ZAHED MEER

July 1, 1994

The exhibition of Zahed Meer’s work marked another distinct shift in the FLAT programming. Up until this point most of the people involved with projects at the FLAT had been affiliated with the Technikon, and at this time, we began to make an effort to include people not associated with the institution. Also, we began to schedule programming with more advance planning.
Meer, who was the nephew of well known activist Fatima Meer, had been living in a commune near the FLAT. He approached the FLAT to see if he could perhaps move in for the duration of the exhibiton, but we had to decline this proposal, as we were already crowded. Matoti, Barry and myself, as well as occasionally Ntshangase, made this impossible. In hindsight, I expect that we would have perhaps accommodated this request had it been framed as a ‘performance’. We were not familiar with Meer’s work, but acting with our policy “to allow anyone to do anything in the space” agreed to an exhibition.
For the show, he installed a large body of ‘child‑like’ drawings of varied sizes made with crayon, pencil, and koki markers. These were pasted chaotically all over the walls. The images included figures holding hands beneath a primary colored red sun, a rocket and landscapes with houses. There was a surrealist quality to the strange combinations of images, but also a sexual edge to the work as well. For example, on his invitation was a woman with one leg lifted above a lit candle. The poster read in scrawled marks:

CROWORK EXHIBITION
I NEED TO MAKE
MOVIES + PUBLISH
PLEASE SUPPORT
ZAHED MEER

ZAHED MEER, Instaaling work, 1994

The exhibition was well attended and we made a number of tapes at this opening. These tapes were not made with any intention, often a tape deck would be left running in the kitchen or elsewhere during exhibitions taping the conversations of whomever came into that space. That night recorded conversations included Meer, Matoti, Martyn, myself amoungst others, and in one such interaction, a friend of Meer’s spoke about the building where the FLAT was located.

Meer’s friend:             Tell me guys… nice flat, very nice flat. You know this shop underneath. When we were growing up, we lived around the corner, but then it became a white area so we had to move out.
Allen:                             Are you serious?
Meer’s friend:             But all…you know growing up, this shop underneath was where we used to come all the time. So it’s nice coming here.[1]

Meer had a very unique way of conversing with people. During many conversations, he would suddenly break into free-association poetry, as can be seen in this conversation with Matoti:

Matoti:            You are looking at me like you are going to say something. What do you want to say?
Meer:                Ah, OK let me tell you a sad […]
In communion with a lama,
In sharing words with a sister,
Having a brother,
Coming from a mother,
In arguing with a father,
Don’t judge a book by his cover.
Service and substance, substance in space
Wanting to know more is no disgrace
We seek to know
We must know
We have to know
The essence of ourselves
To sort out the levels
Of the heavens and hells […][2]

ZAHED MEER, installation of work on paper, 1994.