FADA

FADA

Thursday, September 9, 2021

Dear colleagues and friends, the FADA Gallery invites you to the exhibition titled, 


Interventions in Practice

 


The exhibition comprises the work of eight academic staff members from the Faculty of Art Design and Architecture (FADA) and is curated by gallery director Eugene Hön.

The participants are Alexander Opper, Bongani Khoza, Deirdre Pretorius, Khanya Mthethwa, Marc Edwards, Martin Bolton and Thato Radebe. A diverse range of work across disciplines is on display, from photography to jewellery, an artist’s book, industrial design tools and products, ceramic transferware and various forms of visual art expressions in mixed media. Each artist and designer has been provided with a dedicated space, across the gallery’s two floors, in which to exhibit their work.
 

 


Marc Edwards
Marc Edwards. Looking Around; Acts of Noticing.  

The exhibition serves not only as a platform for staff to showcase their practice-based research to the university community and broader public, but also to facilitate their applications to the Department of Higher Education (DHET) to have this work accredited and recognised as creative research outputs. The DHET’s policy on the evaluation of creative research outputs was published in 2017 and its implementation began in 2019. This milestone followed years of lobbying by academics in the creative disciplines across South Africa for the recognition of creative research outputs. Creative practitioners working in universities across South Africa have welcomed this opportunity for their creative work to be formally recognised and rewarded as research outputs through a process of peer review.

 



The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue which provides information on each contributor and in which they contextualise and elaborate on their work. The work has been conceptualised within a scholarly framework as a form of research, and hence contributors, in particular those working in the design fields, were free from the constraints which operate within commercial working environments. Participants aimed to create original work which contributes to the production of new knowledge in their fields. Whilst the work will be physically exhibited in the FADA Gallery, it will also be made more broadly available during and after the exhibition through the use of various digital platforms. Viewers are invited to engage with the exhibition in both the physical and digital spaces and participate in the series of talks and walkabouts which will accompany the exhibition run.

 

Martin Bolton. Rotational Casting Machine, Tools and Products.

The installations and bodies of work exhibited reaffirm the FADA staff’s commitment to produce work within and across their areas of expertise and research and the value they place on creative research output. In this way faculty members continuously expand their knowledge in and across various fields. This mode invariably enriches the scope and depth of teaching and learning within the broad range of disciplines on offer at FADA while contributing to the development of creative research outputs.

 

 

Eugene Hon. Windstruck; Transferware.

 

Exhibition run: 

Tuesday 10 August  - Thursday 30 September 2021.

 

Viewing by appointment. 

Email Eugene - eugeneh@uj.ac.za.

 

Gallery Hours

Tuesday to Friday 09:00 – 16:00

Saturday 09:00 – 13:00

Closed Mondays, public and university holidays

 

Eugene Hön

Director

FADA Gallery

Faculty of Art Design and Architecture

Bunting Road Campus

Tuesday, February 25, 2020

20/20 Visions: 5 Year Retrospective of the Graduate School of Architecture.

FADA Gallery in association with the Graduate School of Architecture
invite you to view the following Exhibition:

20/20 Visions: 5 Year Retrospective of the Graduate School of Architecture.


In this exhibition, we reflect on the visionaries that have crafted the flagship Graduate School of Architecture at the University of Johannesburg; including its staff, its supporters, but also most importantly, its student visionaries.



Steffen Fischer, Métro:
Le ministère de l'Intérieur
Réunionnais
We celebrate the stellar work that has grown, emerged and extrapolated deeply complex, transcontinental issues in spatial practice; and use it as a gaze toward a continued, and ever-expanding horizon that strives for excellence, imagination and criticality. Hindsight may certainly be 20/20, but from here we look forward into a newly created courageous space of architectural pedagogical pursuit, ever further to be imagined and fought for, ever more deeply.

Chris Rojas, The Zerzura Terrarium


Venue:          FADA Gallery             
Exhibition run: Monday 17 February – Friday 13 March 2020

About the Graduate School of Architecture Programme:

The Graduate School of Architecture (GSA) was founded in 2015 as a separate, autonomous school within the Department of Architecture at UJ. It is the youngest and arguably the most dynamic school of architecture on the African continent. In five years, it has quadrupled its intake of Master’s students, making it now one of the largest postgraduate schools in the country.




