Redressing Vogue seeks to uncover and expose the sexist and racist ideologies and practices that informed the making of this 1955 Vogue supplement. On the surface this 1955 Vogue supplement is an innocent representation of glamour, however, the world it depicts is populated solely by white people, a manifestation of apartheid’s ideological goals – that leisure and luxury be reserved for them. In its failure to reflect a larger, and more diverse South African context, it denies both the existence of black bodies, and their participation in, and contributions to fashion. This exhibition creates connections between the content, and gaps, of the 1955 Vogue and fragments of South African history and the South African present. In so doing, inserting the stories and bodies of the many silenced and ignored by ‘white’ spaces such as Vogue. Whilst this 1955 Vogue supplement was entering circulation in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Salisbury (now Harare), the community of Sophiatown was being forcibly removed to Meadowlands, the first of many communities to experience the horrors of the Group Areas Act.
As part of a generation that has encountered this history through inherited memory, storytelling and an ongoing societal debris, I have engaged both the form and strategy of collage with the aim of addressing the fragmentary nature of identities and histories that, often, fail to tell the nuanced and complicated stories of the marginalized. The redressed Vogue, presented here, is now filled with fragments of popular culture, political history and contemporary art and fashion. Ultimately, by considering the erasure of black bodies in this magazine and the erasure of black bodies through forced removals, the brutality of the latter becomes evident and visible in the former.
With thanks to Professor Fritha Langerman | Dr Erica de Greef | Professor Pippa Skotnes | Professor Siona O’Connell | Niek de Greef | Nina Liebenberg | Clement Jansen | Mogola Segoaa | Queezy | Kevin Nair | Dawn Chetty | Priscilla David| Fazlin van der Schyff
Photograph from 1956 Women's March from https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/lifestyle/2020-08-01-women-of-wonder-the-original-womens-march-remembered/)
Text from photograph of Womens March 9 Aug 1956 https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/1956-womens-march-pretoria-9-august
Photograph of Miss Africa South 1955, Hazel Futa from https://www.baha.co.za/search/?keyword=hazel+futa&pagenum=1&ordering=original_name&per_page=50&searchtype=keyword
Photograph of Purple Rain Protest on Adderley Street: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Police-firing-purple-rain-on-protesters-Cape-Town-1989-photographer-unknown-from-the_fig5_275449584
Policeman standing guard outside election station, 1988 from: http://martyrs-saints-sellouts.ccaphotography.org/a-policeman-stands-guard-outside-a-cape-flats-polling-station-during-the-municipal-elections-held-under-the-tricameral-constitution-1988/
Images from Thebe Magugu’s ‘Counter Intelligence’ SS21 collection from:
https://www.news24.com/arts/culture/women-undercover-the-five-spies-who-inspired-thebe-magugus-counter-intelligence-20200930
https://glamsquadmagazine.com/thebe-magugus-counter-intelligence-collection-is-all-you-should-see-today/
https://www.thebemagugu.com/
Miriam Makeba for Drum magazine by Jurgen Schadeberg from: https://za.pinterest.com/pin/274578908502336845/
King Kong logo from:
https://www.amazon.com/Nathan-Mdledle-African-Souvenir-Program/dp/B07QN1DXYZ
Text from: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/miriam-makeba-singer-banned-from-her-native-south-africa-for-fighting-apartheid-1009604.html
Photograph from David Goldblatt’s “Particulars” series from:
https://za.pinterest.com/pin/48273027241318559/
Glamour SA’s #Womeninmusic issue inspired Brenda Fassie’s aMagents music video from:
https://twitter.com/AsandaSizani/status/892287083632406528/photo/2
Poster from:
