2023-03-06 | Haroon Gunn-Salie : installation Amongst Men at the Islamic Art Biennale

Fellow Haroon Gunn-Salie installation Amongst Men at the Islamic Art Biennale!

An outspoken critic of apartheid, Imam Haron was murdered while in police custody in Cape Town in September 1969. His funeral was attended by over 40,000 moumers, acting in defiance of the authorities.

Amongst Men conceptually re-creates this funeral with a thousand individually cast kufia caps (worn by Muslim men across Africa and South Asia, and often associated with mourning) to evoke the scene at the Gamedia Maqbara, the cemetery on the slopes of Table Mountain where Imam Haron is buried. The sculpted are accompanied by an audio biography of the imam, including recordings of his sermons and contributions from the ongoing inquest into his killing.

Amongst Men simultaneously commemorates Imam Haron and invites the onlooker to consider the intersecting histories of Islam and resistance to colonialism and apartheid.

You can visit Islamic art Biennale until 23 April.