Exhibit merges present, future for hope

Icarus by Vulindlela Nyoni.

Icarus by Vulindlela Nyoni.

Published Mar 12, 2015

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AN exhibition at the KZNSA Gallery hopes to leave viewers “inspired and shocked” while contemplating the world today.

Blowing in the Wind, curated by Carol Brown, is exhibited in two parts which flow together as one. Brown explained that in the lower gallery they’ve displayed art works that attempt to reflect on the situation in the world today, particularly touching on issues of intolerance, fanaticism and violence.

In the upper gallery the Imagine part of the exhibition shows artists who have a different, more positive outlook on the future.

“When I started thinking about the exhibition it was really spurred on by the events at Marikana, realising it’s labour rising up against the establishment. And when one looks at events around the world one sees a lot of uprising of people, for example the Arab Spring, and other places where people are realising things are not as they imagined the future to be,” said Brown.

“When I started putting works together for some reason the words of Bob Dylan kept circling my mind where he said: “How many times must the cannon balls fly before they’re forever banned?” in the song Blowing in the Wind. That’s from the ’60s and it seems that for a long time we’ve been asking the same questions of ourselves and of each other.

“But I also didn’t want the exhibition to be a very dark, negative one and I looked for artists who had a more positive or different version of the future. So the exhibition extended.

“Although it’s called Blowing in the Wind, it ended up also being based on John Lennon’s Imagine. So in a sense the two sort of feed into each other, flowing from the bottom gallery to the top gallery,” she said.

A mix of new and historic works, the exhibition includes, among others, art by Andrea Walters – who’s done an installation about the media hype and frenzy around the Oscar Pistorius case.

Lerato Shadi has made a video expressing a feeling of entrapment and pain that a lot of women feel living in the systems that we do.

Other artists featured in the exhibition include William Kentridge, Jeanette Unite, Mary Wafer, Mthobisi Maphumulo, Vuli Nyoni, Bongani Khanyile, Wonder Mbambo, Fran Saunders, Derrick Nxumalo, Paul Botes, Siobhan O’Reagain, Lerato Shadi, Akiko Nakaji and the portfolio of Images of Human Rights.

 

• The exhibition runs until March 22. Call 031 277 1705.

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