CONTAINER/Contained is a debut by Danny Myburgh, in her first exhibition since leaving her teaching job to focus solely on her art.
Curated by Wilhelm van Rensburg of Gallery Art On Paper and to be opened by Kagiso Pat Mautloa with jazz by Hot Club d’Afrique (on Friday at 6pm at The Bag Factory Artists’ Studios, 10 Mahlatini St, Fordsburg where she now works), the exhibition runs until September 19.
The artist is an art therapist and has worked with the Johannesburg Parent and Child Counselling Centre for many years. They rely on memories and the subconscious to be able to heal and grow during the course of their work.
As an artist, she has used a similar approach to explore her own creative possibilities.
“It has been healing, cathartic, edifying and has allowed me to broaden my horizons, way beyond my expectations,” she explains.
She has been working at The Bag Factory for almost a year and cannot believe what a happy time it has been.
“I don’t feel courageous. I feel at peace and beyond happy. I feel like a little kid playing in the sandpit all day, every day. I can’t wait to get into my studio in the morning, and I don’t want to leave in the evenings. So I guess I’m just a very slow learner,” is how she describes her late emergence in the art world.
“This body of work started out as a journey of self-discovery into my earliest childhood memories and how they have influenced the course of my life. But during the course of this journey, I learnt so much more about memory formation in general. I was also able to extrapolate the stories of the early explorers of the Cape into metaphorical voyages of discovery that we are all capable of taking. Plus, I use the shipping container as a metaphor for the emotional baggage that we carry with us during the course of our lives,” is how she explains her work and this exhibition in particular.
It all started when she was a small child, the eldest of three who spent much of my time as a young toddler alone on Clifton and Llandudno beaches in the Cape.
“The passing ships were my imaginary friends. I wondered where they were coming from and where they were going to.
“I fantasised about the adventures they went on. I lay awake at night fearful about the dangers at sea,” she explains.
As she grew older she learnt more about our particular South African history, and saw the trace evidence it left on the landscape all over Cape Town, which made it very real and tangible to the little girl: The San Strandlopers that lived on our beaches, the Dutch East India Company and their exotic trading with spices and cotton and porcelain; the mind-boggling slave trade – her own nanny, Dienie, was evidence – as were all the slave bells; and the graceful Victorian buildings built by the British during their colonial rule.
That’s why the modern shipping container has become her visual metaphor for the emotional baggage we carry with us as memories, during the course of our lives.
The word “baggage” she says is emotionally loaded and mostly has negative connotations. But not all emotional baggage need be negative; it may be positive or neutral and she uses it with this broader, inclusive meaning.
She also uses the shipping container as a metaphor for memories. And in conclusion she says: “Boxes can contain – they can protect and keep us safe; they can limit fall-out; they can hide things from public view and keep things secret; they can also comfort in times of distress.”
• There’s a walkabout with the artist on Saturday at 11am. Phone 011 843 9181 or e-mail: [email protected]