Dis weer tyd vir die skoolverlaters om uit te sien na die matriekafskeid en alles wat daarmee gepaard gaan. Met die resessie in volle swang kan jy nie help om te wonder of die duisende rande wat so spandeer word, nie beter aangewend kon word nie? Die uitrustings is sekerlik van die grootste uitgawes, maar dan kom die "trimmings" by: dis koetse, limo's, selfs helikopters - en verlede jaar is een paartjie hier in die Kaap - nogal as spesiale guns - deur die Polisie se vangwa aangery!
Toevallig lees ek vandag 'n interessante artikel oor die kunstenaar-fotograaf Araminta de Clermont se uitstalling wat nog tot 3 Oktober in die Joao Ferreira Kunsgalery in Loopstraat te sien is. Sy noem dit "Before Life" en die hele uitstalling word gewy aan verlede jaar (2008) se Matriekafskeid. Die foto's is van meisies uit die Kaapse Vlakte. Hierin fokus sy op hulle behoefte om te ontsnap, sowel as die verband tussen die individu en haar omgewing.
De Clermont vertel oor haar uitstalling:
Many families will deny their children nothing for this outfit; costs will be budgeted into household expenses up to a year in advance. The resultant look, I believe, speaks volumes: about the hopes, dreams, aspirations and influences of young South Africans today.
And for yet more, especially in the cases of more impoverished families, it may primarily be a night of fantasy escapism, a chance to live out their dreams through costume and styling. It may even be seen as being the night of these youngsters' lives, their first and possibly their last real opportunity to dress up no holds-barred, be the centre of attention, shine in a world where not much is certain.
I became fascinated by the youngsters I met from these same areas, who are hoping to go a different way. They seem to know they deserve more, and are, in many cases, fighting to get it, hoping to ultimately soar up out of their surroundings and the attendant problems of a formerly forcibly displaced and fragmented society. And so the relationship between the youngsters and the environments from which they hail became paramount to this body of work.
This is the new generation of South Africa, before any disappointments, before their dreams are crushed. May they shine on.
Drome kan deur aanrandings, verkragtings en moorde so maklik verpletter word.
Miskien is dit tóg 'n goeie ding as 'n jong meisie vir één aand in haar lewe soos 'n prinses kan voel ...
Ellen B
(Belangstellendes kan meer inligting by hierdie skakel kry.)
Bron van foto: Image: Crystal, Manenberg 2008.