WOMEN-OF-COLOUR CREATIVES
Solo exhibitions
2007
Hand to Plough Landscapes, The Framery Gallery, Cape Town
1995
Cry from the Heart, Belville Association of Arts, Cape Town
Group exhibitions
2019
Botanica II, Contemporary Botanical Art at Art B. Gallery in Belville
Lino Printmaking Workshop Hout Bay Contemporary
Digital Museum of Art and Memory, District Six Museum
2018
Woordfees The Endless Horizon Print Portfolio
2010
1910-2010 From Pieneef to Gugulective, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town
Gill Alderman Gallery, Kenilworth, Cape Town
2008
Provoke, Association for Visual Arts, Cape Town
Some South African Voices, Rose Korber Art Consultancy, Cape Town
Mapping Cultural Echoes – Voyage Ensemble, Harare International Festival of Arts (HIFA), Harare
2007
africa south, Association for Visual Arts Gallery, Cape Town
2006
Art in Business, Artscape, Cape Town
Face (In) Cape Town, Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town
A Journey Together, Voyage Ensemble, Scalabrini Centre, Cape Town
2005
Botaki Exhibition 2, Old Mutual Asset Managers, Cape Town
Botaki Exhibition 4, Old Mutual Asset Managers, Cape Town
2004
Her Story, Association for Visual Arts Gallery, Cape Town
Renaissance, Cape Gallery, Cape Town
2004
A Decade of Democracy, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town
2003
Dreams of Our Daughters, Klein Karoo Kunstefees, Oudtshoorn
2001
The Hourglass Project A Women’s Vision, Art on Paper, Johannesburg; UNISA Gallery, Pretoria
Homecoming, Guga S’Thebe, Cape Town
2000
How the Land Lies, Chelsea Gallery, Cape Town
Greatmore Studios Official Opening, Greatmore Studios, Cape Town
Exhibitions in Germany and Iceland
1999
Portfolio for Playing Cards, Sasol Art Museum, Stellenbosch; Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria; Gencor Gallery, Johannesburg (Print Exchange)
Ten Years of Printmaking, Hard Ground Printmakers, Sanlam Art Gallery, Cape Town
1998
Siwela Ngaphesheya, Crossing the water, Robben Island Museum, Robben Island
Ekhaya, travelling exhibition, Western Cape
Dis Nag – The Cape’s Hidden Roots in Slavery, Iziko South African Cultural History Museum, Cape Town
Artist for Africa, Sweden
Recent Publications, Hard Ground Printmakers, Grahamstown Festival, Grahamstown
1997
Recent Publications, Hard Ground Printmakers, Association for Visual Arts Gallery, Cape Town
The Body Politic, Association for Visual Arts Gallery, Cape Town
Sicula Sixhentsa Xa Sisonke – The South Africa Aesthetic (USA travelling exhibition), Mississippi, Detroit, New York
1996
Human Rights, South African Cultural History Museum, Cape Town
Barricaded Rainbow, Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town, Cape Town
Artists Against Apartheid, Parliament, Cape Town, South Africa
1995
Relief in Black and White, Brighton Festival, Brighton
1994
Creating Image, Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town
Exhibition (USA travelling exhibition), Brooklyn, Massachussets
1993
South Africa in Black and White, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town
Picturing Our World, Grahamstown Festival, Grahamstown; Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town
Women on Women, Seef Trust Art Gallery, Cape Town
1992
Looking Back, Community Arts Project, Cape Town
Visual Arts Group Travelling Exhibition, Zolani Centre, Nyanga East; Uluntu centre, Gugulethu; Mannenberg People’s Centre; Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town
Tapestry Wall, Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria
1991
Visual Arts Group Travelling Exhibition, Cape Town
Transitions, Baxter Theatre Gallery, Cape Town
Art in the Avenue, Cape Town
1990
Zabalaza Festival, Institute for Contemporary Art, London
1989
Nude, South African Association of Arts, Cape Town and Serendipity Gallery, Cape Town
1987
Peace for South Africa, Geneva, Switzerland
Volkkas Atelier Exhibition, invited artists exhibition, Johannesburg Art Foundation, Johannesburg
1986
The Eye of an Artist, Gugulethu
Young Blood, South African Association of Arts, Cape Town
Collections
Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town
Durban Art Gallery, Durban
Constitutional Court of South Africa, Johannesburg
Western Cape Provincial Government, Cape Town
