KWAAI VOL.2

KWAAI VOL.2

Eclectica Collection www.eclecticacontemporary.co.za

Despite the negative connotations that

the words ‘coloured identity’ conjure, the artists exhibiting at Eclectica have chosen to celebrate this culture with the hope of creating a positive awareness of its diversity. This exhibition hopes to contribute and reinforce positivity towards change in our coloured community.

We wish to highlight the rich contributions of coloured people, both culturally and politically. The contributions to culture have been diverse and unique across language, music, theatre, literature, the arts and food! Politically, and especially in the Western and Eastern Cape, the legacy is long and impactful with many heroes, luminaries, leaders and movements. ‘Coloureds’ have and continue to make, an enormous contribution to South Africa.

Even though the aim of this exhibition is to celebrate ‘coloured’ identity we should not forget the systematic way in which ‘coloured’ people in South Africa, especially in Cape Town and its outskirts, remain marginalized. Their shared sentiment seems to be a feeling of imprisonment in a cycle of invisibility and exclusion. A concern often expressed is, “Wat van ons?” - which talks about exclusion from opportunities, be it economic, social or political. The outcry amongst ‘coloured’ people in the townships is that they have been forgotten.

Above: Faatimah Mohamed-Luke, Pink Threesome, 2018, 2963 plastic blocks mounted to aluminium, 60 x 86 cm. Left: Dion Cupido, Demockery, 2018, Mixed media, 120 X 120 cm

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Above: Boeta Phyf, Twee Gevriet, 2015 Mixed media, 95.5 x 113 cm Right: Chelsea Robin Ingham, We lam it uit, 2017 Silkscreen print on fabriano paper, limited edition 1of1. 70,5cm x 50cm

Do we want to be defined? How important is this definition in a South African context?

Opening a dialogue can act as a catalyst in understanding our identity and can simultaneously provide a means of healing. We need to openly speak about the impact of our slave history, our imposed identity, our struggle founded within the cruel and oppressive Apartheid state and the consequences of social and economic injustices our current democratic state has inherited. Understanding the past, how it links to the present, and lived experiences, should create deeper insight into the community and identity of ‘coloureds’ and deeper insight into their fears, hopes and dreams.

Embracing the ‘coloured’ identity is not easy. ‘Coloured’ people have been stereotyped as uneducated, lacking in heritage; as drunks,

gangsters and “tik koppe”. As a result of an oppressive system, we are met with social ultimatums that require us to either accept or reject an oppressive consciousness in order to attain some socio-economic benefits and/or higher social status. Our choices throughout recent and colonial South African history, has been either to align ourselves with the dominant white race, assimilate into it, or fight against it.

Many in our ‘coloured’ community lack a sense of origin. This can be destabilizing because it creates a deep unsettling emotion of not belonging, of not being part of anything, of having “no culture or heritage”. It is often aggravated by our lack of knowledge of where we come from. Most of our elders refuse to talk about the past, either simply because they don’t know, or they were embarrassed or traumatized by their slave history.

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Farai Engelbrecht, 2019, Mixed media on glass, 114 x 113 cm

Instead, European ancestry is celebrated. Additionally so are other more place-able heritages, whether from India or elsewhere in the East. Ironically, racism and orientalism manifested in ‘coloured’ communities, using the same hierarchy that promotes whiteness, white culture and the West as superior.

When we look back on history that extends outside of race and class, it is evident that there needs to be a disruption in the oppressive cycles for further liberation to occur. The stories told, the songs sang need

to be brought to the forefront. It is within the creativity of our ‘coloured’ communities that many of them have found refuge and have managed to create aspirations for a better future. Many eras have passed, each of them imposing their own context onto an entire nation. Yet, we have reached a time, where there is necessity in not only celebrating who we are and our diversity, but to speak up against new forms of oppression and systematic control.

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Opening :06 June 2019

+27214224145 | 69 Burg Street. info@eclecticacontemporary.co.za www.eclecticacontemporary.co.za

Vol.2

COLLECTIVE DELUSION

group exhibition Opening 06 June 2019

+27214224145 | 69 Burg Street,Cape Town info@eclecticacontemporary.co.za | www.eclecticacontemporary.co.za

NEW BREED ART COMPETITION

Winning artists mentored for Winners Group Exhibition in August

Photos: Eye Poetry Photography www.newbreedart.co.za

Nkululeko Nkebe is an artist so multitalented that he won the 2018 New Breed Art Competition by entering what he considered to be his “back-up plan”.

Nkululeko won this one-of-its-kind Free State art competition, presented by Phatshoane Henney Attorneys in association with Oliewenhuis Art Museum in Bloemfontein, last year with a compelling pen sketch, titled Youth ‘Slaves’ To Education, commenting on the struggles of youth and education and the fine line that exists between finding work or slipping into a life of crime and poverty driven by economic necessity.

A panel of four independent judges* agreed that with the exceptional use of pen on paper, and through outstanding composition and execution, Nkululeko had visually and movingly invoked the viewer to consider the frail economic position of today’s youth in relation to the demand for education.

At the awards evening where he received his R50 000 in prize money, Nkululeko however bashfully revealed that he had initially intended to enter a bronze sculpture. Yet due to the bronze not arriving on time to be poured in its awaiting mould, his art lecturer at the Central University of Technology in Bloemfontein advised that he should focus on his pen sketch instead.

“Since winning this competition, I’ve been hugely motivated to develop my sketching ability,” he remarks. In fact, at this moment he is fully immersing himself in creating a number of intricate pen sketches that are to be showcased

as part of the competition’s New Breed Winners Group Exhibition to be held in August 2019.

This exhibition forms part of the winners’ prize offering of the annual New Breed Art Competition, which – now in its fourth year – is aimed at discovering and showcasing the careers of a new and emerging breed of artists from the Free State.

Nkululeko will be exhibiting his new works along with Katlego Mogoera, 2018 runner-up and Public Choice Award winner, Petra Schutte, Merit Award Winner, and Xola Sello, Merit Award Winner. With a significant focus on artistic development in the run-up to the exhibition, all four artists are receiving close mentorship, preparation and curation support from renowned artist, Pauline Gutter, as well as Karen Brusch, founder of the Free State Art Collective and former Director of Gallery MOMO Johannesburg.

Following the exhibition, entries for the 2019 New Breed Art Competition will take place from 16-22 September at Oliewenhuis Art Museum. More information about the 2019 round of the competition as well as the official entry form can be found at www.newbreedart.co.za.

*The 2018 judges were Dr Same Mdluli, Manager of the Standard Bank Art Gallery in Johannesburg, Lawrence Lemaoana, renowned Johannesburg artist, along with Brusch and Gutter.

The New Breed Winners Group Exhibition opens on 7 August 2019 at the head office of Phatshoane Henney Attorneys in Bloemfontein.

“New Breed Art Competition, which – now in its fourth year – is aimed at discovering and showcasing the careers of a new and emerging breed of artists from the Free State.”

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Nkululeko Nkebe with his winning pen sketch, Youth ‘Slaves’ To Education

Petra Schutte with her work, Expiration of my environment

Katlego Mogoera, Nkululeko Nkebe, Petra Schutte and Xola Sello at the awards evening last year.

Xola Sello with his entry, My economy

Katlego Mogoera with her work, Girl balancing cigarette on lips