23/08/2022
Teresa Kutala Firmino ‘s “The Owners of the Earth” showing at until October 1st, 2022.
“The Owners of the Earth is a multi-series project, exploring the space between trauma and fantasy – a space where hope, faith and possibility can exist. The work is deeply connected to the trauma experienced by the women in the artist’s family, and the fantastical family history that has been passed down through generations. The Owners of the Earth series is an ever-evolving journey of research and a continuous unpacking of the relationship between trauma and fantasy.
In this body of work, the artist focuses on the psychology of trauma and the use of fantasy and imagination as a tool to address the present and the future, a way of reimagining a life outside of that trauma and the historical use of spirituality in addressing a collective trauma. The artist explores the concept of fantasy as fragments of memory pieced together, how memory often incorporates fantasy – particularly in collective memory. Recent theories in epigenetics suggest that trauma can be inherited and can be compounded through successive generations that have experienced trauma. Firmino investigates the concept of intergenerational healing through fantasy, the (hi)stories passed down through her family, and their role in intergenerational healing.”
Firmino was born (1993) in Pomfret, a former asbestos mine camp-turned military base in the North West province, where a group of former Angolan soldiers, who fought for the SANDF’s infamous 32 Battalion unit were relocated at the end of the South African Border War (1989). Her work surfaces from the collective trauma of the Pomfret community, and seeks to investigate the ongoing trauma African people continue to experience in the wake of colonisation, civil war and neo-liberal white supremacy.
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