Minnette Vari

Listings(s)

'Afropolis: City, Media, Art'

Naomi Roux and Hannah le Roux, Ismail Farouk, Sabelo Mlangeni, Kgafela oa Magogodi and Jyoti Mistry, Deadheat (Dorothee Kreutzfeldt and Bettina Malcomess) and Minnette Vari at Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum

Today, over half the world's population lives in cities. In particular, the regions of the Global South face rapid globalisation, with African cities recording the highest urbanisation rates. The African contexts have created specific urban structures, topographies and cultures, notably different from European-American models of urban development. How do these structures function? How do urban dwellers organise their daily life? What issues are addressed in the African discourse on the history and future of cities? What positions do European and African artists take on urbanity in Africa?

'Afropolis' showcases five African cities - Cairo, Lagos, Nairobi, Kinshasa and Johannesburg. The curatorial approach highlights the interconnectedness of scientific and artistic concepts, not only exploring urban histories and recent developments, but also presenting 30 artistic viewpoints on issues of urbanity about and from these five cities. The result is a remarkable synergy of scientific and artistic research, documentary material and artistic reflection. The works shown in 'Afropolis' include graphic arts, painting, photography, sculpture, installation, film and video art, as well as design, comics and weblogs.

05 November 2010 - 13 March 2011

'Revenant'

Minnette Vari at Goodman Gallery Cape

Minnette Vári’s new body of multimedia work, on show at Goodman Gallery Cape in an exhibition entitled Revenant, features vibrant departures into relatively unfamiliar media for the artist. The exhibition engages the concept of the uncanny return – of repressed sexualities, identities, returns to earth from beyond it, and returns from beyond death itself.

Building on recent drawings that explored ancient depictions of pre-pagan female deities around the world, Vári depicts the goddess ‘Baubo’ as a narrative presence weaving together the strands of the show through various landscapes, situations, objects and interactions. Dating from the 5th Century BCE, the image of Baubo as a jesting, sexually liberated, wise woman has informed the identities and practices of many subsequent cults of worship.

21 April 2012 - 19 June 2012