stevenson #07 12-2020

.info

‘A manifesto against creative paralysis in a very confusing world’: Studio view of Zander Blom’s Garage-ism. The show, with accompanying publication, opens on 10 December in and runs through the season Resumption song

# Looking ahead to a the São Paulo Biennale evidence sing, follows the rhythm of a triennial year of experiments a willingness to work differently for its 34th edition, starting officially in adaptation with time. The first now takes in September 2021; Paulo Nazareth place over six months of 2021, and and Frida Orupabo are included. One of the first exhibitions we is set to include How to make a Orupabo makes inroads had to rethink during this ‘strange country, an exhibition curated by further north in the Americas, and uncertain’ moment was The Stevenson’s Lerato Bereng at FRAC launching the first in a two-part Mushroom at the End of the World, Poitou-Charentes in Angoulême; project celebrating Toronto’s Year inspired by Anna Tsing’s oblique a solo show by Barthélémy Toguo of Public Art in January 2021. treatise on adaptability and survival. at the Musée du quai Branly; and a Her Woman with a Book (2020) is Though the exhibition was placed on group exhibition on womanhood, exhibited as a mural in the city’s hold indefinitely, its ethos endures The Power of My Hands, featuring historic garment district to assert in forthcoming programming in our Portia Zvavahera, at the Musée d’art ‘the notion of Black women’s spaces and further afield. moderne de Paris. The São Paulo bodies as sites of knowledge and France’s Africa Season 2020 and Biennale, titled Though it’s dark, still I empowerment’. And Simphiwe stevenson 2 #07 stevenson 3 #07 .info 12-2020 .info 12-2020

Ndzube holds his first US museum solo, Oracles of the Pink Universe, at the Denver Art Museum in June. After postponements, Kemang Wa Lehulere’s first Scandinavian solo exhibition, Bring Back Lost Love, now takes place at Göteborgs Konsthall from 30 January; Beyond Belief by Deborah Poynton opens on 21 April at the Drents Museum in Assen; and ’s retrospective at Tate Modern – already lauded by the critics (see p7) – will have an extended run till 6 June. The Paris, Berlin and Umeå iterations of this Call Me When You Get There: A view of Mame-Diarra Niang’s pigment prints encased in Perspex frames, installed at the Cape Town gallery show, at La Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Gropius Bau and Bildmuseet respectively, ‘Roads that lead you to somewhere you don’t know’ consider the possibilities of concurrent showings instead of a linear tour. # Lockdown presented sc I felt something similar when I You can see the roads, and they lead you see at first, it’s something that to save, time to feel, to express and Though physical openings Mame-Diarra Niang with was walking through the works. You you to somewhere that you don’t you find because you decided to to do. I wasn’t attempting to make remain a point of speculation, an invitation to time- see how people care for their homes. know. I think it will be the next work look twice. anything when this work came to Serge Alain Nitegeka and Wim travel. She spoke to Flowers and trees demonstrate life, that will tell where they lead us, me. I was with my wife, pretending Botha begin 2021 with spatial Sinazo Chiya about her but with the faces blocked there’s but these are predictions of where sc It felt more honest to your vision that everything was well because we experiments at Stevenson encounters room for a different reading – there’s we are going now. It’s open roads, to have the work be seen together as have a beautiful house, we have a . Nitegeka explores a sense of something deeper, sinister but in a contemplative moment. a whole environment? yard, we did barbecues on our own. figuration and sound withBlack mdn What do you see when you see happening in the social fabric. Everybody is stuck and yet they are I have a hammock, books, Netflix, Encounters, opening on 6 February. the sequences? going