Robin Rhode is best known for his sequential photo grids and video animations. Claiming the street as a site of artistic production, Rhode has developed a unique process that conflates two- and three-dimensional space. He draws crude, life-size outlines of everyday objects on house facades or city streets with which figures then interact as if they were actual physical objects. These performances are photographed and the images arranged into narrative storyboard sequences, animations, and occasionally recorded on film. With Requiem for a Pavilion of Silence, Rhode presents a very personal narrative. The piece was photographed in Johannesburg, while the visual references indicate a distinct German presence. Rhode’s doppelganger sports an old East German officer’s uniform as he draws multiple images of the Gerrit Rietveld–designed “Berlin” chair to form a large, imaginary “pavilion.” The “pavilion of silence” refers both to totalitarian oppression in East Germany and to the absence, at the time this work was made, of any African pavilions at the prestigious Venice Biennale. It’s a subtle self-portrait of sorts, with South Africa peeking through a German veneer.