Listings(s)
ARTOMS: Histopathology, Regeneration and Other Cases – Continued'
Sandile Zulu at UJ ARTS CENTREUJ Arts and Culture presents an exhibition entitled 'ARTOMS: Histopathology, Regeneration and Other Cases – Continued' with works by celebrated artist, Sandile Zulu. This show hosted in collaboration with SMAC Art Gallery and curated by Baylon Sandri, follows-on from the initial exhibition first shown in Stellenbosch in 2012.
The exhibition includes older works from the first show and newly produced works, showing Zulu’s ongoing interest and investigations into the visual and metaphysical interconnectedness of all things physical.
A 'visual explorer' and 'pyromancer', Zulu translates his investigations onto canvas in the archetypal mediums of fire, water, air and earth. His use of fire in particular, as both “image and process”, encourages the viewer to think about the nature of this volatile element. The paradox of fire as a creative and destructive force, as well as Africa’s history with fire, underpins this exhibition. It is the same intriguing element of risk involved in the controlled burning of veld fires that is at play in his compelling works on canvas.
Zulu has a deep interest in biology, sociology, astronomy, philosophy, history and psychology. The word ‘histopathology’ from the exhibition title, refers to the microscopic examination of tissue undertaken to study the manifestations of disease. Here, Zulu acts as a pathologist, so to speak, looking at the universality of our human biology as a metaphor for exploring what he understands to be a 'diseased society', where our lived human experience is far from the one of the universality which our cells, tissues and muscles would suggest it to be.
Having been brought up in rural Ixopo, KwaZulu Natal, and having experienced forced fencing and continual encroachment on his own family farm, issues surrounding inequality have always been central to his work. It is not only the ignorant who Zulu sees as responsible for our common disease, but also those who are aware of the inflictions in society and turn a blind eye. Zulu says that it is the social issues that negate us from one another: 'It is not about pointing fingers, it’s about how I raise my perceptions as far as society is concerned from a creative or visual point of view'.
Zulu’s large-scale fire scalded canvases look like biological specimens or blood samples compressed between contact plates and put under microscopic view. His flat fire forms are strangely fluid. The DNA spiral structure seen on canvas and sculptural form, Rorschach-like burns, and scorched colon-like spinal columns form unusually beautiful images. The recurrent burnt patterns in this body of work point at our human biology as equal. Zulu remarks: 'We come from one source, one genome, we are not different'.
29 January 2014 - 19 February 2014
'ARTOMS: Histopathology, Regeneration and Other Cases'
Sandile Zulu at SMAC ART GALLERY STELLENBOSCHSMAC Art Gallery presents 'ARTOMS: Histopathology, Regeneration and Other Cases', a solo exhibition by Sandile Zulu. After recently exhibiting at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, this is Sandile Zulu’s first solo show in South Africa in over five years and his first with the gallery.
A “visual explorer” and “pyromancer”, Zulu translates his explorations onto canvas in the archetypal mediums of fire, water, air and earth. His use of fire in particular, as both “image and process”, encourages the viewer to think about the politics of this volatile element. Both the paradox of fire as a creative and destructive force, as well as Africa’s history with fire, underpins this exhibition. It is the same intriguing element of risk involved in the controlled burning of veld fires that is at play in his compelling works on canvas.
Zulu has a deep interest in biology, sociology, astronomy, philosophy, history and psychology. The word histopathology from the exhibition title, refers to the microscopic examination of tissue undertaken to study the manifestations of disease. Zulu acts as pathologist, so to speak, looking at the universality of our human biology as a metaphor for exploring what he understands to be a “diseased society”, where our lived human experience is far from the one of the universality which our cells, tissues, muscles would suggest it to be. Having been brought up in rural Ixopo, KwaZulu Natal, and having experienced forced fencing and continual encroachment on his own family farm, issues surrounding inequalities have always been central to his work. It is not only the ignorant who Zulu sees as responsible for our disease, but also those who are aware of the inflictions in society and turn a blind eye. Zulu says that it is the social issues that negate us from one another: “It is not about pointing fingers, it’s about how I raise my perceptions as far as society is concerned from a creative or visual point of view”.
Zulu’s large-scale fire scalded canvases look like specimens or blood samples compressed between contact plates and put under microscopic view. His flat fire forms are strangely fluid and weird wormings. The DNA spiral structure, Rorschach-like burns, and scorched colon-like spinal columns form unusually beautiful images. The recurrent burnt patterns in this body of work point at our human biology as equal. Zulu remarks: “We come from one source, one genome, we are not different. This is the very serious side kick that goes with that fantasy I create”.
27 September 2012 - 18 November 2012
'Viewing room 1, 2, 3'
Ed Young, Uwe Wittwer, Jake Aikman, Kate Gottgens, Abrie Fourie, Peter Eastman, Simon Stone, Willem Boshoff, Sandile Zulu and Georgina Gratrix at SMAC ART GALLERY CAPE TOWNSMAC Art Gallery | Cape Town presents a trilogy of viewing room showings curated around the themes of Typography, Architecture and Landscape.
Viewing room 1 | Typography | 15.07.14 – 02.08.14
- Willem Boshoff
- Georgina Gratrix
- Simon Stone
- Ed Young
Viewing room 2 | Architecture | 05.08.14 – 23.08.14
- Abrie Fourie
- Kate Gottgens
- Helen A Pritchard
- Sandile Zulu
Viewing room 3 | Landscape | 26.08.14 – 13.09.14
- Jake Aikman
- Ruann Coleman
- Peter Eastman
- Uwe Wittwer
15 July 2014 - 13 September 2014
