Exhibition opens at KZNSA

THE KZNSA Gallery’s first exhibition of 2019 is a powerfully packed woman-led experience: Mating Birds Vol.2, which engages with art and documents dealing head on with the effects of colonial and apartheid laws in South African contemporary sexual relationships.

The exhibition, which is curated by Gabi Ngcobo with Sumayya Menezes and Zinhle Khumalo, runs at the gallery from 17 January, opening at 6pm, to 10 February.

The exhibition is described as a curatorial essay that takes the late Lewis Nkosi’s novel ‘Mating Birds’ as a starting point. The novel is used to visualise the troublesome histories associated with the Immorality Acts of the parliament of colonial and apartheid South Africa.

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The effects of these Acts are presented through the staging of an exhibition as an essay that draws on original artwork as well as reference material from art, literature, philosophy, legal documents, letters, newspaper clippings and exhibition catalogues, among other sources. The essay exposes how contemporary perspectives on sex, sexuality and sexual relationships have been shaped, contested or maintained.

The exhibition features artists Billie Zangewa, Dineo Seshee Bopape, Lady Skollie, Sabelo Mlangeni, Simnikiwe Buhlungu, Tracey Rose and Trevor Makhoba. Reference materials are drawn from literature, including Bessie Head, Lebo Mashile, Lewis Nkosi, Makhosazana Xaba and Zakes Mda, as well philosophical texts, historical archives and other sources.

Entry is free and all are welcome.

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