Lungiswa Gqunta creates installations, sculptures and audio-visual work revealing the hidden structures that perpetuate the legacy of colonialism in South Africa as presented to us in the quotidian form of the suburban garden and the leisure activities that takes place there. Poolside Conversations, the first solo presentation of Gqunta’s work in London, will be hosted by Kelder this autumn together with a programme of talks and events that further explore notions of decolonisation, landscape and protest.

In Poolside Conversations Gqunta invites us to reconsider the suburban garden as a space reserved for leisure activities as experienced by the privileged – a private space reserved for the landowner. Through her practice she seeks to disturb these spaces of privilege and highlight the structures of colonialism that are still in place today.

Central to the installation is the notion of the swimming pool – a common design element found in the suburban gardens of South Africa and a visceral symbol of privilege. In a country where basic resources such as water are increasingly rare it epitomises the luxuries afforded to the few and in effect becomes a racialized signifier of wealth.

Collectively the works in the installation narrates a resistance against the structures of colonialism that remain in place today and the inequality that surrounds us. These privileges are directly linked to issues of racial segregation and other long term effects of colonialism that continue to subtly spread and imprison a large number of South Africans whether it’s physically or psychologically.