Gugulethu Methembu, The Port of Sihr
We run the world-famous Unit System method of teaching, first pioneered by the Architectural Association in London in 1971. In 2015, we began with three Units; in 2020 there are seven. We plan to continue this growth, expanding by at least two new Units per year. It’s a competitive, innovative and challenging system and we think it’s the best way to get the best out of both staff and students.





The choice we offer in terms of interests, research agendas, contexts and perspectives is unparalleled and most of our teaching staff are part-time practitioners with national and international reputations and links. In our endeavour for excellence, we continue building on the strength, ambitions and transformative agenda of previous years. After a successful SACAP validation visit in April 2018, we’ve made some substantial changes to the curriculum, including a brand new History & Theory Programme for both Honours (M1) and Masters (M2) and a formative Design Realisation Course. We also offer a vibrant line-up of Core Modules and Extras this year. 
Tonia Murray, The Book of Skins
Jiaxin Yan Gong,
The Liminal Archive:
Indexing of (non)Articles

In addition to our studios at the Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture (FADA), we have an inner-city ‘base’, GSA Metro, located in the heart of Braamfontien. Metro, which houses our review space, cinema and academic offices was officially opened by the Vice Chancellor of the University of Johannesburg, Prof Tshilidzi Marwala and the ex-Dean of FADA, Prof Federico Freschi, on 02 August 2019. 



The GSA runs a host of public programmes, including the GSA International Lecture Series, which will continue to offer international and local architects a platform for sharing their work with a new generation of up-and-coming architects. Throughout the year we host exhibitions that feature student and staff work and our end-of- year show, the GSA Summer Show in November is now a fixture on the Johannesburg architectural calendar.

Steven Moore, Digi-Tech: The architecture between the physical and the digital
Mark Raymond, Architect and academic
Image courtesy of NGC Bocas Lit Fest
2019 was marked by significant change with the exit of School Director, Prof Lesley Lokko, in November 2019. The incoming GSA Director, Mr Mark Raymond, a practising architect and educator currently based in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, will succeed Prof Lokko in Semester 02 in 2020. Ms Anna Abengowe, currently based in the US, who has accepted the role of Deputy Director, is also scheduled to arrive in Semester 02. In the interim, Dr Finzi Saidi was named Acting Head and will lead the School until the new leadership team is able to formally begin.  2020 promises to be an exciting year for the GSA as it embarks on its next cycle of growth.

Exhibition viewing hours:

Gallery Hours
Tuesday to Friday 09:00 – 16:00
Saturday 09:00 – 13:00
Closed Mondays, public and university holidays

For more information contact
Eugene Hön 
Gallery Hours
Tuesday to Friday 09:00 – 16:00
Saturday 09:00 – 13:00
Closed Mondays, public and university holidays

For more information contact
Eugene Hön
0115591386

Tuesday, February 26, 2019

2019 FADA GALLERY SCHEDULE

2019 FADA GALLERY SCHEDULE (Summary) 
Distortion to Reflection
Jana Van Schalkwyk 
February 7- 28.

South African Contemporary Jewellery Awards Exhibition &
2018/9 Thuthuka Jewellery Awards Exhibition
18 March – 13 April

Marvelous Real, A VIAD hosted exhibition of works produced by Miami-based Haitian-American artist, Edourd Duval Carrié.
13 April – 30May. (provisional dates)

2019 INDLELA | Journeys in Relation
STAFF/STUDENT Exhibition 
25 July – 31 August (provisional dates)

2019 JJC Schools Art and Design Awards
18 September – 28 September 

VIAD and FADA Gallery hosted Exhibition.
Exhibition to be announced. 
1 October – 30 October 

Visual Arts B Tech exhibitions. 
5 - 23 November (provisional dates)

Innovative and creative work produced by FADA Alumni in 2019 
27 November - 6 December (provisional dates)

2019 FADA Gallery Schedule (Comprehensive).


February 7-28
Distortion to Reflection
A body of work produced by Jana Van Schalkwyk in partial fulfilment of the Masters Degree in Visual Arts. 


