The  approximate English translation for the Xhosa word  ‘ixesha’  is time. By titling his third solo  exhibition with Goodman Gallery iXesha!,  Jabulani Dhlamini offers a lens for considering this  elusive concept through his photography,  which  expands  on  the  notion  of  time in various  ways.

This  early-career  survey brings together recent  bodies  of  work  in  which Dhlamini  explores  the  concept of a collective national memory  in  light  of South  Africa’s  traumatic  history.

iXesha! follows hot on the heels of Dhlamini’s solo exhibition at Goodman Gallery Johannesburg earlier this year, which featured work from his most recent series, iQhawekazi (2018), in which the artist captured the atmosphere surrounding the passing of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Several photographs from this series were published in the Financial Times special ‘Millennial Edition’ in April for which Dhlamini was dubbed ‘one of the best young photographic talents around the world’. Several never before seen images from this moving series will feature on iXesha! These images will be shown alongside work from other series, such as Recaptured (2016), which was exhibited earlier this year in an exhibition Dhlamini was chosen to take part in by the late David Goldblatt at the French Institute in Johannesburg.

For  Dhlamini, iXesha! represents  an  important  moment,  ‘bringing  together various  bodies  of  work  that  document  the  present  in  different  contexts,  as  I lay  down  a  foundation  for  navigating  the  future’.

According  to  curator  Teboho  Ralesai,  Dhlamini’s  subtlety  in  vision  stems from  the  fact  that  he  sees  the  self  as  equally  important  to  the  collective: ‘This  translates  into  shooting  quiet  moments  and  symbolic  objects,  often pointing  away  from  the  action,  which  can,  in  turn,  resonate  very  powerfully with  a  sense  of  collective  feeling  and  memory.’

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