Springs Art Gallery launches Groomed for Labour and Love Photographic Exhibition
The Springs Art Gallery photographic exhibition will be launched as part of the 2023 Women's Month celebration on August 5.
The Springs Art Gallery (SAG) is launching the group art exhibition Groomed for Labour and Love Photographic Exhibition on Saturday at 12:00, which will run until August 31.
The photographic exhibition of black and white analogue images is part of the gallery’s 2023 Women’s Month celebration.
It is a collaboration between Mike Mzileni and the Len Khumalo Foundation, curated by Nthabeleng Masudubele and co-curated by Zinhle Gule.
The exhibition seeks to unify the creations of renowned photographers Len Khumalo and the late Mike Mzileni, who captured the lives and struggles of women and their changing roles over time.
“These two giants practised predominantly in the late 90s to early 2000s, leaving a prolific archive of photographs that are powerful catalysts for conversations about both our national history and contemporary South Africa and society at large,” said Thabo Sekoaila, curator of Visual Arts at SAG.
“This exhibition allows for pondering on the roles that women are groomed to occupy from an early age.
“It reflects on some of the overt and covert ways in which women are groomed to assume roles of domestic labour from a young age.”
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The exhibition also demonstrates how love is weaponised to socialise women into these roles.
Additionally, it tells the tale of women whose lives have challenged and subverted these limiting roles.
Attendees will be taken on a journey through the lives of iconic figures such as Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and Brenda Fassie, as well as everyday women.
“This exhibition is an opportunity to be reminded that women are complex, multi-dimensional human beings whose existence cannot be pinned down to just domestic labour and love,” said Sekoaila.
The programme includes a public walkabout from 09:00 to 12:00 on August 26, a professional learning opportunity in art photography for teachers, youth, students from local schools, artists, and photographers to hear more about this latest body of work presented by the exhibition curators.
The art gallery, at the corner of 5th and 6th Avenues in Springs, is open weekdays from 09:00 to 16:00 for public viewing (closed on weekends and public holidays).
This project forms part of the post-support intervention offered to beneficiaries of programmes created through a collaboration between the city’s Department of Sports, Recreation, Arts and Culture (SRAC) and the Len Khumalo Foundation.