18 March – 13 April
FADA Gallery hosts the following jewellery awards exhibitions;the 2019 South African Contemporary Jewellery Awards Exhibition and the 2018/9 Thuthuka Jewellery Awards Exhibition.
South African Contemporary Jewellery Awards Exhibition.
CREATIVE Feelin partnership with FADA Gallery will host the 2019 South African Contemporary Jewellery Awards Exhibition. The awards exhibition aims to bring together established jewellers, including young and aspiring artists, in the creation of one-of-a-kind expressive or installation pieces. 
There are no limitations as artists are called upon to visualize and realise their ideas. The winner and runner-up of the competition will be announced at a gala awards ceremony on 18 March 2018 after which the South African Contemporary Jewellery Awards Exhibition will open at the FADA Gallery on the Bunting Road Campus of the University of Johannesburg.

2018/9 Thuthuka Jewellery Award’s Exhibition
The Thuthuka Development Programme is proud to present an exhibition of jewellery designed by students from community schools and universities across the country.The annual awards exhibition celebrates an extraordinary mentorship program that focuses on design and skills development based on a challenging creative brief. This year each student had to explore creative design solutions incorporating semi-precious stones cut and polished in a diverse range of colours, forms and shapes and sizes. Natural and artificial fibres in a variety of crafted techniques and process were and optional extra, to offset colours and textures. Silver elements and components were added for structure, links and in the creation of dynamic forms and shapes in one-of-a-kind brooches, bracelets, earrings and neckpieces. 

13 April – 30 May
A VIAD curated exhibition of works produced by Miami-based Haitian-American artist, Edourd Duval Carrié.

Edouard Duval-Carrié, Memory Windows 2,
mixed media embedded in resin, 58x58", 2017


Marvelous Real
"Edouard Duval Carrié is a Miami-based Haitian-American artist, known for his colourful and politically-informed multimedia practice. His work draws upon the symbolic system of Haitian culture and society and redeploys them in new ways to create art forms which carve out a new aesthetic in contemporary Caribbean art. … In this proposed exhibition the artist will present, amongst other works, 15 elaborate engravings based on his own reading of a seminal novel of Caribbean literature, The Kingdom of this World. Written by the Cuban novelist Alejo Carpentier in 1949, it has been called the first novel of ‘magical realism’. Carpentier himself in a 1949 lecture called it the “marvelous real.” Deploying the main character of the novel, Ti- Noel in a series of engravings which will then be placed in plexi glass, these pieces which draw from a marvelous oral understanding of the Haitian revolution now depict the revolution as a complex event in which the enslaved and the Loas of Haiti tussled not only with the French but with the revolutionary leadership of the slave revolution. The exhibition will also contain eight pieces called Memory Windows. These remarkable works are back-lit plexi glass pieces in which the artist reworks his repertoire of signs and symbols, assembling them so as to tell new stories." - Prof Anthony Bogues 
 
Edouard Duval-Carrié, Ogun Monté,
engraved plexiglass in artist's frame, 40x40", 2018 
University Winter Recess – 13 June - 8 July.  Gallery closed for renovations.

25 July – 31 August.
2019 INDLELA | Journeys in Relation
STAFF/STUDENT Exhibition 

FADA Staff and students are invited to submit work for the 2019 STAFF/STUDENT EXHIBITION, which will open at the FADA Gallery on 25 July 2019. Applicants are requested to submit work that explores image-making (in the broadest sense of the term) in relation to the curatorial focus below (Indlela | journeys in relation). A panel of selected artists, curators, and academics will adjudicate the work for final selection. Works are to be digitally submitted and will be selected based on quality and relevance to the exhibition theme and criteria. Only works completed in 2018/9 will be accepted. Accepted works – be they by staff or students – will be treated with equal seriousness and curatorial consideration. 


18 September – 28 September (provisional dates)
2019 JJC Schools Art and Design Awards
The awards exhibition, now in its 12thyear, is hosted annually by the FADA Gallery. Working in close association with the Johannesburg Junior Council, the aim of the exhibition is to promote and showcase the work produced in art and design education programs offered at secondary schools in Gauteng– further details to be posted in due course. Prizes are sponsored by Herbert Evans.
1 October – 30 October
VIAD and FADA Gallery hosted Exhibition.
To be announced.

