Woensdag 12 September 2012
The Beautiful Time: Photography by Sammy Baloji
Images by Congolese photographer and video artist Sammy Baloji feature the industrial landscapes around Lumbumbasi, the capital city of Katanga in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The images serve as a visual indictment of the failed postcolonial leadership that mismanaged and squandered Katanga’s industrial resources, its modernity, and the economic prosperity of the region.
Surveys - Jane Alexander (South Africa)
While Jane Alexander’s figures are, in many ways, emblems of monstrosity, they are oddly beautiful. Her creatures expose the human animal for all it is and all it could become. Though clearly concerned with social issues, Alexander’s sculptural installations and photographs do not judge, nor do they convey a particular political or moral standpoint.
Laila Essaydi - Revisions
Lalla Essaydi's elegant, creative work belies it subversive, challenging nature. Approximately 30 works of diverse media are drawn from each of her photographic series, including the richly hued Silence of Thought and the more widely known Converging Territories and Les Femmes de Maroc. The exhibition also includes a selection of new works, as well as rarely exhibited paintings and installations.
El Anatsui - When I Last Wrote to You about Africa
Brings together the full range of the artist’s work, from wood trays referring to traditional symbols of the Akan people of Ghana; to early ceramics from the artist’s Broken Pots series, driftwood assemblages that refer to the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and wooden sculptures carved with a chainsaw; to the luminous metal wall-hangings of recent years.
Goddelijk en Griezelig. Het geheim van de slang
Goddelijk en Griezelig is een interculturele tentoonstelling over het oudste dierensymbool ter wereld: de slang. De tentoonstelling laat in de vorm van oude en moderne kunst uit de hele wereld zien dat de slang vanaf de prehistorie tot op de dag van vandaag in alle culturen een bijzondere betekenis heeft.
The Rainbow Nation: beeldhouwkunst uit Zuid-Afrika
Op deze gezamenlijk tentoonstelling van de Stichting Den Haag Sculptuur en het Museum Beelden aan Zee is de ontwikkeling te zien van de Zuid-Afrikaanse beeldhouwkunst in de afgelopen zestig jaar. Van de dagen van de Apartheid via de bereikte vrijheid in 1994 - de eerste verkiezingen voor alle rassen - tot de huidige periode van transformatie. De beelden reflecteren die politieke en maatschappelijke omwenteling.
London 2012 Festival: We Face Forward, Art from West Africa Today
We Face Forward, Art from West Africa Today is a city-wide exhibition of contemporary art from the region, and the first major collaboration between Manchester Art Gallery, Whitworth Art Gallery and The Gallery of Costume at Platt Hall. It will feature painting, photography, textiles, sculpture, video and sound work from a wide range of internationally acclaimed artists,
Black Box/Chambre Noire - William Kentridge
De veelzijdige Zuid-Afrikaanse kunstenaar William Kentridge ontwikkelde de afgelopen decennia een multidisciplinaire werkwijze waarin film, animatie, tekenkunst, grafiek en theater samenkomen. Typerend voor zijn werk zijn de krachtige houtskool- en pasteltekeningen die hij tot bewegend beeld transformeert. Black Box/Chambre Noire is een mechanisch theater waarin gedurende 23 minuten zes mechanische figuren beurtelings optreden tegen een geprojecteerde achtergrond van geanimeerde houtskooltekeningen.
MMXII - James Webb
A series of independent yet intersecting exhibitions will be brought together under one roof to form a complete piece that explores the nature of belief and the dynamics of communication. The complete exhibition, entitled MMXII, is a solo display by James Webb. A keynote work in the exhibition is Prayer, a multi-channel sound installation of prayers recorded from over 65 different faith groups in greater Johannesburg. Other works, including static and time-based media projects, will be shown alongside JAG’s collection.