somewhere. mdn Sahel Gris, the firsteverything that can help a person Botha presents new work in wood, mdn When I first got there I had photographic series, works with the forget. I have a lot of privilege. But marble and leather from 20 March. sc They’re like variations on a theme. the feeling that the people are sc You can still see the relationships same principle. I have an approach then I realised that things were kind The calendar in Cape Town gets It all feels the same, and different. not grounded. It was strange. between the characters, whether like a filmmaker. I am doing a kind of pressurised. off to an equally multidimensional It’s almost like an extension of It was perfect. They are on the they are in groups or pairs or alone. of travelling, you know. It’s like you start with solo exhibitions by one image. When you look at the land, but not – like spirits. I really They are interacting within the have to see the works with maybe sc There was something blocked? Kemang Wa Lehulere and Dada postures of the people, there’s a interrogated myself about all these distortion. two metres in front of you and then Khanyisa. The former, set to open sense of watching them process the little characters: Who are they? see the line of the horizon and then mdn Every day felt the same. My real on 28 January, will introduce new same event from different places. What is their purpose? What are mdn They look at us, it’s uncanny. you can see where I’m trying to lead memories of that time began when forms and symbols in the artist’s they talking to each other about? For me it’s not as if I was just using you. I think this work is the most I started my journey on Google repertoire. Khanyisa’s third solo mdn Exactly, like something My work didn’t have much of a technology. I can tell you when I beautiful work that I have done and Maps. I visited new and familiar exhibition, Not All Shadows are happened at the same moment for human presence, it was the first time turned, who I met. I was there and it’s not forced into existence by me, places, and each was different. Black, opening on 18 March, everybody. Like evanescence and I was so moved by bodies, a bit like it’s like time-travelling. It was a sort it was given. I knew I had arrived there because I comprises works made in the disappearing. We don’t know if Martina Bacigalupo’s Gulu Real Art of meditation. But also, to meet recognised it as how I felt. I felt cut, artist’s new home studio with a we are erased or we are just in the Studio project. the glitch, you have to also really sc You had to be the one to find it? stretched; I felt like something was particular emphasis on colour. making of something. It is an in- engage in the encounter. You need disappearing inside of me. It was As details reveal themselves and between that was so relevant for the sc So you have to listen to the story to take some time when you meet mdn Yes. I think all this time gave like the portrait of who I was, and improvisation takes the place of present. That’s why I like to say I in the body, not just the story in the people because when you are everybody the kick to do something. in all my works really I am taking a stringent planning, words from don’t know what it is, because over- the face? on the road you don’t see the glitch. To meet our shadows, and it was time picture of who I am. Tsing’s closing chapters remain defining it will just disturb all the You have to turn in a particular way, to meet the shadow to see and make mdn Mame-Diarra Niang’s Call Me When You Get an anchor: There is room here for ideas. It is the blank space that allows Yes, the body, the hands, the you have to find the right angle and some healing and in some parts to be There will remain on view at Stevenson imagining other worlds. you to think about the relationships. legs, the direction of the shoulders. then it shows up. It’s not something patient, to communicate, take time Cape Town through the summer season stevenson 4 #07 stevenson 5 #07 .info 12-2020 .info 12-2020

