Restitution

A Fine Art Photographic Exhibition by Paul Greenway

​Restitution is a photographic project that explores the notion of ‘common dignity’. The exhibition considers neglect, abandonment and loss, on the one hand, with respect, empathy and accountability, on the other. In so doing, it seeks to challenge the duplicity of our perceived ‘common humanity’ and to problematise existential and ethical questions of rights (rites), dignity and duty.

Deceased poor people, deemed ‘paupers’ by the South African government are central to this body of work, both in its origin and elaboration. Marginalised but present, visible but disregarded, paupers are overlooked in both life and death. This body of work seeks to memorialise those unnamed and unrecorded.

The small Paupers2006-2012 series depicts portraits of a number of deceased paupers awaiting internment over what may amount to months or years. Once the paupers are buried, the grave site is left unmarked, the only trace being the disturbed earth and the plot number in official cemetery documentation, as shown in the Mayfield Cemetery maps.

The Unmarked series, consisting of fragmented and perished plastic grave markers, speaks to individual people buried, but also to the promises and messages made upon the grave markers: “our dearest”; “beloved”, “in loving memory”; “remembered”. These fragments evoke a disjunctive narrative and collectively speak to the common themes of the exhibition: loss, memory and abandonment.

Unnamed is a series of eight black & white photographs that identify small plots of unmarked graves void of makers of remembrance. These are the last resting places of infant paupers, buried by the state.

As ‘memory–markers’ or gestures towards remembrance, the detritus of synthetic flowers in Placement attest to a specific historic event, the death or ‘loss’ of a loved one. These shards and relics evoke both botanical illustrations and the record keeping, cataloguing and proof-of-findings that are associated with forensic investigation.

EA 61 is my personal gesture of restitution to the human subjects of this photographic project. The stop frame animation is of the process of my digging a grave over four days, after which I buried an unclaimed pauper.