https://docplayer.net/99646125-Celebrating-women-in-south-african-history.html
Pin-up in Drum magazine poster from:
https://za.pinterest.com/pin/401172279278068336/
Lolita book cover from: https://twitter.com/RiteGud/status/1256638117458649089
“JOHANNESBURG 1952 Lending a hand for the cover pictures. Anthony Sampson was Drum editor for four years” from Sof’town Blues: Images from the black ‘50s by Jurgen Schadeberg (page 56)
Poster by Judy Seidman of the Medu Art Ensemble from:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/south-africa-gender-equality-and-morality-as-citizenship/
Photograph of Winnie Madikizela Mandela from: https://news.mandela.ac.za/News/Mandela-University-tribute-to-Winnie-Madikizela-Ma Text from: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20130522-winnie-mandela-mining-the-past
Black Sash protester from photograph by Neil Aggett from:
https://digitalcollections.lib.uct.ac.za/collection/islandora-16859
ANC Women's League poster from:
https://ancarchive.org/galleries/the-womens-march-of-1956/
ANC Women’s League logo from:
https://www.africanindy.com/opinion/where-are-all-the-great-women-leaders-in-the-anc-1205990
Photograph of Percy Qoboza, late editor of The World, from:
https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/south-africa/2017-10-27-journalists-no-longer-concerned/
Poster in protest of the banning of various black media following Steve Biko’s death from:
http://www.judyseidman.com/posters%20banning.html
Figures from photograph of June 16, 1976 student protests:
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/06/10/race-apartheid-united-states-george-floyd-protests/
Image courtesy of the O’Connell family archive (top left).
Image courtesy of the Queezy personal archive (bottom left).
Rest: https://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2015-02-13-dust-off-favourite-photos-for-special-exhibition
“JOHANNESBURG 1956 Women were arrested for vagrancy. Women were arrested for ‘night specials’. Women were monitored constantly for influx control. Identity cards, location permits, passbooks - all women now had to carry these documents at all times. JURGEN SCHADEBERG” from Sof’town Blues: Images from the black 50’s by Jurgen Schadeberg page 83
Photograph of Letta Mbulu on stage from: https://www.baha.co.za/galleries/jazz/ Are You Okay? (2019) by Dada Khanyisa from: https://artthrob.co.za/2020/03/11/good-feelings-for-what-dada-khanyisas-good-feelings/
L: “Kewpie Walking To Work” from Daughter of District Six archive (https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/catalog?f%5Bprimary_institution_ssi%5D%5B%5D=Gay+%26+Lesbian+Memory+in+Action+%28GALA%29&page=4) taken by Movie Snaps
[Background] Illustration of Mutual Heights Building, Darling Street, from A Short History of the South African Mutual Life Assurance Society (1940) from: https://www.mutualheights.info/2020/documents/OldMutualBldgInaugurationDoc.pdf
Number 41 of Group Areas Act 1950 from: http://www.historicalpapers.wits.ac.za/inventories/inv_pdfo/AD1812/AD1812-Em3-1-2-011-jpeg.pdf
Cuffed hands from Ernest Cole photograph from: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/12/arts/design/what-ernest-coles-hidden-camera-revealed.html
Images and text: https://cargocollective.com/sartists/Exhibition/Sports-Series-Tennis
Mass protest for open beaches at Strand beach (1980s) by Zubeida Vallie from: http://martyrs-saints-sellouts.ccaphotography.org/mass-protest-for-open-beaches-at-strand-beach/
Images from covers for Noni Jabavu’s books The Ochre People: Scenes from a South African Life and Drawn in Colour
Photograph of Noni Jabavu from: https://mg.co.za/article/2017-08-10-00-reading-noni-jabavu-in-2017/
Photograph of Arthur Baldwin Turnure, Vogue founder, from: http://anadelgadosantirso.blogspot.com/2018/12/vogue.html
Photograph of Samuel Irving Newhouse Sr., Conde Nast owner, from: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/18554/samuel-i.-newhouse
