Artworks speak where words fail
In Other Words, exhibition at Galerie Noko, Russell Road, until September 21 Reviewed by Brunn Kramer Galerie Noko presents an array of drawings and paintings for In Other Words, which opened on August 23 and explores narratives and ideas of contemporary artists in the global south.
It seeks to visually delve into ideas that verbal and written communications fail to transmit, and relies on the viewer’s visual acuity to perceive and interpret meaning from the art.
The exhibition features works by Nicholas Hauser, Khehla Chepape Makgato, Mathias Chirombo, Nana Nyan Acquah, Sizwe Khoza, Asanda Kupa, Mbongeni Buthelezi, Gladys Kalichini, Zwelethu Machepa, Bev Butkow, Usen Obot, Daniel Mooy and Sanusi Olatunji.
Chirombo’s Mwari and the Angels welcomes viewers at the entrance to the gallery in tones of warm yellow that form part of the artwork’s background.
The foreground is dominated by three abstract figures presented in vivid blue, complimenting the warmness of the yellow hues.
The magnificence of the figButkow’s ures begs the viewer to ask “what are these figures?”.
Chirombo answers this as his work is influenced by his African spirituality and customs.
He explores this notion with reference to his dreams as inspiration for his creative process.
The artist succeeds in capturing the ethereal nature of something as transient as a dream.
Hauser, Nyan Acquah and Kalichini present their works as non-objective metaphors that intrinsically allow viewers to make their own deductions.
The limited palette of Khoza and the linear drawings of Butkow are similar in their inclusion of figures, yet at opposite ends, as Khoza’s work focuses on the realistic portrayal of children whose expressions are key to communicate his message.
That message is that “life itself never repeats, but the actions, the things that happen do repeat, almost like a rhyme”.
“And as in the game of chess, you can’t make the same move twice but the game will be played again and again, and similar actions and consequences will be reiterated.”
work, Easily Erased, consists of abstract figures drawn with black ink on Fabriano paper.
Butkow believes everything is not always black or white as society would have us believe – “sometimes there can be the shade of grey in between the two extremes” and her work epitomises this quality.
Olantunji’s portrait, titled Deep Meditation, shows effective use primarily of paper collage to construct the dreamlike figure that is the focal point of his work.
The artist has mastered this technique to create realistic depictions influenced by music, literature, history and nature.
Clear linkages between Chirombo and Olantunji’s work is their bold use of colour, which adds a dreamlike quality.
The two works express the curator’s vision quite successfully in utilising art to express where words fail to.
Artistic creativity is a vehicle for transforming emotions, ideas and “dreams” into a reality by communicating the uncommunicated and making the invisible visible.
● Brunn Kramer is a Rhodes University fine art graduate studying for his masters in fine art.