Alex Sudheim
Art Engine Studio, Lost World nursery, Ramsgate. This exciting new art space on the South Coast of KwaZuluNatal opens its inaugural exhibition on Friday April 27. The Children’s Story is a remarkable and inspiring exhibition of 100 images created by children in the ghetto of Terezin in World War II Prague. Appropriately opening on Freedom Day, this acclaimed international exhibition runs for only one week until May 2. Made possible by the embassy of the Czech Republic, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, the Cape Town Holocaust Centre and the Jewish museum in Prague, the drawings in the exhibition speak with the honesty and directness of a child, yet are tempered by the dark shadow of genocide. Despite the draconian Nazi occupation, the adults of Terezin attempted to spare the children the shocking reality of their situation by creating a separate world for them in which normal education would be given. Drawing played a crucial role here, and Friedle DickerBrandeis, a Viennese painter, was the hero of the day. As instructor, DickerBrandeis respected the personality of a child and left space for his or her selfexpression to release fantasies and emotions. Drawing lessons had an invaluable therapeutic effect. It helped the children to express their fears and concerns and to enter a fantasy world where good triumphs over evil. In their drawings, they constantly expressed the hope of a happy return home, often with roads and signposts pointing to Prague. Only a small fraction of the children who passed through Terezin saw their hopes fulfilled, for most died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz. DickerBrandeis herself died in October 1944 at Auschwitz. The almost 4?500 drawings from Terezin represent a unique documentation of the tragic persecution of innocent people, including children. The exhibition is curated by Lloyd Meintjes, who heads this new art gallery. The exhibition is open daily (except Monday) from 10am until 4.30pm. Entrance is free. The public is also invited to attend the official opening that takes place from 5.30pm on Saturday April 28 at the gallery. More information: Tel:(039) 314 9307.
Artroots, 50 Florida Road. This contemporary African art gallery has been off the radar for a while but reenters the art scene in its impressive new venue. Offering a wide range of contemporary and traditional fine art and artefacts, the gallery also contains a fine collection of works by top painters, sculptors and ceramicists. This month’s featured artist is Sthembiso Shongwe, who is a KwaZuluNatal finalist in the Absa Atelier 2001 competition, currently being judged in Johannesburg. Tel: 303 5176.
Blatant Image, Bean Bag Bohemia. Currently on show at Durban’s bohemian enclave of fine wining and dining is this inspired photography initiative, which reclaims the medium from the “artistes” and hands it to “anyone who can point a camera”. So the shutterbugs featured in this project aren’t CartierBresson or Newton, just ordinary folk with opposable thumbs and a sometimes extraordinary eye who have in some form or another captured the theme of Friday the 13th. Tel: 307 2623.
Democratic Gallery, Bat Centre. Recently opened in this intimate gallery in Durban’s cultural epicentre is The Spirit Will Never Die, the first solo exhibition Herman Mbamba, a student of the exchange programme between John Muafangejo Art Centre in Namibia and the Bat Centre. Mbamba’s marvellous works continue the strong printmaking tradition of the legendary Muafangejo while putting an innovative new spin on the genre. An accomplished printmaker, Mbamba’s technique is unusual he uses textured objects such as plastic, metal, hessian and other fabrics to overprint lino and woodcut prints. “When creating my work, I like to go deep into my inner creativity in order to come up with something new and unusual. I have a mystical feeling that I always like to express,” says Mbamba of his work. Tel: 332 0451.
Durban Art Gallery, City Hall, Smith Street. Newly ensconced in the imposing surrounds of the historical Durban Art Gallery is Jabulisa, a momentous exhibition showcasing the work of 134 KwaZuluNatal artists. More than a year in curation, the show features a wide range of works in various media, from paper and oil painting to fibre and clay. The decorative arts on show are particularly impressive and include ceramics by artists working in the indigenous tradition and works created by artists who trained in fine arts institutions. The jewellery section is fascinating, because some of the artists have produced works that may be seen as miniature sculptures, fusing the Western tradition of jewellerymaking with the indigenous KwaZuluNatal craft of working with rubber tyres. There are exquisite fibre works on view, one of the most moving being a small embroidery by an artist who has portrayed her vision of paradise in her work, created just before she died of Aids. A sculptor from the Newcastle area has carved a spectacular portrait of a soldier who fought in the AngloBoer South African War. Every detail is correct, down to the regiment he served in. Zulu for “make someone happy”, Jabulisa celebrates the profound panoply of artistic talent in the province, which assures KwaZuluNatal’s reputation as a major powerhouse of creation in South Africa. Tel: 311 2265.
NSA Gallery, 166 Bulwer Road, Glenwood. On show at Durban’s top contemporary art gallery until May 6 is a remarkable collection of bronze sculptures by wellknown sculptor Maureen Quin, entitled The Hunt. Eight years in the making, the exhibition is a series of 12 bronzes, thematically linked and exhibiting a fascinating and disturbing combination of aesthetic majesty and ominous threat. Says Quin of her works, originally inspired by studies of cheetahs: “I have tried to express, in sculptural form, the horror I feel for man’s inhumanity to his fellow man, compounded with the wanton destruction of our environment in the name of development, greed, power and selfgratification.” Quin has had more than 40 solo exhibitions and has participated in 20 group exhibitions. In the Mezzanine and Park galleries is 30 X 30, the annual NSA Gallery members’ exhibition and showcase. The gallery this year invited its members to submit works with any theme or subject matter, but with a restriction on size 30cm by 30cm. The annual event attracts considerable interest and is an opportunity for the public to acquaint themselves with the practice of the very active membership of the gallery. The exhibition includes works in all media and guarantees attractive art works at affordable prices. Tel: 202 2293.
Tatham Art Gallery, Commercial Road, Pietermaritzburg. FOKOFO is an exhibition exploring the concept of cultural tolerance through questioning and challenging the observer’s understanding and conception as viewer, observer and interpreter. This includes an interpretation of an anthropologist’s understanding of the Mabaso people’s usage of beaded items, woodcarved meat platters and ceramics in rites of maturity for girls about to be married. The show was developed using a theoretical framework based on the work of Michael Matthews and Dieter Reusch, an anthropologist who has been researching the arts of the Mabaso people living in the Msinga district of central KwaZuluNatal. The exhibition runs until May 20.