Dineo Seshee Bopape

Current Review(s)

the eclipse will not be visible to the naked eye

Dineo Seshee Bopape at Stevenson in Cape Town

A woman in a smart red dress and hat and high heels stands on the side of an empty suburban road, as if wondering whether to cross. Her movements are fluttery, the camera action is speeded up. The urgent clucking of an invisible chicken is heard.  One smiles wryly, reminded of the old joke which asks, 'Why did the chicken cross the road?'

Why is this woman here? What is she doing walking jerkily forwards – and sometimes backwards - through this bourgeois suburb of ugly facebrick houses in large gardens interspersed with patches of scrubby veld? Why does the camera sometimes segue into a hallucinogenic view of the landscape, titling the camera angle and streaming the video rapidly towards the viewer, inducing the queasy sensation of vertigo?

29 July 2010 - 04 September 2010

Listings(s)

'Bird's Milk'

Dineo Seshee Bopape at Stevenson in Johannesburg

With Bird's Milk Bopape delves into the magic and mysteries of the metaphysical realm, endeavouring to disrupt the viewer's understanding of time and space.

20 January 2011 - 18 February 2011

lesobana lesobana lesobana le bulegile lesobana lesobana lesobana go phunyegile

Dineo Seshee Bopape at Stevenson in Johannesburg

Never one to simplify things, Bopape's latest exhibition, her first solo in Johannesburg, has possibly the longest title you've read since you stopped buying Smiths albums. The show consists of four video installations, one of which makes its debut at this exhibition; all interrogate the notion of the 'space' within video, its nature and extent. Word on the street is that this show is all over the shop. Judge for yourself whether Bopape's statement on the exhibition illuminates in any way:

there is nothing, only effect and affectation...
there is nothing and 'the nothing' (the immaterial thing that exists but can not be named or even pointed at) that exists in the actual ....a disco of effects/affect
...an 'echo immersed in the sieve'

11 August 2011 - 16 September 2011

'20 Years: Thami Mnyele Foundation'

Dineo Seshee Bopape, Zanele Muholi, Mustafa Maluka, Senzeni Marasela and Various Artists at Thami Mnyele Foundation

Twenty years ago, inspired by the South African artist and freedom fighter Thami Mnyele (1948-1985), a group of Amsterdam-based artists and concerned citizens set up an artists-in-residence programme, enabling artists from Africa the opportunity to live and work in Amsterdam for a period of three months. The atelier that the Thami Mnyele Foundation made available continues to be a vibrant meeting place for artists from Africa and the Netherlands.

The Thami Mnyele Foundation together with the CBK has selected the work of 26 artists out of the 68 artists that have been working in the studio over the last twenty years. This choice gives a glimpse into the diversity of contemporary art practices coming out of Africa. The exhibited works were made by the artists and donated to the Thami Mnyele Foundation during their stay in Amsterdam.

South African artists feature particularly strongly on the exhibition, which includes: Dineo Seshee Bopape, Clifford Charles, Ruan Hoffmann, Senzeni Marasela, Mustafa Maluka, Zaneli Muholi, John Murray, Progress Matubako, Sheppard Mtyshelwa, Ndikhumbule Ngqinambi, Thulani Songwe, Adriaan de Villiers, Tito Zungu and Ina van Zyl.

12 March 2011 - 29 April 2011

'the eclipse will not be visible to the naked eye'

Dineo Seshee Bopape at Stevenson in Cape Town

Bopape is known for her playful, experimental video works and cluttered installations of found objects. These delve into the magic and mysteries of the metaphysical realm and disrupt our understanding of time and space. Her videos have the potential to leave one in a rhythmic trance as the mind is transported to distant illusionary worlds. Her installations, which often incorporate videos, bear a non-linear, colourful and lively resemblance to informal structures created on the fringes of the world economy, such as the alternative community of Christiania in Copenhagen and the townships of South Africa.

Works on exhibition include the video the eclipse will not be visible to the naked eye (2009), which pays homage to Bopape's place of birth, Polokwane, but shows her struggle reconnecting to the local landscape after years abroad. Occuping an entire room, an installation also titled the eclipse will not be visible to the naked eye comprises what Bopape calls a 'video garden', incorporating four recent video works as well as numerous sculptural elements and digital prints.

29 July 2010 - 04 September 2010

'Mine'

Berni Searle, Dineo Seshee Bopape, Gregg Smith, Johan Thom, Robin Rhode, Bridget Baker, Various Artists, William Kentridge and Nandipha Mntambo at Dubai Community Theatre and Arts Centre

The first exhibition of contemporary South African art in the UAE, 'Mine' is curated by South African artist, photographer and curator Abrie Fourie, who explains the concept behind the exhibition: 'The title refers not only to the idea of deep level mining, but to the concept of personal ownership. The works featured have been chosen for their diversity, with the common denominator that the artists make reference to themselves in their work, either in person, as actor, model, observer, interviewer or instigator. Mine seeks to explore the myriad ways in which we identify and position our "selves".'

Artists featured in this video exhibition include: Berni Searle, Bridget Baker, Cedric Nunn, Dineo Seshee Bopape, Donna Kukama, Doris Bloom, Dorothee Kreutzfelt, Gregg Smith, Jaques Coetzer, Johan Thom, Lerato Shadi, Michael McCarry, Minette Vari, Nandipha Mntambo, Penny Siopis, Robin Rhode, Simon Gush, Teboho Edkins, William Kentridge, Zanele Muholi

18 January 2012 - 06 February 2012