Archive: Issue No. 113, January 2007

15.01.07 Yvette Dunn at Bean Bag Bohemia
15.01.07 Peter Engblom at Bean Bag Bohemia
15.01.07 Robert Balfour at ArtSpace
15.01.07 Sibusiso Duma, Julius Mfethe and Sfiso Ka-Mkame at the African Art Centre
15.01.07 KZNSA Members Exhibition

5.11.06 Churchill Madikida at the Durban Art Gallery
5.11.06 'About Face': An exhibition of portraits from the Durban Art Gallery's permanent collection

1.09.06 Peter Bendheim at the Durban Art Gallery

Influenced by Hopper, Masereel and Stagg, Robert Balfour focuses mainly on streets and buildings of Durban in 'Intimate Aversions' in which the night is explored as an 'othering' influence on identity in the city. Employing oil and acrylic paints to create highly textured and rough surfaces, colour and form clash as highways end abruptly, figures taper into neon signs and become part of buildings or struggle to escape them. At night the city is both sealed by darkness and defined by light. Grey Street landmarks, easily identified by day, become unreliable at night as streets and buildings disappear into darkness. And, what appears as night 'life', flickering neon signs, or the twinkle of sodium lamps over the harbour water, can suggest, just as easily, desolation and abandonment, activity or energy.

Balfour holds degrees from the universities of Rhodes, Natal and Cambridge. He currently teaches at the University of KwaZulu-Natal on modules in language education and has taught in both the Humanities and Education faculties in the College of Humanities.
Opens: January 15
Closes: February 3

'The Coloured Supa Hero' is an exhibition of mixed media prints by Yvette Dunn. The work pushes the fine art printing medium to its max through a sassy graffiti approach incorporating mixed media, found objects and personal texts. Dunn sets out, with the help of her supa hero Alta ego, to liberate herself and others from racial stigmas associated with colouredness. The work uses humour to defuse and redress powerful social stereotypes. Dunn's work deals with the concept of social, cultural and political labelling attached to the 'so-called coloured' person in a post-colonial and post-apartheid South Africa. She aims to do this by interrogating her idea of 'being coloured'.

Dunn was born in 1979 in Durban and holds a National Diploma in Fine Arts from the Durban University of Technology. She has participated in several group exhibitions and since 2004 has been working at the African Art Centre as the Development Officer assisting artists, initiating projects, workshops and assisting with exhibitions.
In 'The Writings on the Wall' Peter Engblom shows playful photographic work which combines his signature nude beauties with their lamenting 'break-up' notes. He uses sms text and poetry scrawled behind his muses, creating a mood that we all know too well with statements like 'Today was a complete waste of make up'.

His work is quirky as befits one of Durban's famed bohemian characters. His ancestors established a Norwegian mission station in Zululand and his early days were spent as a sugar farmer and yacht broker. He subsequently studied photography at the Bavarian Institute in Munich and has photographed Zulu rituals and ceremonies extensively. He is also a trained sangoma and has designed many audio-visual presentations for corporates and museums. His most famous creation is the Zulu Sushi series of works which are soon to be produced in book form.
Opens: January 1
Closes: January 31

These three prominent KZN artists are showing a small selection of works this month at the African Art Centre. Sfiso Ka-Mkame is one of the province's most prominent and senior artists. He was born in Clermont on the outskirts of Durban in 1963. He continues to live in the area and commutes to his studio in the Umkhumbane/Cato Manor area each day. He rose to prominence in the 80s when his Letters to God series was purchased by the South African National Gallery and the Durban Art Gallery. He is known for his political commitment and also his decorative, bold compositions which celebrate the power of the African woman. Sibusiso Duma is a younger artist who was trained by the late Trevor Makhoba. He initially showed with Welcome Duma but is now exhibiting his socially conscious, narrative works in his own right. He is influenced by traditional stories and life in the township. Julius Mfete is well known for his beautifully carved scenes of rural life. Highly finished pale wood is often detailed with small leather and horn elements in these very accomplished and much imitated works.

Opens: January 1
Closes : January 31

The KZNSA this year invited its members to produce work for the annual Members' Exhibition on the theme 'Naked Truth'. The artists were invited to interpret the theme in their own ways using their medium of choice. The exhibition always sees a mix of ideas from traditional to contemporary art practice created by both established and emerging artists.

The artist who produces the most outstanding work will be awarded with a floating trophy in the name of the late Joan Emanuel, made available by the Emanuel family. In addition there will be three prizes for the three best entries: A first prize of R3000, a second prize of R2000 and a third prize of R1000.

Opens: January 23
Closes: February 11

The Oxford English Dictionary defines portraiture as a 'representation or delineation of a person, especially of the face, made from life, by drawing, painting, photography, engraving etc.: a likeness'. 'About Face' includes portrait-based artworks from the Durban Art Gallery's permanent collection spanning from as early as the 16th Century to the present. The deliberate juxtaposition of works with similar thematics creates interesting dialogues, such as the positioning of Michael Croeser's Birth Control Versus Infinity (2001) next to Thomas Matthews Rooke's The Weaving of the Enchantress (1902), considering notions of the construction of beauty and mass consumption.

The genre of portraiture has significantly changed since the early 16th Century, where one's status and social standing were clearly evident in the images. The contemporary works on the exhibition deal with issues of identity and the purposeful juxtapositions with the earlier works in the collection provide a shifting narrative throughout the exhibition space.

Opens: October 16
Closes: January, 2007

Churchill Madikida's exhibition entitled 'Like Father Like Son?' continues its countrywide tour after opening at the Grahamstown Arts Festival in June.

Madikida's Standard Bank Young Artist Award exhibition draws from personal experience exploring issues around growing up with an absent father. The works on exhibition engage with the artist's complex family history, exploring the differences and commonalities between members of his family, especially his father whom he recently met for the first time in 32 years.

The artworks provide an insight into how growing up without his biological father may have shaped Madikida's sense of being, his relationships and even perhaps his perception of the world. He attempts to share his struggles in trying to understand and overcome growing up without a biological father. For Madikida this process includes dealing and acknowledging shortcomings and wrongs of the past, but mostly offering forgiveness and moving forward.

The artist will be conducting a public walkabout at 10am, November 16.

Opens: November 15
Closes: December 13

'Snap' is an exhibition of photographs by Peter Bendheim who is well known in Durban as the editor of Metro Beat magazine. The photographs on this exhibition were first shown on Bendheim's first solo exhibition at artSPACE durban in October 2005. The photos reveal images of Durban and other places that go beyond the conventional representation of Durban as depicted in tourist brochures and postcards.

Bendheim states: 'To me, the city is full of vibrancy, noise, colours and movement. There are moments of humour and moments that are sad and touching. Life here is a rapidly passing parade, and I wanted to capture some of its fleeting nature, some of its intimacy and some of its hot and tropical brashness.'

Opens: The exhibition is on view during September