At Home with the Ludskis: Midnight Mass (Edition #7) — archive entry documenting Paul Emmanuel’s participation and work. Still from 3SAI: A Rite of Passage , 2008. High-Definition, single-channel video, stereo soundtrack, 13 min 58 sec At Home with the Ludskis: Midnight Mass (Edition #7), 10th London Short Film Festival, Rio Cinema, London, UK, 12 January 2013 At Home with the Ludskis: Midnight Mass (Edition # 7) – a multidisciplinary event held at the famous Rio Cinema as part of the 10th London Short Film Festival, brings together intriguing and inspiring moving image makers, artists, music makers and performers for a unique late night art club, curated by Granny Ludski. 3SAI: A Rite of Passage (2008) was chosen after a call for artists sent out by guest curator Christine Eyene, invited to take part in this Midnight Mass by its host Granny Ludski. Related content Short film ‘3SAI: A Rite of Passage’, 2008 Exhibition ‘Transitions’, 27 September – 31 December 2008 ←Previous Next→

Bag Factory Artists — archive entry documenting Paul Emmanuel’s participation and work. The Lost Men Grahamstown 2 , 2004. Photograph, archival pigments print on 300 gsm photo-rag paper. 100 x 203,5 cm. Edition 5. Photographed by Andrew Meintjes. Courtesy of Grahamstown National Arts Festival and Art Source South Africa Bag Factory Artists , UNISA Art Gallery, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa, 6 July – 26 August 2005 A group show of permanent artists from Fordsburg Artist’s Studios, also known as The Bag Factory. Two editioned photographs and a documentary from The Lost Men Grahamstown (2004) were shown. Related content Counter-memorial ‘The Lost Men Grahamstown’, 1 – 10 July 2004 Counter-memorial ‘The Lost Men Mozambique’, 24 April – 12 May 2007 Counter-memorial ‘The Lost Men France’, 1 July – 1 October 2014 ←Previous Next→

Twenty: Contemporary Art from South Africa — archive entry documenting Paul Emmanuel’s participation and work. Still from 3SAI: A Rite of Passage , 2008. High-Definition, single-channel video, stereo soundtrack, 13 min 58 sec Twenty: Contemporary Art from South Africa , Turchin Center for the Visual Arts, Appalachian State University, North Carolina, USA, 11 July 2014 – 7 February 2015 This exhibition is in celebration of 20 years of South Africa's democracy and is intended to be a showcase of historical and contemporary work that looks at six different aspects of South African life and experience. Appropriate artists and particular works have been selected to narrate these experiences. A broad range of artists and demographics have been selected to showcase the depth of talent and commentary that comes out of contemporary South African art. Curated by Senior Lecturer Gordon Froud and Professor Karen Von Veh from the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. 3SAI: A Rite of Passage (2008) and number 05000674PV (2009) were selected by the curators for this exhibition. Related content Short film ‘3SAI: A Rite of Passage’, 2008 Exhibition ‘Transitions’, 27 September – 31 December 2008 ←Previous Next→

Ampersand Foundation 21 Years Celebration Exhibition — archive entry documenting Paul Emmanuel’s participation and work. Rough collar , 2018, hand incised, perforated carbon paper, carbon residue, perspex display case, wooden plinth, 45 x 40 x 40 cm Ampersand Foundation 21 Years Celebration Exhibition , University of Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa 11 September – 9 October 2019 This extensive show, curated by Gordon Froud, senior lecturer at FADA (UJ) showcased the depth of South Africa's art scene and included works by numerous Ampersand Fellows like Diane Victor, Paul Emmanuel, Gabrielle Goliath, Mbongeni Buthelezi, Penny Siopis, Nicholas Hlobo, Senzeni Marasela, Stephen Hobbs, Alan Laing and Heidi Fouri. The Ampersand Foundation has had an immense impact on the country's fine art landscape over the last 21 years by affording visual arts practitioners exposure to the wider international arts landscape of New York. Rough collar (2018) was selected by the curator for this exhibition. Related content Exhibition ‘Substance of Shadows’, 11 September – 2 October 2021 ←Previous Next→

