"My first reaction to these photographs was to shiver. Two sentences came to mind, by I know not whom - 'Africa is a cold country where the sun always shines' and another - 'The touch of the devil is as cold as ice'.
In the Bible of my youth, hell is hot and God can speak through burning bushes. This was the art history book most of us started with. Memory loves associations. Alastair Whitton's photographs show veiled layers but have clear titles.
We cannot dream without being hurt. We are lead to a place called Cape Town. I was born there in 1953 and grew up in parts around there till 1976 and my mother tongue is still closer to 'Kaaps' than any other language.
These works carry the sound of dry grass with the wind sweeping across the sands of the Cape Flats smelling of Sunlight soap and as I re-read the of poems of Adam Small (South African 1936 -2016) I weep."
Marlene Dumas, Amsterdam, July 2019
