Mail & Guardian reporter
The Ultimate Safari is a short story by Nadine Gordimer, describing the trek of a Mozambican family who flees their home village during the Mozambican war, and walks through the Kruger park to get to South Africa.
The Artists’ Press has collaborated with Nadine Gordimer and three Mozambican refugees who are living in South Africa, to produce a hand-printed artists’ book of The Ultimate Safari.
The 54-page book contains 11 original colour lithographs drawn by Dorah Ngomane, Alsetta Manthosi and Aletta Nyati. It has been hand printed on 100% cotton paper in a limited edition of 100 books. The text has been hand printed by letterpress, and the books are hand bound in cloth.
As well as being a beautiful publication, it is hoped that the book will focus attention and empathy on the plight of refugees in the country, and thus help to reduce xenophobia in South Africa.
The book is due to be launched at Art On Paper in Melville, in November
The book contains 11 original colour lithographs drawn by, among others, Aletta Nyati
@Durban Art Gallery gets mystical
Mail & Guardian reporter
The Durban Art Gallery will be presenting the major KwaZulu-Natal exhibition, Untold Tales of Magic: Abelumbi in April 2002. This is a first in South Africa.
Magic, both in its positive form (goodness) as well as in its negative form (evil), is universal. Tales of magic have been passed down from generation to generation as myths, legends and as elements of reality by word of mouth in individual families and within communities.
In the history of Zulu culture there are stories of evil which involve animals like the baboon and the snake. In Western culture there are many well-known myths and fables: these range from the ancient Greek fables of Aesop to those of the present day. In modern South African literature our own folk tales have been immortalised by authors from KwaZulu-Natal like Margaritte Poland and C L S Nyembezi.
In order to curate a major exhibition such as this, the Durban Art Gallery needed sponsorship. The gallery approached a number of sponsors who have supported this exhibition, one of whom is the Arts & Culture Trust.
The money raised will enable the gallery to print a comprehensive catalogue that will remain as a lasting record of the exhibition long after it has been dismantled. Every work submitted to the exhibition will be illustrated. Each artist will be requested to write his or her comments on the work submitted. These comments will be published in the catalogue. The catalogue will also contain essays on the theme of magic by the following authors: Pat Khoza (Durban Art Gallery), Juliette Leeb du Toit (University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg), Musa Mncawabe (Durban Art Gallery), Robert Papini (Kwa Muhle Museum), Kate Wells (Design Department, M L Sultan Technikon), Yvonne Winters (The Campbell Collections of the University of Natal, Durban) and Mduduzi Xakaza (Tatham Art Gallery, Pietermaritzburg).
All the major artists of KwaZulu-Natal have been invited to submit one work in any medium on the theme of magic. Works in a wide range of media oil paintings, wood and metal sculpture, beads, fibre, basketry, ceramics and telephone wire are expected.
Major artists from the region who are participating in the exhibition include: Lola Frost; Isaac Nkosinathi Khanyile; Bafana Mkhize; Thembi Nala and Andrew Verster, among others.
Funds permitting, the exhibition will tour to the other art museums in KwaZulu-Natal and art museums in other provinces.
