Margaret Courtney-Clarke: Dust on the Wind

Margaret Courtney-Clarke is a multi-award-winning Namibian photographer. The exhibition at the Francisco Carolinum presents works from over 40 years of work and shows what the artist has brought into the public eye for the first time: South, West and North African indigenous women in their domestic environment.

The artist also focuses on the dark history of the people who have historically lived in the Namib and Kalahari Deserts. The long-term relationships and friendships she has built over the years not only grant her access to intimate portraits of embattled but resilient peoples, but also address in detail the great social justice issues of our time - ongoing droughts, climate change, environmental degradation and the impact of extractive industries in a resource-rich but water-scarce country.
Courtney-Clarke's acclaimed project "Caged" reflects the constraints of socio-economic and political forces by documenting fences, pens and cages that variously limit, protect and demarcate Namibia's individuals and places. Her ongoing endeavour to advocate for the neglected and overlooked is pragmatic in its vision to highlight injustice, but poetic in its formulation. Margaret Courtney-Clarke reveals her resourcefulness and perseverance, drawing attention to the ordinary in extraordinary circumstances.

Curator: Virginia MacKenny, Emeritus Associate Professor of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, South Africa.