'A Decade of Democracy: Witnessing South Africa' at the KZNSA
'A Decade of Democracy: Witnessing South Africa' opened at the Museum of the National Centre of Afro-American Artists in Boston, Maine on April 2, 2004, and travelled to numerous other centres in the US. The KZNSA Gallery is the only venue in South Africa to host the exhibition which marks the historic celebration of our democracy through the visions of emerging contemporary South African artists. The 20 young artists featured examine ways that identity has been defined, searching for means of expression that are personal in experience and universal in understanding.
Artists Thando Mama and Rudzani Nemasetoni, for example, reflect differently to how the state defined identity. Nemasetoni uses images from his family's 'pass books', the notorious South African identification book that black people had to carry. Mama uses his own body as a site for the recovery of meaning and power associated with the black subject. Artists look at a variety of complex issues particular to the new South Africa such as urbanism, xenophobia, violence, AIDS and poverty.
The show articulates the variety of strategies that artists use to connect their living history with the past. The exhibition acts as a framework, which allows the works to create a conversation that explores the impact of apartheid and bears witness to the complexities and multitude of issues that South Africa is confronting today.
Opens: 6pm, August 30
Closes: September 24
KZNSA Gallery
166 Bulwer Road, Glenwood, Durban, 4001
Tel: (031) 202 3686
Fax: (031) 201 8051
Email: curator@nsagallery.co.za
www.nsagallery.co.za
Hours: Tue-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat 10am-4pm, Sun 11am-3pm