Anchoring the exhibition is a group of fifteen large-scale works-on-canvas titled Spaces of Subjections: Zones of Nonbeing. Through the words of James Baldwin, Toni Morrison and other Black scholars, these works recontextualize illustrations from Sara Cone Bryant’s Epaminondas and His Auntie, a children’s picture book from 1911 that relies heavily on racist tropes and stereotyping. By delving into the symbolic depths of these representations, Mokgosi prompts critical reflection on how such imagery contributes to the construction—and often subjugation—of Black identity or “subjects”.

In an art historical framework, the term “subject” serves as the primary visual and conceptual focal point that guides the viewer’s attention and interpretation of a work. Zones of Non-Being critically engages with the impactful role the “subject” has had across cultures to suppose that identity can exist beyond a container of category. The exhibition hypothesis is supported by additional works from Mokgosi’s “Spaces of Subjection” series, where he works with the writings of French post-structuralists Michel Foucault and Jacques Lacan to unpack the notion of the “subject” across histories. These works examine how agency and consciousness are traditionally understood and portrayed across artistic and philosophical realms.

Zones of Non-Being offers more than an aesthetic experience: it is an invitation to question the very foundations of identity, its construction and representation. By urging viewers to embrace a sense of mistrust and displacement, Mokgosi’s work challenges the basic assumptions through which we perceive ourselves, each other and the world around us.