Oracles is a project that first came to mind in 2016. I wanted to create a series of portraits of activists. People that were seeking to take on the status quo, and in their own way, were challenging what was happening in the world. Some of the figures are well known to the public. Others are virtually unknown.
In the case of Zapiro and Andrew Feinstein are well known to South Africans. Zapiro is a cartoonists that, through his medium, has been regularly taking to task those in power. Andrew Feinstein on the other hand used to be an ANC MP. Refusing to ignore the corruption that that he became aware led him to eventually leaving the party. Andrew still continues to keep the question of integrity of the global arms trade in sharp focus and under scrutiny.
In contrast Sheila Madikane’s battle is both personal as well as global. Despite and because of her of her limited means, she is fighting for the right to low cost housing that is situated close to her place of work. In her introductory paragraph to Helen Zille she wrote the following:
“My name is Sheila Madikane. I am a domestic worker, a housing activist, and one of the leaders of Reclaim the City. We have met a number of times over the last few weeks at protests and pickets after you decided to sell the Tafelberg site. In each of these conversations I have tried to point out our desperate need for affordable housing in the inner-city, and in Sea Point where I live. I have told you what the Tafelberg site represents to me, and other domestic workers and carers in Sea Point: for us it is a symbol of hope, a way to desegregate our city; to recognise the struggles of working-class people; to live and work in the inner city. But we have not been heard.”
What Sheila speaks of are problems that people all over the world are facing. The pressure of the cost of housing is forcing many low paid workers to work far from their place of work.
ST.JOHN FULLER : ARTIST : PHOTOGRAPHER 