Artists confess their secrets of greed and fear
JOBURG – If you had to take a snapshot of South Africans' most-searched-for topics according to Google over a year, what would it look like?
Visitors to the Absa Gallery will get the opportunity to find out South Africans’ most-searched-for topics according to Google over a year when they browse through the acclaimed The Confessional group exhibition.
The exhibition is curated by 2014 Absa L’Atelier winner, Liberty Battson.
The exhibition has just returned from its inaugural run at the KKNK arts and culture festival in Oudtshoorn.
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The ‘Greed gone mad and fear got bought’ exhibition theme draws on the basic emotions of fear and greed as characteristics of western-constructed morals that are closely linked to the seven deadly sins. Greed is one of the sins, and fear a driving force behind it.
The premise of The Confessional is built around the core idea of top Absa L’Atelier artists confessing the most-searched-for topics on Google in South Africa, and expressing these within the context of each artist’s own greed and fear.
This is Battson’s first curatorial exhibition. She is an abstract painter who is well known for using statistics as her subject matter. Battson tracked and recorded Google searches for more than a year.
Participating artists were asked to pick a topic from Battson’s most-searched-for Google results – a topic that was true to them and their usual subject of choice. They then had to create an artwork that reflected that topic and put down their thoughts by way of a confession about the subject.
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Some of the most searched topics over the year-long period include social media, substance abuse, peer pressure, xenophobia, pollution, depression, The Bible, fear, love, South Africa, human rights violation, poverty, abortion, friendship, water pollution, quitting smoking and immigration.
“I believe it is important that artists use their voice to speak up about the subjects people often don’t want to talk about, like confession as a whole. In saying this, the participating artists were asked to be vulnerable or passionate in making their selection and to represent their truth in creating their work,” explained Battson.
The show gets personal when artists Kevin Irungu confesses to lying and cheating on his ‘baby mama’; Peter Mammes confesses his personal experience of abortion; and Luyanda Zindela confesses his struggle with depression and the daily pressure he faces being an artist and his family’s breadwinner.
“The artists were also required to produce an audio clip of their confession – either a truthful confession or a revelation of the chosen topic,” Battson added.
These confessions will be made available to viewers as they stand before the artwork, so they may see the visual and hear the audio together to immerse themselves in the artist’s personal perspective on the chosen subject.
The Confessional runs at the Absa Gallery in Johannesburg from 10 July to 4 August 2017.
Details: www.absa.co.za
