(Above: Image
from “uMqombothi,
uBhokweni neJuba” by Russel Hlongwane and Tammy Langtry. Pic supplied)
KZNSA Gallery is to host the following exhibitions: uMqombothi, uBhokweni ne Juba, a duo exhibition by Russel Hlongwane and Tammy Langtry, and Primordial by Pauline Gutter opening on Friday, May 24, 2024.
A starting point for the uMqombothi, uBhokweni ne Juba installation is the South African Native Beer Act of 1908, a state sanctioned act that illegalised and controlled the age-old production of traditional sorghum-based beer called umqombothi. The implementation of this act was part of a global colonial system, termed alco-colonisation, in which the production and trade of alcohol was used to dispossess Black peoples in the so-called colonies across the African continent. This work, however, focuses on a sequence of events that played out in Durban as a consequence under, what came to be known as the Durban System. At the forefront of the resistance to the said system were black women who eventually staged the Beerhall Riots of 1959.
The exhibition runs from May 24 to Sunday, June 16, 2024, in the KZNSA’s Main Gallery.
(Above: Image from “Primordial”
by Pauline Gutter. Pic supplied)
Pauline Gutter says “In Primordial, the focus is on the natural world, be it in a majestic or destructive way. Here I am interested in nature; in magical ley lines and in a time that was slower and, in the end, so much more human, while at the same time innately elemental.
“Environmentally, we risk being the first species to create our own mass extinction. Psychologically and sociologically, we are already a different species where hypersensitivity, depression and anxiety rule the day. Even our bodies have changed: with limited access to physical mobility and ever-increasing access to “modern conveniences”, we are more fragile and less robust than our ancestors.
“All this has led to a significant shift in how we act, see, look, make and think.”
Primordial runs from May 24 to Sunday June 16, 2024, in the Mezzanine and Park Galleries.
The KZNSA (KwaZulu Natal Society of Arts) is situated at 166 Bulwer Road, Glenwood, Durban. For more information phone 031 277 1705 or visit www.kznsagallery.co.za
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