Mixedness is my Mythology
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Dates2020 - Ongoing
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Author
- Location Netherlands, Netherlands
Farren van Wyk (1993) is a South African and Dutch photographer and filmmaker.
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 colour that were used to support ideas on race and legalise oppression. Being neither black nor white, a person of colour sits in a grey area where everything is possible. In this grey area, our family reclaims and redefines what it means to be mixed by creating a new and personalised iconography that visualises our transnational identity. It is envisioning 'the becoming of' as this project is in progress since 2020 in which I see my brothers grow up.
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 connection continues in the music we listen to and that we get our hair braided or styled in waves. Photography is my medium that, not only brings out our mixedness, it shows a reconciliation, an acceptance, an ode to being Coloured.