Unveiling the Surface of Memory

Ntokomalo Mzoneli

BArch Hons 2021

Supervisors:
Unit Leader: Naadira Patel
Unit Leader: Sarah de Villiers
Unit Assistant: Nothando Lunga

UNIT 18^︎︎︎
Hyperreal Prototypes: Supersurfaces

This body of work unpacks the agency of memory in architecture, monuments and other objects of remembrance. The tools of my investigation are models, fabrics, collage and film. My work considers as a speculative design, the spatial configuration of memory (in its ephemeral state). The design proposal focuses on the Queen Victoria monument, Durban City Hall. I placed three mirrors around an object, each mirror showed fragmented yet multiple reflections of the object from different perspectives. Therefore, using reflection as a spatial strategy to distort and fragment the memory of colonial leaders and to monumentalise the everyday. It serves as a space that negotiates between the act of recording new memories and  forgetting. The memories are recorded, stored, recollected and forgotten at the speed of light. There are three elements to the design:

1. Concealing - Monument covered with foil: an act of defiance against the memory of colonial leaders.
2. Reflection - Mirrors around the monument: gives value to the everyday; the reflection from the foil distorts, fragments obscure the image of the ordinary person who, in facing the foil, takes on the monumental figure.  
3. Bench -The seating on the pedestal: a space for transient rest. 

Keywords:
Amnesia, Colonial, Concealing, Decolonialise, Distort, Ephemeral, Fragment, Hyperreal, Memory, Mirror, Monument, Reserve, Reflect, Remember, Statue, Transient

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