Archive: Issue No. 133, September 2008

7.09.08 'Construct: Beyond the Documentary Photograph' at the Durban Art Gallery
7.09.08 Ultra-red at the KZNSA Gallery
7.09.08 'A Living Legacy' at Kizo Gallery
7.09.08 Andrew Verster at KZNSA
7.09.08 Themba Shibase at the KZNSA Gallery
7.09.08 MaxNormal.TV at the KZNSA Gallery
7.09.08 'Co-temporary Existence' at DUT Art Gallery
7.09.08 Lionah Chimera at artSPACE durban

9.08.08 'Moveable Art Feast: 8 Galleries, 8 Weekends'
9.08.08 ''Pic(k) of the Dag ' at the Durban Art Gallery (formerly called 'Schools Curriculum')
9.08.08 'Fibreworks V' at artSPACE durban
9.08.08 Michelle Silk at artSPACE durban

2.03.08 'Recent Acquisitions' at the Durban Art Gallery

South Africa has a long and rich history of documentary photography and many of its practitioners are internationally known. 'Construct', curated by Heidi Erdmann with Jacob Lebeko, features Roger Ballen, Zander Blom, Lien Botha, Jacques Coetzer, Abrie Fourie, Nomusa Makhubu, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Barbra Wildenboer, Dale Yudelman and Berni Searle.

Historically the medium of photography provided a representational document with the fixed referent of reality. For this exhibition the curators wanted to uncover photographers working in and through the medium in an innovative way. Each artist here contributes a unique visual vocabulary, challenging the traditional stereotype of photography by pushing the shifting boundaries of the medium. Works selected for this exhibition needed to enquire into notions of construction, deconstruction and/or reconstruction.

The way in which the photographers use the medium was the primary curatorial focus and an installation that unlocked the potential dialogues between the different works was also imperative.

Opens: September 19
Closes: January 31, 2009

The art collective Ultra-red utilizes sound-based research to directly engage political struggle. Ultra-red members in North America and Europe pursue a dynamic exchange between art and political organising in radio broadcasts, performances, recordings and installations. Founded in 1994 by two Aids activists in Los Angeles, the collective has performed internationally as well as exhibited with such institutions as the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), Schirn Kunsthalle (Frankfurt), and, most recently, Tate Britain. Ultra-red has released recordings on labels such as Mille Plateaux (Frankfurt) and Soundslike (London) as well as their own fair-use online record label, Public Record (www.publicrec.org). Ultra-red features on the cover of the September 2008 issue of Wire, a publication devoted to experimental music and sound art.

Here Ultra-red, will exhibit three installation works, part of the group's Silent: Listen project, a public record of today's Aids epidemic in North America and globally. The record is composed of statements by Aids activists, organisers, researchers, artists and people living with HIV/Aids.

For information about Ultra-red contact: info@ultrared or visit www.ultrared.org www.publicrec.org

Opens: September 16
Closes: October 12

'A Living Legacy', co-curated by Bongi Bengu and Nathi Gumede, opens at Kizo this month. The exhibition investigates the importance of art as a living legacy.

Featured artists include: John Muafangejo, Trevor Makhoba, Sam Nhlengethwa, David Koloane, Norman Catherine, Pat Mautloa, Helen Sebidi, Dinkies Sithole, Wayne Barker, Dumisane Mabaso, Nontobeko Ntombela, Johan Thom, Colbert Mashile, George Msimang, Thembinkosi Goniwe, Themba Shibase, Mlu Zondi, Mbongeni Buthelezi, Sharlene Khan, Sifiso KaMkame, Cecil Skotnes, Gabi Nkosi, Eduardo Villa, Maud Sumner, Speelman Mahlangu, Collen Maswanganyi, Peter Clarke, Walter Battiss, Esther Mahlangu, Willie Bester, and Wilma Cruise amongst others.

Opens: September 1
Closes: September 30

Andrew Verster is currently holding a major retrospective which is touring national museums. In 'Odd Conversations' at the KZNSA, he extends the visual language highlighted by the retrospective; a visual language developed and refined over the past 50 years of production. On show is a new series of paintings and assemblages based on his signature collage technique. Again, Verster works his magic through the simultaneous congruency and incongruency of his disparate iconographies, where vastly different images combine in a celebration of fluidity and heterogeneity.

Also on show are selected examples of a new body of work produced for the Joburg Art Fair. It is here that Verster's mastery and celebration of colour show. In this series of patterned bodies, the inner thigh muscle of a Greek god jostles with a West African fetish, a Phoenix with its feet in the ashes has its beak in the crook of a Roman armpit; an Indian deity vests its undulating intercostal muscle-bed with a meditative feverish glow. Further along, past where the wrist meets the hand, a nebulous constellation spirals into a stigmatic wound: a point of trauma transformed into a point of beauty.

For collectors and students of Verster's work, this new exhibition presents an important marker in the continual development of the visual language by Durban's most celebrated artist.

Opens: August 26
Closes: September 14

Themba Shibase is one of four finalists selected for the prestigious 2008 MTN New Contemporaries Award. For this exhibition Shibase will show work produced for the award, and first shown at the UJ Art Gallery, Johannesburg.

