In a poetic fragment of thought published in a 2007 edition of the Tate Papers, Sturtevant refers to the general mindset of contemporary audiences: in a time in which information technology accelerates from minute to minute, with avalanches of information available at the click of a mouse button, “spectators only demand entertainment”.
On the one hand, we have played into the hands of such an audience, by providing an exhibition - or, rather, a collection of them - that is a fanfare of stimuli for the senses. This is entertainment, 11-fold. On the other hand, however, we have thrown our lot in with Sturtevant in his lament of the contemporary audience, for which “the strenuous requirements of thinking/knowledge/references/reflection/and/to be there/ are a great impediment”. On this matter, we stand our ground. Each petite exhibition is uniquely conceived and developed for a particular space. Hence, not only does each body of work demand to be viewed as a kernel of creative expression in its own right, but complex dialogues of reference and straddling narrative strands gain equal prominence as the exhibitions jostle, side by side.
As the driving force behind the compilation of this show, our hope is that audiences and artists alike are able to reap the full benefits of the complexity of multitudinous creativity.
Upper Gallery
Matthew Hindley: Blackout
Eris Silke: Icons
Louis Jansen van Vuuren: Oneiric Tones
Clare Menck: Woman painting women
Colbert Mashile: Act IX: Scene I
Jan du Toit: The Interior as Self Portrait: The Self Portrait as Interior
Michele Davidson: Sugar Coated Reality
Audrey Anderson: Thinking inside the box
Gerald Tabata: Elusindisweni (Savlation)
Sandra Hanekom: Saintly Fools and Foolish Saints
Theo Kleynhans: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
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