Ângela Ferreira Links London Punk to Apartheid South Africa in ‘Slits are Girls’

Ângela Ferreira’s exhibition ‘Slits are Girls’ at The Showroom in London (27 February – 7 June 2026) connects 1970s London punk with apartheid-era South Africa. The show begins with photographs of the all-female punk band The Slits and extends to South Africa’s multiracial punk group National Wake, using sculpture, sound, and archival research to trace protest, gender politics, and spatial histories. Ferreira reconstructs sites like the Athens Gardens estate, where The Slits rehearsed, and a farm near Cape Town where National Wake performed. Collaborations include a sound intervention by The Black Industrial Research Group and Dubmorphology, and a playlist curated by Cape Verdean punk musician Scúru Fitchádu featuring contemporary South African punk bands. The title derives from graffiti behind The Slits in a photograph, making the exhibition site-specific. Ferreira emphasizes that punk is an ongoing practice, citing scenes in Turkey, Lebanon, Dubai, and China. The exhibition is open-ended, with evolving interventions that challenge traditional exhibition formats.