FADA Gallery, University of Johannesburg
18.09 - 11.10.2025
The latest iteration of the annual Creative Research Exhibition, at the University of Johannesburg’s Faculty for Art, Design and Architecture (FADA) Gallery, ‘IMPACT is a verb’, has emphatically disproven the old adage of “those who can’t do, teach”. This multidisciplinary presentation showcases works from FADA collaborations across artistic disciplines. To best contextualise it, I will quote the FADA Gallery curator, Dr Farieda Nazier: “This exhibition is aimed at creating a space and platform for the work of academics who are practitioners within a research domain of a particular field.” This single statement serves as a connecting thread bound to the core of this exhibition’s conceptual framework.
The show gives a sense that “IMPACT” in each of the projects on show would elicit a longer lifespan in their effects on society, rather than the shorter, more immediate and momentary understanding of the word, which is generally perceived to conjure up instances of a crash or collision. The focus is on a greater societal impact on institutions, students and communities outside of the University. This exhibition endeavours to convey a vibrancy and dynamism around academia by inserting research-based practices and interests of the university’s academics into the real world. The result is a cross-section of ideas, collaborations and conversations which feel layered, not only in their conceptualisation, but in their presentation as well.
Installation View: ‘IMPACT is a verb’ at FADA Gallery, 2025
The first work I will unpack is a visual and sonic collaboration, Confluence, which is an installation by visual artist Alison Kearney, electronic music composer and oboist Cameron Harris and the pianist and composer, Gavin Wayte. This sound installation, which took a year to conceptualise, fuses art and music into one cohesive project, exploring issues around the climate crisis, particularly focusing on water. With Kearney and Harris focusing on the Jukskei River, South Africa’s second most polluted river, which both collaborators lived close to. Wayte’s attention focused on the River Tame in Manchester, which is equally as polluted. The project highlights similar socio-economic issues around those who are most affected by these bodies of water. During the period of discovery, these collaborators conducted a series of activities ranging from walks along the rivers where photographs, drawings and recordings were gathered. The interventions formed part of the final installation: drawings, renderings of the source material of writings and photographs recorded on the river walks done in Johannesburg and Manchester and reference material such as newspaper clippings. The accompanying soundscape stitches together and remixes the audio recordings done at both sites, as well as incorporating the sound of Kearney’s drawing and painting, recorded with augmented technology and highly sensitive microphones used in capturing the subtle sound of the pencil, brush or art-making tools which pressed against the sheets of paper. The different elements of this installation ultimately combine to form a confluence of geographies, of geopolitics, and of our engagement with nature.
Installation View: ‘IMPACT is a verb’ at FADA Gallery, 2025
The second noteworthy selection is Alexander Opper’s “Spectrum” works, initially aimed at interrogating the term “Rainbow Nation”, famously coined by former Archbishop Desmond Tutu at the dawn of democracy and has since been expanded to encompass and engage with the idea of a spectrum relating to a wide range of facets, ranging from the political to the social. Spectrum I, a tower of vicariously stacked multi-coloured bricks on a wooden stool serving as a plinth. The colour scheme of the bricks, which necessitated a collaboration with an industrial brick manufacturer in order to develop special glazes to achieve his desired palette, mimics the seven colours presented in a rainbow’s spectrum. The bricks are stacked at a height which dwarfs the viewer and forces one to look upwards or view the piece from a distance. The curatorial choice to place this sculptural piece in front of a stark, matt-black painted wall ensures that the work embodies that sense of idealist perfection associated with Tutu’s Rainbow Nation. On the other hand, Spectrum II is a series of seven paintings again referencing the seven colour rainbow palette. The ordered structure of its tones is deconstructed by white lines which run through one or more of the tones on these seven canvases. What these disrupted white lines achieve is a sense of movement as they stretch across each of these canvases. Opper once again chooses an interesting and unexpected means to present these paintings, which are placed so high above the viewer’s eye line, meaning one could easily miss the works completely, which I interpreted as a nod to how we have lost sight of the initial intent which Tutu envisioned with his coining of the term.
Installation View: ‘IMPACT is a verb’ at FADA Gallery, 2025
Third on my list is the work of Tinyiko Baloyi, whose research focuses on highlighting indigenous knowledge systems. As part of the university teaching staff, Baloyi exposes her students to local traditions of collective art-making practices. Her work, titled Xinhlamune, is founded on the Tsonga n’wana figure. N’wana is made by girl children in the Tsonga tradition, who are taught how to make these figures by the women in the community. Its purpose is to articulate and guide girls through the different stages of womanhood. Transforming from toy to fertility figure as the girl child moves through the different stages of womanhood. After being gifted to the bridal family, the n’wana figure will begin its new life as a child’s toy in the new family, becoming once again a fertility object if a girl child is born. When a boy child is born, the figure becomes dismantled, and an assortment of different toys and objects is created to mark the boy’s childhood and growth. The dependency on the formation of the next n’wana evolves and is integrated into Tsonga culture through the passing on of “maker-knowledge”, which relies on collaboration. Baloyi’s creations for this exhibition saw her calling on those around her, such as her mother, son and friends, with whom she collaborated to craft the works, calling on the tradition of communal knowledge sharing.
‘IMPACT is a verb’ encompasses sculptural, text-based, ceramic art and art therapy to illustrate various ways of thinking and enacting impact across various communities. If nothing else, this layered exhibition gives faith to the students of the institution that their instructors are capable of producing work in their respective industries that is significant in the real world.
Installation View: ‘IMPACT is a verb’ at FADA Gallery, 2025
