30 March 2012
ADAPTATION
An exhibition by visiting artists
Hagar Cygler | Khayalethu Witbooi | Neda Tavallaee | Precious Mhone | Thandile Zwelibanzi
Hagar Cygler (Israel): “Adaption can take place through the coercion of the physical state or through that of the mental by forcing objects to remain in suspension or creating a new dialogue between two separate works of literature.”
A photographer by training, Hagar Cygler bends her medium and produces ever more tactile constructions by incorporating needlework, cutting and re-attaching images that she props against walls, each other and in video. In ADAPTATION she employs the supple nature of colored gelatine (edible jelly) in conjunction with toy dogs sourced at the flea market. The presence of dogs, always in pairs, references the legends of two canines: Jock of the Bushveld (South African) and Azit the airborne Alsatian (Israeli). Cygler purposefully sets out to create a theme that speaks of two worlds of which she is “citizen” and to which she must in turn adapt. She creates a jelly mixture into which she slowly lowers the toy dogs, waiting for mixture to set in parts and gradually adding more jelly until the dogs are fully suspended in “mid-air”. The environment that the miniature dogs are introduced to is at times unstable, as jelly can melt back into its liquid form “drowning” and destabilising its contents.
Khayalethu Witbooi (South Africa): “My current body of work is inspired by the sporadic outbursts of violence in our townships where hatred has reintroduced itself in the guise of xenophobia. I themed my work “the eclipse’ to present an aspect we can all identify with; where two sources of light overlap, resulting in neither of them providing that light.”
Taking issue with the way people in his township have “adjusted” to xenophobic sentiment and violence, Witbooi employs the aesthetics of a public façade, layering his canvas with images that are stripped off to make way for advertisements, notices and calls to action. In ADAPTATION, he leans heavily towards the street art vernacular, using stencils and “tagging” every available space, leaving indelible but seemingly ownerless marks. Each image vies for space in his crowded soap box, calling to mind the levels at which xenophobia has been allowed to evolve unchecked across communities.
Neda Tavallaee (Iran): “I was very surprised to realise once being totally free to work as I wish, the freedom would be tainted with hesitation, which had to be overcome. Only then could I continue and retain the essence of my work.”
Neda speaks through her palette as a painter to address and illuminate everyday life in Iran. She emphasises the hopes and dreams of a woman living in the Middle East. The content of her work from colour to subject matter represents a shouting whisper amidst a cacophony of conflicting inner voices.
Precious Mhone (Malawi): “I [aim to] draw attention to the relationship and link between our personal ideals and their reflection in the photographic image, the fragile state that exists as these ideals transition from one form to another.”
In ADAPTATION, Mhone regresses to the pinhole camera, eschewing the digital aspects of her chosen art form for the “home-made” and the charms of the “dark room” photographic process.
In a trigger happy 2012, Mhone labouriously fashions her own camera and waits for the images to commit themselves to sheets of photo paper. The results are stills that mimic movement, appearing to be single frames of a motion picture. The back ends of paper negatives and a 1920’s Voigtlander make their appearance in her installation; both characters recall her intention on placing an “emphasis on a more laboured, intentional method of working as opposed to the instant gratification that emerges with digital imagery.”
Thandile Zwelibanzi (South Africa): “This environment [Greatmore] has altered my perception around public and private spaces and made me focus on the peripheries within the city centre. Stopping for a moment, gazing upon and understanding the surroundings for me are means to adaptation.”
For ADAPTATION, Zwelibanzi presents two series in progress. In his travels though Cape Town’s townships – from Khayelitsha to Bonteheuwel - he captures scenes of buildings, void of people, and intimate portraits in equally still settings. What he achieves are cunningly simple and calm compositions of moments outside the urban noise. The works are the result of a process Thandile has been developing during his residency. Trapped between a blanket and a mattress he has processed all his film in the (dis)comfort of his own space, producing images that are grainy, porous and aged in appearance and which defy the viewers’ expectations of time, space and physicality.
