WOMEN’S WORK: Crafting stories, subverting narratives showcases the innovation demonstrated by a diverse group of contemporary South African artists and artisans, who utilize and transform techniques such as knitting, crocheting, embroidery, quilting and beadwork to create works that blur the boundaries between art and craft. This exhibition includes historical works from Iziko’s Social History Collection and Grooteschuur Estate. The works explore intimate and personal narratives: the effects of colonial histories and trauma on the body; issues of identity and its relation to land; religion and sexuality, as well as gendered power relations.
WOMEN’S WORK aims to trace the development of ideas, themes and techniques explored by – both male and female – artists through contrasting past and present, and pushing and interrogating the boundaries of their chosen techniques. Perceptions of these practices are often securely gendered as women’s work. Artists showcased in the exhibition ask penetrating questions of the grand art historical narratives. Their work celebrates the often undervalued creativity of the artisan.
The exhibition draws on five major institutional collections including: Iziko Museums of South Africa’s Art and Social History Collections; the Art Collection of Parliament of the Republic of South Africa; Grooteschuur Estate Collection; Spier Collection; as well as numerous contributions from private collectors.
WOMEN’S WORK: Crafting stories, subverting narratives, an exhibition co-curated by Ernene White and Olga Speakes will run at the Iziko South African National Gallery until 30 April 2017
About The Casspir Project
The Casspir Project is an unprecedented and multifaceted undertaking from South African film director, Ralph Ziman. The work comprises installation, photography, oral history, and documentary. It debuts at the Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town, as part of the exhibition, Women’s Work: crafting stories, subverting narratives – an exploration of the historically gendered creative practices used by contemporary artists in South Africa
The Casspir Project charts the locus of the South African military vehicle’s legacy of institutional oppression — a legacy with which we are still reckoning. The central element of the project is one of reclamation. The restored and refitted Casspir vehicle, its surfaces fully covered in elaborate, brightly-colored panels of glass beadwork, arrayed in traditional patterns was completed by artisans from Zimbabwe and the Mpumalanga province of South Africa, including women of the Ndebele tribe, known for their craftsmanship
The project will be showcased, as part of the exhibition, at the Iziko South African National Gallery until February 28th, 2017. Thereafter, it will travel South Africa and tour the United States.
Watch: The Casspir Project #BeadsNotBullets
