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The Lost Men France 4 , 2014. Pigment printed photograph on archival paper. 42 x 108 cm. Edition 5 In Plain Sight: Social Life in South Africa and Romania Before and After 1989 , ApARTe Gallery of George Enescu University of Arts & Borderline Art Space, Iasi, Romania 25 November – 8 December 2016 The nineties were a turning point for countries in the former Eastern European bloc and for South African society. While Romanian society underwent violent changes of the political regime in the transition from socialism to a primarily savage form of capitalism, South Africa embarked on the road leading to the end of apartheid in 1994. The new dispensation was marked by the jubilation of the Rainbow Nation and the African Renaissance as vehicles to grapple with the social constructions of identities in a ‘new’ South Africa. Exploring the capacity of the photographic medium to capture and reproduce ordinary views of daily life and to transform habitual ways of looking at these images, thus releasing their implicit political potentialities, the current exhibition presents for the first time in Romania, a selection of contemporary photography from South Africa, set in dialogue with Romanian artists who employ the medium of photography to investigate recent, small scale social processes and transformations. While South African artists are critically addressing issues related to race, ethnicity, class and gender, constructing micro-cartographies of civil and economic disposession, Romanian artists are more poetically involved in the exploration of lines of fracture in collective memory, social marginality and precarious economies. The curators selected The Lost Men France IV (2004) for this exhibition. Artists: Omar Badsha (SA), Matei Bejenaru (RO), Tanisha Bhana (SA), Reshma Chhiba (SA), Claudiu Cobilanschi (RO), Paul Emmanuel (SA), Lebohang Kganye (SA), Iosif Kiraly (RO), Andrei Nacu (RO), Cedric Nunn (SA), Dumitru Oboroc (RO). Curators: Cristian Nae (RO) and Judy Peter (SA). Related content Counter-memorial ‘The Lost Men France’, 1 July – 1 October 2014 ←Previous Next→

Still from Remember-dismember , 2015. Hi-definition, single-channel video, stereo soundtrack, 3 min 45 sec (looped). Edition 5 Rethinking Kakotopia , University of Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa, 6 September – 4 October 2017 The exhibition is based on the premise that transgressive visual interpretation of kakotopia should, but only sometimes does, play an important role in creating awareness of the crisis of exclusion and violence in the world today. Kakotopia , from the Greek 'kakos' (bad, vile, ugly, and unhappy) and 'topos' (place), was the term used by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham to describe a negative state of society, an anti-utopia characterised by chaos and disintegration. The literature describes a kakotopian society as one where the citizens often live in a dehumanised state, with fear of the outside world, having lost respect for the natural world. Rethinking Kakotopia encompasses visual explorations and commentary around the ongoing issues that surround our notions of identity and belonging in the contemporary world; how these notions often negate our 'sense of place'. The exhibition explores stories of (amongst other things), corruption, emotive nationalism, xenophobia, belonging, nostalgia, sentiment, patriotism, freedom, and rage against the decimation of our fauna. The invited artists are asked to formulate reflections on the ability and psyche of people to survive and respond to the challenges of change; to move from kakotopia to utopia. Curator Derek Zietsman selected Remember-dismember (2015) for this exhibition. Related content Intervention ‘Rising-falling’, 15 June 2021 Counter-memorial ‘The Lost Men France’, 1 July – 1 October 2014 ←Previous Next→

Still from 3SAI: A Rite of Passage , 2008. High-Definition, single-channel video, stereo soundtrack, 13 min 58 sec Twenty: Art in the Time of Democracy , Pretoria Art Museum, South Africa, 9 – 21 May 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→

Air on the Skin , (detail), 2002. Incised original drawing, shoe polish, acrylic on 285 gsm Fabriano Rosaspina Avorio paper. 70 x 304 cm. Standard Bank Corporate Art Collection SASOL Wax in Art Competition , SASOL WAM! Festival, Sasolburg, South Africa, September 2002 A group show, curated by Lesley Cohn, of selected artworks submitted nationally for the competition. Sasol Corporation – the competition sponsor – is the largest producer of wax in the world and the competition was unique in that it challenged South African artists to create work in or through wax. The two categories: ‘Wax as the medium’ and ‘Wax as part of the process’ constituted the criteria by which works were judged. Air on the Skin (2002) – a one-off work – won the ‘Wax as the medium’ category. This 70 x 3 040 mm triptych was created by layering black shoe polish over pva-treated paper. The images were then scratched into this surface with a fine blade, gradually working from dark to light. Related content Press article ‘Paul Emmanuel Perfects the Fine Art of Turning Oddness into Transcendence, March 2003 ←Previous Next→