Doing Hair: Art and Hair in Africa — archive entry documenting Paul Emmanuel’s participation and work. Installation view of 3SAI: A Rite of Passage , 2008. High-Definition, single-channel video, stereo soundtrack, 13 min 58 sec Doing Hair: Art and Hair in Africa , Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa, 20 August – 2 November 2014 This exhibition celebrates the creativity, individuality and innovation in hairstyling and art, in South Africa, and in other parts of the African continent. The exhibition is sponsored by Black Like Me, South Africa’s iconic hair care company. This partnership between WAM and Black Like Me, the company who revolutionised the South African hair care industry in the 1980s, makes possible an exciting and highly topical exhibition. The political, social, cultural and economic implications of hair and hairdressing are explored in the exhibition. It also looks at how hair communicates information about age, religious affiliation, social status, political ideologies and aspirations. Extraordinary objects that are used to protect, style and adorn hair, historical and contemporary artworks, barbershop posters, films and installations from Wits Art Museum and other public and private collections are included. Emmanuel's short film 3SAI: A Rite of Passage (2008) was selected by the curators for this exhibition. Related content Short film ‘3SAI: A Rite of Passage’, 2008 Exhibition ‘Transitions’, 27 September – 31 December 2008 ←Previous Next→

Battleground — archive entry documenting Paul Emmanuel’s participation and work. Banner from The Lost Men Grahamstown , 2004. Pigment-printed photograph on voile. 104 x 177 cm. Courtesy of Grahamstown National Arts Festival and Art Source South Africa Battleground , Standard Bank Gallery, Albany History Museum, National Arts Festival, Grahamstown, South Africa, 2 – 12 July 2015 Curator Michael Godby’s exhibition is a response to the challenge of showing Charles Bell’s 60 drawings of the War of the Axe in Grahamstown, the very territory that was fought over during the Wars of Dispossession, and to viewers, most of whom would have been constructed as the ‘enemy’ in Bell’s account of the war. The challenge is met in two ways. First, the drawings themselves are contextualised in a series of installations. Bell had been in Grahamstown before the war broke out adjudicating land claims relating to the 1820 settlers: display of contemporary surveying equipment and relevant maps will underline the point that first and foremost, this war was about the colonial acquisition of land. Similarly, Bell’s image of the Xhosa represents a significant change from earlier idealised views and is derived in large measure from contemporary racial theories that can be illustrated from books of the time. Such prejudices are also apparent in many of the newspaper reports of the war which will be reproduced as text panels in the exhibition. And installations of muskets and swords from the period will make the suggestion that Bell’s drawings were every bit as much an offensive weapon as the actual instruments of war. The second part of the exhibition comprises recent representations of the War of the Axe and related Wars of Dispossession. These include new versions of historical events, by both black and white artists, that give a very different account of the wars. Other works isolate the pictorial language of colonial artists, notably steel engraving and perspective, to show how these elements are implicated in the colonial project. Other works again challenge the construction of masculinity inherent in Bell’s, and others’ accounts of the wars. And several works lament the tragic waste of life that occurred in these wars. A voile panel from The Lost Men Grahamstown (2004) was selected for this exhibition. Related content Counter-memorial ‘The Lost Men Grahamstown’, 1 – 10 July 2004 ←Previous Next→

Wounds and Relics — archive entry documenting Paul Emmanuel’s participation and work. Scar , (detail), 2015. Hand-printed, Chine-collé photogravure etching on 300 gsm Hahnemühle paper. 40 x 92,5 cm. Edition 8 Wounds and Relics , Gallery 2, Johannesburg, South Africa, 1 – 22 September 2018 The exhibiting artists explore the paradox of simultaneously forgetting and remembering the social scars of violent conflicts and how we carry these with us, whether as traces or wounds, or as recovered objects from the past. Related content Counter-memorial ‘The Lost Men France’, 1 July – 1 October 2014 Documentary video ‘Remembering a Counter-Memorial: Making The Lost Men France’, 2014 ←Previous Next→

