Pulse Awards 2022 Winner

Medium: Digital print

Year: 2022

The submitted work consists of two large pieces (each measuring 1.5m x 1.5m), hanging directly opposite one another: The first shows a solitary nude figure against a pale blue sky and astride a rocky ridge, in a depiction of what is known across the global South as a ‘walkabout’ - a solitary, quiet journey towards acceptance, towards calm. The second piece employs the same visual, but overlays it with striking, bold yellow wording that nearly obscures both figure and setting. 

The work, by South African academic and activist Wemar Strydom, speaks to the tension(s) between the ‘calm’ that can accompany self-acceptance of one’s serostatus vs. the ‘noise’ of moralising outer voices, with the wording taken directly from the text for an unscientific, debunked ‘cure’ for HIV.

 The two pieces thereby invites deliberation on what ‘calm’ and ‘noise’ mean in the context of sexual health. It forms part of a larger set of works exploring how this tension plays out in different cultural settings, and includes work shot in South Africa (the setting for the submitted work), Thailand, Gran Canaria, Japan, and Indonesia.