Artist and novelist Ingrid Winterbach opens a new solo exhibition, shedding light on her practice as visual artist. Under the title Relevant / Irrelevant, she portrays the times of students protests, Marikana widows and white privilege.
The exhibition is at Gallery of University of Stellenbosch (GUS) from Thursday, 4 May, 2017. Winterbach will show paintings and drawings dating from 2006 to the present.
The ‘relevant’ part of the exhibition includes drawings that engage with the student protests, and white privilege. Other ‘relevant’ themes are Marikana testimonies and rape.
Residency at Cité des Artistes
The exhibition includes a series of large drawings made during a residency at the Cité des Artistes in Paris. The works often combine text and image, for example, a portrait of a rape victim – Lucretia, together with the testimony of a widow of one of the miners killed at Marikana. As a thread through some of the works are drawings of empty speech bubbles.
Winterbach is an award-winning novelist, with five of her novels translated into English from Afrikaans. She studied fine art, and taught fine art at the University of Stellenbosch for 13 years. “I’ve always had a double interest – making visual art and writing, but somehow I’m much more established as a writer,” she says.
Like pages in a diary
Artist Ledelle Moe, of University of Stellenbosch Visual Art Department: “The texts quoted in the works provide fragmented voices that articulate what is being said and also what is not being said. They are like pages in a diary – they meander, allude to and provide fragments for each reader to reassemble and connect into their own narrative. In this way, these works on paper can be seen as scaled up pages of a journal -unfolded in the gallery space”.
“References that are personal, political and art historical are traces of what has been erased and what has been revealed, what is seen and unseen. This erasure speaks to a non-voice, a silenced voice or censored text and image. Almost like a code, the words and images provide points on a map- to reveal a vocabulary of clues” says Moe.
“It’s not the kind of art that points out on what is wrong with South Africa, or what needs to happen. The works rather serve to register the experiences of a person moving through a political landscape. She allows all these things to touch her, but does not end with an analysis or choose a side” says Winterbach’s partner, artist Andries Gouws.
The ‘irrelevant’ part of the exhibition consists mainly of paintings, dealing with “less obvious concerns”. Winterbach’s is an eclectic style, borrowing freely and referencing a variety of sources, like Holbein and Oriental iconography. She also has a consuming interest in death and its symbols, such as the skull.
Laughing at death
“I use imagery intuitively. The skulls refer to the presence of death, but also add a comic element” says Winterbach. “She is laughing at death” adds Gouws, “Her art is dealing with the uncomfortable stuff – death, and suffering – violence which is filtered through art”.
“The exhibition is an interesting dissection of art history, the body and current affairs. It weaves personal insight, journaling, and meandering of the artist with the public engagement of the audience. The result is an ambiguous, uneasy tension of understanding and misunderstanding” says Moe.
The exhibition will be on show during May 2017, and opens on Thursday 4 May at 5pm, including a talk by Virginia MacKenny, Associate Professor at UCT’s Michaelis School of Fine Art. GUS (Gallery University Stellenbosch) is located on the corner of Bird and Dorp streets, Stellenbosch, and open every day accept Sunday.
Who: Ingrid Winterbach
What: Solo exhibition – Relevant / Irrelevant
Where: Gallery University Stellenbosch (GUS), Bird/Dorp St, Stellenbosch
When: From Thurs, 4 – 31 Wed, May , 2017.
GUS curator: Valeria Geselev, 071 5501427 yallashoola@gmail.com
WS