Three bodies of work make up the show. In the first, Shibase juxtaposes large-scale oil on canvas portraits of extremist former Afrikaner nationalist leaders with Africa's renowned advocates of Afrocentrism. The posing of these figures in a singular piece is intended to illustrate the obvious. The personal inflection of these seemingly political paintings reflects the artist's attitude of ambivalence and skepticism of divergent and disparate notions of purist identity.

The second body of work, comprising four smaller canvases, takes an anecdotal view of the question of cultural identity, and the artist highlights the often-overlooked importance of an individual experience within grander, collective experiences. In this way, he questions concepts such as whiteness, blackness, Zuluness and masculinity.

The final component is a video piece where Shibase makes his private and intimate environment the subject of scrutiny.

Opens: September 16
Closes: October 12

MaxNormal.TV (fronted by the artist previously known as Waddy Jones) is a pop art crew that makes wild high-energy rap music, soft and dreamy acoustic music, music videos, short-films, handmade limited edition soft toys and comic books.

To accompany their live performance, which was held on August 29, at the KZNSA, MaxNormal.TV will be screening a selection of short-films and music videos written, directed and produced by Max Normal and Yo-landi Visser.

Opens: August 26
Closes: September 14

Thsi exhibition showcases the work of Sabelo Khumalo, Nothando Mkhize and Nozipho Zulu. The artists use different media, but find commonality in the exploration of geographic location and urban influences.

Concerned with popular culture, Khumalo derives inspiration from a prominent use of media/product advertising. He explores how media unifies the culture of global identity. Mkhize, on the other hand, attempts to find traces of city occupiers by using found objects. Zulu draws us to view the way that she has personally experienced living in the city, exploring how she has found herself torn between this environment and rural Zululand, to where she often travels.

Opens: September 5
Closes: October 8

'Xynergy!' features multimedia works (canvases, dvds and photographs) of group and solo sessions incorporating painting, music and dance that performance artist Lionah Chimera has produced in the KZN Midlands between 2003 and 2008.

Opens: September 15
Closes: October 4

The vision for the duration of the Celebrate Durban season is to make Durban's premier galleries accessible, available and welcoming to both visitors and residents of KZN by offering an 'art gallery trail' every Saturday throughout the eight weekend season beginning in August. Members of the public will be able to hop on a shuttle bus which travels a dedicated circuit to these venues throughout the day.

In anticipation of the additional feet through the galleries, themed events or 'art happenings' will be staged at each venue every Friday evening. Each of the featured galleries will have a turn over the course of the eight weekends.

Participating galleries include the Durban Art Gallery, artSPACE durban, KZNSA Gallery, Kizo Art Gallery, African Art Centre, BAT Centre, Durban University of Technology Art Gallery, and Art for Humanity at DUT.

Entry to these events will be free of charge. There may be a nominal fee charged for the shuttle. For more information contact Liana Turner or Cara Walters on (031) 311 2268.

The Durban Art Gallery has collaborated on a project with the Department of Education in making works on the curriculum available for learners to view. The Gallery's collection is seldom seen in its diversity due to space constraints, so this exhibition will not only enhance the learners' appreciation of the works they are studying but also provide a view into the collection's scope for the general public. It will be on semi-permanent display.

Opens: August 16

Formed in 1997, the Fibreworks group comprises about 50 members nationwide who work in a fibre/textile medium.

Africa has a history of textile-making and within this rich tradition, 'Fibreworks' reflects contemporary African creativity in both membership and work. 'Fibreworks V' is the fifth national showing of the group and will display a variety of media, colours and techniques such as layering, weaving, dyeing, printing and embellishing with beads and found objects.

The exhibition will be opened by Durban-based artist Andrew Verster.

Opens: August 25
Closes: September 13

In Michele Silk's new works, a combination of different line, colour and textures is used to define both form and the absence of form with particular reference to the female body. Using images of sections of the body as object and the use of discordant lines and grids, Silk's aim is to convey a sense of vulnerability and tension.

This exhibition is the second part of Silk's body of work exhibited earlier this year at the gallery.

Opens: August 25
Closes: September 13

The Durban Art Gallery will be opening an exhibition of 'Recent Acquisitions' on March 20 in the circular gallery. As acquiring new artworks is one of the core functions of any art museum, this installation will feature all donations and acquisitions made over the last three years.

The DAG has an acquisitions committee made up of visual artists, educators and key representatives from the Durban art world who select according to a laid down DAG policy which considers conceptual, aesthetic, social, historical issues among others and how the particular work will fit into the existing collection. The DAG accepts donations and these are also vetted by the same committee with the same criteria.

The installation will show a variety of media, which include works by Langa Magwa, Johannes Phokela, Duke Ketye to name a few. Within the holdings is a growing collection of works around HIV/AIDS and included on the exhibition is a recent donation by Bernice Stott titled Femidoms and Traditional Herbs, which centres around women's choices through developments such as the femidom and the juxtaposition thereof against traditional medicine in women's health.

For more information contact gallery curator Jenny Stretton on (031) 3112262.

Opens: March 20
Closes: April 20