(Thami
Jali)
Currently running at the Durban Art Gallery
is an exhibition titled Thami Jali:
Restless Spirit.
A well-known and respected Durban visual
artist, his story is so much about South Africa’s recent past: the fractured
nation, its diverse cultures, seemingly endless journeys and the hunger for an
authentic artistic home.
Jali’s work is intensely human and direct
whilst maintaining a complex intellectual underpinning. The work is beautiful,
it buzzes in a way that marks it as current, contemporary, demanding the
viewer’s attention. Much has been written of Jali’s obsession with structures:
the artist returns time and time again to buildings, ruins, old shipping
containers through which the artist peers, against which he crouches and to
which he points in rage or sorrow. The constructions are never obvious
metaphors but lead us inevitably to consider the structures we’ve been part of
for most of our lives as South Africans.
Thami
Jali: Restless Spirit runs at the Durban Art Gallery until July 20, 2014. Further enquiries to
Jenny Stretton on 031 3327 286.
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