I didn't make the openings of the exhibitions at artSPACE Durban or KZNSA this last week but I have managed to see both exhibitions.I got to artSPACE Durban earlier in the week and viewed Naretha Pretorious's exhibition - Onthaal Onthul.
In her own words:
"‘Onthaal’ refers to a social occasion where friends, acquaintances or a community gather; in many cases it is a celebration of something, or a festivity. ‘Onthaal’ can also refer to a formal function or reception, an event guided by etiquette principles of how it should be conducted and structured. ‘Onthaal’ is also to welcome people.
‘Onthul’ is to reveal something, to point something out, to disclose or to expose something. It can also mean to lay bare one’s heart.
The exhibition is a multi-disciplinary show featuring drawings, castings, installations and etchings."
I am fascinated by the delicate drawing in her small jesmonite (casting material) and oil pieces, and the ceramic doily frames surrounding her drawings of churches further enhance the meaning of these pieces. Her quiet monochromatic artworks make subtle reference to the role and the socialization of women.
This exhibition will close 16 July, 2011 at 1pm. Click
here to see more of Pretorious's work on her blog.
I love Frances Goodman's installation of die- cut words (each piece of die-cut confetti reads ‘Forever’) scattered throughout her exhibition space at the KZNSA. This confetti piles up in areas & reminds me of the installation in the Tate’s Turbine Hall by Ai Weiwei. When you look at her web site - the piles of confetti were bigger at the first showing of this exhibition in Johannesburg & thus more dramatic. No wonder the piles were reduced when they reached Durban - the confetti sticks to ones shoes & it was distributed throughout KZNSA (not intentionally) & words lay scattered on the pavement outside.
In this exhibition
Goodman examines the institution of marriage - exposing both the positives and negatives of marriage and conventional thinking surrounding marriage in contemporary society.
Her series titled ‘Married to’ makes reference to the shape of bodices of wedding dresses. These pieces, on closer inspection, are filled with embroidered and sequined images that are at times quite disturbing.
Rosemarie Marriott recombines found and natural materials into quite sinister creatures in her exhibition at KZNSA in the Mezzanine Gallery. Relaas is an is an Afrikaans word for a narrative story - one of the stories that this exhibition tells is about childhood - quite a lot of dolls and toys appear in this exhibition. But this story is a dark story ( very much reflective of the dark stories found in children's fairy tales) Click
here to read more about her work.
Thursday, January 19, 2012 at 3:06PM 
