(NIROX|Winter Sculpture 2017), Curated by Philiswa Lila and Runette Kruger

Kgaogelo Mashilo, Manaka, Cement, 2017

Curators’ statement: 

Classes and Methods: objects to perform considers the role of objects and the relationship they bridge between object and artist and object and audience. Classes refers to the art institution as a space of training, learning and development of skills, while Methods grapples with concepts and constructs of form and content. 

Some objects are created for performance, used as expressions of physical or spiritual mediums or both at the same time. As a medium of performance and performativity, the body (the artist) is the foremost social and visual signifier of identity. It is the notion of identification, particularly self-identification. 

The artists selected for this exhibition present in their works both experience and experiment, placing much critical thought on the use of the familiar, recollection, imitation and reproduction. Connecting themes in their works include environment, social commentary, and various binaries: nature/industry, working class/leisure class, past/future – and possible hybridising of these binaries. 

Significant in these artworks will be the role of the landscape in relation to object, the thing and body, the artist. Landscape is a medium of exchange between the human and the natural, the self and the other. 

Participating artists: Lwandiso Njara, Thabo Pitso, Poorvi Bhana, Kgaogelo Mashilo, Sifiso Mkhabela, Nkhensani Rihlampfu, Liesl Ross and Kutala Chopela Collective (comprising of Helena Uambembe and Teressa Firmino). 

Philiswa Lila is a MA candidate at Rhodes University and participates in the Arts of Africa and Global Souths research programme.

Last Modified: Wed, 13 Sep 2017 15:11:00 SAST