A pair of black and white photographs catches our eye. Both show the same motif: an
everyday, untidy, deserted backyard. A non-place. The artist Mbavhalelo Nekhavhambe has
manipulated one of the two prints himself. Patches of yellow paint smeared by hand, traces
of fire and smoke lend it a stronger, more emotional expression.
We find ourselves at a dead end. The artist’s visual language is as succinct as it is
unmistakable. Squeezed tightly between a wire mesh fence on the left and another on the
right, a narrow corridor ends abruptly - in nothingness. There is something hasty, furtive and
rushed about the photograph. Whether this place is supposed to be a hiding place so as not
to be found, an escape route that ends abruptly, or a place for a secret meeting, the artist
manages in an instant to give us the feeling of being lost, forbidden, of being pursued
perhaps, at any rate a feeling that our existence is not at peace, but in danger, in persecution
and fear.