Join us for the opening of our new exhibition, Deaccessioned, in collaboration with the Hidden Years Music Archive, on Wednesday the 15^th of April at 18:00, and an album launch and concert at 19:00.

Deaccessioned presents a series of new works developed in response to decayed photographs, sound, and objects from the Hidden Years Music Archive. Rather than treating these materials as stable records, participating artists and writers engage them as sites of transformation, shaped by time, water, insects, and handling. The exhibition shifts the focus from historical information to aesthetic and material change, inviting new ways of seeing and interpreting the archive.

Newly commissioned texts are placed in conversation with these altered images, featuring contributions from some of South Africa’s leading writers, including Aidan Erasmus, Diana Ferrus, Paula Fourie, Athol Fugard, Stacy Hardy, Ronelda Kamfer, David Mann, Wamuwi Mbao, Mbe Mbhele, Charles-Pierre Naudé, Vuyokazi Ngemntu, Pieter Madibuseng Odendaal, Jolyn Philips, Nathan Trantraal, and Ivan Vladislavić. The exhibition also includes a series of Giclée prints by Nicola Deane and Jurie Senekal, and work by Heléne van Aswegen and Nelisiwe Xaba.

The evening programme includes an album launch and concert of Hypha, a series of seven new compositions by Cara Stacey. This work draws inspiration from decayed archival material in the Hidden Years Music Archive. Working with multispecies provocation, time travel and code, Stacey explores how improvising and creating with tape, de-composition, images and mould could shape our listening – opening it up to dissonance, unpredictability, and change. She is joined by Keenan Ahrends and Matthijs van Dijk for the performance.

In the coming months, there will be a walkabout with some of the writers and artists of this project as well as a film screening of hypha, a film by Aryan Kaganof. This film uses found footage from the Hidden Years Music Archive and an original score by Cara Stacey in a profound reflection on time, memory, and decay. More information will be shared in following newsletters.

These works form part of the research project Decay without Mourning: Future-thinking Heritage Practices, funded by the Riksbankens Jubileumsfonds. For more information, please click here. 

Please book here. Entry is free and all are welcome!