Archive: Issue No. 81, May 2004

01.05.04 Carol-anne Gainer's 'Pale' at the NSA Gallery
01.05.04 Bronwen Vaughan-Evans's 'One Zero One' at the NSA Gallery
01.05.04 Galerie Puta's 'Storm' at the NSA Gallery
01.05.04 John Roome's 'Courage' at the NSA Gallery
01.05.04 Deryck Healey and Marianne Meijer at artSpace Durban
01.05.04 The Freedom Fortnight -'Ties that Bind' and 'Ten Out of Ten Democracy' - at the Durban Art Gallery
01.04.04 'Ties that Bind' at the DAG

Carol-anne Gainer`s exhibition 'Pale' focuses on re-presentation. Central to her concerns is her sense of relationship to place or land whilst at the same time she explores norms around the constructed body. The exhibition will consist of digital prints, video installations and projections. Working with images of her dog, Gainer creates videos where she contests boundaries of difference - intersecting them, crossing them, producing hybrid forms that affront or confound, calling for a reassessment of expectation. The installations within which she often situates the videos are constructions referencing stage sets and temporary sites which expose sections of an artificially created world. A neatly wallpapered corner of a room, for instance, will reveal its temporary nature from behind. Signalling the domestic, the demure and the supposed security of middle-class homes within the European tradition these spaces are, instead of private, exposed to the public eye; instead of secure they are presented as transitory; instead of authentic they are clearly simulated.

Gainer has shown regularly in Durban and has also exhibited in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town. In 2002 she was selected for 'Outpost II', a travelling exhibition of contemporary art from KZN exhibited at Stellenbosch University Gallery. She was also an invited participant in `Violence/Silence' a PULSE project curated by Greg Streak seen in Durban and Nieu-Bethesda in 2002. In the same year she was part of a two-person show in Washington D.C. Later this year she will participate in a UNESCO studio residency in Colombia, South America. Gainer is currently registered as a Masters student at the Durban Institute of Technology and the show will constitute her Master's exhibition.

Opens: 6pm, April 28
Closes: May 16

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Bronwen Vaughan-Evans will be presenting an exhibition of detailed small works (each measuring 13cm X 13cm) making up large-scale composite pieces. Each panel is intensely detailed and laboured and each has an iconic feel, incorporating everyday images from the artists` environment and life history. They are also, to an extent, an investigation into the nature of nationality and identity as well as reference to childhood memories, which are often visual rather than verbal.Some of the works are historical, and contain images from junior school textbooks; others make reference to nursery rhymes or resemble pop-art depictions of common South African products. Many of the works include found objects which range from small plastic toys to old badges and emblems that reflect fragments of our past.

Vaughan-Evans' subject matter is chosen almost at random, like a flow of thought in which no single image is more or less significant than any other. Through this, the works acquire the shifting qualities of small flashes of memory and dream.

The title of the exhibition 'One Zero One', refers primarily to the number of small works that make up the composite piece, but also makes reference to binary systems. Each work, like the zeros and the ones that make up the binary code, has an alternating level of significance that is dependant on its position relative to the other works. It is only when the individual digits of binary are grouped together that fluctuating patterns begin to emerge and acquire meaning.

Vaughan-Evans received her Masters of Arts in Fine Art in 1995 from the University of Natal. She has lectured there part time and is also a qualified art teacher. She is currently a full-time artist, and was last year seen on the Brett Kebble Art Awards show in Cape Town. This is her first solo exhibition.

Opens: May 25 at 6pm
Closes: June 13

Galerie Puta, a highly successful, non-venue specific conceptual gallery, launched in Cape Town early last year, is proud to colonise the NSA Gallery for the exclusive use of its highly regarded curatorial team of head honchos, Cameron "the Don" Platter, Andrew "fluffy" Lamprecht and Ed "One Eye" Young from May 18 to 23. Their three solo shows, all coincidentally entitled 'Storm', will be held concurrently in the NSA space. These exhibitions will interrogate issues such as idleness, assassination, insider trading on the JSE, random beatings, vodka martinis, the historical philosophy of Hegel and dirty livin'.

Platter's last show at the João Ferreira in January 2004 received considerable critical acclaim. Young has held a series of 'One Night' events, the last also taking place in January at the Bell-Roberts Gallery in Cape Town. Lamprechts` last show was 'Alterier' in August/ September 2003, coinciding with the Impact! International Printmaking Conference.

The curatorial staff of Galerie Puta are known for their fearless challenging of the status quo in the South African art world, their deep commitment to development and outreach projects and for being exceedingly pleasant people.

