ONE of South Africa’s most acclaimed contemporary artists, a renowned artistic and creative authority on the minerals and the mining industry, Jeannette Unite is showcasing her latest work, which focuses on her concerns at the extraction of resources as a political and social commentary.
The title Complicit Geographies stems from work she exhibited around the world – from Germany and England to South Africa, being reinstalled in Cape Town a year after its initial showing.
When the work was shown in England, it focused on the legacy and bicentenary of a British geologist. A year later in South Africa, the exhibition is reconfigured almost five years after one of the most brutal mining incidents our country faced, the Marikana massacre.
The annual Mining Indaba will also occur in Cape Town concurrently. Unite examines how all wealth is created from the ownership of land to mined resources. This wealth is surveyed, mapped, gridded, measured then divided and allocated and regulated via title deed and mineral right.
Unite explores global capital systems of modernity and cycles of extraction, manufacture, consumption and waste.
The paintings of mineral painted lodes reflect on what is below and above, from strata and bedrock to the industrial sublime. Through her art, Unite reflects on the ways in which humans interact with the earth through ownership by title deed and mineral right, legal regulations, surveying and mining.
Her confrontation of complicity is highlighted through her work, where she physically and conceptually engages the raw materials of the industry and land to create through process.
The exhibition questions whether creations from 200 years ago are still relevant, whether the layers of earth imbue more than potential for extraction and where the everyday person fits into the geography our contemporary world.
The exhibition is on display at Eclectica Contemporary gallery on the corner of Burg and Church streets, Cape Town.