Unhappen Unhappen Unhappen — Pepper's Ghost Dioramas

The exhibition Unhappen Unhappen Unhappen – Pepper's Ghost Dioramas will premiere four performance dioramas, developed using the Pepper's Ghost technique, by Anathi Conjwa, William Kentridge, Micca Manganye, and Sabine Theunissen.

The word Unhappen describes the process of reversing past trauma. Its nonsense, however, points to the impossibility of doing so. In the context of The Centre, this trauma refers to histories of apartheid and colonisation, but also extends to difficult personal experiences. The repetition of Unhappen is conflicting: it both reinforces the memory, whilst acting like a mantra, or a prayer, which attempts a reconciliation with the past and history.

In this context, the Pepper’s Ghost allows artists to construct and deconstruct memories and approach the past with new perspectives. Named after John Henry Pepper, who popularised it in 1862, Pepper’s Ghost is a Victorian theatrical illusion technique which uses a half-silvered mirror. The mirror allows objects and performers behind the mirror to be seen (if they are lit), and images in front of the mirror to be reflected (if they are lit). With the introduction of video compositing and live projection alongside dynamic sound and lighting design, multi-layered illusory performative and narrative approaches become possible. Experiments with the technique are able to surface ideas around the gaze and ways of seeing, excavate and interrogate heavy histories, and activate archives.

Since 2019, Pepper’s Ghost has been one of The Centre's signature performance tools. The Pepper’s Ghost performance dioramas combine the technique with tabletop theater and puppetry for the first time. As complete, miniature narrative worlds, the four performance dioramas in Unhappen Unhappen Unhappen engage visitors in a constantly shifting, perpetual performative space drawing on a variety of themes:

Anathi Conjwa – Tata
In 'Tata', Anathi Conjwa embodies and memorialises her late father, an uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) veteran and acknowledges the sacrifices made by South African freedom fighters in the name of the country’s democracy. Military boots drop like bombs against the backdrop of Conjwa’s performance-in-miniature as her figure turns, sings, laments, and pays tribute to this history.

William Kentridge – Mayakovsky
An experimental take on the original avant-garde tragedy, 'Mayakovsky' makes use of the illusory optics of the Pepper’s Ghost to pair text and performance with the drawings and animations of William Kentridge. This is a meditation on the performativity of prose and a display of language as a balm (or a form of satire) for the times we live in, and how we go about the act of living today.

Micca Manganye – Hands
An engaging, short-form musical and performance-based work that plays with the possibilities of live projection and performance, and explores the body as an inherently percussive tool.

Sabine Theunissen – A Moment in the Wind
Scenographer, set designer and long-time Kentridge collaborator, Sabine Theunissen, creates a brand-new work for the Pepper’s Ghost performance diorama, 'A Moment in the Wind'. Blending her signature scenographic style with projected, puppet-based vignettes, Theunissen’s engagement with the Pepper’s Ghost allows for an immersive, performative installation in miniature.

The exhibition will also include Moments of Making by Noah Cohen, a filmed compilation of processes reflecting on the playful, intangible, and often-times vulnerable moments that emerge during the pursuit of the less good idea. Reimagined and distilled into a short film, the process of locating that which is secondary –the peripheral idea, the incidental discovery, the flickering light at the edges –is highlighted and held.