Black Chronicles IV

BLACK CHRONICLES IV

Curated by Renée Mussai

Exhibition opened on Friday 13 April, FADA Gallery, UJ Bunting Rd Campus.

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).

South African Contemporary Jewellery Awards Exhibition at FADA Gallery

Philisa Zibi, Amaza (waves), Brass, silver, leather.
Hammering Technique.

FADA Gallery in partnership with CreativeFeel and the Contemporary JewelleryForum cordially invite you to the awards ceremony and opening of the SouthAfrican Contemporary Jewellery Awards Exhibition.

Venue: FADA Gallery

Date: Thursday 15 March

Time: 18:00 for 18:30

Guest speaker: Beverley Price

Art Jewellery Forum, Ambassador for South Africa

RSVP eugene hön eugeneh@uj.ac.za

Exhibition run: Friday 16 March to Thursday 29 March 2018

The awards exhibition will showcase finalist pieces selected from a national jewellery design and manufacture competition introduced at the launch of Africa’s first Contemporary Jewellery Forum (CJF) in the Jewellery Department of the University of Johannesburg in October 2017. These initiatives are premised on promoting jewellery as a creative medium for personal expression and providing a platform for the development of cutting edge concept and techniques while creating fine and distinctive art jewellery.

For many years South Africa has been a major player in the mining of minerals, supplying gold, platinum and diamonds to the global jewellery manufacturing sector while nationally there has been relatively little beneficiation of these local raw materials. A focus of this competition is therefore to encourage artists to innovate and create; to combine materials, techniques and finishes and to push boundaries beyond the obvious and mundane and ultimately to maximise the local economic contribution. 

Eric Loubser, 1700, Sterling silver, Found object, Fly Press Technique.

Contemporary Jewellers are in the unique position of being able to make work that crosses many boundaries - art, design, fashion, craft, engineering - and the intimate scale of jewellery and its close relationship to the body also make it a great vehicle for communication. There are many talented jewellery artists working in the country at the moment who often don't get the recognition they deserve, so these Awards are a much needed platform to showcase their work to a broader audience. Geraldine Fenn - contemporary South African Jeweller.

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 15 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.

Lin Cheung, Delayed Reactions – Troubled Times. 2018  Brooch, 

hand carved rock crystal, 18ct gold

Pearl Necklace, In Black and White
2018, hand carved white and eyed
black freshwater pearls, 14ct gold.

International and local judges will ensure works selected will be deserving of their inclusion in this well-established niche market.  All pieces on exhibition will be for sale, presenting an opportunity for art collectors and the public to add jewellery to their collections. A comprehensive catalogue of all work on exhibition will be forthcoming, contributing to research and development in this field and stimulating much needed growth in this niche market.

Johan van Aswegen, Tieroog Tiara - Photographs - Jinkyun Ahn.

Exposure of the winning artist’s pieces and that of the runner-up in the April 2018 issue of CREATIVE Feel will gain them national and international recognition.

For more information follow us on Facebook:

SA Contemporary JewelleryAwards Exhibition: insert link

Contemporary Jewellery Forum (CJF): insert link.

Helen de Leeuw and Ernst de Jong; shaping modernity in mid-twentieth century South Africa.

Exhibition Run extended until Thursday 30 August 2017.

The Helen de Leeuw legacy: redesigning South Africa.

Curated by Juliette Leeb-du Toit (VIAD Research Associate)

In the proposed Helen de Leeuw legacy exhibition, tribute is being paid to a phenomenal woman entrepreneur, ceramicist and writer, Helen de Leeuw, who in the 1950s began a lifelong challenge to the South African market to rid itself of erstwhile preferences (both anglophile and American) for mass-produced, inferior products that had begun to overwhelm commercial production and suppress emergent and indigenous craft traditions.

Few urban South Africans who lived through the period 1953 to c1988 will fail to recall the impact of the Helen de Leeuw phenomenon. Writing in 1965, Isobelle du Toit noted that Helen de Leeuw’s name was synonymous with ‘good, modern and imaginative taste’ and design in all its aspects in textiles, craftwork, architecture, furniture, interior design, jewellery and ceramics. De Leeuw’s stores in effect functioned as galleries of contemporary international and national design.

Reflecting her vast and accruing knowledge of avant-garde post-war design from Europe, especially Finland, de Leeuw‘s galleries were in many ways an extension of herself, her taste and preferences. To her design was no longer to be dictated from above, but was ideally eclectic, idiosyncratic and flexible. Her stores were typified by an uncanny aura of the authenticity that she craved – they contained articles of natural materials that were well designed and  unusual.

Articles were selected because they were handmade, reflected care and craftsmanship, and had ‘an honesty’ that she appreciated. She embraced locally produced items that reflected this as well as imports, drawn to countries that have a ‘craftsman approach’ and was among the first to include indigenous ceramics and beadwork in her galleries. 

