The Rose Art Museum presents Coexistence: Contemporary Cultural Production in South Africa

Released on December 16, 2002
Contact: Donna Desrochers 781-736-4204

Coexistence: Contemporary Cultural Production in South Africa
Wednesday, Jan. 22 - Sunday, June 29, 2003
Rose Art Museum
Opening reception, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 6-9 p.m.
Lecture by Marilyn Martin, director, Art Collections, Iziko
Museums of Cape Town
Gallery talk with co-curator Pamela Allara, Wednesday,
Jan. 29, 7 p.m.
*Symposium: Held in Tension: Defining and Exhibiting the Arts in a Global Culture
Saturday, Feb. 1, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
(See complete program of performances, screenings,
and lectures)

Location & Hours
On the Campus of Brandeis University,
415 South Street in Waltham
Commuter rail stop at Brandeis/Roberts Station
**Tuesday-Sunday, 12-5 p.m.
Closed Monday, national and university holidays
Admission: $3.00

The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University in collaboration with the South African National Gallery (SANG) has organized Coexistence: Contemporary Cultural Production in South Africa, an ambitious survey of contemporary art in South Africa. The exhibition opens Jan. 22 and runs through June 29, 2003.

Coexistence presents 35 contemporary art works, including sculpture, embroidered pieces, large-scale installations, small curios, digital photography, and video projections, that illustrate the broad range of creative activity in post-apartheid South Africa. The exhibit is curated by Pamela Allara, associate professor of art history at Brandeis; Marilyn Martin, director of art collections at Iziko Museums of Cape Town; and Zola Mtshiza, assistant curator at the South African National Gallery, (SANG).

Coexistence examines the breakdown in traditional categories of art that has transformed South Africa's cultural production since the abolition of apartheid in 1990. It looks at how in the process of reaching across racial and class divisions, artists are erasing long-standing distinctions between art and craft, and expanding the role of art into areas of social, economic, and education policy. Six major works from the South African National Gallery collection, all from 1995, form the exhibition's core. As a group, they contrast the vastly different spaces of South Africa: the suburb, the township, the rural village, the central city, and the racial and economic divisions that they mark. Lisa Brice's installation Make Your Home Your Castle is a piercing commentary on the elaborate security measures taken to protect predominantly white suburban enclaves. Moshekwa Langa's untitled installation of skin-like detergent bags hung from a laundry cord, speaks to the lines of wash that characterize township homes, as well as black women's hand labor in white homes. Jane Alexander's Integration Programme poignantly depicts the cultural dislocation of a young rural black migrant seeking work as a laborer in the city. Willie Bester's monumental scrap metal assemblage Head North weaves together disparate yet equally violent histories of the Afrikaner Voortrekker's migration and township settlement. Makhubele's The Road to Democracy and Christina Nkuna's Umkhonto We Sizwe illustrate the increasingly politicized and public role of the "craft" of embroidery.

Other works include an embroidered wall hanging commissioned by the National Paper Prayers Campaign, demonstrating the expanding role of this medium in training workers and addressing social issues. Activist artists Kim Berman and Sue Williamson are represented by works relating to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the crisis of the AIDS epidemic. Walter Oltmann, Joachim SchC6nfeldt, and Claudette Schreuders, whose work has been influenced by untrained, "traditional" art, are exhibited with Billy Makhubela's wire figures and Johannes Mashego Segogela's AIDS installation.

The extensive programming for Coexistence will include a daylong symposium on Feb. 1 that will examine the complex issues involved in cultural exchange between the "first" and "third" worlds and the challenges museums face in presenting and explaining contemporary cultural objects. There will be two artist-residencies, and a film series organized with the Davis Museum and Cultural Center at Wellesley College. Performance artist Robin Rhode and printmaker and musician Daniel Stompie Selibe will be in residence in February and March, respectively.

