Sabelo Mlangeni: Honeymoon. The happily ever after?

blank presents Honeymoon. The happily ever after?, a solo exhibition by Sabelo Mlangeni and his third with the gallery.
Developed over the past five years, Honeymoon. The happily ever after? is the artist’s latest body of work, inspired by a honeymoon trip to Durban following the release of his wedding documentary series, Isivumelwano. This series interrogates the notion of happily ever after, and the problematics or shortcomings of such a concept within the context of the contemporary South African experience.

Divided into multiple chapters, the series serves as a portrait of the tropical seaside city of Durban, captured by Mlangeni in all its glamour and decay. Despite being the country’s third largest metropolis and its largest port of trade, Durban has been marred by years of political instability and neglect, environmental disaster and infrastructural collapse.

Mlangeni’s photographs present an intimate account of Durban’s multifaceted life: smiling portraits of musclebound men and women and pleasure-seeking beachgoers are juxtaposed with images of the fallout from two of the most violent events in recent South African history – the floods of 2022 and the riots of 2021 – both of which cost hundreds of lives and brought the city to its knees. A fifth chapter in the series documents the iconic architectural heritage of the South Beach area, languishing in a state of semi-disrepair. Exhibited for the first time, Honeymoon. The happily ever after? testifies to the broken promise of South Africa in the post-democratic era and the society that thrives in spite of it.

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