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REFLECT. REIMAGINE. RESET.
Nonzuzo Gxekwa | Pierre le Riche | Pardon Mapondera | Johno Mellish | Lulama Wolf | Manyatsa Monyamane | Lerato Motaung | Jake Michael Singer
Curated by Jana Terblanche & THK Gallery
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“The place in which I'll fit will not exist until I make it.”
- James Baldwin
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We create meaning through storytelling and mythmaking. Through sharing our experiences, we are able to find common connections. The acts of imagining and dreaming are our most powerful tools to shift our lived realities. Reflect. Reimagine. Reset. is a group exhibition that looks towards the boundless creativity of artists and their power to imagine new futures. While it can be said that art both imitates life and is a reflection of the human condition, the true power of artmaking lies in its ability to create a space for imagining new ways of being. Reflect. Reimagine. Reset. looks towards the collective strength of artists to help us reimagine life. The exhibition features the works of 8 artists, who in unique ways, chronicle the realities of our times, while looking towards the future.
Art is where reality and dreams collide. Through it, we can begin to consider the world differently and explore ways to live better. Reflect. Reimagine. Reset. traces the self-fulfilling sequence art creation proposes and postulates a moment to take stock of the present while moving forwards with renewed intentionality. Reflect. Reimagine. Reset. does not attempt to summarise the current moment, but rather celebrates the ways these artists offer alternative realities as solutions.
In this particular moment the role of the artist has become increasingly important as artists are able to imagine worlds that are not bound by the constraints of reality, practicality, physics or the desire for order. Abstract solutions offer a gateway into new ways of thinking. In this way, art has more in common with metaphysics that study the realities beyond the physical world. Through their imaginations, artists offer us unlimited ways of approaching physical realities. By tapping into these capacities for creative thought, artists create worlds that are more just and equitable.
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Jake Singer’s aerial forms defy gravity and glide across space in unimaginable ways. He uses precise science to make physical that which seems impossible. Singer’s work carries the tension of that which has come before and that which is still hoped to be realised. His flying forms are meticulously crafted from thousands of individual pieces of stainless steel, attesting to the power of strength through unity. His medium communicates the genesis of civilisation, its Modernist shortcomings and the potential to rebuild from what has been left behind.
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Lulama Wolf looks towards the forms of maternal figures in her familial lineage to create abstracted figures and landscapes that bridge the past and the future. In this hybrid space, exists a world connected to but elevated from our own. While her works carry the pain of her ancestors, they are undoubtedly optimistic. Every paint stroke is a prayer for a freer future. She creates a safe place for this familial line to be seen and exist without constraint. In Hloho Ho Dima Di Palesa, flower-figure hybrids protrudes from a vase. With this Wolf merges folklore with contemporary existence by using familiar histories to gesticulate to the the present time.
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Memories function as unstable records of the past and trying to accurately record them is a futile act. Lerato Motaung draws on recollections of spaces that he has inhibited, mentally and physically, to conjure his imagined memoryscapes. His paintings attempt to plot the unmappable aspects of the human mind by pushing beyond the possibilities of the physical world, thus bringing the viewer closer to grasping tangibly memory. While the intangible is present, Motaung situates his works in the corporeal world. He says:
“My work is situated in an unknown time and is influenced by the past and the present”.
Motaung’s weaves the familiar with the imagined to create a personal and intuitive evocation of history.
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Pardon Mapondera’s textile works fashioned from plastic bottles, straws and thread ruminates on the burgeoning ecological crisis that is set to displace swathes of people in the coming decades. While Mapondera’s works acknowledge the presence of manmade waste, they also offer a view for an alternative future where these materials can form part of the climate crisis solution. Mapondera is able to create beauty from that which has been discarded, perhaps a metaphor for humanity’s ability to forge new beginnings from the shortcomings of the past. He proposes:
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“Artists are the eye of the world, we make futures and are the justice warriors. We look forwards and backwards. We have the ability to change things. Art reveals the truth”.
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Johno Mellish’s unique photographic eye captures seeming mundane scenes with Lynch-like perspective. In his series Maelstrom, he revisits a tumultuous river in Somerset West alongside where he grew up. This project, which he started in 2014, recaptured his interest after a period of reexploring the space alongside the river. Mellish says:
“I wanted to photograph this very personal space in a dispassionate way to reflect the direction I see the world is going with everything becoming depersonalised.”
To return to a space so heavy with memories with the intention to rework endlessly how it is perceived, demonstrates how Artists can use memory as a mechanism to chart and diverge the course of the future.
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"Studio Door are photographs of actors and models waiting to cast. These photos are of the talents bodies reflecting off the studio door."
- Johno Mellish
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Nonzuzo Gxekwa’s photographs run the gamut human experience by oscillating between documentary and performative styles. She says:
“My practice is a mixture between street photography and the surreal. Some of the shadows and patterns create dreamlike images, and subjects can appear dressed up like they are part of a show”.
This schism underscores the multiple expressions possible of the photography medium. Her vibrant colours and compositions challenge the viewers assumptions about the African experience. Her subjects are free and expressive, demonstrating that African identity is ever-changing and not a monolithic experience.
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Pierre le Riche has spent the last few months making an assortment of trophies. The process was triggered by complicated childhood memories with achievement and award giving. These new trophies punctuate the absurdity of awards systems and the inherent psychological difficulties they present. Le Riche says:
“I convey these messages through the use of fragile materials like porcelain, by juxtaposing textures, disproportion and abstract composition”.
Where conventional pristine trophies represent achievement, his creations are wonky and peculiar thwarted by the burden of memory. As with Mellish, this is an ongoing project with an unpredictable road ahead. Le Riche thinks, sketches, tests, makes and rethinks in an endless loop. We are reminded that art is never finite.
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Artists can help unearth narratives not often at the forefront of dominant societal thought. The stoic nature of Manyatsa Monyamane’s grandparent’s wedding photographs prompted a photographic exploration that would help fill in the gaps. In the Series Pele Magareng Morago (Before, During, After) she images the moments inbetween the staged photography which hung in her childhood home. Her reimagining encapsulated joy and youthful exuberance. Her subjects do not perform for the Western gaze, but rather celebrate their existence and resilience away from prying eyes. Her practice underscores the importance of creating alternative knowledge systems to challenge accepted norms. It is through generating these systems that new avenues of thought permeate greater society. Manyatsa says:
“While my work is inspired by the past, and made in the present, my hope is that they can create a space for reflecting on imagery in the future.”
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The suggestions that artists execute are oftentimes not grand, but rather the accumulation of small gestures. Creativity does not hinge on the physical resources the planet has to offer. It is an untapped well to draw on when uncertainties creep in. This exhibition is optimistic in its approach, placing artistic pursuits and plurality of thought at the forefront of the drive for global change. Art can guide us to a place where we Reflect. Reimagine. Reset.
