Frequencies of a Birthmark is a series of the episode which explores Phumulani Ntuli’s preoccupation with archives and surveillance. In this second iteration presented as a virtual exhibition, the work includes collages and animated videos. Ntuli attempts to revisit an 1895’s image of Godide, the last ruler of the Gaza Empire, located in modern Mozambique. Representation of his fictional figure appear along with anthropological photographic images produced during that time. He uses these archive images diachronically in an attempt to rethink facial recognition, a technological apparatus prevalent at this present moment of uncertainty. He further considers Godides’s pose, audiences, accomplices, and his exile as a departure to ponder re-enactments of historical moments. Through Ntuli’s art-making process which he refers to as ‘premake’, he juxtaposes bodies, the landscape and his pattern motifs within a virtual architectural landscape using the lens of the past in the present. Ntuli’s interest with data and capture reveals the pauses, silence and how technological apparatuses reflect our consumption of images.

Presented as part of Creativate Digital Arts Festival.