Zach Taljaard

For my exhibition entitled ‘CON/FRONT”, National Arts Festival 2006, this work was installed in the front room of Fort Selwyn, an old fort guarding over Grahamstown. The fort was built as a watch and signal tower during the frontier wars and today is a national monument. This evidently male created space with its function to protect against the ‘enemy’ inspired a body of work which dealt with confrontation. An installation of miniature busts juxtaposed on shelves entitled “Ghost images”. Presentation on shelves where important as they are usually used to store unused goods, put away to collect dust. The original bust, a self portrait, was press moulded to create duplicates, and was the entrance piece to the exhibition. These duplicates where each reworked to create different personas. The process of moulding is important as it reference being moulded by society,other individuals or historic events. The personas included a Boer and a Zoeloe, a Minister, a father and son, a mother, some bore the scars of confrontation on their faces, fist marks, cuts and bruises. With specific placement they create tension and also an ongoing conversation with each other and the viewer. These conversation in real life could lead to indifference, a misunderstanding which sometimes leads to confrontation and can lead to war. These untold tensions is however frozen in time and will forever stay unresolved.