Jo Ractliffe

Jo Ractliffe examines the traces of conflict, displacement, and historical violence in Southern Africa. Her work often captures landscapes marked by human absence yet shaped by past human activity, emphasizing memory, trauma, and the lingering effects of political upheaval. Ractliffe engages with the tension between presence and absence, using subtle visual cues to suggest histories of violence without explicit depiction. Her compositions often isolate details in seemingly ordinary terrains, inviting reflection on the scars left on communities and the environment by war, forced removals, and socio-political transformation. Her process involves careful observation and framing, emphasizing texture, light, and spatial relationships to evoke narrative and psychological depth. Ractliffe’s work transforms landscapes into sites of historical and emotional resonance, where past and present coexist, and the viewer is prompted to consider the enduring impact of collective memory on contemporary space. ...