Paul Emmanuel THE LOST MEN FRANCE (2014) First World War Centenary, Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, Picardy, France Installation views of The Lost Men France , WWI Centenary, Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, Picardy, northern France, 1 July – 1 October 2014 The Lost Men France , World War One Centenary, Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, Picardy, Northern France 1 July – 1 October 2014 ‘The Lost Men France’ was a once-only counter-memorial and an official feature of the 2014 – 2018 First World War Centenary. It was temporarily installed adjacent to the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, Picardy, Northern France as an intervention in the Somme Circuit of Remembrance. In the battles that were fought on the Western Front between 1914 and 1918, thousands of South African servicemen took part and died alongside the Allies but white and black South African men were valourised differently. ‘The Lost Men France’ depicted these names alongside those of the Allies and Germans. Supported by La Mission du Centenaire de la Première Guerre Mondiale, Paris, Institut Français Paris / Johannesburg and The National Arts Council of South Africa. Related Content Artist talk Institut Français and Tshwane University of Technology, 2012 Documentary ‘Remembering a Counter-Memorial: Making The Lost Men France’, 2014 Interview SABC TV Morning Live, Johannesburg, 2014 Counter-memorial ‘The Lost Men Mozambique’ 2007 Counter-memorial ‘The Lost Men Grahamstown’, 2004

Get in touch with Paul Emmanuel or enquire about artworks, exhibitions and interviews Studio Email: studio@paulemmanuel.net

Paul Emmanuel TRANSITIONS (2008) Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa Transitions 2 (detail), 2006. Original drawing hand-incised into exposed, colour photographic paper, 48 x 48 cm. Spier Collection. Courtesy of Art Source South Africa Transitions , Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg, Gauteng province, South Africa 27 September – 31 December 2008 ‘Transitions’ documents shifting male identity. This was the 1st 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’ toured to 6 museum venues in South Africa and debuted internationally at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington DC, USA. A full-colour publication with writings by André Croucamp and Robyn Sassen was published by Art Source South Africa. 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’, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, 2010

Paul Emmanuel REMNANTS (2017) The Reservoir, Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa Exhibition view of Remnants with Remnant 1 in the foreground, 2015, weathered pigment-printed photograph on silk, 5 x 5 m Remnants , The Reservoir, Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa 25 May – 9 July 2017 First exhibited at South Africa's Freedom Park Museum and then at Boston University's 808 Gallery USA, this solo, museum exhibition features artworks related to Emmanuel's counter-memorial, ‘The Lost Men France’ which was installed adjacent to the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme in 2014. ‘The Lost Men France’, the 3rd in his ‘The Lost Men’ series, comprised 5 large silk banners depicting the artist's body bearing names of WWI servicemen from all nations pressed into his skin. The exhibition underscores concepts of loss, memory and memorialisation in an installation centred around the 'remnants' of ‘The Lost Men France’ banners, torn and battered by the winds of the Somme. The banners are complemented by videos, drawings, prints and plaster casts of the artist's body. Related content Counter-memorial ‘The Lost Men France’, Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, France, 1 July – 1 October 2014

