Archive: Issue No. 92, April 2005

26.04.05 Bonita Alice at the NSA
26.04.05 Guy Tillim at the Durban Art Gallery
 

'Promised Land' is a collection of new work by Johannesburg artist Bonita Alice, most recently shown at Gauteng's The Premises. Mostly sculptural, the work combines such materials as ash, wool dust, velvet and antique furniture, and "describes our need for a personal heaven - known or unknown - as a means to hold safe that which may otherwise be light enough to float away."

In drawings, dust is reconstituted to create tone, and ash enclosed in paper and velvet. The work is a consolidation of Alice's re-engagement of the traditional artistic processes of painting and sculpture, but is described here as "untethered and oxygenated."

April 19 - May 8

Known for his images of conflict in Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Burundi, Eritrea, Mozambique and Sierra Leone, DaimlerChrysler award winner Guy Tillim's new work is based on tensions in the inner city of Johannebsurg. Made in 2004, the work addresses the shifts in control over the city between the forces of law, criminals and ordinary residents. The question is posed as to whether Johannesburg will revert to being a city of exclusion, or if it is possible for a new, vibrant and dynamic city to emerge.

Explaining Tillim's work, Rory Bester, art historian, curator and the chairperson on the DaimlerChrysler adjudication panel said, "Tillim has a creative and poetic voice. Even though he works in a familiar tradition, his images are open to broader interpretation. They do not reveal an elaborated consciousness of technique such as the use of black and white or colour, and light, but an intimacy that brings the viewer closer to the subject."

April 6 to May 30