3-20 November (provisional dates)
Visual Arts B Tech exhibitions. 
Two consecutive exhibitions featuring the work of final year Visual Art Students.

27 November - 6 December (provisional dates)
Innovative and creative work produced by FADA Alumni in 2019. 
Creative and innovative work produced by FADA Alumni during 2019 -  a small refined  curated exhibition. The work selected will bring together the creative output of FADA Graduates; artists and designers across disciplines; work produced for solo and group exhibitions, held at galleries, including museums, designed and manufactured for fashion shows, including design fairs and events in South Africa. 

Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Black Chronicles IV


BLACK CHRONICLES IV

Curated by Renée Mussai

The Exhibition Run: 14 April - 31 May.
Gallery Hours: 
  • Tuesday to Fridays 09:00 - 16:00
  • Saturday 09:00 - 13:00
  • Closed Mondays, Sundays, Public and University holidays.


VIAD is proud to host the fourth iteration of Autograph ABP’s internationally touring Black Chronicles programme, marking the first time that a wider selection of works from the series – and newly added imagery – are exhibited on the African continent.

Black Chronicles IV presents an extraordinary collection of photographic studio portraits, a majority produced  in collaboration with the Hulton Archive from original nineteenth-century glass plates as large-scale modern silver gelatin prints. Buried in the Hulton Archive’s London Stereoscopic Company (LSC) collection for more than 125 years, these negatives were re-discovered by Autograph ABP in 2014 as part of their critically acclaimed curatorial archive research programme, The Missing Chapter: Black Chronicles (2013 - present). Selected LSC portraits, excerpted from a larger body of work, are shown alongside a display of rare albumen cartes-de-visite and cabinet cards from Autograph ABP’s own archive, as well as digital reproductions from the National Portrait Gallery, London and private collections.

Offering a unique opportunity to encounter a diverse range of ‘black presences’ – African, Caribbean and South Asian – through the prism of nineteenth-century studio photography in Victorian Britain, the exhibition foregrounds the narratives of both ordinary and prominent black figures – performers, dignitaries, politicians, servicemen and women, missionaries, students, businessmen as well as international royalty.

Together with W.E.B. Du Bois’ The Paris Albums 1900 – also seen for the first time in South Africa - these exquisitely rendered images are highly relevant to contemporary cultural history and politics of representation, as they reveal alternative perspectives to modes of portrayal prevalent in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and evidence cultural diversity, agency and advocacy.

A highlight of the exhibition is the sound and image-based installation, The African Choir 1891 Re-imagined. The installation, presented in a discrete gallery space, comprises 16 individual photographic portraits of the original members of the African Choir, who toured Britain in 1891. The portraits are accompanied by an evocative five-channel soundtrack of songs composed and arranged by South African artists Thuthuka Sibisi and Philip Miller as a creative re-imagining of the choirs’ 19th-century concert programme.
Enabling different ways of ‘seeing’ individuals often marginalised within Victorian Britain, colonial Southern Africa and the American South, Black Chronicles IV contributes toward an ongoing process of redressing the persistent absences of black narratives within the historical record.

The exhibition’s 19th century photographs are presented in dialogue with Effnik, a contemporary photograph by Yinka Shonibare MBE (b. 1963), which was commissioned by Autograph ABP in 1996.

CURATOR'S NOTE:
 “The aim of the Black Chronicles series is to open up critical inquiry into the archive to locate new knowledge, and support our ongoing mission to continuously expand and enrich photography’s cultural histories. Based on current research, the portraits unearthed as part of Black Chronicles constitute the most comprehensive body of photographs depicting the black subject in Victorian Britain. Not only does the sitters’ visual presence in Britain bear direct witness to the complexities of colonial and imperial history, they also offer a fascinating array of personal narratives that defy pre-conceived notions of cultural diversity in the nineteenth century. Their complex studio portrayal opens up a dialogue around the politics of subjectivities and agencies in relation to visual representation: some are presented in ways that convey a sense of pride, dignity and respectability, while others are, arguably, still locked in ethnographic or colonial modes of representation. At the heart of the exhibition is the desire to re-constitute the archive through what I call ‘remedial curatorial work’: resurrecting figures from archival vaults of oblivion, and re-introducing new, annotated narratives into contemporary consciousness.”  – Renée Mussai, Senior Curator and Head of Archive & Research, Autograph ABP, London.

