Jo Ractliffe, ’ , , 2024 - Courtesy of the artist and Stevenson.
TITLE_NAME :
The Garden
16/05/2026 - 26/06/2026
STEVENSON
Buchanan Building
160 Sir Lowry Rd, Woodstock
7925 Cape Town
http://www.stevenson.info
Building on the foundations laid in her previous series, Landscaping, the images in The Garden were taken during long-distance drives across the west coast of southern Africa. For Landscaping (2022-24), Ractliffe moved close to the subjects and features of her images, capturing the details of geographies altered by industry in abstracted terms, spotlighting the tension between visible and non-visible forms of violence. Here, the artist developed her framework in dialogue with Rob Nixon’s concept of ‘slow violence’, in which harm is diffused across time and space, leading to actions and outcomes not being viewed as violence at all. In The Garden, the artist moves closer still, focusing on the relationship between the landscape, its cultivated features and its inhabitants, offering an intimate view of time, social structures and the psychology of place.
16/05/2026 - 26/06/2026
STEVENSON
Buchanan Building
160 Sir Lowry Rd, Woodstock
7925 Cape Town
http://www.stevenson.info
Building on the foundations laid in her previous series, Landscaping, the images in The Garden were taken during long-distance drives across the west coast of southern Africa. For Landscaping (2022-24), Ractliffe moved close to the subjects and features of her images, capturing the details of geographies altered by industry in abstracted terms, spotlighting the tension between visible and non-visible forms of violence. Here, the artist developed her framework in dialogue with Rob Nixon’s concept of ‘slow violence’, in which harm is diffused across time and space, leading to actions and outcomes not being viewed as violence at all. In The Garden, the artist moves closer still, focusing on the relationship between the landscape, its cultivated features and its inhabitants, offering an intimate view of time, social structures and the psychology of place.