Art pick of the week
Transmigrations
Pretoria art museum
April 6 to July 21
Having returned from exhibitions in Los Angeles and Tijuana to tour the
country of its origins, this cross-cultural exhibition by 13 South African
artists is concerned with the social and environmental aspects of creative
production.
Initiated by artists' collective Dasart, the show revolves around
storytelling to communicate ideas of identity, which are at once individual and
communicable across cultural differences. The works on exhibition are mostly
object-based – sculptural, installation-based or two-dimensional – and focus on
art and craft practices, mythologies, ritual, history (both political and
geo-environmental) and broader social concerns.
As the exhibition travels, it "picks up" invited artists from other regions
and so grows its network of artistic exchange. Artists include Sasha Fabris,
whose works double as artistic psychotherapy; Rookeya Gardee, who uses seeds and
spices to create new versions of Muslim prayer mats; Gordon Froud, who deals
with the politics of the domestic; Nkosinathi Khanyile, who works with
techniques of rural Zulu women; and Nhlanhla Mbatha, whose three-dimensional
soil paintings act as metaphors for plate tectonics and reference the histories
of ancient Gondwanaland. Canadian artist David Hlynski and United States artist
Margi Scharff join the South African leg of the show, which opens on April 6 at
noon.
After showing in Pretoria the exhibition will travel to Bloemfontein, East
London and KwaZulu-Natal. Website: www.geocities.com/dasart. –Kathryn Smith
Weekly Mail & Guardian
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