ROOM Gallery presents an exhibition of new photographic works by Mack Magagane. In this latest body of work by photographer Mack Magagane, the exhibition “Somewhere Between Here” presents a photographic journey which captures temporal relationships, spaces and moments found when experiencing a city as somewhat foreign.

The images suggest a cinematic quality to the series, tempting, luring and seducing one in, onto these relatively intimate moments. Through the personal relationships that Magagane has developed during a three month residency at the CPIF in Paris, this body of work in its conscious and responsive formalities, depicts a witnessing of a youthful Parisian lifestyle. It is a glimpse of a city coming across as familiar yet, causing an element of uncertainty, through a ‘blurred’ lens of a semi-recognizable experiences, juxtaposed with unidentifiable subjects, sentiments or not much given context to each image, narrating the works’, “Somewhere Between Here”, entertains a sense of nostalgia in being in a foreign space that of Paris and the reference of home, Johannesburg. Longing for, exploring and questioning an identity of ‘place’.

The exhibition consists of images presented in light boxes as sculptural fragments of moments captured by the artist, in other words playing with the juxtaposition of the dimensionality of the mediums (photography and sculpture/object) and that of the experience. The format of the exhibition is that also it exists on two platforms whereas the former is its physical presentation the latter is in the form of a catalogue with texts by various authors.

Mack Magagane was born in Soweto, Johannesburg, in 1990. He completed his photography course at the Market Photo Workshop in 2010. He has been exhibited both locally and internationally. His series, …in this city, which was produced during his 2011/12 Tierney Fellowship at the Market Photo Workshop, was first exhibited at the Photo Workshop Gallery in 2012 and has since travelled to Portugal, France and Germany.
His projects have been shown in numerous biennales and galleries across the country and in Europe. Magagane was the 2011 ACT ImpACT Award for Visual Art recipient and later in 2013, was inducted in Mail&Guardian’s 200 Young South Africans. At the end of 2013, Magagane completed a three month residency at Centre Photographique d’Île-de-France, Paris, France as part of the French – South Africa season in France. Magagane currently lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa.

ROOM is an independent platform, showcasing visual arts-led, multidisciplinary programme of exhibitions, events, providing mainly emerging artists with agency and opportunities to present their work. A space dedicated to collaboration, dialogue and exchange.

ROOM Gallery/Projects, Space #4,
70 Juta Precinct,
Braamfontein, Johannesburg

www.urbanartprojects.org