Many of the original photographs that make up this body of work were found, sourced or donated by Taute’s family and friends.  While many of the photographs were captured in South Africa, the scenarios in these rescued and reused images recreate a time and place seemingly devoid of a greater local South African context of that time – idyllic settings and photo studios. By adding masks from different cultures Taute is  re-stitching a historical narrative where these different cultures ‘meet’ each other in a new time and space.

As Taute began to work on the exhibition in mid-2021 she noticed a hashtag on Twitter that caused much mayhem at the time (#familymeeting).  Her own experience and expression as a family member is constantly a work in progress. Working on this particular body of work, caused her to  think about what the word ‘Family’ really means. She felt that a body of work focussing on the notion of Family was particularly relevant due to the fact that a lot of people from all over the world were unable to see their families in real life during 2020 and 2021.

Taute has re-created her own imaginary ‘family meetings’, removing the faces and historical identities from these vintage photographs and replacing them with a variety of cultural masks and colourful embroidered flowers, leading to a new fantasy. A world clinging to the need to believe in the magic of innocent aspiration.”