Cessna over Ebo, 2022
Cessna over Ebo I, 2022
lithographic snake slip on archival footage phototransfer;
stone lithography on munken
lithographic snake slip on archival footage phototransfer;
stone lithography on munken
Cessna over Ebo II, 2022
lithographic snake slip on archival footage phototransfer;
stone lithography on munken
stone lithography on munken
on the 24th of November 1975, a day after the Battle of Ebo, Lieutenant Keith Williamson’s Cessna 185 was shot down by Cuban/FAPLA forces in Ebo, while surveying the area. the namesake battle was one of the few that came as a result of Operation Savannah* (1975-1976), pertaining to the Apartheid regime’s long invasion of Angola, with an overarching impetus of asserting domination over the region. as an echo of the cold war then unfolding, it materialised through fighting against the MPLA(FAPLA) and Cuban forces aiding them, due to their communist allyship. the ideology of the ascending ruling party was seen as a threat to the permanence of the regime in South Africa and Namibia(then SWA) at the time.
the remains of Lieutenant Keith Williamson were exhumed and repatriated to South Africa in 2012. this work looks at his remains and the ones of his Cessna, along with other artillery remains from the land attack in Ebo, as material evidence of an erased invasion and attempt to indirectly colonise. Cessna over Ebo addresses the in-between that formed due to the erasure and secrecy of the events around the Operation and its recent silent acknowledgement seen through repatriation efforts in recent years.
*read Rooi Gevaar essay