Encounters at the Edge - photographs by David Lurie
Exhibition focusing on urbanisation and its effects on the disenfranchised. Cape Town mirrors many of the problems facing other African cities and cities in the developing world. How does this surplus humanity improvise survival in the city? The photographs included in this exhibition are an attempt to distill Lurie's experience of these fragments of life – of unfinished stories – on the precipice beyond the edge of Cape Town.
The Grass is Burning: Sketches of South Africa - foto's van Martine Kolner
Op verzoek van SEEtrust reisde fotograaf Martine Kolner de afgelopen jaren meerdere keren naar Zuid-Afrika. In de townships in Johannesburg fotografeerde zij de levensomstandigheden van de zwarte bevolking twintig jaar na de beëindiging van de apartheid. De expositie bestaat uit twaalf series waaronder Black in White, Headgear, In my Courtyard en Slash&Burn. De ruim honderd foto’s geven een impressie van de bewoners in een land waar na jarenlange strijd zwart en blank proberen elkaar de hand te reiken.
Time, Trade & Travel - Exhibition
Exhibition focuses on the complexities of global exchange fostered by capitalism, and its effects on life and art. Time, Trade & Travel set the participating artists on a quest for the historical encounters between Europeans and Africans, in which trade and the concomitant cultural exchange receive particular attention. In collaboration with the Nubuke Foundation in Accra, Ghana and featuring Dutch and Ghanese artists.
Zomerflitsen en stockpresentatie
Recente schilderijen en enkele doeken uit de Amsterdamse periode van Patrick Makumbe (Zimbabwe) en nieuwe werken van George Struikelblok (Suriname) worden, in wisselende selecties, gecombineerd met werken van kunstenaars die eerder hebben geëxposeerd in Galerie 23. Na een vervolgopleiding in 2004/5 aan de Rijksakademie in Amsterdam keerde Patrick Makumbe terug naar Zimbabwe. De werkomstandigheden waren aanvankelijk buitengewoon moeilijk: gebrek aan materiaal en een gespannen politieke sfeer. De condities verbeterden allengs.
The International Exhibition of Black Music
An outstanding exploration of the sounds and rhythms of Africa and the Diaspora and a groundbreaking digital experience that pays homage to artists and music of Africa and the African diaspora, the first tribute to black artists of its kind. The exhibition uses state-of-the-art technology, with over 100 interactive audio-visual setups transmitting the sights, sounds and rhythms of artists from all over the world. The exhibition comprises of a mind-blowing 13 hours’ worth of footage.
In het land van de keizer - Op expeditie in Ethiopië (1930-1931)
Baron Binnert Van Harinxma thoe Slooten en bioloog Gerrit Brouwer kregen op 2 november 1930 de unieke kans om de kroning van keizer Haile Selassie in Ethiopië bij te wonen. Maak hun expeditie mee met de foto's, persoonlijke aantekeningen en filmbeelden. De reis naar Ethiopië had oorspronkelijk het doel om de dierenwereld te bestuderen, maar hoogtepunt van de reis werd uiteindelijk de kroning van Haile Selassie.
Zander Blom - New paintings
Blom writes: A quote from Françoise Gilot's biography on Picasso made a lasting impression on me at the end of last year: '[Work] below your means. If you can handle three elements, handle only two. If you can handle ten, then handle only five. In that way the ones you do handle, you handle with more ease, more mastery, and you create a feeling of strength in reserve.' The added benefit of such a limitation in painting is that it has the potential to facilitate a refinement and expansion of one's language and ability. A limitation by its very nature forces one to seek out alternative avenues or ways to solve problems, and in doing so it can open up a range of new possibilities.
Love Land - Wayne Barker
In his latest body of work Wayne Barker builds on ideas of his own artistic history largely made up of work dealing with the politics of representation in terms of the South African landscape. The title of the exhibition, 'Love Land', alludes to the landscape as a product of deviant sexuality, a love child or bastard. The show features a selection of works that carries many of Barker’s trademarks, namely his use of neon signage, expressionist gestures juxtaposed with African pop imagery, digital manipulation and the incorporation of traditional South African craft.