Mixedness is my Mythology

Farren van Wyk (1993) is a South African and Dutch photographer and filmmaker.

Farren van Wyk (1993) was born in the last year of the apartheid era in Southern Africa, which was architectured by Dutch people. She moved to The Netherlands at the age of six. Being born in South Africa and growing up in the Netherlands has created an awareness of having a double gaze that is just as much South African as it is Western. The dutch participation in colonialism, slave trade and apartheid in South Africa is my heritage that I try to grapple with through photography.

What does it mean to be defined as a Coloured person by a white, European society in South Africa? What does it mean to have your grandparents forcefully removed while you grow up on a Dutch farm with all the space and freedom to celebrate a mixed identity?

On the farm my brothers and I call home, the genes of our South-African mother meets those of our Dutch father with love. I describe the forming, shifting and shaping of my brother's identities as something that is happening or rather dancing in the ‘gray’ area. Black and white are mostly represented as huge contrasts that, when mixed, form shades of gray. This gray area has no limits, referring to the endless possibilities of one's identity becoming tangible in one's personality.

The conscious choice of analogue black and white photography is because it erases all the colour in the world on film. The focus then lies on forms of black, white and all the shades of grey and draws attention to facial and bodily expressions. The body cannot be denied, it must be confronted as it states its existence and positions itself in the world.