6 December in St Louis and Ferguson, Missouri 12 January Neo Matloga’s work features in TO 20 DEC Zander Blom’s Garage Party opens Don’t miss Calendar Collection as Poem in the Age at Signs and Symbols, New York these ongoing of Ephemerality — Works from 19 & 20 December City TO 20 FEB X Museum Collection at the X The Norval Foundation, Cape shows Dec-Feb 13 January Museum in Beijing TO 28 FEB Town, holds its first Art Book Fair, Dates are subject to with selected publications from Last week to visit And Then You See 8 December change; please check Stevenson, among others, on offer Yourself, a solo exhibition of early → Until March gallery and museum websites Last week to view Meleko Mokgosi’s in the foyer 10AM-6PM to recent work by Zanele Muholi Wim Botha’s Still Life with epic painting series Democratic at the Norval Foundation in Cape before visiting. Discontent, previously in Intuition at Gagosian’s Britannia 25 & 26 December Town TO 18 JAN Durham, North Carolina, 1 & 2 January Street gallery, London TO 12 DEC shows at 21C Museum Hotel in Stevenson galleries closed 15 January Louisville, Kentucky 1 December 8 December Penny Siopis’ Shame series (below) 4 February 3 January Witness: Afro Perspectives from Last week to see Vento (‘Wind’), is included in Plural Possibilities Black Encounters, a solo show Until 26 April Last day to see Crossing Views at → the Jorge M Pérez Collection at featuring Paulo Nazareth, at the and the Female Body at the of paintings, installation Drives, ’s first US Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, and El Espacio 23 in Miami includes Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion, Henry Art Gallery, University of and sound by Serge Alain museum survey, featuring more Being Seen: Recent Photographic Nitegeka, opens at Stevenson works by Simphiwe Ndzube, Frida Ibirapuera Park, as part of the Washington, Seattle TO MAY than 100 works from the mid- Acquisitions at the Ringling Orupabo and Portia Zvavahera programme of the 34th Bienal de Johannesburg TO 12 MAR 1980s to now, is on view at the Museum of Art in Sarasota, Floria, São Paulo TO 13 DEC Art Institute of Chicago both featuring Zanele Muholi 18 February TO 3 JAN Until May 10 December Photo 2021, Melbourne’s → Sculpture by Odili Donald Zander Blom’s Garage-ism – 4 January international festival of accompanied by a printed Odita is included in Color Field Last day to see Global(e) Resistance photography, titled The Truth, manifesto – and new ceramics on the campus of the University at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, an features works from Zanele by Hylton Nel open at Stevenson of Houston exhibition looking at contemporary Muholi’s Somnyama Ngonyama and Cape Town. Works from Portia strategies of resistance in the work Faces and Phases series TO 7 MAR Zvavahera and Mame-Diarra → Until 30 May of artists including Penny Siopis, Niang’s recent solo exhibitions 22 January 22 February Meleko Mokgosi: Your Trip to Kemang Wa Lehulere, Meschac Africa is on view at the Pérez 2 December remain on view for those who As part of France’s Africa season, Last week to visit Infinite Identities: Gaba, Barthélémy Toguo and Paulo Art Museum Miami. And Stevenson takes part in Art Basel’s missed them TO 23 JAN The Power of My Hands showcases Photography in the age of sharing – Nazareth TO 4 JAN Mokgosi’s Pan-African Pulp is OVR: Miami Beach, with a focus the work of 16 women artists – featuring work by artists including at the University of Michigan on new works by Thenjiwe Niki Portia Zvavahera included – at the Frida Orupabo who use Instagram Museum of Art until September Nkosi, Serge Alain Nitegeka and 7 January Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris. in their practice – at Huis Marseille Neo Matloga (above), among other Stevenson Johannesburg TO 30 MAY in Amsterdam TO 28 FEB Until 1 July gallery artists. Visit https://www. reopens, showing Simphiwe → Allied with Power: African and artbasel.com/ovr TO 6 DEC Ndzube’s The Fantastic Ride to 28 January 23 February African Diaspora Art from the Gwadana TO 22 JAN A solo exhibition by Kemang Last week to see Matereality at Jorge M Pérez Collection at 3 December Wa Lehulere opens at Stevenson the Iziko South African National the Pérez Art Museum Miami Zanele Muholi’s eponymous Cape Town TO 13 MAR Gallery, Cape Town. Mawande Ka includes work by , survey opens to the public at Zenzile is included TO 28 FEB Tate Modern, London, with an Zanele Muholi, Odili Donald extended run. The show spans the 15 December 30 January 25 February Odita, Robin Rhode, breadth of their career as a visual Stevenson Johannesburg closes for Bring Back Lost Love, the first Last days to see Portia Zvavahera and Portia Zvavahera activist documenting the lives of Scandinavian solo by Kemang included on Psychic Wounds: On the summer holidays Until 3 October South Africa’s Black LGBTQIA+ Wa Lehulere, opens at Göteborgs Art & Trauma at The Warehouse in → Dada Khanyisa has work on community TO 6 JUN 16 December Konsthall TO 11 APR Dallas, Texas TO 28 FEB Day of Reconciliation, South Africa Heroes: Principles of African 4 December 7 January Greatness at the National As part of the OVR: Miami Beach 17 December Last days to see In the Air, a Museum of African Art, Talks programme, Kefiloe Siwisa Last days to see Odili Donald Smithsonian Institution, solo show of paintings and film To make an appointment to visit Stevenson, please email hosts a conversation with Neo Odita’s From Periphery to Center, by Penny Siopis at Stevenson Washington DC [email protected] in Cape Town; [email protected] in Matloga and Serge Alain Nitegeka a solo installation of flag works at Amsterdam TO 9 JAN Johannesburg; or [email protected] in Amsterdam. on Zoom 6PM Laumeier and Jeske Sculpture Parks stevenson 6 #07 stevenson 7 #07 .info 12-2020 .info 12-2020

