The Unisa Art Gallery’s first student exhibition for 2013 showcased the work of six Advanced Diploma in Fine Arts (ADFA) students who will be graduating later this year. Unisa staff, students and the public were treated to some thought-provoking art work.
Coordinator and lecturer of the course, Andrew Smith, says that the student artists have worked hard through the grueling hours it takes to build a body of work of this quality, and that visitors can expect to see a variety of high caliber art on display. Each student has produced work that provokes thoughtful debate about various social or political issues.
- John-Anthony Boerma’s exhibition “Between Love and Pain” explores the connection between the concepts of love and pain in physical relationships and in religious iconography. Boerma’s body of work makes reference to various conceptual frameworks such as camp, erotica, hyper-masculinity, identity, and marginality in an attempt to understand his own personal physical and spiritual journey.
- Ane Jooste, whose digital prints attempt to call attention to the problem of child abuse by combining physical modes of interference with digital imaging, reshuffles photographic portraits in a style similar to the police identikit. She explores the perspective of the child’s often fractured psychological state by presenting hybrid emotions and people, presenting images as obstacles that must be decoded.
- Nontobeko Khumalo’s installation of falling books looks critically at the issue of teenage pregnancy through the lens of the school system. The work is intentionally didactic, in the hope that it reaches a target audience of teen mothers. Khumalo attempts to establish a connection between the notions of pedagogy, youth culture and awareness propaganda.
- Tsitsi Makina, whose photography celebrates the urban space and the people who live therein; attempts to capture her own inner city and thus catalogue the various cultural nuances that inform the interactions of its inhabitants.
- Luke Hackney’s work deals with issues of isolation and liminality in his photography. Presenting “a scrap-heap of unvalued things” becomes for Luke a way to deal with his own experiences of marginality.
- Wendy Silversten’s work is a playful reflection on the history of photography. With her home-made lenses and cameras, Wendy exerts control over the entire photographic process and calls attention to the process of mediation in her self-portraits in order to deny the traditional construction of photography as truth.
Wendy Silversten
Course co-ordinator Smith states that “studying over distance can be lonely and difficult in a practical course like Fine Arts, where simple challenges like knowing if one is using the right technique or making the correct conceptual choices become heavily mediated by technology, but the Department of Art History, Visual arts and Musicology is passionate about achieving high standards. We strive to create a supportive community for our students and we care about providing students with a fully rounded art education We provide a stimulating curriculum and a world class gallery, to ensure they gain life and work skills, as well as academic success. The work on show in the gallery exemplifies this success and these skills and I could not be prouder to open this exhibition to all,” said Smith.
Lecturers Gwen Miller, Dr. Nombe Mpako and Celia de Villiers, and curators BonganiMkhonza, Jacob Lebeko and all of
Nontobeko Khumalo
the gallery staff were also recognised for their unending assistance.
To see pictures of previous exhibitions visit the Unisa Art Gallery Facebook page
*Article adapted from Andrew Smith’s opening speech