Transitions, a 2009 solo exhibition by Paul Emmanuel at Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa. Exhibition view of Transitions , Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa, 2009 Transitions , Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein, Free State province, South Africa 5 February – 8 April 2009 ‘Transitions’ documents shifting male identity. This was the 2nd showing of this touring solo museum exhibition comprising an installation of 5 original drawings, courtesy of the Spier Contemporary Collection and the short film ‘3SAI: A Rite of Passage’ (2008). ‘Transitions’ premiered at The Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg South Africa in 2008 and debuted internationally at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington DC, USA in 2010. Art Source South Africa are managers of Emmanuel's ‘Transitions’ project. Artists statement In late 2004 I was exploring how the military influenced and perpetuated notions of masculinity in South Africa. One morning, while thinking about moments of change, I decided to photograph an actual military recruit head shaving while it was happening – to witness to an unfolding drama. After some research, I discovered that there were only two remaining military bases in South Africa which still perform this obligatory ‘rite of passage’ on their premises, one in Oudtshoorn and the other, Third South African Infantry Battalion (3SAI) in Kimberley. I phoned the Kimberley base, spoke to the Officer-in-Command and arranged a visit to photograph head shavings from the January 2005 intake. I remember feeling apprehensive of what I would find. I did not do military service. I only had references to military experiences told to me by my older brother and friends, who described their head shaving experiences of the apartheid military regime of the 1980s – their stories of feeling dehumanised, lots of shouting, indifference, bigotry and fear. Instead, I found a very different setting ... quiet lawns with well tended flower beds full of roses. Lines of recruits waiting patiently. No shouting. No authoritarianism. No evidence of the violent breaking down of the human spirit. Compared with the horror stories related to South Africa’s past, the equanimity of the scene was arresting. I was spellbound. These liminal moments of transition, when a young man either voluntarily – or is forced to – let go of one identity and take on a new identity as State Property with an assigned Force Number, prompted me to ask many questions: What was I actually witnessing? What is a “Rite of Passage” and how have similar “rituals” helped to form and perpetuate identities and belief systems throughout history? Why was I so powerfully drawn to and transfixed by these dramatic spectacles of subtle change and moments of suspended possibility and impossibility? And so began an intensely reflexive outward and inward journey, in and beyond my studio, which was to last four long years ... Related Content Publication ‘Transitions’, Art Source South Africa, 2008 Short film ‘3SAI: A Rite of Passage’, 2008 Documentary ‘How the Transitions Drawings Were Made’, 2011 Exhibition ‘Transitions’, Apartheid Museum, 2008 Exhibition ‘Transitions’, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, 2010

Cartographies of Becoming — archive entry documenting Paul Emmanuel’s participation and work. Installation view of The Lost Men Mozambique , 2007. Nine pigment-printed photographs (300 x 100 cm each), voile, aluminium, polyethylene, size variable. Photographed by Joachim Wussow. Courtesy of Sylt Foundation and Art Source South Africa. Cartographies of Becoming , The Sylt Foundation, Sylt Island, Germany. 24 December 2021 – 30 December 2022 Cartographies of Becoming interrogates the ephemeral process of positioning the self, the artist self and the social in response to a world in disintegration. How can we imagine, dream and create new meaning-making through the remembrance, and re-arrangement of perspectives, of memories, of trauma, of experiences? Six artists and their departure from the certainty of our cultural maps of belonging into the ephemeral space of transition. A reprint of the banners from The Lost Men Mozambique (2007) and Rising-falling (2021) were selected by curator Indra Wussow for this exhibition. Related content Counter-memorial ‘The Lost Men Mozambique’, 24 April – 12 May 2007 Video artwork ‘Remember-dismember’, 2015 ←Previous Next→

Contact Paul Emmanuel Studio for enquiries about South African artist Paul Emmanuel’s artworks, exhibitions, projects, press and related materials. Studio Email: studio@paulemmanuel.net

