Umsi at the the AVA
by Linda Stupart
'Umsi' (the isiXhosa word for 'smoke'), brings a well curated, powerful and skillful body of paintings to the AVA - an exhibition space that often fails to impress due to its scattered curatorial endeavours. This is not just another hastily put together group show by hot 'up-and-comings', but rather a meaningful concept-driven exhibition of paintings that demonstrates real commitment and, heaven forbid, hard work.
As Zayd Minty explained in his opening speech, the theme of the exhibition is inspired by the annual slew of shack fires in the Western Cape, particularly those in the Joe Slovo settlement in Langa - Cape Town's oldest township and that closest to our sacred and seemingly protected city centre. Shack fires are, of course, a real and tragic issue leaving many homeless, destitute and injured. This very fact alerted my ever cynical mentality to the concern that this exhibition might just be steeped in shallow and literal representations of said tragedy. However, as a whole, the show manages to avoid the traps of 'issue-driven' art.
The exhibition is curated by artist and filmmaker Vuyile Voyiya, using a hands-on workshop-based curatorial process that is not only unusual, but rather un-trendy on Cape Town's contemporary art scene which seldom allows a curator to devote his/her time solely to one exhibition project. The artists and curator chose their topic during a two week workshop and discussion process that preceded the making of the works. This casts the curator as a facilitator and collaborator as opposed to merely the arts equivalent of a buyer who picks and chooses his/her artists and whose only involvement in the artists' actual work is in deciding where to hang it on the gallery wall. 'Umsi' is, as a result, a cohesive endeavour.
The show's highlight for me, certainly in terms of technical prowess, are the untitled works by Lunwabo Kilani. In the main gallery are the artist's two large paintings which appear to be birds' eye view images of a street sweeper simultaneously cleaning up cans and erasing and spreading the dirt that is the painted surface. Upstairs the very birds that have been so detachedly watching this anonymous sweeper have launched an attack of Hitchcock-esque severity, swarming and attacking the figure who remains alone even as he steps, stooped and weary, into a murky bar in the fourth painting. The flickering delicate threads of narrative that hold these pieces together complement the artist's sensitive use of colour and confident yet sombre manipulation of his medium in these four pictures of desolation, alienation and loss.
Hanging next to Kilani's large pieces, and in sharp contrast to their loose barrenness, is a superbly lurid and fittingly grotesque painting by Lindile Magunya. The piece, The Cries and Abandon is the most literal interpretation of the shack fires to be found in the show (it was in fact Magunya's documentation of the shack fires that inspired the group to make work around this theme). What makes this work so successful is the painter's detachment from his subject, echoed in his subjects' apparent detachment from their blazing homes, all mirrored accusingly in the privileged eyes of the typical fine art viewer.
Also striking are Thulani Shuku's chaotic images of boys in cheap gas masks. This may sound insensitive, but I feel that the latter images rely a little heavily on easy, literal and emotive figurative subject matter that is not technically handled nearly as well as the artist's frenetic abstract backgrounds.
There are, as always, some disappointing works in the show. In particular, Vivian Kohler's huge and distracting painting of a baobab tree, particularly so as it is positioned on the main wall of the upstairs gallery. And Our Roots Are Rusty is an unnecessarily literal translation of a title that conjures up some complex and fantastical images and ideas. This painting shows a sloppily painted Disney-esque baobab tree descending below the ground into roots that are literally made of rusted steel. Though this could be a strong metaphor and a useful painting, as it manages to avoid figurative representation as a vehicle for human emotion, it fails to deliver.
In essence this is a cohesive, intelligent and sincere exhibition of work made largely by a very talented bunch of painters. My only real criticism of the show is that some of the work is perhaps a little too similar, with too much emphasis on a very particular type of figure and object. There is, however, enough diversity of style that this repetition serves mostly to re-iterate the unity of intent in the show. Almost above anything else, 'Umsi' is testament to the necessity for talented, dedicated curators in Cape Town and the need for galleries to be receptive to group shows that are curated with intent by artists and cultural producers outside of their institution.
Opens: January 23
Closes: February 11
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