André is a public health scientist and visual artist. His interdisciplinary art practice interrogates inequality in society; explores how urban spaces are utilised, affect and influence peoples’ lives; and our connectedness to the soil. He weaves his visual art creativity with his scientific public health training to comment on pertinent contemporary public health issues. His interest and imagination are captured by the underbelly of society and its citizens at the fringe. His imagery disrupts the sublime narrative of photography and seeks to capture how the light etches the marks of society onto the photograph. He allows the images to narrate a story that invites the viewer into a paradoxically uncomfortable serene space. He was a finalist in the Sasol New Signatures Art Competition (2022, 2021, 2019 and 2018); finalist in the Vuleka Art Competition (2021); finalist in the Thami Mnyele Art Competition (2018); and a runner up in the New Breed Art Competition (2018). He has participated in several group exhibitions. His work appears in various art collections including the Phatsoane Henney private art collection, the National Art Bank of South Africa, and the permanent collection of the William Humphreys Art Gallery.

Invisible People

Kimberley, in the Northern Cape has a rich history of diamond mining. There was a steady decrease in mining activity over the decades, but as metallurgical processes improved mine tailings were reprocessed by large scale mining companies; and an almost parallel increase in artisanal mining in the area occurred. Artisanal miners known colloquially as ‘zama zamas’ use non-industrialised techniques to process the tailings. They dig, sift, and sort the conglomerate by hand. The work is laborious, and monetary returns are not always commensurate with effort. People however are attracted to prospecting the area in the hope of making their fortune and seeing their dreams come to fruition. This migration is fuelled by high levels of unemployment, poverty, and social inequity. 

The ‘zama zamas’ continue to receive extensive media and social media coverage which mainly highlights the negative aspects associated with these mining activities. Furthermore, public perception has swayed towards seeing all artisanal miners as illegal foreign nationals and associated them exclusively with the criminality linked to artisanal mining. This has further entrenched xenophobic sentiments which have eroded the broader South African psyche. The ostracization of people groups contributes to forging a covert society in which especially foreign nationals ‘disappear’ and become invisible and silent members of society. 

The Basotho blanket is a culturally distinctive apparel of Lesotho. We instinctively connect the blanket and the country and assume the wearer must be a Masotho. The irony of the blanket is that it offers a handle for identification and identity but simultaneously is an identifier for ostracization. We often stare through marginalised people in society barely noticing them, creating sociologically invisible people. This invisibility coupled with their ‘illegal’ and undocumented status often leaves these communities voiceless and marginalised. The metaphors for invisibility, voicelessness, and identity converge, highlighting how they are entangled with each other reminding us that the common threads of our humanity are that we hope, we dream, and we yearn to belong.