Rugby- a group exhibition

“The people gathered to watch as the bulls play the final test” 122 x 85 cm Photographic print on board, thread and rubber 2023

Since I don’t watch rugby and I don’t really get caught up in the hype of this sport I decided to focus my attention on the spectators. Trying to figure out why this sport is so popular in our country, since it actually originated in England. Jaco Taute is a South African retired rugby union player. Are we family? I don’t know. My grandmother is not with us anymore so I can’t ask her, and my aunt who knows a lot about the Taute Family tree suffers from dementia so I cannot ask her either. But I remember my family gathering around the telly to watch rugby. Most of them were avid Stormers supporters, but for this piece I focused on another rugby team.

I used a family photo for this exhibition and I found the following words to make up the title for this piece: “The people gathered to watch the bulls play the final test.” (thinking about a popular slogan and newspaper headline: ‘Our blood is blue’ which is commonly used to describe the fans of the Pretoria based South African Rugby Union team: The Blue Bulls.) The title I used is composed of words from the fairy-tale colouring book which tells the story of ‘The golden fleece’ (a Greek myth) which is also one of the oldest myths of a hero’s quest. To quote Jim Hamilton a former Scotland lock: “Rugby although the ultimate team sport needs casual fans to buy into heroes. It needs kids to buy into heroes. We need the media to buy into characters. We need to make rugby cool. We need to make it accessible. It doesn’t need to be about the game but about experiences, about the stories, the athletes. If it doesn’t happen now, we are going to be left behind.”

You are invited!

For more information about this group exhibition please contact: curator at the gallery: donavan.mynhardt@gmail.com

Brave Women up for Auction at the Woordfees in Stellenbosch

Art portfolio- my work

Herewith the link : https://www.straussart.co.za/auctions/details/15-oct-2022

Brave Women lived in a forest photographic print on board, thread and rubber
119 by 84cm excluding frame; 121,5 by 87 by 4cm including frame

It’s all relative

Art portfolio- my work

Just before the year was over a great joy was announced; there would be a family meeting, a joyous reunion! When the time came for this anticipated gathering the woods were abuzz as the nice friendly giant proudly walked into the forest greeted merrily by the good fairies and ecstatic family pet. The forest Faye entertained their kin by playing with fire as they trapezed through the night sky; so many came and told them that the guests enjoyed watching you. Sadly, the nuclear family was alienated after their controversial rendition of ‘what’s love got to do with it?’. Thank you for coming said the wicked giants as the evening drawn to a close and the overwhelming sense of ‘you can’t choose your family’ was left hanging in the air. Walking out of the woods the artificial family just chuckled to themselves remembering that it’s all relative. The end. -Linda Fletcher

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cfa1VUhqn3X/

You can check out the link above if you want to see me reading Linda’s version on Instagram. (unfortunately WordPress doensn’t allow me to embed the video, and my copy doesn’t want to upload here, but…

below is the video I uploaded reading the one I wrote 😉

Thank you Linda for participating in making up a story using the titles of the works for my upcoming exhibition at MContemporary gallery in Sydney. Only 21 days to go!!

And there was a joyous reunion!

Art portfolio- my work

Only one month to go until the joyous reunion at MContemporary gallery in Sydney!

My solo exhibition is scheduled to open on the 21st of July 2022, and I can hardly wait!

Many of the original photographs that make up this body of work are found, sourced or donated by family and friends.

While many of the photographs were captured here, the scenarios in these rescued and reused images recreate a time and place seemingly devoid of a greater local South African context of that time – idyllic settings and or photo studios. My adding masks from different cultures is perhaps a re-stitching of a historical narrative where these different cultures ‘meet’ each other in a new time and space/continent.

With that said in mid-2021 when I started working towards this exhibition I noticed a hashtag on Twitter that caused much mayhem at the time (#familymeeting)

Hannalie Taute And there was a joyous reunion (family reunion) 119 x 84 cm Photographic print on board, thread and rubber 2021

My own experience and expression as a family member is constantly a work in progress. Working on this body of work, got me thinking about what the word ‘Family’ really means. I also feel that a body of work focussing on the notion of Family is quite relevant due to the fact that a lot of people from all over the world could not get to see their families in real life during 2020 and 2021.

So I started re-creating my own imaginary ‘family meeting’, removing the faces and historical identities from these vintage photographs and replacing them with a variety of cultural masks and colourful embroidered flowers, a new fantasy emerges. A world clinging to the need to believe in the magic of innocent aspiration.

Postscript:

Inspired by using only the titles of the works as inspiration, I started writing a short story of sorts. (The titles of the works that are going to be part of this exhibition are in bold italic):

Once upon a time, before the year was over, a great joy was announced as the nice friendly giant proudly walked into the forest, followed by the good fairies. There was to be a family meeting; a joyous reunion between the artificial family and the nuclear family, even the family pet was there. The nuclear family was playing with fire that caused them to be alienated, but at the end, what’s love got to do with it, if you can’t choose your family? Thank you for coming said the wicked giants, the guests enjoyed watching you. The end.

I have a couple of friends that are going to play a game with me, by writing their own version of this story by using all the titles (in bold above). I will be posting the various interpretations during the weeks to come here on this blog. You are welcome to play along. Feel free to send me your version story.

Until then have fun and keep well. xxx