OBU hosts international traveling art exhibit through Feb. 23

ARKADELPHIA — Ouachita Baptist University’s Sutton School of Social Sciences is hosting the final U.S. stop of the international traveling exhibit Between the Shadow and the Light: An Exhibit Out of South Africa. The exhibit, which is free and open to the public, will be on display through Feb. 23.

Between the Shadow and the Light focuses on the history, social movements and current reconciliation efforts of South Africa. Randall Wight, dean of Ouachita’s Sutton School, noted the intertwining purpose of hosting the exhibit as both a social-science and fine-art experience for students and guests, especially in light of the Sutton School’s newest major, social justice studies, established in fall 2016.

In 2013, 20 art educators from American Christian universities and artists from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya met and collaborated for two weeks in South Africa to plan the exhibit. The art pieces in the show are inspired from these members’ exploration of the culture, history and, for some, their personal experiences of South Africa.

The artists grappled with five themes in their art: remembrance, resistance, reconciliation, representation and re-visioning. Between the Shadow and the Light keeps these themes in the center of each of its artworks.

The exhibit features art from many mediums. Guests can view installations, sculptures, paintings, prints and more. Pieces exposing the darkest parts of South Africa’s history are juxtaposed with the growing light of the country’s rebuilding. Although every piece focuses on vastly different subjects, they are all tied together with themes reflective of South Africa’s culture.

“Between the Shadow and the Light is full of thoughtfulness and variety,” said Donnie Copeland, chair of Ouachita’s Adams Department of Visual Arts. “I enjoy the relationships between disparate pieces such as Keatlaretse Kwati’s photographic, documentary piece Ties That Bind: The Fabric of Our Being, and a floor piece such as Jonathan Anderson’s Property

Lines. The two pieces are very different works and deal with different subjects in their own ways, but both rely on line as a key element.”

Between the Shadow and the Light is in Ouachita’s Mabee Fine Arts Building and Moses-Provine Hall. The exhibit is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.