THE CATALOGUE

A 100-page catalogue published by The Rose Art Museum accompanies the exhibition. Despite the high level of historical scholarship in the field of South African art, most exhibits mounted in South Africa lack written materials, thus depriving its citizens of their cultural history. The publication includes essays by curators Allara, Martin, and Mtshiza, as well as by art historian Brenda Schmahmann from Rhodes University, Julia Charlton, curator of the art galleries at the University of the Witwatersrand, and Kim Berman, director of the Artist Proof Studio and program manager of the poverty alleviation project, Phumani Paper. Thembinkosi Goniwe, winner of Africa's MTN (Mobile Telephone Networks) Young Artists Award for 2001, chronicles the conflicts facing young artists moving from a local to a global arena.

Coexistence: Contemporary Cultural Production in South Africa is administered by Joseph D. Ketner, The Henry and Lois Foster Director, The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University. The exhibition, catalogue and programs are sponsored through the generosity of The Rockefeller Foundation, TIAA-CREF, the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, the Slifka Program in Intercommunal Coexistence of Brandeis University, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts. The exhibition will travel to Cape Town, where it will be on view at the South African National Gallery from September 2003 to March 2004. Digital images are available; contact Donna Desrochers 781-736-4204.

*Admission to the symposium, Held in Tension: Defining and Exhibiting the Arts in a Global Culture,
is $45; $35 for Rose members, Brandeis community, and senior citizens; free for Brandeis students.

**The Rose Art Museum is currently closed for the winter holidays. We will reopen January 22 with even newer museum hours: Tues-Sun. 12-5 p.m.

Schedule of Events

Opening reception and lecture by Marilyn Martin, co-curator
Wednesday, Jan. 22, 6 - 9 p.m.
Lois Foster Wing. Admission is free.

Gallery talk with Pamela Allara, co-curator
Wednesday, Jan. 29, 7 p.m.
Lois Foster Wing. Admission is free.

Performance by visiting artist Robin Rhode
Wednesday, Feb. 26, 7 p.m.
Shapiro Student Center. Admission is free.

Talking drum performance by visiting artist Stompie Selibe
Wednesday, Apr. 2, 7 p.m.
Shapiro Student Center. Admission is free.

African Gala Reception
Saturday, April 5, 7 p.m.
Lois Foster Wing. Admission TBA.

Video Installations
Wednesday, Jan. 22 - Sunday, March 16
Mildred S. Lee Gallery, The Rose Art Museum
Shadow Procession, by William Kentridge (2001)
One Year Later, by Jo Ractliffe and SebastiC!n Diaz Morales (2001)
TKO, by Tracey Rose (2000)

Wednesday, March 19 - Sunday, April 6
Mildred S. Lee Gallery, The Rose Art Museum
Can't Forget, Can't Remember, by Sue Williamson (1999)

Symposium
Held in Tension: Defining and Exhibiting the Arts in a Global Culture
Saturday, Feb. 1, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Pollack Auditorium
The Rose hosts this symposium, which brings scholars and artists from South Africa and the United States together to discuss the diversity of creative activity in South Africa today. The morning session, Jostling for Position: Defining Cultural Production in a Global Context, examines the complex issues involved in cultural exchange between the"first" and "third" worlds. The afternoon session, Exhibiting and Critiquing Contemporary African Art, grapples with the challenges museums face in presenting and explaining contemporary cultural objects. (Admission: $45; $35 for Rose members)

Morning Session:
Jostling for Position: Defining Cultural Production in a Global Context
Speakers:
Thembinkosi Goniwe, Cornell University
Christopher Steiner, Connecticut College
Jessica Taplin Stephenson, Emory University

Afternoon Session:
Exhibiting and Critiquing Contemporary African Art
Speakers:
Barry Gaither, Director, Museum of the National
Center of Afro-American Artists
Elizabeth Harney, Smithsonian Institution
Kellie Jones, Yale University
John Nunley, St. Louis Art Museum

Film Series
A South African film series about the country's history and culture will be held throughout February and March.
Wednesday, Feb. 12, Brandeis University
Pollack Auditorium
Wednesday, Feb. 26, Wellesley College
Collins Cinema
Wednesday, March 12, Brandeis University
Pollack Auditorium
Wednesday, March 26, Wellesley College
Collins Cinema

Links

The Rose Art Museum

submitted by Donna Desrochers

The Boston Phoenix
"The Boston Phoenix selects The Rose exhibit for its "Editors' Pick." Click on link above."
submitted by Donna Desrochers