She was the first to exhibit local pottery such as the work of Esias Bosch, Andrew Walford and Liebermann ceramics,   exhibiting their work alongside that of Arabia, Arzberg and local Zulu and  Venda wares in an eclectic mix that came to mark shifting, culturally inclusive post-war South African preferences.  

As the doyenne of what was described as ‘modernist design’ in all its aspects,  Esme Berman noted: ‘Helen de Leeuw has been responsible more than any other single person in South Africa for developing in the public a sound taste and a feeling for good design and craftsmanship’. (The Star, 4 Aug 1980). 

In this exhibition the gallery will partly replicate aspects of her Craftsman’s Market interiors to reflect the diversity of her design preferences in photographs as well as a collection of items sourced originally in her commercial outlets. We would like to encourage those who have items acquired from De Leeuw  to consider lending these for inclusion in the exhibition. If you have any particular information regarding De Leeuw that you would care to share with the curatorial team we would be pleased to have you contact us at   leebdutoitj@gmail.com

Ernst de Jong (1938-2016): shaping modernity in mid-twentieth century South Africa

Curated by Marlize Groenewald.

Ernst de Jong was born in 1934, in Pretoria, South Africa. In 1951, he was awarded an athletic scholarship to the University of Oklahoma (OU), in the USA.  Here he pursued a degree in Fine Arts (majoring in Information Design) and was taught by, amongst others, John O’Neill — known for his abstract imagery and early modern style — and Emilio Amero, a leading figure of the Mexican modern art movement. Beyond the classroom, de Jong encountered the work of creative practitioners such as Ben Shahn and Saul Steinberg, who merged commercial illustration with fine art practice. He was introduced to the workings of the local petroleum industry, an eclectic mix of cowboy and American Indian culture, as well as the transformative project, spearheaded by Governor Raymond Gary, of Oklahoma from a bucolic backwater to an industrialised, ‘modern’ state.

In 1955, de Jong married Gwendolyn Drennan, a fellow student at OU, and in 1957 the couple returned to South Africa. In 1958, both de Jongs secured lecturing positions at the Art School of the Pretoria College for Advanced Technical Education.  The school, under the directorship of Albert Werth, was, in Gwen de Jong’s words, staffed by ‘quite an extraordinary bunch of people’ who sought to engage with the domestication of modernism in a peripheral, African community. The emphasis was on craft. Colleagues included Peter Eliastam, who along with the de Jongs taught applied design; Zakkie Eloff who taught portraiture; Robert Hodgins, painting, life drawing and basic design; Leo Theron, mosaic; Maxie Steytler, fabric painting and design; Carol Hamilton, history of art and architecture; and Dulcie Campbell, ceramics.

Although de Jong’s primary aim was to construct a reputation for himself as a painter, his contribution to the field of design is, arguably, his greater legacy. In the opinion of former students, he pioneered the idea of graphic design as a profession in Southern Africa. He would also be instrumental in the implementation of the first university degree in Southern Africa that acknowledged the discipline of information design. Realising that there was a shortage of design skills in the then Transvaal, he opened his own design consultancy, Ernst de Jong Studios (EDJS), in 1958.

The studio, situated across the road from the Pretoria College, recruited top graduates and executed commissions that, in their number, variety and reference to American modernism, set the de Jongs apart as exciting ‘new stars’. The studio acquired legendary status, not least because its director was held in awe as the local ‘Afrikaans’ boy who helped steer South Africa into the rarefied world of international design trends.

In 1987 de Jong received the once-off Dashing Society of Designers of South Africa Crystal Award for Outstanding Design Achievement. Finally, in 1994, after directing the collaborative project of designing South Africa’s iconic ‘Big Five’ bank note series, de Jong closed EDJS in order to travel, teach and paint.

Within the context of its thirty-six year existence, it is impossible to convey in any detail the breadth and relevance of the output of EDJS. In this sampling of the studio’s work and the style that de Jong favoured in his project of ‘modernising’ the nation (and perhaps, most particularly, white, middle-class Pretoria), the emphasis is on de Jong’s environmental graphics. Although additional material provides a context for the display, the exhibition lifts out de Jong’s earliest commissions, such as the design and construction of show stands for exhibitors at industrial expositions in Pretoria and Johannesburg. 

This selection provides a link to the spatial nature of the accompanying exhibition of Helen de Leeuw’s modernising rhetoric that evinces interesting parallels of circumstance and purpose with that of de Jong.  Both individuals could be said, as Chris Barron claims for de Leeuw, to have ‘created an alternative way of living for … South Africans suffocating in a stuffy aesthetic inherited from the British colonial past’.