 Renée Mussai is Senior Curator and Head of Archive & Research at Autograph ABP, a London-based arts charity that promotes photography and film addressing cultural identity, race, representation and human rights. 


Acknowledgements

Black Chronicles IV is presented by Autograph ABP (London), and hosted by VIAD, University of Johannesburg, at the FADA Gallery. The exhibition is supported locally by British Council Connect ZA, The US Mission to South Africa, the National Research Foundation, and the University of Johannesburg. The African Choir 1891 Re-Imagined sound-installation has been made possible through generous financial support from the South African Department of Arts and Culture (DAC). 
Black Chronicles is produced in association with the Hulton Archive, a division of Getty Images. Photographs by London Stereoscopic Company © Hulton Archive/Getty Images are shown courtesy of Autograph ABP, London. Printed by Mike Spry between 2014 - 2017. All vintage photographs and other archive material courtesy of Autograph ABP. Supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund. Digitally reproduced photographs of Sarah Forbes Bonetta (Davies) and others are shown courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London and private collections as stated.

Autograph ABP is a London-based arts charity that works internationally in photography and film, race, representation, cultural identity and human rights. www.autograph-abp.co.uk
Autograph ABP is supported using public funding by Arts Council England. The Missing Chapter/Black Chronicleswas supported by Heritage Lottery Fund (UK) between 2013 – 2016. 
Black Chronicles IV is supported by British Council Connect ZA, The US Mission to South Africa, the National Research Foundation, and the University of Johannesburg.

The African Choir 1891 Re-Imagined sound-installation has been made possible through generous financial support from the South African Department of Arts and Culture (DAC).

Friday, March 23, 2018

And the Winner is - SA Contemporary Jewellery Awards Exhibition 2018

The Winner
SA Contemporary Jewellery Awards Exhibition 2018

Joani Groenewald

Seven Deadly Seductions
Joani Groenewald’s work takes a satirical stance against popular-culture and consumer culture as experienced form within a South African context. 
In her latest series of works entitled The Seven Deadly Seductions, Groenewald is inspired by the religious concept of the seven deadly sins. The series humorously challenges the seductiveness of unethical behaviour, particularly within the framework of the current South African political environment. The pieces are personal interpretations and abstractions of form, material and colour. That take a satirical stance against popular culture and the consumer oriented lifestyle that so many South Africans have become accustom to. They portray negative character traits as jewels, which confront the meaning of status symbols. The work challenges perceptions through the influential symbolic power of jewellery, specifically as a means to communicate identity and social status.

Title: Envy (Title Image- above)
Materials: Oxidized Silver, Glass, Copper, Enamel, Plastic, Synthetic Coral, Cotton
Technique: Silversmithing, enameling, piercing, lamp work glass and mouldmaking techniques.

Title: Hopelessly Hopeful - three-part series
Materials: Brass, Glass, Copper, Enamel, Plastic, Cotton
Technique: Silversmithing, enameling, piercing, lamp work glass and mould making techniques

Title: Sloth
Materials: Silver, glass, synthetic turquoise, enamel
Technique: Silversmithing, enameling, piercing, lamp work glass and mould making techniques


About Art Jewellery
Groenewald views contemporary jewellery as medium through which one can critically reflect upon one’s social and political environment. Her research and art interests are based on memory and narrative studies; questioning the stability of them, whilst also challenging the traditional function of jewellery specifically in relation to a South African context. She continues to make art that feeds into and from these research interests.

About Joani Groenewald
Groenewald is a lecturer in the Visual Arts Department, as well as a jewellery designer, goldsmith and artist. She sees her technical grounding, as a medium that allows her to create conceptual art. She graduated with a Ba degree in Visual Art ( with a focus on Creative Jewellery- and Metal Design) from Stellenbosch University in 2009 where she later enrolled in the graduate training programme in 2010. During this time she worked as an goldsmith apprentice and eventually qualified as a goldsmith in 2011. In March 2015 she successfully completed her MA degree in Visual Arts from Stellenbosch University with distinctions. She was advent participatent of numerous, national and international contemporary jewellery exhibitions spaning her entire career in the jewellery industry.


