Skip to content
Pumflet Gladiolus
Exhibition 30 November 2017–5 January 2018
Installation photograph from the ‘Gladiolus’ exhibition on A4’s ground floor. The topdown view shows a selection of printed matter arranged on a white table along with gloves and lit glass lamps.
Installation view: Pumflet Gladiolus convened by Ilze Wolff and Kemang Wa Lehulere, November 30, 2017–January 5, 2018. Image courtesy of A4 Arts Foundation.
Title Pumflet Gladiolus Dates 30 November 2017–5 January 2018 Location Reading Room Tagline A publication launch, screening, discussion, and sharing of the creative writing archive of Gladys Thomas in conversation with the paintings of Gladys Mgudlandlu. Credits

Convenors:
Ilze Wolff
Kemang Wa Lehulere

Special thanks:
Gladys Thomas
Alvin Castro
Lindsey Appolis
Warren Gray
Simonstown Museum
Sisters on Adderly
Nozuko Madokwe
Lulama Qupe
Bulumko Mbete

Coordinator:
francis burger

Pumflet Gladiolus documents the conversation between Ilze Wolff and Kemang Wa Lehulere about the neighbourhoods Luyolo and Redhill. Luyolo was a black neighbourhood in Simonstown that was completely demolished in 1964. The majority of the residents of Luyolo were relocated to Gugulethu. From Redhill, the ruins of which can be seen today, residents were removed to Ocean View. During their research about Luyolo and Redhill, Wa Lehulere and Wolff look at the paintings of Gladys Mgudlandlu, an artist from Gugulethu and the writings of Gladys Thomas, a poet living in Ocean View, in an attempt to find visual and literary links between these sites of forced removal.

Ilze Wolff and Kemang Wa Lehulere share Pumflet Gladiolus at A4 and the Adderley Street flower market, together with selections from the personal archive of Gladys Thomas, including her poem Fall Tomorrow published in 1972, and the work The Fall by Gladys Mgudlandlu, together with Wa Lehulere's short film Homeless Song from 2017.

Text