Social statements cross boundaries
Exhibition produces powerful pieces that aim to comment, not make money, writes
Daniel Thöle
TRANSMIGRATIONS
Pretoria Art Museum, corner of Schoeman and Wessels
Streets, ArcadiaTel: (012) 344-1087
IT CANNOT be easy to produce art with a social conscience that people
will still want to look at. Dasart's Transmigrations exhibition, currently
running at the Pretoria Art Museum, achieves this with drawings, video
installations, sculptures, collages and paintings as diverse as they are
fascinating.
The Dasart group of artists started in 1992, and its Transmigrations
exhibition, put together in 1996, added and lost artists while touring the
US and Mexico in the intervening period.
Dasart founder Ashley Johnson's the Death of Lucas, a walkin
situational painting made up of four panels, is typical of the message
behind the group: social commentary is more important than commercial
gain.
Exploring an incident of mob justice Johnson felt powerless to prevent,
the Death of Lucas impresses not only with its sheer scale, but its
ability to capture the confused kineticism of a vengeful mob.
James de Villiers offers a more peaceful but no less stirring work: his
fascination with clouds has produced a work called The Architecture of
Air. With backgrounds of sheer, simmering black, the clouds their forms
generated randomly by computer and painted in oil stand out like ruffles
on a Dutch master's rendering of a noblewoman. A strange soundtrack
envelops the four panels, intended to give them a primal feel.
The Architecture of Air, updated post September 11, now includes a
pentagonal shape to represent the US military headquarters. De Villiers
says the addition was made because the attacks came from the air.
His strange blend of old styles and new technology, the stark pentagon
contrasting with the peace of clouds, is unbelievably powerful.
Diane Victor's harrowing triptych of charcoal drawings, Vastrap
(long-arm foxtrot), is also immensely powerful. Her three giant portraits
a black man with his eyes closed, a skull, and a sneering older man
dominate the exhibition.
In the middle panel, the visage of the gaping skull is overlaid with
the bright yellow and red outlines of men dancing naked with each other
part of Victor's exploration of the uncomfortable marriage between victims
and perpetrators brought about by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
She also adds a subtle, even more disturbing twist to this depiction of
dance, which she says came to represent "ritualised nationalism".
On a triangular block under the middle panel are three meat cleavers,
presenting a seemingly unrelated challenge to the viewer. Only those who
crouch down for a closer look will notice the engraved forms of two
dancing skeletons on the outer cleavers, a delicate pair of ballet shoes
adorning the middle one.
Those who cannot deal with the stronger stuff will appreciate Rookeya
Gardee's seed, sequin, spice, bead and eggshell carpets, which make their
point while looking beautiful.
The exhibition is at the Pretoria Art Museum until July 21, then moves
to the Oliwenhuis Art Museum in Bloemfontein, and East London's Ann Bryant
Gallery.
Apr 09 2002
12:00:00:000AM Business Day 1st Edition
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