Paul Emmanuel, 3SAI: A Rite of Passage. This film explores rites of passage and transitions in male identity. 3SAI: A Rite of Passage , 2008. Single-channel, high-definition video projection, stereo soundtrack, 13 minutes 58 seconds Introduction This film explores rites of passage and transitions in male identity through a visual and aural representation of the head shaving “rituals” of military recruits. Originally conceived as an artwork for a touring museum exhibition, ‘3SAI: A Rite of Passage’ is a short, cross-platform, non-narrative documentary in the experimental, non-verbal genre. The film has no plot or script and its content is neither contextualised nor site-specific. It is a sequence of video and film footage documenting the head-shaving rituals of young recruits at the Third South African Infantry Battalion (3SAI) in Kimberley, South Africa. Combined with landscape imagery, time-lapse and slow-motion cinematography, this presentation of an annual male rite of passage asks us to re-examine these moments of transition in masculine identity, and consider what is captured and what is lost ... Format The viewing format of ‘3SAI: A Rite of Passage’ is a 1080p High-Definition cinematic projection from a Blu Ray video disc. The running time of the film is 13 minutes 58 seconds. Footage was captured using 35 and 16 mm film as well as High Definition video to obtain different viewing qualities and to capture frames in sufficiently high numbers per second to slow down the action to the required level. Saturated-colour 'documentary' scenes highlight a depiction of 'reality', while the more 'poetic' scenes are viewed in desaturated tones. Stereo ambient sounds of razors, immersive liminal spaces and other head-shaving paraphernalia form part of the final composed soundtrack. Synopsis We open on the emptiness of the Gariep Dam – a landscape of the Karoo in the Free State province of South Africa. The image is ambiguous. The ripples on the muddy water look like ripples in desert sand. The image is shattered by the violent jolting sound of a freight-train coupling resonating with a piercing military whistle. We cut to a line-up of young recruits waiting for their obligatory hair shaving at 3SAI. We join the queue. At first we witness a monotonous sequence of indifferent head shavings – the industrial hum of an electric razor – and then gradually the rhythm of a production line which increases in pace and intensity. Suddenly at the peak of this syncopated spectacle we are cast into a twilight realm of slow-time. We break through the military machine and witness a new head shaving in slow motion and in micro-close up format. There is now an intimacy and vulnerability that was not seen before – an altered state, abstracted, de-contextualised and open to interpretation. This then fades back into the contemplative spaces of the Gariep. The work critically engages the medium of film itself in the way it plays with time, changing the possible meanings of an experience as time slows down. What is captured? What is lost? ‘3SAI: A Rite of Passage’ is a feature of an internationally touring museum solo art exhibition entitled ‘Transitions’ by Paul Emmanuel. In this art exhibition Emmanuel explores these themes using a variety of different media. The film however, is also independently screened at selected relevant international film festivals and art biennales. AWARDS 2011 Nominee, Jury Prize, Best Experimental Film, 9th In-the-Palace International Short Film Festival, Balchik, Bulgaria Read more 2010 Winner, Jury Prize, Best Experimental Short Film, 5th Sardinia International Film Festival, Sassari, Sardinia, Italy Read more 2009 Winner, Jury Prize, Best Short Film, 4th Africa-in-Motion Short Film Competition, Africa-in-Motion International Short Film Festival, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom Read more SCREENINGS 2025 USA, Massachusetts, Montserrat College of Art, Commencement 2025, May 16. 2019 Morocco, Biennale Internationale de Casablanca project space, REGARDS: PHOTGRAPHIE CAMEROUNAISE/DIGITAL AFRICA – CASABLANCA, 18 April – 15 June. 2018 South Africa, Western Cape, Cape Town, Cape Town Cruise Terminal, V&A Waterfront, Strauss & Co. Fine Art Auctioneers and Consultants, CONTEMPORARY ART, January 15 – 17. 2015 South Africa, Gauteng, Johannesburg, University of Johannesburg, FADA Gallery, TWENTY: ART IN THE TIME OF DEMOCRACY, July 11 – August 7. South Africa, Free State, Bloemfontein, University of the Free State, Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery, REPRESENTATIONS OF OTHERNESS AND RESISTANCE, May 20 – June 19. South Africa, Gauteng, Pretoria Art Museum, TWENTY: ART IN THE TIME OF DEMOCRACY, May 9 – 21. USA, North Carolina, Boone, Appalachian State University, Turchin Center for the Visual Arts, TWENTY: CONTEMPORARY ART FROM SOUTH AFRICA, July 11 2014 – February 7. USA, Massachusetts, Boston, The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Barbara and Steven Grossman Gallery & Mrs. E. Ross Anderson Auditorium, PERMANENT WAR: THE AGE OF GLOBAL CONFLICT, January 29 – March 7. 