Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum | You'll be sorry
Goodman Gallery presents You’ll be sorry, an exhibition of new large-scale paintings by Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum. This body of work, created in Sunstrum’s new studio in The Hague, unpacks the concept of homecoming and expands on a core thematic impulse in her practice: the push and pull between the personal and the universal narrative, presenting cinematic scenes that slip between the real and the imagined.
You’ll be sorry marks Sunstrum’s first solo presentation in the Johannesburg gallery, a city that played a significant role in shaping the artist’s identity post international studies and her residency at the Bag Factory in 2010 where Sunstrum worked alongside the likes of the late David Koloane and Sam Nhlengthwa.
Featured works play out the fictional narrative of a femme fatale figure who embodies the precarity, suspicion and defiance that comes with a return and desire for access. The figure is seen in gathering spaces; lines outside bureaucratic buildings, seating areas outside the home, by the river. Occupying the liminal spaces of colonial outposts and government offices, the vulnerability of requesting permission to leave or stay is poignant. It brings to the surface the residue and hierarchy of colonial power structures. The figure’s ambiguity is highlighted through her staged positions and disjointed placement within the environment, coupled with her translucent appearance. This provides an interrogation of border politics in the geopolitical sense as well as a feeling of being on the border, an outsider, within one’s immediate circumstances.
Artworks
Films
About
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum’s (b. 1980, Mochudi, Botswana) work includes imagery that reflects the diverse genealogies of her experience living in different parts of Africa, Southeast Asia, and the U.S. as well as ongoing research in ethnography, ecology, and quantum physics. The artist’s boundary-crossing practice centers Black female identity in the discourse of postcolonialism and neocolonialism, highlighting the contributions of overlooked historical figures while emphasizing modes of knowledge and communication beyond the status quo.
Key exhibitions and performances include:
You’ll be sorry, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa (2023), The Pavilion, London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE, UK (2023) Liverpool Biennial, UK (2023), 15th Sharjah Art Biennale (SB15), UAE (2023), I have withheld much more than I have written, Galerie Lelong, New York (2022), Greater Toronto Art 2021 (GTA21), MOCA Toronto, Canada (2021); Born in Flames: Feminist Futures, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York (2021); WITNESS: Afro Perspectives from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection, El Espacio 23, Florida (2021); Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum: All my seven faces, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio (2019); Zeitz MOCAA, SA (2019); The Wiels, Belgium (2019); Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland (2019); The Nest, Netherlands (2019); Michaelis School for the Arts at the University of Cape Town, SA (2018); Artpace, Texas (2018); The Phillips Museum of Arts, Washington (2018); Interlochen Centre for the Arts, Michigan (2016); NMMU Bird Street Art Gallery, SA (2016); Tiwani Contemporary, UK (2016); VANSA, SA (2015); Brundyn Gallery, SA (2014); FRAC Pays de Loire, France (2013); the Havana Biennial, Cuba (2012); and MoCADA, New York (2011).