Joyful voices: Rhodes University Chamber Choir.
Rhodes University Chamber Choir
The Rhodes University Chamber Choir (RUCC) is set to embark on a tour of the Western Cape, beginning this weekend. The tour will feature a series of musical workshops and collaborative concerts across the Garden Route, Cape Winelands and Cape Town. Highlights include performances with the Zolani Youth Choir, Montagu Primary School Choirs, Voce Excellencia, and several university and community choirs.
Sibusiso Njeza, RUCC’s music director, emphasises the tour’s goal of connecting with local communities, especially in rural areas where art often takes a backseat. He believes in music’s transformative power, particularly in South Africa, where poverty is prevalent.
The tour kicks off on Sunday, 18 August at St Mark’s Cathedral in George, with the full itinerary available on the choir’s social media platforms.
Jomba! Contemporary Dance Experience
The University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts presents the 26th Jomba! Contemporary Dance Experience, running from 27 August to 8 September in Durban. This year’s theme, “finding our way home”, explores the complex notion of belonging in a world marked by political and social upheaval.
The festival features a diverse line-up of local and international artists, including veteran South African dancemaker Robyn Orlin, who is honoured as the 2024 Legacy Artist. Highlights include performances by Cape Town’s JazzArt, Bangalore’s Deepak Kurki Shivaswamy and South Africa’s Boyzie Cekwana.
The festival includes a digital screen dance focus, workshops, and discussions on the role of artists in times of conflict.
Tickets and programme details are available at Jomba!’s official website.
Stephen Hobbs exhibition
Living sculpture: Stephen Hobbs’ installation of fungi on exhibition
On 13 April Stephen Hobbs and Afrifungi’s Shiitake Mushroom log installation at the Blue House was launched with a public presentation and a serving of Lion’s Mane and oyster mushrooms.
Hobbs returns to the Blue House in Parkwood, Johannesburg on Saturday 17 August with a more fantastical take on the terraforming capabilities of fungi, speculation around their intergalactic travels, and their potential for reimaging our approach to the built environment. Hobbs’ new installation draws from his fascination with a super-large fruiting mushroom species — Ganoderma destructans — a parasitic fungus attacking the root system of a stinkwood tree close to his house in Linden.
For Hobbs his fascination with growing and designing “things” with mycelium offers a dynamic lens through which to critique Johannesburg’s nature of collapsing and rebuilding.It’s an environmentally conscious exhibition with media ranging from drawings to a living sculpture made of mycelium and mushrooms. — Lesego Chepape