Lest We Forget (2014)

Sandile Radebe and Jabulani Matthews Tshuma
Photos: Khami ‘Kutting Keith’ Moyo

Artist’s Statement: “The Drill Hall intervention is a response to, or is inspired by, the unsavoury state of the Treason Trial monument at the Drill Hall in central Johannesburg. Due to many reasons, this monument has been progressively falling apart over the years. Our aim is to restore the monument to its approxiamate original state, if not its exact original state. The project is therefore a response to this socio-economic-political climate of the inner city of Johannesburg. The intervention is partly to create awareness about the impact drug use has on the monument. Certain parts
of the monument that are made out of aluminium are stripped off to be sold for cash. The intervention is also meant to bring to the fore, once again, the names of people who were involved in their various capacities during the struggle for liberation in South Africa, with a particular focus on the treason trialists.

“We also aim to reinforce the notion of reading through cutting out more than 100 stencils of all the names that have been taken off the monument. The generic nature of the stencil is meant to connote repetition of text, which is a way of condoning the habit of reading, and in this case an historical reading. However this reading is not only literal but also symbolic of reading your surroundings and your social climate as well.

“Ultimately, the viewer or the user of this space is expected to engage with the space on many levels. Firstly on the historical significance, secondly geographic centrality of the site in Johannesburg inner city, and finally the sociological aspects that constitute this environment. In that way, we hope to use the medium of visual art to add value to the people that encounter this space in their various capacities.”