The Runner-up
SA Contemporary Jewellery Awards Exhibition 2018

Mariambibi Khan

Interlacing Identities.


Mariambibi Khan chose to investigate gendered and feminine identities and its associations to metallic and lace inspired jewellery. Her inspiration is derived from the hydrangea in both its live and skeletal decayed form. This represented a complex contrast and translation of form, shape and function. She has incorporated textile technique of bobbin lace in jewellery. This allowed her to construct metallic lace pieces which embodies bobbin lace in contemporary jewellery practices. She also found that although a more geometric structure of the lace is used it draws attention to feminine and gendered stereotypes associated with design processes. Her related research provides a description of the use of alternative material of lace and lace jewellery, and explores the associated gendered assumptions. This is illustrated in the delicate lines, floral patterns, and soft, organic design motifs which are considered to be more accepted for the adornment of women. However, her main focus was to analyze whether the material and context used played an important role in feminine inspired designs of lace jewellery.


Title: Bobbin Lace: Interlacing Identities.
Materials: Fine Silver, Sterling Silver & Gold Plating.
Technique: Bobbin Lace.

About Mariambibi Khan

Ms Khan was recently appointed jewellery lecturer in Metal Art and Design in the Department of Visual Art at the University  Stellenbosch.
In 2015 she graduated with a Ba Hons in Jewellery Design and Manufacture from the University of Johannesburg (Cum Laude). She has comprehensive knowledge of Jewellery Design and manufacturing skills, obtained from working in the industry - amongst others, Elegance Jewellers.



Special Mention
SA Contemporary Jewellery Awards Exhibition 2018

Nora Kovats

Poeletjie

Kovats defines herself as an ‘identity-hopper’, due to her being South-African and European. She is interested in the way narrative constructs human identities particularly their overlaps and boundaries. Identities are infinitely complex and fragmented compositions, often paradoxical, fragile and fluid yet so powerfully definitive. Something she attempt to represent visually in the form of complicated, multi-layered structures in her jewellery and drawings.
With this particular piece, titled ‘Poeletjie’(Afrikaans for puddle or small pool)  she attempted to investigate her own fascination with water and its elusiveness. She describes water as “having the paradoxical characteristic of being immensely powerful (both as a force of nature and in its importance for humanity’s survival) yet also incredibly fragile, easily polluted and its systems tilted off-balance. It is mysterious, difficult to quantify. Water harbours some of our most profound fears in its darkest unexplored depths, and it is sheer gushing life and vibrancy. It carves away ancient stone with patient drops – literally shaping the landscapes that form our human stories, our identities.” 
She is drawn to enameling as a technique because of its uniqueness and its abbility to create spontaneity, dictated by the firing process. In this way she can achieve a feeling of fragility, fresh colour and a delicate, spattered texture that visually embodies the emotions water elicits for her.
Her thoughts were circling around different water themes for some time, sparked by news of the severe water crisis currently threatening Cape Town, her hometown, and the contrasting wastage she experience in Berlin, where dishes are washed under a running tap. She contemplates the links between water and human identities, how we are affected by floods, rain, drought, how we identify as river-people or sea-people or desert people. Water in itself can be seen as a metaphor for human identities with its perfectly contradictory embodiment of fragility and monumentality: water is an immensely powerful force of nature, yet so easily polluted and vulnerable. And like within herself in her existence - a dance between two countries, two cities - water succeeds in having multiple identities at the same time.

Title: Poeletjie (Puddle)
Jewellery Piece: Brooch and Pendant (dual function)
Materials: Enamel. Copper, sterling silver, steel pin, amethyst, citrine
Technique: Smithing, enameling, hand-sawing

About Nora Kovats
Kovats graduated with a BA and MA Degree in Jewellery Design from the Stellenbosch University. She was the overall winner of the 2013 Thuthuka Jewellery & Product Development Programme Competition. She has participated in a number of International Jewellery competitions including the Berlin State Prize Competition for Applied Arts in Germany.