Archive: Issue No. 101, January 2006

13.1.06 Santu Mofokeng and Guy Tillim at the Durban Art Gallery
13.1.06 Coral Spencer Domijan at artSPACE durban
13.1.06 Members' Exhibition at the KZNSA
13.1.06 Pascal Chandler, Di Maroun, Marlene Wasserman and Sharon Zoepke at artSPACE durban

9.12.05 'Treasures from the Dungeon' at the TAG
9.12.05 'Ukukhanya - Shine' at the DAG

4.11.05 Roger Ballen at the DAG
4.11.05 Wim Botha at the DAG
 

Selected works from the 'Unsettled: 8 South African Photographers' exhibition curated by Mads Damsbo in conjunction with the Museum of Photography in the Royal Library, Copenhagen will be on view at the Durban Art Gallery until April 30. The exhibition was created in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the ending of apartheid in South Africa.

The works from the exhibition will be shown at Durban Art Gallery in two parts. The first, entitled 'Chapter One', features works by photographers Santu Mofokeng and Guy Tillim. 'Chapter Two', featuring works by David Goldblatt, Jodi Bieber, Nontsikelelo Veleko, Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin, will be on view from March to April 2006.

The images explore transformations in the new South Africa, from optimism and solidarity to the ever-present tensions, conflicts and challenges.

Opens: January 1
Closes: April 30

Fur, Fish, and Feathers is an exhibition of oil paintings by Durban-based artist Coral Spencer Domijan. Although there is no overall theme governing the works, the exhibition reflects the artist's passion for the use of composition and light. This is Spencer Domijan's third solo exhibition at artSPACE durban.

Opens: 6.30pm, January 16
Closes: February 4

The 2006 KZNSA Members' Exhibition features of a wide range of work created by members of the KwaZulu-Natal Society of the Arts. This year's theme is 'Portraiture' and includes work by established and emerging artists alike, providing the chance for all KZNSA members to showcase their creative talents. Major exhibiting artists include Andrew Verster, Aidan Walsh, John Smith and Marianne Meijer.

Opens: January 24
Closes: February 12

Foursome is an exhibition of paintings by Durban artists Di Maroun, Marlene Wasserman, and Sharon Zoepke, all of whom are taught painting by Pascal Chandler who exhibits alongside her students.

Chandler explores identity, ownership, fragility and impermanence in her work. Maroun's works explore notions of identity and history, derived from her father's passion for African culture and history and her British mother's experience thereof. Her works explore and diarise her life at Fugitive's Drift and serve to highlight the importance of documenting and preserving history for future generations.

Opens: 6.30pm, February 6
Closes: February 25

Numerous artworks in the Tatham Art Gallery's collection seldom, or in some cases, never see the light of day. The aim of this exhibition is to unearth some of these hidden treasures from the basement storage. This exhibition will focus largely on black and white works, mainly graphic prints that span the whole history of the collection, with an emphasis on the earlier works in the collection.

Opens: December 14
Closes: February 5

The Umcebo Trust with the National Department of Arts and Culture, the Department of Arts, Culture and Tourism (Ethekwini Cluster), DIT, St Raphael's School and Sinethemba Children's Centre, present their annual end of year exhibition entitled 'Ukukhanya - Shine'.

The exhibition showcases artworks created throughout the year by crafters with (and without) special needs. The exhibition takes the form of a forest of sparkling, luminescent jewels and silvery shining shapes and textures; glass beads crackle and intriguing sculptural hangings and figures embrace you as you wander through an amazing landscape of fantasy creations. The exhibition includes finely handcrafted jewellery and beadwork, spectacular couture gowns made from recycled materials, mosaics, wirework and beaded sculpture as well as the trademark Umcebo tapestries.

For more information contact Robin Opperman on 083 793 3408 or email: robino@telkomsa.net

Opens: December 7
Closes: January 29

Award-winning photographer Roger Ballen, who is known for the social commentary in his previous publications Dorps, Small Towns of South Africa; Platteland, Images from Rural South Africa and Outland, now explores in Shadow Chamber, the underbelly and the shadow chamber of existence.

Ballen's photographs are striking, ambiguous images of people, animals and objects posed in mysterious, cell-like rooms that occupy the grey area between fact and fiction. They blur the boundaries between documentary photography and art forms such as painting, theatre and sculpture. The results are completely abstract and not defined by the origins or specific location of the characters he photographs. Ballen focuses on the interactions between the people, animals and objects that inhabit mysterious rooms - the shadow chamber. The rooms are unsettling and strange: their walls are covered with scribbled drawings, stains and dangling wires, the floors are strewn with bizarre props and artefacts. Dogs, rabbits and kittens wander into the frame or are stuffed into unlikely containers. Figures hide away in boxes, crouch behind overstuffed sofas and squat with their shirts pulled over their heads.

The works from Shadow Chamber and Outland will be exhibited first at the Durban Art Gallery, then move on to the Sasol Museum, Oliewenhuis Bloemfontein, as well as the Everard Read and Heidi Erdmann Galleries.

Opens: November 2
Closes: January 29, 2006

Wim Botha's travelling Standard Bank Young Artist Award exhibition began its year long tour at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown and concludes its run at the Standard Bank Gallery in July next year.

Botha works in multiple media, with sculptures, etchings, paintings and drawings all forming part of his intricate installations. These reflect on and subvert the symbolic imagery of power, religion and art history. By visually interfering with venerated forms of art, artefact and decoration, the artist questions the implications of systems and structures that attempt to define who we are. In several of his installations this subversion alludes to the systemic decay inherent in symbolic representations related to power. This is coupled with a reconstructive desire, simulating found imagery in an altered way that allows the possibility of a revision of our assumptions.

Included in the exhibition is the Mieliepap Pietà, a life-size mirrored replica of Michelangelo's original, modelled in maize meal and epoxy resin. The sculpture was first exhibited at the Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York last year on 'Personal Affects', where it simultaneously commented on western traditions and was appropriated by worshippers as part of the fabric of the church. Botha is also well known for his Christ figure carved out of bibles, titled 'Commune: suspension of disbelief' and 'Commune: onomatopoeia', a complex installation of a suspended room, which is currently touring Europe on 'Africa Remix', a survey of the contemporary art of the continent.

Opens: November 23
Closes: January 27, 2006