Stephen Hobbs, Dineo Bopape and Johan Thom at the KZNSA Gallery
by Carol Brown
The KZNSA Gallery presents the work of Stephen Hobbs, Dineo Bopape and Johan Thom which, taken as a body (which is seemingly unintentional), seems to reflect the zeitgeist. More people now live in cities than ever before and this phenomenon is evident in all the artists' work here. Cities are crowded, artificial, pressured and beset by the tensions of being too close to other people. This imposes a different lifestyle on humans from the arguably natural rhythm of the countryside.
A direct exploration of the architecture and structure of the city is apparent in Hobbs' installation which he calls 'D'Urban' and which is part of a three city exploration that started with Johannesburg and moves later to Cape Town. He examines the idea of the structure which underpins the built environment and the idea that this provides a framework for what comes after. The downstairs gallery is carefully constructed with three major visual pegs. The first, as one descends the creaking temporary structure of the steps, is a graphic reconstruction of a building which was conceived in Russia as propaganda but was never built. Hobbs has drawn this directly onto the wall and constructed a three-dimensional cloud floating above it. (It was intended that projections of propaganda be beamed onto the clouds). This alludes to contradictions between the man-made and the imaginary, and the disjunctures which can result.
In the opposite corner is a massive photograph of scaffolding printed onto a banner hanging from the ceiling, mirroring the wooden cloud. That the scaffolding was photographed in Dar-Es-Salaam places the environment in a broader context than that of the particular city with which he is currently working. Through the naming of this city, the characters of African cities, with their ancient buildings, decay, rebuilding and often subsequent neglect, is evoked. Had it had been left unnamed, the structure could have been a generic scaffold from anywhere. This gesture of naming is part of the psychological exploration of referring to other places and times and giving the city a larger canvas rather than a sense of a specific place.
This scaffolding is offset by a painted image of a graffiti-covered wall which bears the traces of the original marks but is overlaid with squares of muted colours which are numbered and classified. This classification seems to signal our attempts to control and order the randomness of the city. The palimpsest-like quality of the wall painting also brings to mind how we layer both memory and buildings in the city landscape.
The idea of the fleeting moment which carries a history is again reinforced upstairs with the assemblages where coloured abstractions (taken from shadow play on walls) are superimposed upon wooden grids resembling scaffolding. The bright colours add an element of playfulness whilst suggesting the shadows which animate buildings. Conceptually these speak to the downstairs graffiti and both of these refer to human randomness and ways in which spaces acquire lives of their own. These superstructures are ultimately how buildings are animated and reconfigured by the population and life of a city. The exhibition, which also includes visually playful photographs, expresses how urban planners attempt to control and form societies which cannot remain static, as life and changes occur and animate cities.
Bopape likewise celebrates human resilience and spirit, but in a very different way. Love Strung consists of pages torn, seemingly at random, from a notebook and strung across the gallery walls. The way this installation of drawings, paintings and doodles has been assembled is not chronological or sequential. Rather it is intended to be read as random thoughts and ideas which come together rather like a musical score, replete with repetitions and cross-referencing. The works are spontaneous sketches which express ideas and emotions and do not allow overworking to intervene. She works in the genre of artists like Tracey Emin, whose sometimes messy constructions afford a glimpse into a deeper emotional field.
Bopape started her career in Durban and, although she has been living in Amsterdam for some years, still pursues ideas which were manifested in her previous exhibitions in Durban. She is better known for her large, complex sculptural installations where she used a myriad of items from her and her friends' lives, piling these up like debris.
This installation uses the same language with each page, expressing an honest and real emotion. Careful examination gives a narrative of her current life, her loves, her frustrations, hopes and dreams. Their spontaneity draws us into her space and allows us to feel with her. Their immediacy, their sense of movement and optimism are also markers of life in an over-stimulated, urban environment. The rapid-fire aesthetic and frenetic pace the installation suggests, speaks of an experience of the city, with its bombardment of images and sounds. As with Emin, there is a sense of dislocation and disturbance as well as self-examination - all of which form part of the contemporary human condition.
Finally, a short and powerful video performance piece Bind/Ontbind by Johan Thom is shown in the media room. We watch the artist binding his face with some type of thin cord and we wince at the pain and discomfort he undergoes. This act of binding and confining his own body, within the space of a few minutes, inevitably affects the viewer at a subliminal level. However, once the binds are removed he quickly bounces back in a show of resilience. He offers no explanation, placing himself on display without comment or sound. We witness his cyclical pain and release in a similar way to the manner in which we react to Bopape's notebook, or even the precariousness of Hobbs' carefully constructed city walls.
The three exhibitions present a picture of life in the 21st century with its tensions, challenges and upheavals.
Opens: May 13
Closes: June 8
The KZNSA Gallery
166 Bulwer Road, Glenwood, Durban
Tel: (031) 202 3686
Fax: (031) 201 8051
Email: curator@kznsagallery.co.za
www.kznsagallery.co.za
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