Current Review(s)
Struggle Kitsch? A Review of Hank Willis Thomas's 'History Doesn't Laugh'
Hank Willis Thomas at Goodman GalleryHank Willis Thomas’s new body of work is undeniably exciting in that it is currently debuting at the Goodman Gallery Johannesburg. Having produced the work for and about SA’s visual history makes it a fairly momentous occasion; it’s certainly very different to viewing a cobbled-together show by a shining star of the international circuit who deigns to Fedex a few pieces to a local gallery. Years of cultural deprivation, even post-liberation, have rendered us used to taking what we could get: and so it is genuinely great that galleries like Goodman and Stevenson (who regularly show fresh bodies of work by Odili Donald Odita) are able to secure tailor-made exhibitions by strong international artists for our local consumption.
15 January 2014 - 15 February 2014
Listings(s)
History Doesn't Laugh
Hank Willis Thomas at Goodman GalleryHistory Doesn’t Laugh is Hank Willis Thomas’s first solo exhibition at the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg. The show highlights the artist’s interest in representing photographic ideas through unconventional materials.
For this exhibition, he scoured numerous publications and archives looking for graphics, images and audio that exemplify, through popular culture, South Africa’s recent history. The result is a fascinating combination of installations, objects, and prints that present the visual complexities of the not so distant past.
Thomas is debuting a series of photo-derived sculptures cast in aluminum, silicone and bronze that reframe the original image by focusing on the impact of hand gestures. In his more familiar style, he appropriates graphically striking political buttons and increases them in size to large-scale wall hangings. The show also includes screen-printed images from various magazines re-contextualised in a manner that exaggerates the hyper-reality of the time in which they were originally produced.
15 January 2014 - 15 February 2014
'All Things Being Equal'
Hank Willis Thomas at Goodman GalleryHank Willis Thomas utilizes the visual language and terminology of mass media, appropriating symbols and images from popular culture to question and subvert established definitions and positions with regards to personal identity and the narrative of race. His work explores the way in which race and 'blackness' are not only informed but deliberately shaped by various forces, from colonialism and slavery, to contemporary media and advertising, and the way in which economic concerns influence the representation of race.
In 'All Things Being Equal' the artist explores the differences between South African and African-American blackness, bringing together recent works that explore the legacy of slavery and colonialism, segregation and apartheid. He employs subversive visual strategies to disrupt superficial notions of likeness and to find value in particularity rather than comparison.
02 September 2010 - 02 October 2010
