#thania petersen

[hydeordie]

Thania Petersen, Drowned Bodies Never Die, silk embroidery thread on cotton poplin stitched onto linen, 2022

[mademoiselleclipon]

Thania Petersen

[heywhereartthou]

How a slave from Mauritius led a rebellion in Cape Town

And how he was influenced by a revolution in Haiti

Cape slaves — those who worked under Dutch colonizers — had a history of revolt and defiance. “Throughout the preceding 150 years of slavery at the Cape slaves had often resisted their owners. This was both by overt attacks on individuals or their property – fields and vineyards waiting to be harvested often went up in flames – as well as by less obvious means such as working slowly, breaking equipment or poisoning food.” -Nigel Worden for GroundUp

Tuan Guru, an Indonesian prince, came to the Cape as a political prisoner for conspiring against Dutch colonizers. Though a prisoner, his act of resistance opened the path for bringing Islam to Cape Town, where he established the first “masjid” or mosque in South Africa, Auwal Mosque.

Artist Thania Petersen, a direct descendent of Tuan Guru, elaborates on this important past (as well as lineage to Tuan Guru) in her work, highlighting the contributions that her people have made to modern South Africa and Cape Town. Learn more about her and her work here: http://bit.ly/WhereArtThouWeb. 

[selfportraitsofcolor]

Thania Petersen, b. 1980 I Am Royal South Africa (2015) [Source], [Source]

Between 10 and 5 says:

Thania Petersen’s current work began with a search to uncover her Cape Malay heritage and in doing so, to bring to light a vital aspect of her identity. This search was initiated by her father, who many years back traced her family’s lineage back to Tuan Guru – a prince from Tidore who became the first political prisoner to be held on Robben Island in the late 1700s, and is now regarded as the father of Islam in South Africa. 

Thania continued her investigation at the Indonesian Consulate in Cape Town and in response to her findings, created the body of work, I Am Royal. As the subject of these photographs she places herself directly within the context of her own history, staking her claim to a lineage.

[heywhereartthou]

The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art in Cape Town is the largest museum to open among African countries in a century. According to the museum’s designer, Thomas Heatherwick, this is the first institution, much like the Tate in London, that showcases the contemporary art of South Africa and other African countries. 

But an institution of this nature, established and designed by a mostly White team, begs the question: can it also reach South Africans, who are living in post-apartheid aftermath?

Art created by Black artists (and mostly curated by Black curators) fill the majority of its 80 galleries, surrounded by spiraling walls (pairs of old grain silos in Cape Town’s harbor serve as its foundation). Cape Town, though, is a complicated city, a hot spot for European tourists and affluence, inaccessible to the townships and communities that encircle it. Despite this complexity, @thaniapetersen (whom we featured in Episode 4) says ZeitzMOCAA is a great start for artists of color, to help them be visible and their voices heard. “‘What is important is that we are here now, and we are changing it,’” she said, according to @globeandmail. “‘The only way we can change it is actually by being present in these spaces. If everything is kept outside, how will we ever be able to change it?’” (Photos via @zeitzmocaa on Instagram. Photo 1 features @lungiswa_gqunta's “Divider” (2016) in the front and @sthemse's “Signal Her Return” (2016) in the back. Photos 2 and 3 showcases works from Kudzanai Chiurai and @nandiphamntambo)

[heywhereartthou]

“Afrikaans” is a Dutch creole language, derived from the various mother tongues of SA’s Cape Province settlers. It’s one of the many things that colonizers adopted and erased of its non-Western roots. More here: http://bit.ly/ThaniaPetersenxWAT.

[heywhereartthou]

SA’s apartheid government categorized its citizens through a complex set of racial classifications. These classifications — White, Black, Coloured, or Asian — dictated home, right to vote, who you could marry, occupations, and the public facilities you could use.

Apartheid is theoretically no more, and South Africans now have the right to claim the identity they seek, says artist Thania Petersen.

Grab the full episode here: http://bit.ly/ThaniaPetersenxWAT.  

[heywhereartthou]

Eid Mubarak! Next episode coming soon, featuring Thania Petersen. Thania's work examines the past and present of Muslims in South Africa's Western Cape.