Description

Transfiguration in Three Parts grapples with how transformation, oscillating between degradation and transcendence, is imagined through a racist and colonial filter within the pastoral. This includes physical contact with ‘blackness’ (Part 1), the ‘primitive’ African landscape (Part 2), and the conversion of black subjects into features of a Christian pastoral fantasy (Part 3). Visual references are taken from online interracial pornography, a silent film still (The Blue Lagoon, 1923), and an undated (probably early 20th century) photograph in the University of the Witwatersrand’s archive. Each chosen for their affective nature; each set within a vaporous atmosphere inspired by the colour swatches ‘Transcendence’ and ‘Night’s Delight’.