18/11/2025
“My work engages with family archives, ancestral memory, and the legacies of indentured labour, using these intimate fragments to confront histories of displacement and erasure. Rooted in the personal
and experiential, my practice draws on cyanotype processes, embroidery, and beadwork to reimagine photographs taken before forced removals in Cato Manor, Durban, under the Group Areas Act. These images, marked by joy, intimacy, and survival, are layered with the enduring spectre of colonial and apartheid violence, challenging the archival silences that seek to obscure these histories.” - Alka Dass
Find Alka’s work currently on show at our group exhibition ‘The space between attempts’ at 21 Keyes Avenue, Rosebank.
Alka Daas
‘Family Heirloom 2’
2024
Cyanotype, thread drawing, magnets
100 x 100 x 4.5cm
Alka Dass
‘45 of cups’
2024
Cyanotype, canvas, chain, rosary chalices
46 x 38cm
More information: [email protected]