Photograph of Samuel Irving “Si” Newhouse Jnr, Conde Nast chairman, from: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/01/obituaries/si-newhouse-dead.html
Photograph of Conde Montrose Nast, Conde Nast founder, from: https://www.condenast.com/about#our-history
Image from David Brown Harfield Village archive courtesy of the Centre for Curating the Archive
Our Flute Runneth Over (2020) by Katlego Tlabela and text from: https://klyntji.com/joernaal/2020/7/4/katlego-tlabela-nouveau-riche
Images and text from District Six Huis Kombuis: food and memory cookbook by Tina Smith from: https://books.google.co.za/books?id=UExiDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=huis+kombuis+book&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi6qKa-2ebsAhVsQEEAHQOrCVsQ6AEwAHoECAIQAg#v=onepage&q=huis%20kombuis%20book&f=false
Images of displaced fishing communities in Kwa-Zulu Natal from:
https://www.facebook.com/legendsofthetide
Skin lightening product advertisement from:
https://za.pinterest.com/pin/382172718356990011/?nic_v2=1a5xjWVRV
Photograph of Black Sash protester from: https://www.blacksash.org.za/images/publications/Annualreports/Golden_Jubilee_2005_Annual_Report.pdf)
“JOHANNESBURG 1959. Dottie Tyo, former Miss South Africa, a successful actress, a great admirer of the of the opposite sex, ‘I’ve got more boyfriends than I’ve got new dresses’, she says. PETER MAGUBANE” from Sof’town Blues: Images from the black 50’s by Jurgen Schadeberg (page 86)
Drum magazine July 1956 cover from:
https://za.pinterest.com/pin/248401735671443045/
Photograph of Nelson Mandela and Brenda Fassie from:
https://twitter.com/nelsonmandela/status/1274950961249878016
Photograph of Brenda Fassie from:
https://za.pinterest.com/pin/248894316888817376/
“Cape Minstrels Perform” from: (https://digitalcollections.lib.uct.ac.za/collection/islandora-15316)
Young Railways Nagtroep, 1955 from Willem van Warmelo Collection, Meertens Institute, Netherlands in Ghoema and Glitter: New Year Carnival in Cape Town exhibition catalogue (2010)
Images from iterations of The Suit by Can Themba from:
https://www.facebook.com/TheMarketTheatre/photos/pcb.1327019297352526/1327018510685938/
https://ums.org/2014/01/03/the-suit-a-storybook-introduction/
South African postal stamp with strelitzia from: https://colnect.com/en/stamps/stamp/561632-Strelitzia_Strelitzia_reginae_redrawn-Country_themes_Redrawn_-_Wmk_RSA_t%C3%AAte-b%C3%AAche-South_Africa
Photograph of Sophiatown residents from: https://za.pinterest.com/pin/337207090849914853/
Photograph of 1986 Spring Queen contestants by Benny Gool from:
http://archive.sequins-self-and-struggle.com/files/original/409d62b79c6e395e26b5a4ff3c13bc8a.jpg
Image and text from:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/07/mary-sibande-south-africa-art
East Africa Drum magazine cover from:
http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/galleries/TMG8176562/2/Colour-me-beautiful-James-Barnors-photographs.html
Drum magazine cover from:
https://za.pinterest.com/pin/271130840051715357/
Figure in Drum magazine cover from: https://www.stmarysschool.co.za/news/2018/drum-magazine-and-the-baileys-african-history-archive
The People Shall Govern poster from:
https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/congress-people-and-freedom-charter
Copy of 1955 Freedom Charter from:
https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/primary-documents-global-african-history/african-national-congress-freedom-charter/
Photographs of Miss Black SA 1955, Hazel Futa, from Beauty: A Black Perspective by Nakedi Ribane (pg. 46)
Contemporary Miss SA logo from: https://www.misssa.co.za/
Past Miss SA logo from: https://www.missosology.info/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1333005&start=30
Photograph by Peter Magubane from:
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/nov/12/peter-magubane-best-photograph-white-girl-black-maid-apartheid-south-africa
Photograph of student uprisings from:
https://www.chrflagship.uwc.ac.za/?attachment_id=1487