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22 | OPINION & ANALYSIS Sunday Times | April 19 2015 Struggle shooter puts the ‘fist and f lag’ label to rest Omar Badsha’s exhibition pursues ways of thinking beyond the prism of politics, writes Tymon Smith

MAR Badsha jokes hibition of Badsha’s drawings, since he started making art as a with two of the gallery woodcuts and photography that teenager in his hometown of assistants at the opens this we e k . . O National Gallery that In the room where we’re sit- Looking back on the environ- they are back late from their ting, photos from his series on ment into which he was born, lunch break, a right he fought India, Road to Tadkeshwar, are Badsha reflects: “Because of my for them to have back in the ’70s propped against the wall, await- upbringing and the community when he was involved in the ing their turn to be prepared. that I lived in, we were all as trade union movement. Th ey ’re just a small selection youngsters highly politicised. The assistants are setting up of the almost half a century’s “You grew up in a highly in one of the four rooms set worth of work that Badsha, who politicised ghetto, so what aside for Seedtime, a major ex- turns 70 this year, has produced comes first: your drawing, your photography, or your conscious- ness of who you are?” For Badsha, whose father was an activist and artist, political consciousness and artistic out- put have always gone hand-in- hand. Self-taught, he began taking photographs in the ’70s while ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE: Street performance watched by a crowd working in the trade union movement, initially for practical reasons, as a means of gath- I needed to around us”. ering material with which to He says: “When I started tak- produce slide shows for worker learn about my ing photographs, I already had a training programmes. neighbour clear understanding of my In 1979, he published his first ❛ across colour, audience and who my audience photo book, Letter to Farzanah, should be. with and the In- language and “I wasn’t there to say whites stitute for Black Research. religious lines must change; that wasn’t the The book was promptly primary motive. I would say to banned by the gov- my colleagues that we are black ernment. documentary photography in and proud, and we must begin to Since then he’s published nu- the wake of the rise of the black look at art in a much more merous other photo essays and consciousness movement. sophisticated way and not just exhibited his work from Durban He remembers the debate trot out the old thinking about to New York. among many of his friends, in- st r u g g l e . ” His photos look at the ev- cluding poets Wally Serote and In 1982, Badsha was one of the eryday lives of people from Grey Mafika Gwala (who died last founder members of the pho- Street to India, Ethiopia and year and from whose poem Bad- tographic collective Afrapix, Denmark in a distinctive black- sha has taken the title for the remembered for their pho- and-white style that “makes the exhibition), and writer James tographs of the increasing ordinary extraordinary”. Matthews about “who we were, struggle against the system. BURDEN OF TRUTH: Omar Badsha prepares for his exhibition at Badsha’s political involve- what we were doing and how to Although that was part of the the Iziko South African National Gallery Picture: ESA ALEXANDER ment meant that he came to represent what was happening wo r k Afrapix produced, Badsha argues that “a large number of journalists, and academics in particular, talk about the ‘f i st and flag’ but they forget that, of all the Afrapix members, I was the oldest and the most polit- ically developed. People forget that all of these were young photographers starting out, try- ing to find ways of seeing and HOMELAND DRAMA: An Easter passion play in the Transkei representing. People were evolving and learning from each other.” what should go where with his Badsha says he’s used this daughter, Farzanah, a curator in exhibition as an opportunity to her own right. create a new, mammoth pho- He looks around the room in tographic essay that combines which the prints are waiting to aspects of all his work to focus be unwrapped and hung on the on new themes and ways of walls and wonders: “Have I suc- thinking about his output ceeded in what I tried to do? To beyond the prism of politics. look at the everyday but at the He still photographs as much same time capture the complex- as possible wherever he finds ity of life in or himself and he’s still spurred on e l s ewh e r e ? by the impulse that has always “I know that in some in- driven his work — the need to stances I succeeded, but in oth- “use my art as a way of ex- ers it’s just been a damn failure. ploring, not making a major “But so what? Hopefully peo- st at e m e n t . ple can see that Badsha is not “I needed to learn about my just ‘fist and flag’, that there was neighbour across colour, lan- something more to it than that.” guage and religious lines.” A WOMAN’S LOT: Collecting mud to plaster a newly built home ý Seedtime is being exhibited at He’s frequently approached the Iziko South African National by young photographers look- Gallery in from Fri- ing for advice, encouragement happening in this country and they producing if they make edi- day to August 2 or his opinion of their work, and it’s incredibly exciting”, he also tions of five prints? As much as I although he’s “very, very cautions against the seduction admire them and their brilliant Comment on this: write to curious and excited about what of the art market. work, I find that they are selling [email protected] young people do” and feels that As he sees it, “a lot of young their souls to the market.” or SMS us at 33971 “there’s some incredible energy photographers are seduced by As we walk through the in the air and there’s so much the market, but for whom are gallery, Badsha stops to discuss w w w.t i m e s l i v e . c o . z a Just one look and it’s puppy love Pet owners love dogs like their kids — and the feeling is mutual

OG owners love their ways , ” he said. pets in the same way “They became attuned to our We congratulate Dr. Anna Mokgokong as the first as they do their chil- social cues in the way that D dren — and the feeling young children are. For exam- is mutual, scientists have found. ple, when dogs are presented female recipient of the prestigious Lifetime Researchers discovered t h at with an impossible task, they the levels of the hormone oxy- quickly turn to humans to see Achievement Award at the 2015 South African tocin increases in human and what to do, just like children do. canine brains when a dog is Wolves don’t do that. Premier Business Awards gazing at its owner. “Our relationships with dogs Oxytocin is known to play a are very much like parent-child strong role in triggering feel- relationships. We respond to ings of unconditional love and our dogs quite a bit like human protection when parents and children,” MacLean added. children look into each other’s “Brain imaging studies have eyes or embrace. shown that brain networks of The findings suggest owners mothers respond in the same love their pets in the same way way to pictures of their own dog as family members, and dogs and to their own children. return their devoted affection. “One evolutionary scenario “These results suggest that might be that dogs found a way humans may feel affection for to hijack these parenting re- their companion dogs similar to sponses and dogs over time may that felt towards human family have taken on more childlike members,” said Dr Miho Na- HEAVY PETTING: Oxytocin has strengthened the bond between and juvenile characteristics to gasawa, of the department of humans and dogs for millennia Picture: THINKSTOCK further embed themselves into animal science at Azabu Uni- our lives.” versity in Sagamihara, Japan. The researchers say the pa- “Oxytocin plays a primary When dogs are on wolves raised by humans, per, published in the journal role in regulating social bonding there was no increase in oxy- Science, shows that dogs feel between mother and infants and presented with tocin, suggesting that the hor- like a child of the family. between sexual partners.” an impossible mone evolved during the do- In a second experiment, the The researchers, of the Uni- ❛ task, they turn mestication of dogs that began researchers sprayed oxytocin versity of Tokyo and Duke Uni- 34 000 years ago. into the noses of dogs and put versity in the US, believe that to humans to Dr Evan MacLean, a senior them in a room with their own- oxytocin creates a “neural feed- see what to do research scientist at Duke ers and some strangers. back loop” that has strength- University, said dogs had learnt Female dogs responded to the ened the bond between humans to “hijack” the bonding pathway treatment by increasing the and dogs for millennia. They then measured levels of between parents and their amount of time they gazed at GROUP To test the theory, re- oxytocin in urine and found that children. their owners. COMMUNITY searchers put dogs in a room increased eye contact between “It’s really only in the last After 30 minutes, in further RAIL SERVICES with their owners and docu- dogs and humans had driven up couple of thousand years that evidence of the feedback loop, mented every interaction be- hormone levels in both species. we have kept dogs as pets, and oxytocin had also increased in tween them, such as talking, However, when they per- dogs began to be able to relate to owners of the treated dogs. — touching and gazing. formed the same experiments humans in meaningful social © The Daily Telegraph, London