I Collect Gingers

Megan and myself are ginger #97 and #98 of Anthea Pokroy's I Collect Gingers art exhibition. 

Anthea has been photographing gingers since 2010 and now, two and a half years and 500+ gingers later, the red-headed Johannesburg-based artist and photographer will be presenting her debut solo exhibition at Speke Photographic / CIRCA on Jellicoe in Rosebank, Johannesburg tonight.

Pokroy explains, “It was only after my first photography session with seven ‘gingers’ that I began exploring the innate sense of community and collective experience that emerged from the otherness of the ‘gingers’ ”. Through her photographs Pokroy begins to construct a narrative, history/future and system of classification around this self-identified ‘race’. Pokroy uses this minority (2% of the world population) and mythical (historically considered witches and demons) group of red-headed people to highlight the obscurities of racial classification and discrimination which remain prevalent in South Africa. In a context that has historically been obsessed and oppressed by skin colour, Pokroy suggests an ironic alternative to genetic and pigment-based racial profiling. She begins to imagine what a ginger utopia might look like and what its implications would be.

Pokroy has documented gingers from all over South Africa, as well as internationally when she attended the Redhead Day in the Netherlands where thousands of gingers from all over the world congregated. ‘I collect gingers’, has received a plausible amount of interest in the media, including 5fm, 702 Talk Radio, The Star, Wanted Magazine, and Fair Lady amongst others. The artwork also has an impressive local and international social media following.
  
The exhibition opens on 17 January 2013 at CIRCA on Jellicoe. 

The show will run until 2 March 2013.

Being a Ginger in a Gingerland

Normally as a ginger, when you arrive at a venue or event, you are the only person in the room with red hair.  Okay, if you’re lucky, then there is maybe one other ginger in the room and a shared acquainted nod bonds you together. 

Familiar minority…

As a ginger, you somewhat get used to the attention it brings.  People want to come and tell you how lovely your hair colour is, they want to touch it, like it has some sort of magical ability.  They want to talk to you about my heritage and where the red hair comes from.

Often, it makes a good conversation ice-breaker if you want to network and meet new people.

But sometimes you just want to blend in and not stand out like a beacon, signaling for gingerfans to come and engage with you and ask the questions that you’ve answered a million times before.

Of course, when they hear my Scottish accent, it’s another topic for discussion. Where you from? When did you come here? Why did you leave? Will you ever go back? Sometimes I wish there would be other topics of discussion to tete-a-tete over.

Last year, I got involved in a project called I Collect Gingers and Anthea, the photographer and artist,  invited all her gingers along to secretly “take over” the opening of a art studio in Newtown last week.  It was Performing Ginger Art at its best.

The ginger gathering was a bizarre experience! 

The art studio was filled to the brim with 70 gingers and flashes of auburn, chestnut, strawberry, ginger and sandy were everywhere.  I’d never seen anything like it!  It was awesome and weird at the same time. 

Not only were the gingers the majority, but the blondes and brunettes must’ve felt like the odd-man-out, for a change.  I met gingers from Denmark and the States and chatted to them and how they felt about the ginger gathering. 

We all had similar feelings.  It felt rather empowering.  It felt like you had a room full of comrades and cohorts and that we had each other’s back.  We felt like we could take over the world!  Ginger superheros.  The ginger energy was exhilaratingly electric.  It flashed and flaunted everywhere. The atmosphere was overwhelming and grand at the same time and it deemed absolutely remarkable to be a part of something so cool.

I can’t wait for the next ginger invasion.

I Collect Gingers

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