Mixedess is My Mythology - Continuation

Farren van Wyk was born in South Africa and partly raised in the Netherlands. She has a truly dual perspective on her country, which is visible in her work.

Mixedness is my Mythology explores the connections and contradictions of migration, ethnicity, apartheid and colonialism between South Africa and the Netherlands. Being born in 1993 has made me a child of apartheid in South Africa while migrating to the Netherlands at a young age has created two homes for my family and me.

My South African grandparents were ethnically classified as Coloureds and forcefully removed during apartheid’s racial segregation while we lived on an idyllic Dutch farm.

Apartheid was architectured by the Dutch Henrick Verwoerd, who was inspired by Hitler’s racial doctrine. As my family’s history and heritage have been defined by displacement, this body of work embodies a space where our mixed roots come together in harmony and creates room for the healing of intergenerational traumas.

The conscious choice of black-and-white analogue photography refers to the anthropological inhumane images of people of color that were used to support ideas on race and legalized oppression. Being neither black nor white, a person of color sits in a gray area where everything is possible. In this gray area, our family reclaims and redefines what it means to be mixed by creating a new and personalised iconography that visualizes our transnational identity. This body of work not only emphasises our African roots but speaks to the transatlantic slave trade that brought Africans to America, whom we feel connected to and inspire us. The parallels between African American, Black and South African culture comes through in numerous aspects. It seeps through in the fact that we play basketball and watch the NBA. The connections continue in the choice of black clothes and brands like Nike. The music we listen to and get our hair braided or styled in waves is deeply embedded in our identity. Photography is my medium that, not only brings out our mixedness, it shows a reconciliation, an acceptance, an ode to being Coloured.