South African apartheid has ended, but for the migrant laborers of Johannesburg, little has changed. They have not seen their families in months. By day, they operate clanging machinery on the streets of the desolate city. By night, they gather in the basements of the dirty hostels they share to... show off their clothes?
Beneath the filth and menace of Johannesburg, the city's oppressed black population partakes in a ritual known as "Swanking," holding elaborate competitions for the title of best-dressed. Photographer T.J. Lemon has documented this phenomenon in his new exhibit, "Oswenka: the Jeppe Hostel Swankers," debuting at the John Hope Franklin Center.
Lemon began photographing the Swankers of "Jo-burg" in the late nineties, but notes that the tradition has probably existed since the late fifties, when migrant workers would use their fashion sense to win the affections of ladies back home. These same men started holding competitions at the apartheid-era hostels they inhabited in Johannesburg for a chance to win a pooled entry fee, and, as Lemon puts it "feel like number one."
The top level of the exhibit displays black and white photographs of the competitions in progress, mounted plainly on the white walls. Playing in the background is the cheerful sound of the South African a cappella music that would round out an evening of Swanking. When you descend the steps to enter the main gallery, though, you find yourself torn from this role of impartial observer and plunged into the Swankers' realities. You're in a crumbling brick basement with exposed metal pipes lining the ceiling. Drowning out the joyous a cappella singing that filled the room upstairs are the heavy, industrial sounds of machinery. Pictures of the country homes that await the Swankers on their few opportunities for vacation form a background to images of the hostile city protruding into the room on corrugated metal backings. Hung from the ceiling is an assortment of suits and ties, begging to be selected for tonight's competition.
The installation of Lemon's exhibit brings into play the political subtext of apartheid that will forever be the undercurrent of cultural norms in South Africa. So much of the lives of Black migrant laborers remains entirely out of their control. They work in the city to provide for their families; they live in the hostels because it is the only affordable option; they defer to the white men because it is what they have been taught to do. In this way, Swanking becomes a means of defining their own space in a reality designed by external forces.
One viewer, Austin, 24, commented that he saw sadness in the effort of the Swankers to "maintain some sense of humanity in an otherwise demeaning environment." Lemon, though, insists the art of Swanking is about finding joy in the face of desolate circumstances. "The city is sad and the hostel is sad, but going to the competition--that's a celebration."
"Oswenka/Swankers of Jeppe Hostel in Johannesburg" will be shown in the New Media Space through April 9 in the John Hope Franklin Center.
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