Banele Khoza’s figurative abstraction depicts colourful portraits of the male nude—obscure ghostly figures in a palette of mostly pink and blue. The acrylic pigments are combined and blurred together in fervent brushstrokes that seem to be applied with acute sensitivity, but also a sense of the uninhibited. They bleed and drip into empty spaces, while…
I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library. – Jorge Luis Borges Transcending dust-covered shelves of paper pages, gold-glinting hums and quiet whispers. Bibliotheca 700 offers a different kind of library. Although works on walls are categorized thematically, according to the 1876 Dewey Decimal Classification, the exhibition also aims to subvert…
Aggression is always deemed as the agent of destruction. Destruction that causes tremendous pain towards its subject. But then there are ways that eliminate the vile negative energy to provide for a perspective that incites thought or maybe excitement. A group of cultural practitioners collectively package their individuality to investigate colourful ways to express themselves…
Pulling from a fascination with the physical as well as psychological experience of ancient rites and rituals, French artist Mathilde Rosier began conducting anthropological research in 2012 that relates to groups that practice magic in the modern western world. Making use of fictional depictions of fragments of a narrative self-made costumes assemble, animals and nature…
Leaving Côte d’Ivoire during the civil war in 2004, multidisciplinary artist Marie-Claire Messouma Manlanbien now lives in Paris. Bringing to light the duality of distinct cultural elements in order to establish new fused expressions, Marie-Claire’s practice is layered thick with meaning. Her interest lay in the intricate relationality of universal pop culture, the everyday as…
The legacy of colonialism and cultural bias continue to haunt the walls and archives of museums and other spaces of exhibition and public memory. This continues to stimulate questions around the role of museums and their historical collections today. Reflecting on this, a group of postgraduate students from the Wits History of Art and Heritage…
When we speak about music, you expect to see it notated in a specific manner —because of how we have been taught musicology. What happens when the notation takes a different form and opens itself up to the language of arrangement — an arrangement of lines, shapes and angles with variations of tonal beauty? David…
Talitha Cumi Aramaic for ‘Little girl, arise’ references the Biblical narrative in which Jesus brings a young girl back to life, found in the Gospel of St Mark. Portia Zvavahera’s new set of paintings takes its genesis from the world of slumber as has previously been done. Inner conflict and desire to transcend. The new…
Looking in a mirror (an object or a person) means recognizing yourself in an image that goes beyond your body, but that is your body at the same time. It’s an image that speaks and listens, that seems to move away to then come back, that seeks and finds its own space in a continuous…
hFACTOR is four beautiful souls who collaborate with people everywhere to uncover creative possibilities from under-utilised physical and conceptual spaces. Setting out to convert spaces that have previously not been used to their full potential into creative hubs, hFACTOR works with artists and local communities to offer thought provoking services, experiences and products. Founded in…
A critical engagement with the politics of representation and the instability of images manifests physically through video, film installation, collage, painting and photography. Cape Town born, Johannesburg based transdisciplinarian artist Mikhael Subotzky’s Massive Nerve Corpus opens on the 18 May and runs till the 6 July at Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg. A display of amorous new…
A non-isolated effort to reconcile the continent’s past, contemporary, and future narratives, we hope that this project helps raise awareness of the figures included, but that it also prompts young people to further explore existing narratives and create new ones of/for the African continent and its people. – Kabumba on the creation of their project,…
