SIEMON ALLEN WALKABOUT

Siemon Allen conducts walkabout of his exhibition “Imaging South Africa”.

Siemon Allen will conduct a walkabout of his exhibition Imaging South Africa on April 24 at 12h30 at the Durban Art Gallery.

As a South African living overseas, Allen has been particularly interested in the dynamics of how a country is imaged and how it in turn participates in a kind of imaging of itself. In the early 2000’s, he came across a South African government website that made a highly published call for a positive “branding” of South Africa internationally and included the recruitment of “non-government South Africans living overseas” to act as “ambassadors” for the country.

For Allen, his installations seemed to both debunk this essentialist notion of a South African “brand”, while operating with a kind of complicity in that branding.

Siemon Allen will conduct a walkabout of his exhibition Imaging South Africa on April 24 at 12h30 at the Durban Art Gallery.

Imaging South Africa runs at the Durban Art Gallery until May 2. More information from Jenny Stretton at DAG on 031 311 2262.