The exhibition In Land We Resonate by Lakisha Apostel and Lungiswa Gqunta explores two distinct approaches to connecting with the earth. One excavates, while the other embeds herself into the soil. The artists reveal how gestures like digging and stirring the earth can open it as an archive of forgotten memories and suppressed histories. Their works show the soil not only as our foundation but also as an active witness to the past and future.
The artists each depart from their personal experience of displacement. Gqunta’s video installation is named after the Riotous Assemblies Act of 1956, a South African law that prohibited public gatherings in outdoor spaces. In her work, she examines alternative forms of gathering within the home as a way of accessing knowledge deeply rooted in post-colonial South Africa. Drawing on childhood memories, she shows how the tradition of women folding sheets can become a moment for collective dialogue.
Collectivity equally echoes through Apostel’s performance work We Shared a Belly. In this work, she gives form to the African diasporic experience through her personal journey of reconnecting with her homeland, Curaçao. To express this, she uses sculptural objects as ritualistic tools, allowing the uprooted body to reconnect with the earth.
In this exhibition, listening is not just an act of sensing but also a bodily act. Gqunta and Apostel, in this way of listening, are driven by curiosity, providing a contrast to colonial methods of gathering determinate knowledge as a means of control. The exhibition prompts you to consider: what can we hear when we listen decolonially?
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Lakisha Apostel (1999), born in Curaçao and currently based in The Hague, delves into themes of displacement and belonging through her work. Her birthplace serves as a source of inspiration, from which she delves into topics such as uprootedness and identity. Her performances often incorporate rituals, through which Apostel seeks methods of healing–not only on an individual level but also collectively.
In the work of Lungiswa Gqunta (1990), the complexity of South Africa’s post-colonial landscape takes center stage. The patriarchal and colonial legacies she observes in her surroundings serve as the foundation for multi-senso-ry installations that incorporate both hard and soft materials. This interplay of contrasts brings to light uncomfortable themes such as gender-based violence, inequality, and power structures within both private and public spaces. Through her work, Gqunta not only exposes these points of tension but also challenges viewers to reflect on the forces that sustain these inequalities.
