Artists reflect dreams of the Global South
THIS weekend, the Goodman Gallery in Woodstock will open its South-South: Let Me Begin Again exhibition drawing parallels between artists from the Global South.
Curated by Renato Silva and Lara Koseff, the second edition of the South-South series hosts the work of artists situated within and beyond the afterlife of political revolution.
The show looks at cross-cultural influence and divergence – historical and recent – between countries such as Cuba, Brazil, South Africa and Angola, as well as other regions such as Mozambique, and Namibia; featured artists born in or living between these countries or in the diaspora.
Let Me Begin Again considers a paradisal vision of race and class equality, and autonomy from Western domination, championed in the mid- to late 20th century. It is rooted in an intersection and unravelling of ideologies that emerged after the revolution in Cuba, the end of military dictatorships in other parts of Latin American and independence in Africa, building up to the end of apartheid in the 1990s.
Silva, from Brazil, said when they did their research they found “so many similarities between (the countries and their struggles) that it was a pleasure to build this bridge using this platform of contemporary art ... it is wonderful to be here to see how close we all are”.
Cape Town-born artist Haroon Gunn-Salie will be exhibiting his artwork, On the Line. The artworks examines everyday memorials and silent monuments, shoes hanging off street poles and telephone lines, often overlooked on the peripheries of cities. The artwork is comprised of a series of pairs of shoes, tied together by their laces and cast in bronze.
“I am showing a work I created last year in Brazil. I stayed there for eight months last year,” he said.
“It is a social phenomenon, seeing tennis shoes on the line. Some do it to mark death, mark their turf. Some would throw the shoes up purely for a lack of things to do in the townships.
“At the start of the project we tried to figure out why and then we went beyond that.”
The pairs of shoes were removed from telephone wires in different sites of Favela da Serra in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The installation is presented with a short film and photographs documenting the intervention at three locations.
This is the first time the artwork will be shown in Cape Town and will be presented in Sir Lowry Road in Woodstock.
The exhibition opens 5pm Saturday at Goodman, 3rd Floor, Fairweather House, 176 Sir Lowry Road, Woodstock.
Further details at www. goodman-gallery.com and cpt@goodman-gallery.com or call 021 462 7573