of memory, identity and love. Iyatsiba will also host a related public talk by Yoshikawa on 3 September at 13h00 about his photography practice – details to follow shortly.
The Japanese word “ie” in the exhibition’s title means “house” as well as “home”, and can also evoke ideas of family, ancestry and bloodline. In his exhibition statement, the artist elaborates: “In 2019, the house where my family had lived for 55 years was no longer ours. The building still stands, but it belongs to someone else and is no longer a place I can return to. When I stood before it a month after it was sold, I was suddenly overcome by the sensation that I had become a tiny insect. This series brings together photographs I made in Nara, where I was born and raised, beginning around 2010. In June 2019, my father sold the family home and moved to Osaka, where I now live, prompting me to reflect on what ‘home’ truly means. Built by my father in 1964, the house stood in what was then a quiet neighbourhood on the edge of the mountains and remained the centre of our family’s life for more than five decades.”
Cape Town Photography Festival takes place at myriad venues across the city along this year’s theme of Truth. Heidi Erdmann, the Festival Director, writes in the catalogue’s introduction: “In a world increasingly shaped by uncertainty, photography reminds us that truth is never fixed or final. But it is always worth pursuing.” The city-wide festival kicks off on 2 September and comprises exhibitions, walkabouts, performances, talks and workshops, all coordinated by Alexandra Martinez. The other exhibition venues during September extend from the V&A Waterfront across the city centre, to Parow, Kalk Bay and Hout Bay.
More information about the festival: www.capetownphotofest.co.za or contact: info@capetownphotofest.co.za