2014 USA, North Carolina, Boone, Appalachian State University, Turchin Center for the Visual Arts, TWENTY: CONTEMPORARY ART FROM SOUTH AFRICA, July 11 – February 7, 2015. South Africa, Johannesburg, Wits Art Museum, DOING HAIR: ART AND HAIR IN AFRICA, August 20 – November 2. 2013 France, Angoulême, École européenne supérieure de l’image / European School of Visual Arts, CONFÉRANCE DE PAUL EMMANUEL, October 8. France, Paris, Le Cube, ‘TOUCH ME” FRANCE-SOUTH AFRICA SEASONS 2012-2013: CONFÉRANCE DE PAUL EMMANUEL, October 1. France, Paris, Le Cube, LES ÉCRANS DE LA LIBERTÉ: DIGITAL ANTHROPOLOGY FESTIVAL, March, 20 – 21. United Kingdom, London, Rio Cinema, 10th London Short Film Festival, AT HOME WITH THE LUDSKIS: MIDNIGHT MASS (Edition #7), January 12. 2012 South Africa, Bloemfontein, Oliewenhuis Art Museum. South Africa, Cape Town, University of Cape Town Michaelis Galleries, NOT MY WAR, June 29 – July 25. 2011 USA, Baltimore, Goya Contemporary Gallery, TRANSITIONS MULTIPLES, September 8 – November 5. South Africa, Johannesburg, 4th FNB Joburg Art Fair, TRANSITIONS MULTIPLES, September 23 – 25. USA, Baltimore, Maryland Institute College of Art, TRANSITIONS, September 9 – October 2. South Africa, Bloemfontein, University of the Free State, ARE YOU MAN ENOUGH masculinities conference, September 9 – 10. Bulgaria, Balchik, 9th IN THE PALACE International Short Film Festival, June 18 – 25. Germany, Sylt Island, Rantum, Kunst:raum Sylt Quelle Foundation, TRANSITIONS, February 18 – April 24. USA, Chicago, University of Chicago, Smart Museum of Art, BLACK BOX, November 9, 2010 – January 2. 2010 France, Toulouse, 19th Sèquence Court-Mètrage International Film Festival, BEST OF AFRIQUE DU SUD, August 19 – November 28. Italy, Forlì, 7th Sedicicorto International Film Festival, October 4 – 10. Italy, Sardinia, Sassari, 5th Sardinia International Film Festival, June 22 – 26. Sweden, Göteborg, 26th Göteborg Book Fair, September 22 – 26. Sweden, Gävleborg, Uppsala and Dalarna, 10th Videogud Video Konst Festival, May 27 – 28. USA, Washington DC, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of African Art, TRANSITIONS, May 12 – August 22. United Kingdom, Glasgow, Centre for Contemporary Arts, AFRICAN SHORT FILMS, 13 March. The Netherlands, Rotterdam, 39th International Film Festival Rotterdam, WHERE IS AFRICA? January 25 – February 5. South Africa, Stellenbosch, Spier Gallery, TRANSITIONS, November 2009 – February 2010 & February 25 – March. 2009 United Kingdom, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Film Festival, AFRICA-IN-MOTION SHORT FILM COMPETITION, October 22 – November 1. Canada, Victoria, Open Space Arts Centre, 12th Antimatter International Film Festival, October 9 – 17. South Africa, Johannesburg, University of Johannesburg, ON MAKING: INTERGRATING APPROACHES IN PRACTICE LED RESEARCH, Colloquium, October 15. South Africa, Grahamstown, National Arts Festival, Albany History Museum, TRANSITIONS, July 2 – 12. South Africa, Durban, KZNSA Gallery, TRANSITIONS, June 2 – 21. South Africa, Kimberley, William Humphreys Art Gallery, TRANSITIONS, April 15 – May 15. South Africa, Bloemfontein, Oliewenhuis Art Museum, TRANSITIONS, February 5 – April 8. South Africa, Cape Town, Design Indaba Film Festival, February 27 – March 1. 2008 Johannesburg, South Africa, Apartheid Museum, TRANSITIONS, September 27 – December 31. Related Content Publication ‘Transitions’, Art Source South Africa, 2008 Exhibition ‘Transitions Multiples’, Goya Contemporary Gallery, 2011 Exhibition ‘Transitions’, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, 2010 Exhibition ‘Transitions’, Apartheid Museum, 2008

39th International Film Festival Rotterdam — archive entry documenting Paul Emmanuel’s participation and work. Still from Remember-dismember , 2015. Hi-definition, single-channel video, stereo soundtrack, 3 min 45 sec (looped). Edition 5 39th International Film Festival Rotterdam , Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 27 January – 7 February 2010 The International Film Festival Rotterdam is an annual film festival held in various cinemas in Rotterdam, Netherlands at the end of January. It is one of the larger film festivals in Europe, arguably in the Big Five, alongside Cannes, Venice, Berlin, and Locarno. The festival uses a tiger as its mascot. 3SAI: A Rite of Passage (2008) was officially selected to be screened at this festival 2010. Related content Short film ‘3SAI: A Rite of Passage’, 2008 Exhibition ‘Transitions’, 27 September – 31 December 2008 ←Previous Next→