Informational and educational features on exhibitions, acquisitions and our Collection.
Sojourn: Sacred Passages from Loss to Self-Reflection in Contemporary South African Visual Arts
The concept of sojourn—encompassing temporary dwelling, the state of “in-between” worlds, and the undertaking of spiritual journeys—provides a critical framework for examining contemporary South African visual arts.
Through the diverse and thought-provoking artworks in the Artbank of South Africa’s contemporary collection, this article, in conjunction with the exhibition Sojourn: A Contemporary Exhibition from the Artbank of South Africa Collection, explores the intricate interplay between transience and permanence. These works challenge established perceptions of time, place, and identity while revealing the multifaceted dimensions of spiritual and cultural sojourning in contemporary society.
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View pages 62 – 65 on the link : Art Times March 2022 Edition by SA ART TIMES – Issuu

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The earthy ochre tones and dark scrawls in Asanda Kupa’s Chained in blue (2017) evoke a mass of figures united under a banner of resistance. The canvas appears as an eruption of expressive marks and dynamic energy. The piece seems to summon songs and chants for freedom. It is an especially poignant piece in the Artbank of South Africa’s collection. In an interview Kupa describes how, “I use crowds as a symbol of oneness, that everything is connected, and all is one”. For the Molteno-born artist, representations of civic action and occupation are central themes in his work. Growing up in a poverty-stricken area has coloured his experiences and spurred his desire to represent subjugated peoples whose lives are defined by a lack of access to basic resources. Chained in blue has an uncanny resemblance to both the protest actions that pepper our history and the predicaments of our present.

Finding Cohesion in the Cacophony
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In my initial encounter with the 2019 acquisitions of the Artbank South Africa, I found myself scanning the works, searching for a singular voice – a central concern within the collection. Instead, what answered my call for clarity was a cacophony. Some subtle whispers, others murmurings, desperate pleas and even in some instances – joyful exclamation. On reflection, the possibility that a collection premised on such diverse representation, from across the country, would have only one voice, is absurd. It is an important reminder of the value of plurality, especially in a context filled with such varied experiences.

Bullets or Books: A commemoration of Youth Day
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A day when bullets rained down, clouds of noxious gas infiltrated airways and peaceful protests were met with violence, the course of our nation’s history was irrevocably changed. On June 16th we honour the sacrifice young people made in the fight for freedom. The Soweto Uprising that started in 1976 spread like wildfire across apartheid South Africa. The spark that lit the proverbial match was the enforcement of Afrikaans alongside English as the medium of instruction across schools. Students objected and with few other means to voice their dissatisfaction, they planned a protest action.

Resilience in the face of calamity and casualty: Artists’ experiences of COVID-19
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Over the last year, every aspect of our lives has changed. On the 27th of March 2020, a nationwide lockdown began as an attempt to curb the rising cases of COVID-19 infections in South Africa. What started as a three-week hard lockdown, has unfolded into months and months of uncertainty and isolation.
The pandemic has also had a devastating effect on the global arts sector, which accounts for roughly 30 million jobs worldwide (Hoek 2021). Limitations on gatherings, increase in unemployment rates and economic austerity measures have dramatically impacted an already precarious industry. The international health crisis has revealed larger structural issues faced by the creative community: artists who are self-employed or participate in the ‘gig economy’ are faced with even fewer means to secure sustainable income (Guibert & Hyde, 2021: 3). The trope of the ‘starving artist’ has increasingly become a reality for many.

The Day of Reconciliation: A Layered History
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The sixteenth of December is a day steeped in significance. It has been named, claimed and also retrospectively framed. During various moments of history this day has commemorated anguished battles and victories, based on the dominant perspective. The calendar date has embodied distinct memories and often opposing meaning for different communities across South Africa. Marked as junctures in time that significantly changed the social and political contours of the country. In reconciling our remembering, are we holding space to redress the absent voices and suppressed cries missing from our national narrative?

Mourning the Shadows: A reflection of Women’s Day
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Over the last year, the pandemic has cast a long shadow over our lives, but while the national lockdown saw an overall decline in crime, acts of Gender Based Violence spiked dramatically. According to Amnesty International, in just the first week of lockdown, 2 300 calls for help were made to the South African Police Service. Only three months later, a tragic tally of twenty-one women (and children) had been killed by their intimate partners. Although necessary to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the lockdown has created a context in which many women are trapped with no way to escape the violent hands of their abusers.
Normative gender roles and the unequal power dynamics perpetuated by patriarchal society are some of the root causes of GBV. With already one of the highest rates of femicide in the world, the pandemic has created even deeper fissures of poverty, inequality and unemployment in South Africa. These factors all contribute to what has been dubbed the shadow pandemic gripping our country.

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Culture is not fixed. It ebbs and flows from one generation to the next. Our ancestors and elders bequeath to us gifts of knowledge and embodied knowing. Yet sometimes we forget. When the rituals that contain and connect us are lost, we become untethered from our communities and unable to contain the depth of wisdom acquired before us. Heritage Day offers an opportunity to remember. Not only to bask in the richness of our own traditions, but also acknowledge and appreciate the customs of others.

The Venice Biennale: Past and Present
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The Venice Biennale as a kind of World Olympics of art continues to function as arguably the foremost venue for the presentation of vanguard, progressive contemporary art. The South African theme for 2019 is The stronger we become. Curated by Nkule Mabaso and Nomusa Makubu, it includes the work of Tracey Rose, Dineo Seshee Bopape and Mawande Ka Zenzile.
Painting in the Collection of the ArtbankSA
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Painting as a broad category includes a variety of media, each having their own distinct properties, character and application, which artists use to express themselves and achieve pictorially the conceptual idea or intention underpinning the making of the work. In the ArtbankSA Collection, there are several acquisitions in the three principal painting media of oil paint, water colour and acrylic paint.
We’ve been here: Art exhibition in celebration of Women’s Day 2019
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South African women have played a major part in mobilising the country towards independence and freedom, and their role are acknowledged and celebrated in the We’ve been here exhibition. To this end the ArtbankSA curated a selection of artworks by female artists from its contemporary collection. Themes relating to women’s freedom and rights issues were curated to include a sense of history, and an awareness of the past informing the present; freedom of religion and movement; self-worth and dignity; newly emerging identities; contemporary dilemmas; and hope.