Current Review(s)
Kgoro ya go Tswa
Dineo Seshee Bopape at STEVENSON in Cape TownNon-imperial art must be as rigorous as a mathematical demonstration, as surprising as an ambush in the night, and as elevated as a star – Alain Badiou
The French philosopher Alain Badiou once described contemporary art as a 'description without place': a compendium of unrelated entities brought together in close relationship to forge a new possibility. Contemporary art, in his words, is the paradigmatic instance reflective of contemporary politics’ lack of place. The notion of ‘description’ itself has been central in critical thought for a while, yet ‘place’ has become more recently a topic of concern. One recalls in Georg Lukacs’ Writer and Critic, the chapter, ‘Narrate or Describe’. Or even in Pierre Macherey’s A Theory of Literary Production, the brief chapter on explaining and interpretation.
Description always alludes to a search for place or signification. In a sense, to describe is to place. But to describe without place is, in a way, also predisposed to a new or different place. It is a description that avoids a hermitage, or being detained in a particular place. But is that a good thing? Let's wait and see. Dineo Bopape’s show ‘Kgoro Ya Go Tswa: if you fall from a circle’ at Michael Stevenson Gallery is the embodiment of this problematic. Bopape’s work - if it really fits Badiou’s idea - is a description that seems to elude and elide permanent descriptions. One can only describe or put it in placeas that which innately seeks freedom from or to. It is an attempt to consolidate or even stabilize chaos. It is to make sense of nonsense or vice versa.
06 June 2013 - 20 July 2013
the eclipse will not be visible to the naked eye
Dineo Seshee Bopape at STEVENSON in Cape TownA woman in a smart red dress and hat and high heels stands on the side of an empty suburban road, as if wondering whether to cross. Her movements are fluttery, the camera action is speeded up. The urgent clucking of an invisible chicken is heard. One smiles wryly, reminded of the old joke which asks, 'Why did the chicken cross the road?'
Why is this woman here? What is she doing walking jerkily forwards – and sometimes backwards - through this bourgeois suburb of ugly facebrick houses in large gardens interspersed with patches of scrubby veld? Why does the camera sometimes segue into a hallucinogenic view of the landscape, titling the camera angle and streaming the video rapidly towards the viewer, inducing the queasy sensation of vertigo?
29 July 2010 - 04 September 2010
Listings(s)
'Bird's Milk'
Dineo Seshee Bopape at STEVENSON in JohannesburgWith Bird's Milk Bopape delves into the magic and mysteries of the metaphysical realm, endeavouring to disrupt the viewer's understanding of time and space.
20 January 2011 - 18 February 2011
lesobana lesobana lesobana le bulegile lesobana lesobana lesobana go phunyegile
Dineo Seshee Bopape at STEVENSON in JohannesburgNever one to simplify things, Bopape's latest exhibition, her first solo in Johannesburg, has possibly the longest title you've read since you stopped buying Smiths albums. The show consists of four video installations, one of which makes its debut at this exhibition; all interrogate the notion of the 'space' within video, its nature and extent. Word on the street is that this show is all over the shop. Judge for yourself whether Bopape's statement on the exhibition illuminates in any way:
there is nothing, only effect and affectation...
there is nothing and 'the nothing' (the immaterial thing that exists but can not be named or even pointed at) that exists in the actual ....a disco of effects/affect
...an 'echo immersed in the sieve'
11 August 2011 - 16 September 2011
'20 Years: Thami Mnyele Foundation'
Dineo Seshee Bopape, Zanele Muholi, Mustafa Maluka, Senzeni Marasela and Various Artists at Thami Mnyele FoundationTwenty years ago, inspired by the South African artist and freedom fighter Thami Mnyele (1948-1985), a group of Amsterdam-based artists and concerned citizens set up an artists-in-residence programme, enabling artists from Africa the opportunity to live and work in Amsterdam for a period of three months. The atelier that the Thami Mnyele Foundation made available continues to be a vibrant meeting place for artists from Africa and the Netherlands.
The Thami Mnyele Foundation together with the CBK has selected the work of 26 artists out of the 68 artists that have been working in the studio over the last twenty years. This choice gives a glimpse into the diversity of contemporary art practices coming out of Africa. The exhibited works were made by the artists and donated to the Thami Mnyele Foundation during their stay in Amsterdam.
South African artists feature particularly strongly on the exhibition, which includes: Dineo Seshee Bopape, Clifford Charles, Ruan Hoffmann, Senzeni Marasela, Mustafa Maluka, Zaneli Muholi, John Murray, Progress Matubako, Sheppard Mtyshelwa, Ndikhumbule Ngqinambi, Thulani Songwe, Adriaan de Villiers, Tito Zungu and Ina van Zyl.
12 March 2011 - 29 April 2011
'Kgoro ya go tŠwa: even ?if you fall from a circle'
Dineo Seshee Bopape at STEVENSON in Cape TownStevenson present a solo show by Dineo Seshee Bopape. In the artist's words - (an extract)
Even if you fall off a circle
The exit- kgoro ya go tswa.... I first heard this term recently, I read it off a board at the joburg botanical gardens, it is so formal.... kgoro is like a court.... so the meaning would be - or
the direct translation into English would be : the court for exiting...
Even if you fall off a circle-
Featuring the works
:"why do you call me when you know I can't answer the phone" and "is I am sky" and other pieces, contemplating the idea-
the titles, of the show and of some of the works in the show are sourced/inspired by various sources...
a line from a poem by sun ra, a line from a text by andile mngxitama and a song by joan armatrading
It is not so much the song that gripped me, but that line- that line for some reason stuck in my head- resonating with particular moments in some of my current and older videos - where phones ring/a phone rings constantly without an answer, door bells, alarm clocks, bells etc.