A comprehensive listing of solo exhibitions by Paul Emmanuel ‘Substance of Shadows’, University of Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa, 11 September – 2 October 2021 ‘Rising-falling’, General Louis Botha monument, Union Buildings, Pretoria, South Africa, 15 June 2021 ‘Men and Monuments’, Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa, 3 – 18 March 2020 and 6 – 30 April 2021 ‘Impermanence’, Fried Contemporary Gallery, Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa, 8 March – 7 April 2018 ‘Remnants’, The Reservoir, Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa, 25 May – 9 July 2017 ‘Remnants’, 808 Gallery, Boston University, Massachusetts, USA, 28 January – 20 March 2016 ‘Remnants’, Freedom Park Museum, Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa, 25 June – 31 July 2015 ‘The Lost Men France’, World War One Centenary, Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, Picardy, Northern France, 1 July – 1 October 2014 ‘Transitions Multiples’, FNB Joburg Art Fair Special Project: Featured Artist, FNB Joburg Art Fair in association with Gallery AOP, Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa, 23 – 25 September 2011 ‘Transitions’, Rosenberg Gallery, Brown Center, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, Maryland, USA, 9 September – 2 October 2011 ‘Transitions Multiples’, Goya Contemporary, Goya Girl Press, Baltimore, Maryland, USA, 8 September – 5 November 2011 ‘Transitions’, Sylt Foundation, Rantum, Sylt Island, Germany, 18 February – 24 April 2011 ‘Transitions’, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, USA, 12 May – 22 August 2010 ‘Transitions’, Spier Old Wine Cellar Gallery, Spier Estate, Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa, 26 November 2009 – 15 February 2010 25 February – 31 March 2010 ‘The Lost Men’, Sylt Foundation, Rantum, Sylt Island, Germany, July – September 2009 ‘Transitions’, Rhodes University Alumni Gallery, Albany History Museum, National Arts Festival, Makhanda (formerly known as Grahamstown), Eastern Cape, South Africa, 2 – 11 June 2009 ‘Transitions’, KwaZulu-Natal Society of Arts (KZNSA Gallery), Durban, KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa, 2 – 21 June 2009 ‘Transitions’, William Humphreys Art Gallery, Kimberley, Northern Cape province, South Africa, 15 April – 15 May 2009 ‘Transitions’, Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein, Free State province, South Africa, 5 February – 8 April 2009 ‘Transitions’, Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg, Gauteng province, South Africa, 27 September – 31 December 2008 ‘The Lost Men Mozambique’, Counter-memorial, Catembe Ferry Jetty, Maputo, Mozambique, 24 April – 12 May 2007 ‘After-image’, The Gallery Hall, Villa Arcadia, Hollard House, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa, 16 April – 15 May 2005 ‘After-image’, Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa, 5 – 29 April 2005 ‘After-image’, The Old Fort, Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa, 17 January – 10 February 2005 ‘After-image’, University of Stellenbosch Art Gallery, Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa, 3 – 26 August 2004 ‘The Lost Men Grahamstown’, Counter-memorial, tenth anniversary of South Africa’s democracy, 1820 Settlers National Monument, Gunfire Hill, Mkhanda (formerly known as Grahamstown), Eastern Cape, South Africa, 1 – 10 July 2004

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

Paul Emmanuel PAGES FROM CATHEXIS (2000) Open Window Contemporary Art Gallery, Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa Vault of Breath (detail), 2000. Manière noire stone lithograph on 250 gsm Arches paper 34,5 x 280 cm. Edition 10 Pages from Cathexis , The Open Window Contemporary Art Gallery, Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa 30 April – 27 May 2000 Emmanuel's first solo exhibition comprised small, intimate copperplate etchings from the ‘Sleep Series’ as well as his first landscape lithographic work ‘Vault of Breath’ (2000). Page proofs from his artist’s book in progress ‘Cathexis’, were also on view. His artists book ‘Nomina sunt Numina’ (1993) which was submitted for the partial fulfillment of a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of the Witwatersrand in 1993, was also displayed. The exhibition was extended by an educational display of lithographic and etching equipment. Three skills-transfer printmaking workshops were held at the gallery with young participants from The Ipopeng Project. Supported by a grant from the National Arts Council of South Africa. Related Content Publication Ekupholeni – Place of Healing, Paul Emmanuel Studio, 2000

Paul Emmanuel TRANSITIONS (2009) Albany Museum, National Arts Festival, Makhanda, Eastern Cape, South Africa Transitions 4, (detail), 2008. Original drawing hand-incised into exposed, colour photographic paper, 48 x 48 cm. Spier Collection. Courtesy of Art Source South Africa Transitions , Rhodes University Alumni Gallery, Albany History Museum, National Arts Festival, Makhanda (formerly known as Grahamstown), Eastern Cape, South Africa 2 – 11 June 2009 ‘Transitions’ documents shifting male identity. This was the 5th 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