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, while surveying the area, was shot down by Cuban/FAPLA forces in Ebo. the engagement in Ebo was one of the few that resulted from Operation Savannah (1975-1976), initiating the Apartheid regime’s long invasion of Angolan territory – with an overarching impetus of asserting domination over the region. as an echo of the cold war then unfolding, it materialised through conflict with the MPLA(FAPLA) and its Cuban allies. the ideology of the ascending ruling party was deemed a threat to the permanence of the regime in Southern Africa.
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 attack in Ebo, as material evidence of an effaced invasion. Cessna over Ebo addresses the in-between that formed in the vacuum fabricated around the Operation with its recent silent acknowledgement.