Preview: David Goldblatt in Season 9 of Art21 "Art in the Twenty-First Century" (2018)

[DAVID GOLDBLATT]
--I'm too late for this photograph.

--The trees are already in leaf.

--But I'm going to try. Let's have a look.

It seems to me that the style of architecture
that is emerging to the north of Johannesburg

is a kind of aggressive materialism.

--Good morning, gentlemen.

In this country, because of the nakedness,
almost, of the struggles that took place

between Black and White,

the structures that emerged were amazingly
clear demonstrations of value systems.

White Afrikaner Protestant churches are
those that I think of particularly.

The churches had these huge windows
and this megaphonic structure.

Come the 1970s, the forces of liberation
are coming down to South Africa,

increasingly impinging on Afrikaners.

So their new churches become defensive.

There are very few of them built
with piercings in the outer walls.

Public structures become clear
manifestations to self image.