? Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, NY
Untitled, from the series `The Brave Ones?
2010
This photograph depicts two boys from the Shembe Nazareth Baptist community in South Africa, a denomination that blends Christian and Zulu traditions. Its young male adherents ? who refer to themselves as the `Iscotch? ? adopt special costumes based on the kilt for religious ceremonies, often performed in the open air. The influence is drawn from Scottish regiments present in Natal in the late nineteenth century. Mthethwa?s concerns lie less with religion and more with issues of adolescent identity and rites of passage. His work adds an African dimension to a well-established European tradition of depictions of young people at transitional moments in their lives.
