An Intimate Look into the Lives of South Africans

Public Intimacy: Art and Other Ordinary acts in South Africa, Yerba Buena Center, 2014
Gabriel Perez, my boyfriend, stands at the right

          I have been on trips to art museums in San Francisco like the De Young, the Asian Art Museum and the San Francisco Museum of Contemporary Art (SFMOMA), but I have never been to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.  After having lunch and visiting galleries along the way, I discovered that the Yerba Buena Center is right across from the SFMOMA.



David Goldblatt, Dr. Paul, Hofmeyr. Eastern Cape. 4 2006, 2006, printed 2013

          Public Intimacy: Art and Other Ordinary Acts in South Africa is an exhibition examining the everyday lives of South Africans in the country and the poetics and politics of the "ordinary act".  Instead of spotlighting the dramatic apartheid history in which the country is largely known for, the show's intent is to put on display a more subtle and private part of South African life that has been generally overlooked, but no less important.  There are 25 contemporary artists featured in the show that delve into different aspects of post-apartheid South African life using a wide range of mediums.  Each individual work has much purpose behind them and the artists have gone to great lengths to convey their meaning.  The setup of the exhibition was very well done; there were rooms in which some artists were given to spotlight their works and there were other works along the walls or floors that guided you down into every corner of the space.  Artists that explored similar subjects like landscape photography or video installation were stationed near eachother.  Other artworks like Nicholas Hlobo's sculptures and Kemang Wa Lehulere's installation occupy the same space interrupt the flow of photography from the previous rooms.

Santu Mofokeng, (Ancestors) Graves series, 1992-ongoing, printed 2013

         One of the memorable works for me was the series of landscape photography created by artists David Goldblatt and Santu Mofokeng.  They were memorable to me because the photographs were not only about the landscapes, but about South African society, politics, life and spirituality.  David Goldblatt's Dr. Paul, Hofmeyr. Eastern Cape. 4 2006, is a series of three inkjet prints, featuring a quiet, barren, old looking building and landscape in three different perspectives.  Goldblatt uses three perspective photos to tell a story about the place and its inhabitants.  A small piece of the lives of these unseen residents are put on display.  Though the people are not seen, their presence is established through the buildings, the telephone poles and most importantly the advertisement sign that the artist purposely included in all three photographs.  For me, the advertisement sign suggests there are people in the area, as there would be no business without people.  Goldblatt shares the space with Santu Mofokeng, who produces photographs of landscapes charged with a traumatic past.  Mofokeng uses a series of photographs in his (Ancestors) Graves series to illustrate the desecration of spiritual land and the uprooting of graves, which in turn puts on display the indifference of the mining corporations and individuals involved in the exhuming of the dead.  Both artists depict similar scenes of a seemingly desolate landscape, but they are  intimate windows into the lives of South Africans both past and present.

Nicholas Hlobo, Umphanda ongazaliyo, 2008

Nicholas Hlobo, Isisele, 2010

           As I walk into the next room, the trend of 2-dimensional work is broken by a black mass lying on the floor.  Next to it is another black sculpture titled Isisele, which looks to be coming out from a hole in the wall.  The sculpture eventually spreads out into vein-like structures onto the wall and a black substance spills onto the floor from the hole.  On closer inspection, the black mass is made of rubber and stitched onto it are colored ribbons. Nicholas Hlobo's Isisele looks to be an open wound that oozes out a liquid substance.  Another sculpture titled Umphanda ongazalio is made of similar materials installed in a separate room.  The sculpture hangs suspended in the air and resembles a large organ, with a small tube attached to the wall that suggests it grows from the building.  The artist, Nicholas Hlobo uses traditional medium like stitching and weaving and contemporary, innovative materials like leather, rubber, zippers etc for his sculptural works.  Hlobo draws from his Xhosa roots and creates work that question gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity.  The tough, black rubber taken from boots or thick tires serve as a metaphor for masculinity while the colored ribbons that are stitched and weaved into the rubber, suggest femininity.  The stitching and weaving is a traditionally female craft in South African culture and the black of the rubber could be a read as black skin.  With this in mind, we can look to the artist who is a black South African gay man.  To me, these forms are sculptural manifestations of the artist himself.  In this way, the audience can get an intimate look at the artist as he reflects upon his own identity.

William Kentridge, Drawing for the film Tide Table: Officers with Binoculars, 2003

William Kentridge, Drawing for the film Tide Table: Beach Hotel at Night, 2003

           As I move forward into the exhibition, I spot a familiar work.  It is a framed charcoal drawing from a scene in the charcoal animation called Tide Table: Officers with Binoculars.  The artist, William Kentridge, uses an animation process in which he films his drawings, erases and draws the next sequence and then photographs it again.  The end product is an animation that leaves traces of the older sequences, which is the consequence of using the same paper for a scene and using charcoal, a medium that doesn't erase well.  However, Kentridge employs this style of animation purposely: The traces left behind from the older sequences intensifies the movement, and suggests the idea of reminisces and traces of the past, a theme that Kentridge visits in his animations.  In the film installation Tide Table, the audience is taken to a post apartheid setting.  A white man sits on the beach in a business suit, reading a newspaper.  His name is Soho Eckstein, he is modeled after the artist's paternal grandfather and after himself as well.  Soho watches the youth play, he remains a third party observer.  The fact that Soho is modeled after Kentridge's  grandfather and looks much like the artist, we can look at Soho as a metaphor for Kentridge's personal experience during and after the apartheid in South Africa.  The ebb and flow of the waves that Kentridge focuses on can be a metaphor for the many social and political changes in South Africa after the fall of apartheid.

Terry Kurgan, Hotel Yeoville, 2013

Kemang Wa Lehulere, The Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side, 2014

Mikhael  Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse, Cleaning the Core, Ponte City, Johannesberg, 2008

         Public Intimacy: Art and Other Ordinary Acts in South Africa is an amazing exhibition that showcases a collection of artwork by varied artists that put onto display the every day lives of South Africans, mostly looking beyond its apartheid history.  I found that the show was well executed in the fact that it kept me interested as it eased me into the rooms.  You can tell that each artist had much to tell the audience and I learned so much about South Africa.  I didn't even know about its apartheid history (I feel so ignorant for not knowing).  I feel like the the exhibition was telling a story about South Africans, an intimate story that focused more about the every day citizen and their experiences based on their identity whether they be black, white, gay, lesbian, male or female.  It also told me a story about the land itself, like the plundering of resources in South Africa by foreign corporations and the effects on the environment and its people.  I enjoyed the exhibition so much; I'd  want to see it again because I know there will be more to the show that I missed and more to learn as well.

Catherine Suan admiring the installation piece of Kemang Wa Lehulere