Laduma
an installation by katherine heydenrich based on the novel by ak thembeka
Laduma, the story of a South African man dealing with the absurdity of his existence in Joburg - a city divided. Laduma is searching for his redemption from a world that merely accepts its ‘demonocracy’, a people who have simply accepted their reality and not embraced a change, a difference of cultures.
The installation deals with the experience of two contrasting worlds with a total lack of connection, and how one experiences oneself within these two unrelated worlds. Two alienated worlds. The constant blur between reality and non reality, consciousness and unconsciousness and how one slips between these states.
One moves through the installation through a series of dream like panels depicting the mundanity of life, the meaningless of work and the sameness of everyone’s existence. This space represents the ‘other’ world that Laduma experiences in the novel. A world where he feels uncomfortable ‘Laduma does not know this area, he walks slowly, hesitantly, with none the confidence of his Twist Street gait.’
The central solitary space in the installation represents the Hillbrow in the novel, a cocooning space where Laduma feels most alive. One is faced with the certainty of contemplation of survival in this space. Ambient sounds of Hillbrow rush hour traffic dominate this small blacked out room. Hillbrow is ‘chaotic, messy, urgent, alive with a vibrant occult energy totally alien to the non black world.’
Joburg, is a place where we do not celebrate our differences; a place still in transition. We need to realize our own identities before we can begin to be free, before we can begin to connect these two worlds. ‘Fundamental change will only happen when we realize we are all coloureds. That’s it!’
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