Being There by Jo Ractliffe | Stevenson, Cape Town
Inspired by the 2020 lockdown, Jo Ractliffe’s photo exhibition looks at what endures in the periphery of loss. Unable to travel and photograph, Ratcliffe’s source material was almost entirely documentary and fiction films.
“Like so many people everywhere, my experience of local and international events and my interactions with family, friends, colleagues and students have been mediated by a screen,” Ractliffe says of her exhibition, Being There.
“How then to work photographically when at such a remove from a direct embodied encounter? How to bear witness and speak to desire, loss, horror or violence?
“My camera is set up in front of the screen and I watch and pause and photograph,” she explains.
Art springs up
Exhibitions in September include The Absolutely Fabulous Spring Show, the Turbine Art Fair and works from Jo Ractliffe, Sue Williamson and John Meyer
Image: Supplied
The Absolutely Fabulous Spring Show — Group Exhibition | Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg
Everard Read Johannesburg has put together a group exhibition in celebration of spring which features bright, feel-good works from some of SA’s top artists, including Lady Skollie, Brett Murray, Blessing Ngobeni, Deborah Bell, Wilma Cruise, Setlamorago Mashilo and Rosie Mudge.
The Absolutely Fabulous Spring Show opened on August 28, 2021 and runs until September 25. To view the exhibition, visit http://art.sbvr.co.za. The gallery is open from 9am to 6pm weekdays and from 9am to 1pm Saturdays.
Everard Read Gallery
Image: Supplied
Being There by Jo Ractliffe | Stevenson, Cape Town
Inspired by the 2020 lockdown, Jo Ractliffe’s photo exhibition looks at what endures in the periphery of loss. Unable to travel and photograph, Ratcliffe’s source material was almost entirely documentary and fiction films.
“Like so many people everywhere, my experience of local and international events and my interactions with family, friends, colleagues and students have been mediated by a screen,” Ractliffe says of her exhibition, Being There.
“How then to work photographically when at such a remove from a direct embodied encounter? How to bear witness and speak to desire, loss, horror or violence?
“My camera is set up in front of the screen and I watch and pause and photograph,” she explains.
Tour d’Art: gems among cape town’s art scene
Ractliffe’s exhibition is being shown alongside a short film titled Something this way comes and an experimental sound book in which photographs and sound from the film are integrated.
Being There opens on Sepember 9, 2021 and runs October 23. It is available to view at the gallery and online. The gallery is open from 9am — 5pm Mondays to Fridays and from 10am — 1pm on Saturdays. Appointments are recommended but not required. Visit the website to book a visit.
Stevenson
Image: Courtesy of Stevenson Cape Town Johannesburg Amsterdam
Distant Visions: Postcards from Africa by Sue Williamson | Goodman Gallery, Cape Town
Sue Williamson’s exhibition Distant Visions: Postcards from Africa is a collection of new drawings inspired by vintage postcards of photographs taken by European colonisers in Africa during the 20th century.
Using classic drawing techniques, Williamson’s exhibition confronts the legacy of colonialism in Africa. Featuring signs of habitation but having removed all images of people from the images, she explores the idea of challenging the colonial gaze without perpetuating oppressive images.
Distant Visions: Postcards from Africa opened on August 12, 2021 and runs until September 18. Appointments are encouraged but walk-ins are accepted. The gallery is open from 9am to 5pm Tuesdays to Fridays and from 9am to 4pm on Saturdays. Visit the website to book an appointment.
Goodman Gallery Cape Town
Image: Paris Brummer
Mandela: A Life’s Journey by John Meyer | Everard Read’s CIRCA Gallery
Following a recent collaboration with Rand Merchant Bank to produce a video based on a series of images by John Meyer, visitors to Everard Read’s CIRCA Gallery have the opportunity to explore 16 of the artist’s works which focused on the life of Nelson Mandela for 11 days as part of a special viewing of Mandela: A Life’s Journey.
The collection has been exhibited internationally and traces some of the major moments in Madiba’s life and career, starting and ending this biographical journey in Mandela’s homestead of Qunu in the Eastern Cape.
Mandela: A Life’s Journey opened on August 25, 2021 and runs until September 4.
Image: Supplied
Turbine Art Fair
Having faced a number of setbacks due to Covid-19, the 2020 Turbine Art Fair pivoted to an online platform. This year, the programme — themed Evergreen — has been moved to the end of September in the hope that more South Africans will have been vaccinated and that the brunt of the third wave would have passed.
This year’s iteration once again brings together exhibitions from artists, galleries, collectives, art dealers, designers, creative project spaces and curators from around Southern Africa but, because of the realities of our “new normal”, the ninth edition takes on a hybrid form of online viewing rooms and in-person viewing opportunities at 10 Fricker Road in Illovo.
The Turbine Art Fair runs from September 30 to October 3 2021. Tickets cost R150 and are available online For more information, visit their website.
Image: Supplied
Image: Supplied
Image: Supplied
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