Two artists examine our relationship with our existence and relationship to modernity in very different ways.
■ “The captains of industry [and] presidents of countries do not go to church any more, they go to art galleries,” said artist Kendell Geers in 2005.
“That is where they express their faith. It’s a faith based on money, power and capitalism.” Six years down the line, much has changed. Capitalism is in crisis and the bottom has fallen out of the art market, whereas religion and the church have undergone a profound revival. It’s against this backdrop that the Michael Stevenson Gallery presents three new exhibitions that deal with religion.
Conrad Botes returns with a new solo show, The Temptation to Exist, which takes his preoccupation with the state of man’s existence in relation to the gods into darker, more direct and hard-hitting territory. Also on show is a new installation by young artist Igshaan Adams, which draws on Islamic traditions to explore the position of Muslims in contemporary society. Berlin-based Israeli video artist Keren Cytter explores faith in relation to myth, identity, history and nationality.
Michael Stevenson Gallery, Buchanan Building, 160 Sir Lowry Road, Woodstock, Cape Town. Until October 15.
■ Asha Zero has made a name for himself as one of the few remaining diehard postmodernists, incorporating fragments of popular culture, such as newspaper headlines, posters, album covers, fashion spreads and print ads. Pseudonyms are by nature postmodernist. Over the years, Zero’s work has embraced all these tropes. Like all good postmodernists he loves hisisms. Dada conceptualism and pictorial illusionism are some of the terms used to described his style.
Previously, Zero’s work was suitably neutral but his new exhibition, Micro Cluster Picnic, bucks this trend with a series of satirical, ultra-political, super-mediated paintings that respond to what Zero defines as our current post-postmodern, “post-hyperreal” realm.
34FineArt, Hills Building, Buchanan Square, 160 Sir Lowry Road, Woodstock, Cape Town, from September 13 to 17.