Gallery Solo Projects
Posted by Artlogic on 26 Jun 2015
One booth, one artist, one gallery. The FNB Joburg Art Fair is excited to announce the inaugural 2015 Gallery Special Projects. This new category features single artist statements offering visitors the chance to see several works by the same artist and understand a fuller range of their work.
The following galleries will present all-encompassing, solo presentations:
‘Two Ends of a Line’ (2015) comprises sculptures made from bamboo, rubber tubing and found objects. Set into motion by small electric motors, the choreographed movements of the works will form an installation that is poetic, playful and at times precarious.
Kabiru recycles discarded and outdated bicycles, transforming them into sculptural assemblages to celebrate the bicycle’s form and (non) function whilst continuing the Kenyan cultural narrative of the ‘Black Mamba’ (2015). Black Mamba is the colloquial term for the fixed gear bicycles that have achieved an iconic status in Kenya as the most affordable and popular method of transport.
‘There’s an Animal Inside’ (2015) presents a comprehensive body of new work across sculpture, painting and film focused on variously shared histories of African modernity, and fetished Western ideas of progress attendant on colonialism.
Takadiwa’s solo presentation of “object paintings” speaks potently to the cultural dominance illustrated by the consumption of foreign products in Zimbabwe and across the continent. His practice over the past several years has evolved to elevate found objects into sculptural forms that engage with issues of cultural identity, spirituality, social practice and the environment.
‘The Narrators’ (2015) is a series of sculptural instruments that play with the container of storytelling. With a simple touch they reveal audial glimpses of our oral history They represent an exploration into how archives are formed and look enquiringly into how they might function in the future. Standing silent and monolithic, ‘The Narrators’ hold a weight of potential in their delicate copper strings.
‘Tjappies Van Die Point’ (2015) is a photographic examination of prison tattooing in South Africa. It analyzes the symbolism behind these permanent etchings, as well as the history and future in a swiftly changing prison environment. The bodies of prisoners can be likened to diaries of the underworld, telling vivid tales of violence, isolation, poverty and gangsterism.
‘Ghost Ships’ (2015) is a video installation inspired by film projector rigging experiments on WWI battle ships. These were designed to project differing or complimentary lighting conditions to the surrounding sea and sky. Hobbs’ mirror foil and an interconnected steel framework, entices the viewer to ‘catch’ fleeting glimpses of artful deception conceived for war.
‘Exquisite Corpse’ (2015) is a hand-drawn film animation in which Sack’s protagonist comes to life only to literally lose his head. Edited by Gwydion Beynon, each frame is individually drawn with brush and ink and sequenced to make up this unique film. The soundtrack is composed by musician Carlo Mombelli and performed by Hildegarde Kleb.