.... like an invitation/ an unsettled proposal
an invitation that cannot be accepted: an invitation signalling a suspension of this (segment)
a call that goes unanswered...
(Who has to answer it? The protagonists in the video? Is it there to be answered or is it part of the cacophony)
The protagonists if any are oblivious to it
Oblivious to the oblivion
People always go crazy when there is an external something that begs for too much attention, but if it remains unanswered/if it is unacknowledged it also signals an agitated/numbed mind or emotional state:
06 June 2013 - 20 July 2013
'it began with a walk'
Dineo Seshee Bopape, Penny Siopis, Robin Rhode, Kemang Wa Luhelere, William Kentridge, Robert Hodgins and Deborah Bell and Moshekwa Langa at Ntsikana AnnexeCurated by Portia Malatjie
Lefu La Ntate (3 minutes 1 second) Kemang Wa Lehulere
Where Do I Begin? (4 minutes 20 seconds) Moshekwa Langa
is i am sky (17 minutes 48 seconds) Dineo Seshee Bopape
The Master Is Drowning (9 minutes) Penny Siopis
A Day in May (3 minutes 15 seconds) Robin Rhode
Bird’s Milk (5 minutes 44 seconds) Dineo Seshee Bopape
Memo (4 minutes) William Kentridge, Deborah Bell, Robert Hodgins
it began with a walk is an exhibition of video works from the Emile Stipp collection that was first screened at the Bioscope Theatre in Johannesburg in September 2013. The artworks have
been pulled together under the theme of ‘becoming’. The framework posits that nothing is ever static, that we are never as we were and that our presents are always fluid.
The exhibition aims to explore the curation of video works. Portia Malatjie examines how the medium is viewed in a gallery context, and how it can form part of a collection. This interrogation culminates in a cinema setting, where viewers are allowed the opportunity to see the time-based works from
beginning to end, an act that is often a challenge in a gallery setup.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue.
Presented by the National Arts Festival in association with the Emile Stipp Collection.
03 July 2014 - 13 July 2014
'the eclipse will not be visible to the naked eye'
Dineo Seshee Bopape at STEVENSON in Cape TownBopape is known for her playful, experimental video works and cluttered installations of found objects. These delve into the magic and mysteries of the metaphysical realm and disrupt our understanding of time and space. Her videos have the potential to leave one in a rhythmic trance as the mind is transported to distant illusionary worlds. Her installations, which often incorporate videos, bear a non-linear, colourful and lively resemblance to informal structures created on the fringes of the world economy, such as the alternative community of Christiania in Copenhagen and the townships of South Africa.
Works on exhibition include the video the eclipse will not be visible to the naked eye (2009), which pays homage to Bopape's place of birth, Polokwane, but shows her struggle reconnecting to the local landscape after years abroad. Occuping an entire room, an installation also titled the eclipse will not be visible to the naked eye comprises what Bopape calls a 'video garden', incorporating four recent video works as well as numerous sculptural elements and digital prints.
29 July 2010 - 04 September 2010
'Mine'
Berni Searle, Dineo Seshee Bopape, Gregg Smith, Johan Thom, Robin Rhode, Bridget Baker, Various Artists, William Kentridge and Nandipha Mntambo at Dubai Community Theatre and Arts CentreThe first exhibition of contemporary South African art in the UAE, 'Mine' is curated by South African artist, photographer and curator Abrie Fourie, who explains the concept behind the exhibition: 'The title refers not only to the idea of deep level mining, but to the concept of personal ownership. The works featured have been chosen for their diversity, with the common denominator that the artists make reference to themselves in their work, either in person, as actor, model, observer, interviewer or instigator. Mine seeks to explore the myriad ways in which we identify and position our "selves".'
Artists featured in this video exhibition include: Berni Searle, Bridget Baker, Cedric Nunn, Dineo Seshee Bopape, Donna Kukama, Doris Bloom, Dorothee Kreutzfelt, Gregg Smith, Jaques Coetzer, Johan Thom, Lerato Shadi, Michael McCarry, Minette Vari, Nandipha Mntambo, Penny Siopis, Robin Rhode, Simon Gush, Teboho Edkins, William Kentridge, Zanele Muholi
18 January 2012 - 06 February 2012
'Next Generation'
John Murray, Ruan Hoffmann, Dineo Seshee Bopape, Hasan and Husain Essop, Santu Mofokeng, Jeremy Wafer, Zanele Muholi, Clifford Charles, Nicholas Hlobo and Ndikhumbule Ngqinambi at Pilchri StudioIn 1993 the Thami Mnyele Foundation initiated the exhibition 'Zuider Kruis/ Southern Cross' in Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, an exhibition of contemporary art from South Africa with artists who had been taking part in the Venice Biennial the previous year. Now 19 years later, the Thami Mnyele Foundation exhibits the work of a new generation of artists from South Africa in cooperation with the Pulchri Studio in The Hague. 'Next Generation' presents a selection of 20 contemporary artists from South Africa who have been working in the Thami Mnyele Foundation as 'Artist-in-Residence' during the past years.
Artists include: Hasan and Husain Essop, Michele Tabor, Ina van Zyl, Sandra Kriel, Ndikhumbule Ngqinambi, Adriaan de Villiers, Ruan Hoffmann, Zanele Muholi, Dineo Bopape, Clifford Charles, Thulani Shongwe, Nicolas Hlobo, John Murray, Senzeni Maracela, Jeremy Wafer, Shepard Mtyshelwa, Progress Matubako, Pat Mautloa and the work of the current resident Nisren Abasher, a Sudanese artist. It also encompasses the work of the Artist-in-Residence for June to July 2012: Santu Mofokeng.
02 June 2012 - 22 July 2012
