Terri Dunbar-Curran
SOUTH Africa and Brazil – two vastly different places, but which also have so much in common. That’s the crux of a new exhibition at Goodman Gallery in Fairweather House, Sir Lowry Road, in which artists unpack those differences and similarities.
The first exhibition in an ongoing initiative, The Poetry In Between: South-South, is being curated by Carolyn Drake and will run until February 28.
Drake, who has family in Cape Town, has travelled here often, but her career as a curator has seen her attention focussed more on Sao Paulo over the past few years. A recent conversation with the Goodman Gallery sparked her interest and so her involvement in South-South began. The series of exhibitions will explore the “connects and disconnects” between Africa and South America, confronting the complex idea of a connected “geopolitical south” through various art mediums.
“It’s been really interesting – personally getting down to the nitty gritty of where I came from and my ancestors,” says Drake, adding that she was intrigued by the opportunity to tease out the myriad questions raised by the concept of South-South.
“I started thinking about how to connect these super vast regions that have just as many differences as things in common, and saw poetry as a way to do that.” Artworks were chosen that reflect on the “poetic elements of the everyday”, with a specific focus on the global south.
This edition of South-South includes works by Igshaan Adams, Marcelo Cidade, Kudzanai Chiurai, Kendell Geers, Sonia Gomes, Haroon Gunn-Salie, William Kentridge, Thiago Martins De Melo Rosângela Rennó and others.
“It asks us to consider universal questions, but very much through a southern lens,” says Drake. The works of Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa also had an impact on the thinking behind the current exhibition. Pessoa wrote under a large number of different names, which he called heteronyms, imaginary characters he used to write in different styles.
“I started thinking about the idea of heteronyms – what these places have in common, without making clear-cut comparisons,” says Drake. A critical reader by Drake and Clare Butcher, A Heteronymous Reader, which will be launched on February 24, takes a closer look at that idea. The publication will serve as both a catalogue for the exhibition as well as a collection of new and existing texts written by artists, writers and poets. Drake hopes that together with the artworks, the reader will prompt questions of what it means to be in the global south.
The group exhibition includes historical works – there’s a piece by David Goldblatt which dates back to 1989 – as well as some new works created by young South African and Brazilian artists. Drake says that while doing research for South-South she was confronted many questions that shaped what the exhibition would become. “But those questions could go on forever. You have to stop and draw the line and say ‘this is going to be the exhibition’.”
During her preparation she had conversations with some of the artists, like Gunn-Salie who completed a residency in Sao Paulo late last year. While there, he was introduced to a variety of curators and artists, and his work for South-South was largely informed by his experiences.
One of the Brazilian artists, Drake says, has just completed a trip which saw him visit Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Mozambique and other African countries, and he spent the last few hours leading up to the exhibition opening installing his just-completed work which was shaped and refined by his travels.
“Another made a new painting, based on an idea he’d been thinking about for months. It is interesting how the ideas and mythologies he had about Africa have played out while he’s been here,” says Drake. “Africa is a place they idealise – what Africa may or may not be. It’s been really interesting to see how some of those ideas have played out in their work.”
Drake says that the artworks coming out of Brazil and South Africa are very different from what we see historically in places like Europe. These artists investigate a lot of smaller existential issues, she says, they contextualise the present.
“I think the exhibition talks about universal issues that connect us all on a human level – that connect us globally in the geopolitical south.”
Drake hopes that her association with South-South will continue in some form after this exhibition. “It’s been an absolutely fantastic process,” she says, hinting that there are talks about mounting a further exhibition in Brazil.
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