(Lady Skollie, 2017, South Africa)
Curated by Gabi Ngcobo with
Sumayya Menezes and Zinhle Khumalo, Mating
Birds Vol.2 is the KZNSA Gallery’s first exhibition of 2019 and runs from
January 17 to February 10, 2019, in the KZNSA’s main, mezzanine and media
galleries. Entry is free.
Mating Birds Vol.2 is a
powerfully packed womxn led experience. It engages with art and documents
dealing head-on with the effects of colonial and apartheid laws in South African
contemporary sexual relationships.
Mating Birds Vol.2 is a
curatorial essay that takes the late Lewis Nkosi’s novel Mating Birds as a starting point. The novel is used to visualize
the troublesome histories associated with the Immorality Acts of the parliament
of colonial and apartheid South Africa (Act No.5 of 1927, Act No. 23 of 1957,
Act No. 57 of 1969). The effect of these Acts are presented through the staging
of an exhibition as an essay that draws on original artwork as well as
reference material from art, literature, philosophy, legal documents, letters,
newspaper clippings and exhibition catalogues, among other sources. The essay
exposes how contemporary perspectives on sex, sexuality and sexual
relationships have been shaped, contested or maintained.
Published in 1983/86
Nkosi’s novel is set in Durban’s segregated beaches and narrated by a black man
awaiting execution for allegedly raping a white woman. The novel was equally
critiqued and praised by many, including Henry Louis Gates Jr who remarked on
how it “confronts boldly and imaginatively the strange interplay of bondage,
desire and torture inherent in interracial sexual relationships within the
South African prison house of apartheid.” (New York Times: 1986) Meanwhile
South African writer Andre Brink (1935-2015) accused Nkosi of being fascinated
with inter-racial sexual relations and of being guilty of "distortion and
exaggeration."
(Tracey Rose’s “The Kiss”)
“Mating Birds” can be
understood as a story about the distortion of intimate relationships in apartheid
South Africa. It exposes, as Jacqueline Rose has remarked, ways in which
apartheid was a “sexual apartheid as much as, if not before, anything else”.
Mating Birds Vol.2 uses
the exhibition space to map the manner in which artists have intervened in the
space of sexual politics and how they continue to reshape the visual vocabulary
of sexuality and sexual freedoms whilst questioning the way bodies are still
impacted by the residual nature of repressing colonial and apartheid policies.
The exhibition features
artists Billie Zangewa, Dineo Seshee Bopape, Lady Skollie, Sabelo Mlangeni,
Simnikiwe Buhlungu, Tracey Rose and Trevor Makhoba. Reference materials are
drawn from literature, including Bessie Head, Lebo Mashile, Lewis Nkosi,
Makhosazana Xaba and Zakes Mda, as well philosophical texts, historical
archives and other sources.
Gabi Ngcobo has been
engaged in collaborative artistic, curatorial, and educational work in South
Africa and on an international scope since early 2000s. She is a founding
member of the Johannesburg based collaborative platforms “NGO - Nothing Gets
Organised” and the now defunct “Center for Historical Reenactments (CHR
2010–12-14). NGO focuses on processes of self-organization that take place
outside of predetermined structures, definitions, contexts, or forms. CHR
responded to the demands of the moment through an exploration of how historical
legacies impact and resonate within contemporary art. Recently she co-curated
the 32nd Bienal de São Paulo (2016) and A
Labour of Love, 2015/17, at Weltkulturen Museum, Frankfurt am Main, DE and
Johannesburg Art Gallery, ZA respectively. In 2018 she and her appointed team
co-curated the 10th Berlin Biennale titled We
Don’t Need Another Hero (June 9– September 9).
Sumayya Menezes is a
Durban-based creative with a keen interest in the contemporary visual arts and
art education. She completed a BA Honours (Fine Art) summe cum laude at the University of KwaZulu-Natal,
Pietermaritzburg in 2008, and has since been involved in various education and
creative projects in the visual arts. Since 2014, she has been involved with the
KZNSA Gallery playing an active role in the curatorship and education programme
of the gallery. She has worked with Curate.A.Space, taking on various projects
under Durban curator, Carol Brown, and also lectures printmaking at the Durban
University of Technology.
Zinhle Khumalo is a young
creative and upcoming curator from Swaziland who has been living and studying
in Durban since 2011. She is currently studying her Masters in Fine Art at the
Durban University of Technology while also working part-time as an arts
administrator for Art for Humanity. She is also an assistant curator to Durban
freelance curator, Carol Brown.
With a passion for creating
platforms for young artists in Durban, Khumalo has been involved in many
initiatives that strive to showcase and sustain creativity in Durban. Her
involvement in the Aweh! Youth programme shifted her career focus to host and
support local young creatives in Durban creative spaces, especially for young
woman artists.
Through her personal art
practice, Khumalo attempts to resolve the role a young black woman plays in
society today while navigating complex personas in an attempt to understand the
definition of womanhood. She explores the significance of self-representation
of woman artists in their own work in order to understand the factors involved
in shaping woman - significantly the binaries of traditional culture in
relation to modern cultural society.
“The self-representation in my own work speaks to the
frustration of living up to standards created by the generation before us,
while still attempting to navigate urban society and its ever evolving
perception of the position a woman should hold.” – Zinhle Khumalo
Mating Birds Vol. 2 opens
on January 17 at 18h00 and runs until February 10. A walkabout with the
curators and participating artists is on January 18 at 10h00.
Mating Birds Vol. 2 is made
possible with funding from the Department of Arts and Culture.
The KZNSA Gallery is situated at 166 Bulwer Road, Glenwood, in Durban.
More information on 031 277 1705, fax 031 201 8051 or cell 082 220 0368 or
visit www.kznsa.co.za
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