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'Ponte City'
Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky, 24 April - 1 November 2020

'Ponte City': Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky

Past exhibition
  • Overview
  • Works
  • Press
Overview
Patrick Waterhouse Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Untitled 2, Ponte City, Johannesburg, 2008 Inkjet print 105 x 131 cm / 125.5 x 150 cm Edition of 9 Series: Ponte City
Patrick Waterhouse
Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Untitled 2, Ponte City, Johannesburg, 2008
Inkjet print
105 x 131 cm / 125.5 x 150 cm
Edition of 9
Series: Ponte City

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE

Patrick Waterhouse and Mikhael Subotzky worked at Ponte City, the iconic Johannesburg apartment building which is Africa’s tallest residential skyscraper, for more than six years. They photographed the residents and documented the building – every door, the view from every window, the image on every television screen. This remarkable body of images is presented here in counterpoint with an extensive archive of found material and historical documents. The visual story is integrated with a sustained sequence of essays and documentary texts. In the essays, some of South Africa’s leading scholars and writers explore Ponte City’s unique place in Johannesburg and in the imagination of its citizens. What emerges is a complex portrait of a place shaped by contending projections, a single, unavoidable building seen as refuge and monstrosity, dreamland and dystopia, a lightning rod for a society’s hopes and fears, and always a beacon to navigate by.

 

The long-term project obtained the Discovery Award of the 2011 Rencontres d’Arles Photography Festival and the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2015.

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Works
  • Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Apartheid-era bathroom signs, Ponte City, 2008
    Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Apartheid-era bathroom signs, Ponte City, 2008
  • Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Bapi working, Ponte City, Johannesburg, 2009
    Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Bapi working, Ponte City, Johannesburg, 2009
  • Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Bodybuilders, Ponte City, 2010
    Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Bodybuilders, Ponte City, 2010
  • Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Church Uniform and Stored Stoves, Ponte City, 2008
    Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Church Uniform and Stored Stoves, Ponte City, 2008
  • Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Joe (mirror), Ponte City, 2009
    Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Joe (mirror), Ponte City, 2009
  • Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Lisa and "Pretty", Ponte City, 2008
    Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Lisa and "Pretty", Ponte City, 2008
  • Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Looking Down, Ponte City, 2010
    Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Looking Down, Ponte City, 2010
  • Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Looking West, Ponte City, Johannesburg, 2008
    Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Looking West, Ponte City, Johannesburg, 2008
  • Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Moses and Family, Ponte City, Johannesburg, 2009
    Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Moses and Family, Ponte City, Johannesburg, 2009
  • Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Moving In, Ponte City, Johannesburg, 2009
    Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Moving In, Ponte City, Johannesburg, 2009
  • Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Old electricity supply room, Ponte City, 2008
    Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Old electricity supply room, Ponte City, 2008
  • Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Onious Mthembo, Ponte City, 2008
    Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Onious Mthembo, Ponte City, 2008
  • Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Outside the new servants' quarters, Ponte City, 2013
    Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Outside the new servants' quarters, Ponte City, 2013
  • Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Parking Entrance, Ponte City, 2008
    Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Parking Entrance, Ponte City, 2008
  • Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Ponte City from Donald Mackay Park, 2011
    Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Ponte City from Donald Mackay Park, 2011
  • Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Reception Area, Ponte City, 2008
    Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Reception Area, Ponte City, 2008
  • Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Untitled 2, Ponte City, Johannesburg, 2008
    Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Untitled 2, Ponte City, Johannesburg, 2008
  • Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Untitled 4, Ponte City Johannesburg, 2008
    Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Untitled 4, Ponte City Johannesburg, 2008
  • Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Untitled 6, Ponte City, Johannesburg, 2009
    Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Untitled 6, Ponte City, Johannesburg, 2009
  • Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: View of Ponte City from Yeoville Apartment, Ponte City, 2013
    Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: View of Ponte City from Yeoville Apartment, Ponte City, 2013
  • Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Hallelujah's first job when he moved to Ponte in 1981 was to clean the swimming pool, 2008
    Patrick Waterhouse, Patrick Waterhouse & Mikhael Subotzky: Hallelujah's first job when he moved to Ponte in 1981 was to clean the swimming pool, 2008
Press
  • Interior Windows. Ponte City, Johannesburg. 2008-2010, (2008-2020). Lightbox. © Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse, courtesy the artists and Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, Cape Town, London.

    The final chapter of Mikhael Subotzky's and Patrick Waterhouse’s Ponte City

    Hannah Abel-Hirsch, British Journal of Photography, May 7, 2020
  • Reception Area, Ponte City, 2008

    Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse: Humanity & High-Rises

    Emily Steer, Elephant Magazine, April 5, 2019

Related artist

  • Patrick Waterhouse

    Patrick Waterhouse

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