‘Once seen, never forgotten’ # The press responds to Zanele Muholi’s survey at Tate Modern

Zanele Muholi’s long-awaited solo exhibition at Tate Modern, London, finally opens its doors to the public in December. Press previews were held in early November, before the UK went into lockdown; excerpts from some reviews follow.

→ Unwavering in their commitment to the fight against global injustice, Muholi’s photographs seek to remind us all of the need to occupy PHOTO: © TATE (ANDREW DUNKLEY) our own narratives, and reclaim Re-writing history: Zanele Muholi at Tate Modern our own histories, so that nobody can undermine our humanity. → It would be an understatement gender performances leave us in a Following an unprecedented year to say these images make you think state of pleasurable uncertainty (and of social isolation and political twice about race, colour, imperialist why, we might ask ourselves, might uprising, they reveal that the most oppression, state cruelties – historic we be so desperate to fix a gender radical form for resistance is to be and continuous – of all kinds. Just on anyone?), the artist and their Intimate view: Pieter Hugo’s portrait of his children wading in the lagoon during lockdown exactly who we are. to stand before any of the self- collaborators tease at our anxieties, — Osei Bonsu, ‘Inside Zanele portraits in this lifetime survey play them back to us, face us down. Muholi’s powerfully political is to be confronted by images of As much as we gaze at them, they Homage to childhood visual archive’, Vogue, 29 October exceptional beauty – exquisitely lit, gaze at us. brilliantly conceived, in all their — Adrian Searle, ‘Strap-ons, style # For i-D magazine’s 40th chatted to my kids about it first,” he going to become very different this → Muholi’s extraordinary body profound intelligence – yet never to and self-invention’, , anniversary issue, Pieter says. “I don’t photograph my wife year,” he says. “I definitely realised of work possesses a powerful be lost in simple admiration. This is 3 November Hugo photographed his two very much, she doesn’t enjoy being I’ve used work as an excuse to avoid political and cultural resonance. an art of agency, meant to stir; this is children in lockdown. This photographed so I respect that. And the emotional challenges of being The images have a presence that is portraiture as activism. → Muholi’s form of visual is an extract from his I’m very conscious of not shoving a present as a parent.” palpable, but difficult to describe: a ... activism depends on the power interview with Ryan White camera in my kids’ faces all the time, Beneath the story’s more obvious, complex undercurrent of intimacy The last gallery is filled with of photography. They harness the because I don’t want them to become uplifting themes – “growth, birth, and defiance.Faces and Phases is self-portraits that stand somewhere unique capacity a photograph has to “The first thing I concerned myself resistant to being photographed by and coming into your own, and both testimony and archive, the between fiction and truth ... Indelible stop us in our tracks, and the way it with was the wellbeing of my me. I don’t want making pictures to becoming more sentient”, there does portraits accompanied by personal in their burning blacks and whites, can hold entire histories in its four family, so making work – well, become a power struggle.” lie some sadness to his story, too. statements that speak of struggle, each image is as condensed as an corners. Presenting their work like my head just wasn’t in the right Acknowledging the complexities “I think there’s quite a bit of sadness but also self-composure and pride. epigram: once seen, never forgotten. this, in institutions like the Tate, place.” As time went by, [Pieter] of shooting your immediate family, actually,” he says. “It’s a homage to It is, as Sarah Allen, co-curator of — Laura Cumming, ‘Zanele Muholi – means that their activism can go began to find himself “unfrozen Pieter was very keen for the story childhood and the loss of – I don’t the Tate Modern exhibition, notes portraiture as activism’, The beyond the now – and in this way, it from the paralysis” and, between to feel collaborative rather than know if it’s a cliché to say loss of “a family album writ large, and a Observer, 8 November can endure longer and reach wider homeschooling classes, he and his opportunistic. Something he realised innocence but, the changes that homage to both the individual and than any placard or protest, for two children began working on a early on in lockdown was that come with growing up.” the collective.” → Filled with complicity and generations to come. story together. “forced isolation, forced intimacy, The full story can be viewed at — Sean O’Hagan, ‘Zanele Muholi’s confrontation, the artist’s portraits — Charlotte Jansen, ‘Zanele Muholi https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/ “I actually had a conversation meant a lot of parents’ relationships – k7a8jz/pieter-hugo-photography- queer South Africa’, The Guardian, of trans women and men, Shows Us the Power of Photography with my family about the idea and but especially fathers’, I imagine – are lockdown-children 2 November inbetweeners and subjects whose in Activism’, Artsy, 11 November stevenson 8 #07 .info 12-2020

Reading matter

# On offer at the CT Art Book Fair

On 19 and 20 December, the Norval Foundation recent exhibition catalogues – Neo Matloga’s in Cape Town hosts its first Art Book Fair, Back of the Moon, Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi’s presenting an array of publications from Gymnasium and Dada Khanyisa’s Good Feelings, bookshops and galleries, Stevenson among them, among others. Khanyisa will be present to in time to solve any Christmas gift conundrums. sign copies and engage in conversation with You’ll be able to dip into Mawande Ka Zenzile’s contributing writer Julie Nxadi on Saturday gold-edged monograph, Uhambo luyazilawula; the 19th at 2pm. Take in Zanele Muholi’s browse a first copy of Jo Ractliffe’s expansive exhibition, And Then You See Yourself, while survey, Photographs: 1980s to now, published by you’re there. The fair takes place in the Steidl and The ; and pick up Norval Foundation’s foyer from 10 to 6pm.

From the press Buchanan Building Annabelle Wienand on Frida Orupabo’s Hours After 160 Sir Lowry Road 7925 Cape Town at Stevenson Johannesburg: +27 21 462 1500

Writing about the body in the archive, Alan Sekula argues that when viewing 46 7th Avenue a photographic portrait, ‘We are confronting… a double system: a system Parktown North 2193 Johannesburg of representation capable of functioning both honorifically and repressively.’ +27 11 403 1055 Orupabo’s work addresses this duality and also reveals how at times, images Prinsengracht 371B are both honorific and repressive simultaneously. In her words, Orupabo 1016HK Amsterdam is interested in how when people are oppressed, when they cannot speak, +31 62 532 1380 they are able to speak with the eye. And by making contemporary viewers [email protected] of her work confront that gaze, we have to confront the complexities of our www.stevenson.info position and our potential complicity or resistance. @stevenson_za ‘Speak with the eye’, ArtThrob, 10 November 2020. https://artthrob. co.za/2020/11/10/speak-with-the-eye-frida-orupabos-hours-after/