Donna Kukama

Listings(s)

'Imaginary Fact: Contemporary South African Art and the Archive'

Sue Williamson, Wim Botha, Athi Patra Ruga, David Koloane, Donna Kukama, James Webb, Penny Siopis, Andrew Putter, Joanne Bloch and Others at Venice, Italy

Art influences and reflects its world around us and, as the world changes, so too does its forms. In South Africa, during its turbulent twentieth century, visual art focused on political resistance and became a vehicle for insurgency against human rights abuses. After the advent of democracy it shifted towards an exploration of issues of identity, with race and gender gaining prominence. Today, contemporary South Africa is witness to a further significant movement – a renewed and invigorating focus on how and why histories continue to impact on the world today. To do this, contemporary artists are turning to the archive as the repository of these histories. This essay outlines the concept behind 'Imaginary Fact: Contemporary South African Art and the Archive', an exhibition that draws on South Africa’s key practitioners who, in very different and vibrant ways, draw on the archived record in order to make sense of our worlds today.

What is it about the record that artists find so enticing? At the simplest level, it is the rare combination of memory with ‘thing’ – a coming together of the tangible and the intangible – which makes the record such a powerful force. It allows the artist to construct new bridges between history and the contemporary, thus to create an architecture of meaning. The agency of archives has been demonstrated by their ability to both construct and destroy ideologies. Working with archives, in a creative way, therefore allows the artist to create work with the potential to change the course of our contemporary world.

A literary example from Italo Calvino (1998) complicates this question when he writes: ‘Perhaps the mistake lies in establishing that at the beginning I and a telephone are in a finite space such as my house would be, whereas what l must communicate is my situation with regard to numerous telephones that ring; these telephones are perhaps not calling me, have no relation to me, but the mere fact that I can be called to a telephone suffices to make it possible or at least conceivable that I may be called by all telephones.’

Calvino’s text is taken from In a network of lines that enlace, a chapter in his book titled 'If on a winter’s night a traveller'. These titles – hinting at the relation of one concept to another – seem to set the stage for a continuous tale. But each chapter is discrete – different in character and narrative to the one before and the one following. It is only when the characters in different chapters start demonstrating commonalities, or when the effect of relationships between characters in different stories can be seen, that the interplay between chapters becomes legible. A dynamic crossing is established between all players in a complex game of interrelationships.

In all case studies, artists appear to function partly as facilitator to release the potential energy stored within the seemingly latent records, and partly as activist in allowing the agency to do its work within societies. The most common methods used are translation (into new and evolving languages), interpretation (into new and evolving meanings), and mediation (from one medium to another), sometimes used individually, sometimes in combination, but often to startling effect.

Brenton Maart

01 June 2013 - 24 November 2013

'Public Intimacy'

Jo Ractliffe, Athi Patra Ruga, David Goldblatt, Donna Kukama, Penny Siopis, Santu Mofokeng, Kemang Wa Luhelere and Others at YBCA

Disrupting expected images of South Africa, the 25 contemporary artists and collectives featured in 'Public Intimacy' eloquently explore the poetics and politics of the everyday. This collaboration with Yerba Buena Center for the Arts presents pictures from SFMOMA’s collection of South African photography alongside works in a broad range of media, including video, painting, sculpture, performance, and publications — most made in the last five years, and many on view for the first time on the West Coast. Coinciding with the 20th anniversary of democracy in South Africa, 'Public Intimacy' reveals the nuances of human interaction in a country still undergoing significant change, vividly showing public life there in a more complex light.

 

'Public Intimacy' includes works by Ian Berry, Ernest Cole, David Goldblatt, Handspring Puppet Company, Nicholas Hlobo, ijusi (Garth Walker), Anton Kannemeyer, William Kentridge, Donna Kukama, Terry Kurgan, Sabelo Mlangeni, Santu Mofokeng, Billy Monk, Zanele Muholi, Sello Pesa and Vaughn Sadie with Ntsoana Contemporary Dance Theatre, Cameron Platter, Lindeka Qampi, Jo Ractliffe, Athi-Patra Ruga, Berni Searle, Penny Siopis, Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse, and Kemang Wa Lehulere.

21 February 2014 - 29 June 2014

'Featuring Simplicity as an Irrational Fear'

Donna Kukama, Nastio Mosquito and Nathalie Bikoro at STEVENSON in Cape Town

Curated by Lerato Bereng, 'Featuring Simplicity as an Irrational Fear' explores the concept of simplicity and its impact on the direction of contemporary South African art discourse. Bereng takes as her starting point the idea that simplicity, often considered in both art production and art criticism as a failing, can be a more than one dimensional. Featuring the performance-based work of Nathalie Bikoro, Donna Kukama and Nástio Mosquito, Bereng draws on the absence of the performer and the space between event and its representation to draw out the complexity inherent in works that appears visually and conceptually succinct at first glance.

09 September 2010 - 16 October 2010

MTN New Contemporaries Award 2010

Donna Kukama, Mohau Modisakeng, Kemang Wa Luhelere and Stuart Bird at KZNSA

The fifth MTN New Contemporaries Award exhibition shows at the KZNSA Gallery, Durban, in 2010. Held every two years, this prestigious competition identifies, and provides excellent opportunities for, four emerging South African artists as the new stars of the South African art world. This is an important platform to identify and showcase the elected winner to the art scene. The artists nominated by the Guest curator for 2010, Nontobeko Ntombela, are Donna Kukama, Kemang Wa Luhelere, Mohau Modisakeng and Stuart Bird.

Opening 14 September 2010 at 6pm

15 September 2010 - 09 October 2010