The group exhibition Zoo will gather together artwork that relates in theme, manner or medium to Lauren Beukes’ Arthur C Clarke award-winning novel, Zoo City.
“This text frames Johannesburg as the seedy science fiction setting for a long tale where a criminal underclass and their animal companions live in a magical and hellish reality… Beukes has mobilised to great effect the entwined literal and metaphorical understanding of the word ‘zoo’,” said exhibition co-curator Neil Nieuwoudt.
‘Zoo’ is defined as ‘A park-like area where live animals are kept in cages and enclosures, studied, bred and exhibited to the public’ or ‘A place, activity or group marked by chaos, strange or unrestrained behaviour’.
“Beukes’ text also draws on the ‘touristy’ association of Johannesburg with wild animals, as a gateway to game farms, and as one of the largest, vibrant and complex cities in Africa and the southern hemisphere,” he said.
This exhibition will explore the dualism of the word ‘zoo’.
The artworks are a response to urban and wild animals; the ‘human zoo’ of identity, activity and discourse; human interactions with nature and animals; spaces and sites of control, coercion and contravention; and the historical context of the zoo as a colonial invention.
Among the artists to be featured in this exhibition are Wayne Barker, Hannelie Coetzee, Germaine de Larch, Gordon Froud, Sikhumbuzo Makandula, Senzeni Marasela, Michele Mathison, Neil Nieuwoudt, Phumlani Ntuli, Andrea Rolfes, Hannalie Taute, Ann-Marie Tully, Ed Young and Isaac Zevale.
Zoo will be at Nirox Projects, Arts on Main, 264 Fox Street, Maboneng Precinct, from 5 December 2013 until 15 January. The gallery will be closed between 25 December and 1 January.
Details: 072 350 4326; www.niroxarts.com
