Oliver Mayhew is a Johannesburg-based artist.

The location of the Johannesburg TRC Amnesty hearings was held in the Wesley Hall of the Central Methodist Church. In a series of works, Mayhew is actively recording and documenting all of the Church's structural damage as he aims to restore the structural integrity that the Church is devoted to upholding through its history of safeguarding the lives and dignity of the vulnerable.

After many years of use, the artist’s familial plate has been kept clean and the artist draws attention to this fact. Bringing the plate to a space that it hasn’t been before so as to begin a dialogue between the artist’s desire to come clean and the plate that is still clean.”

In Mayhew’s words: “The Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg was actively opposed to the dehumanising policies of the apartheid state as they provided shelter to activists who were fleeing from the security police. In post-apartheid, the Church became a safe haven for refugees seeking refuge during the Xenophobic attacks in South Africa.”

Concept & Creation | Oliver Mayhew
Curator of The Long Minute | Bronwyn Lace