Pieter Hugo | South African Photographer

Pieter Hugo: Portraits
30 May - 5 July 08
Open Eye Gallery is proud to present the first substantial UK exhibition by South African artist Pieter Hugo.

Self-taught photographer and film-maker Hugo makes documentary projects in locations around the world but has a particular interest in developing countries. This exhibition focuses on three bodies of work, all of which use portraiture to call into question our understanding of who we are and how we see others.

Hugo's portraits of people with albinism were created between 2002 and 2005 as part of a wider project about people whose appearance is in some way unusual or unfamiliar. Albinism (from the Latin albus, "white") is an inherited condition characterized, usually, by a lack of melanin pigment in the eyes, skin and hair. Hugo's closely-framed, uncompromising portraits explore our responses to physical difference and the meanings we attach to the terms 'black' and 'white'.

Hugo's portraits of judges were made in 2005, during the final months of the longest-running court case in Botswana's history. A group of Bushmen had accused the government of illegally evicting them in order to exploit the diamond and mineral potential of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. In a landmark judgement, the three-member High Court (which included Justice Unity Dow, shown here alongside two of her colleagues) ruled that the Bushmen were entitled to live and hunt on their ancestral lands.

'Gadawan Kura' - The Hyena Men is a study of an extended family of minstrels and healers from Abuja, Nigeria. The troupe stages performances in dusty streets with their hyenas, snakes and monkeys; they also sell fetishes and herbal medicines. Hugo writes that he was fascinated by "the hybridisation of the urban and the wild, and the paradoxical relationship that the handlers have with their animals - sometimes doting and affectionate, sometimes brutal and cruel."




Autograph ABP and Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool are proud to present

Pieter Hugo: Portraits
30 May - 5 July 08

Private View: Thursday 29 May 08

Open Eye Gallery and Autograph ABP are proud to present the first
substantial UK exhibition by South African artist Pieter Hugo. This
exhibition focuses on three bodies of work, all of which use
portraiture to call into question our understanding of how we view
others.

Pieter Hugo: Portraits was produced with the support of Michael
Stevenson Gallery, Capetown.

Events

Friday 30 May, 2pm In Conversation: Pieter Hugo and Indra Khanna, Open
Eye Gallery, Liverpool
Wednesday 11 June, 6.30pm: Still Cinema 4: free screening of 'Stander',
Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool
Saturday 21 June, 2pm: Perspectives on Pieter Hugo: Raimi Gbadamosi,
Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool
http://www.openeye.org.uk

Special Advance Notice

Artist Talk

Wednesday 4 June, 6.30 - 8pm, Rivington Place, London
Entry is free, but space is limited and booking is essential. No block bookings please.

If you have Booked, collect your ticket on the day from Reception from 5.30pm - 6.15pm.

Tickets not collected by 6.15pm will be handed out to people on the

Waiting List.
Please see map on http://www.rivingtonplace.org

Images :
Steven Mohapi, Johannesburg, 2003
Londiwe Wendy Mkhize, Pietermaritzburg, 2005