Opens: May 18 at 6pm
Closes: May 23 at noon

There is a special forum at 6.30pm on Wednesday May 19

John Roome is a Durban-based artist who has exhibited regularly both locally and internationally since 1976. He is known for his paintings and prints, which have found their way into numerous private and public collections in South Africa and abroad. Roome is currently head of the department of Fine Arts at the Durban Institute of Technology, where he has lectured for many years.

His up-coming exhibition at the NSA Gallery is titled 'Courage' and represents a departure for the artist. Roome has moved on from the exploration of urban landscape and the overt socio-political concerns for which he is known. His focus has become an inward journey in which he uses natural objects of the outside world as the reference for an investigation of the metaphysical concerns of the inside world. Humble objects such as seed pods and fragments of natural forms are transformed into images that have humorously have been described as being "half-way between botanical art and Zen".

There are broader references such as architectural forms, monument-like structures and the element of fire, which link back to his earlier work, but he has moved away from the narrative. He is now more concerned with expressing the verbally inexpressible in watercolours on hand-made paper. Papermaking is a passion which the artist has pursued, developed and taught over the past two decades.

Opens: 6pm, May 25
Closes: June 13

Opening at artSpacedurban are two shows in the space`s adjacent galleries. Marianne Meijer and Deryck Healey are showing thought provoking works that challenge boundaries but remain accessible to one's understanding. Healey`s dynamic approach to emerging media and styles has been the mark of an ever-changing response to new media and technology. Healey`s new work is a powerful but perhaps more subtle comment on the similarities and differences that bind our collective conscious.

Meijer`s exhibition 'Tables' continues her interest in critical realism (that began with 'Faces' at the NSA Gallery in 2002) of the potential of the mind's eye to use paint as a subject in its own right. Like 'Faces', the 'Tables' series has a vigour and intensity that is reflected in the vitality the works radiate. The works are pregnant with life, emotion and meaning.

Opens: May 3
Closes: May 15

Opening on Tuesday April 27 is 'Women Artists and Poets Advocating Children`s Rights', a multiple portfolio exhibition celebrating Freedom Day, which was conceptualised by Art for Humanity. This exhibition features the 'Images of Human Rights' portfolio now installed at the new Constitutional Court in Johannesburg; the 'Break the Silence: HIV/Aids' portfolio endorsed locally and internationally and the famed 'Universal Declaration of Human Rights' international print portfolio. To coincide with the exhibition, Art for Humanity - which recently changed from Artists for Human Rights - launches its new name and announces its new agenda.

Opens: April 27

Opening on April 29 is 'Ties that Bind' a multimedia exhibition which examines relationships and families that are not always the nuclear mother, father and child unit. The exhibition coincides with the South African Association of Marital and Family Therapy Conference being held at the International Convention Centre. Curated by the Gallery director Carol Brown, the exhibition attempts to address some of the more controversial and socially complex issues that galleries have tended to shy away from-including the many contemporary variations of what was a traditional nuclear family. Cross-cultural, multigenerational and same-sex families are examined. The exhibition features works by Terry Kurgan, Jean Brundit, Clive van der Berg, Zamani Makhanya, Mamatakane Makara, Val Adamson and others.

'Ten Out of Ten Democracy' showcases the richness of South African creativity with 100 works from the Durban Art Gallery's permanent collection including works purchased with Red Eye funds like Red Eye Angel by Sibusiso Maphumulo.

'Ties that Bind' opens at 5.30pm, April 29
'Ten Out of Ten Democracy' opens at 5.30pm, May 5

Carol Brown, curator of the Durban Art Gallery, has put together 'Ties that Bind', an exhibition focusing on the family. Generated in anticipation of the SA Association For Marital and Family Therapy Conference (April 17-19) to be held at Durban's International Conference Centre (ICC), the exhibition interrogates traditions, constructions and implications of traditional and alternative families.

As well as drawing from the permanent collection of the DAG (utilising work by Bafana Mkhize and Alfred Thoba amongst others), Brown has included AIDS orphan dolls from Kate Wells' ongoing AIDS projects. Despite the presence of such objects the exhibition is largely photographic. Brown has thus chosen to invite a number of photographers whose interest in family matters is central to their work. Obvious candidates such as Terry Kurgan, Val Adamson and Jean Brundit are all included as well as less expected selections such as Ian van Coller (who has just completed an MFA at University of New Mexico). Photos from the HSRC's Fatherhood Project round off the show.

A catalogue, with writings by Jerry Coovadia and family therapist Frieda Rundell, will accompany the exhibition.

Opening: April 15
Closing: June 6