Mayibuye Centre, University of the Western Cape
Sophie Peters also has work in private collections in South Africa, Europe, the United States of America and Australia
Publications
1997
The Body Politic (portfolio of colour etchings published by Hard Ground Printers
Commissions (mural painting and book illustrations)
2008
Arts Cape mural
2007
Safmarine, Cape Town (four paintings)
2004-05
Pentecostal Rapha Mission (mural)
2004
Adderley Street flower-sellers mural, Sea Point Protea Hotel, Cape Town
1998
Puleng and the Pumpkin (children’s book illustration)
Hair (children’s book illustration)
Truworths’ Millenium Calendar (linoprints)
1997
True Love at Last (written by Ginwala Dowling, illustration)
No More Stars in my Roof (written by Ginwala Dowling, illustration)
The Original Natural Living Diary (illustration)
1996
Robben Island Museum, Cape Town (mural)
District Six Museum, Cape Town (mural)
Department of Health, Cape Town (mural)
Mayibuye Centre, University of Western Cape, Cape Town (mural in celebration of Heritage Day)
The Black Sash Trust Annual Report (book cover illustration)
Day-by-Day English, Maskew Miller Longman, Midrand (book illustration)
1994
Nico Malan Opera House / Artscape Opera House, Cape Town (mural with Tshidi Sefako and Xolile Mtakatya)
Hanover Park Murals, Cape Town City Council
Peace in our Land (mural commissioned by Nedbank)
Mafia and the Aeroplane, written by Max Sed, published by Human & Rousseau
1992
The Old Days (woodcut) in: Staffrider, 10:3, Cosaw Publishing, Johannesburg, p. 17
1991
Transitions, Baxter Gallery, Cape Town (mural with members of Hard-Ground Printmakers Workshop)
1990
Zabalaza Festival, London (murals in collaboration with other artists)
1987
Community House, Salt River, Cape Town (murals in collaboration with other artists)
Workshops & Residencies
2006
Community Art Workshop, Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town
2004
Renaissance Printmaking Workshop, Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town
2001
Greatmore Studios, Cape Town
Caversham Press, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
2000
Print 2000, Maastricht, Netherlands
1997
Printmaking Project, Robben Island, Cape Town
1990
Zabalaza Festival, London
Audio-visual interviews/features
Oral history interviews with Simba Pemhenayi, Sophie Peters and Thembinkosi Goniwe, May 1997 Part 1 and 2
Pemhenayi was a performing arts educator at the Community Arts Project (1994-1998). Peters was a visual arts student (full-time) and child arts educator (part-time) at the Community Arts Project (circa 1987-1997). Goniwe was a part-time visual arts student and educator at the Community Arts Project (late 1980s-circa 1997). The interviews were conducted by Robyn Denny and commissioned by Mario Pissarra for Community Arts Project ‘Histories of CAP’ project.
Access part 1 here (starts at 19:50)
Access part 2 here (ends at 2:50)
Interviews / features online and in print
Soudien, Amie (2022) Hope and indictment: the work of Sophie Peters. Creative Knowledge Resources. Oct 6, 2022.
Available at: https://www.creativeknow.org/bopawritersforum/sophie-peters
[download pdf here]
Jobo, Thabo (2014) Charity Concert In Aid of the Needy. Eldorado-Times September, p. 11
[download pdf here]
Van Jaarsveld, Deur Dalena (2009) Sophie Die Heldersiende Kunstenaar. Kuier 25 November 2009, pp. 16-17
[download pdf here]
Koloane, David (2008) The Greatmore Studios celebrate 10 years. SA Art Times 3:11, p. 15
[download pdf here]
Kariem, Durelle & Adams, Sheena (2008) Spiritual Sanctity. Destiny August 2008, pp. 131-132
[download pdf here]
Velaphi, Sipho & Linda Nkosi Ngwenya (2007) Beyond Borders. Voyage Ensemble, Rootz, pp. 70-71
[download pdf here]
Bao, Peng Li (2006) I paint ‘from the heart’. TygerBurger 23 March 2006
[download pdf here]
Carew, Douglas (2004) This Sea Point Hotel is a Collector’s Item. Weekend Argus 31 January 2004
[download pdf here]
Van Bosch, Cobus (2000) Kunstenaars Kyk Na Die Landskap as Politieke Terrein. Beeld, Kuns en Vermaak 28 August 2000
[download pdf here]
Pollak, Lloyd (1999) Truth, reconciliation in art. Cape Times Arts & Lifestyle. 28 September 1999
[download pdf here]
no author (1997) Sophie Peters. Fair Lady 22 January 1997, p. 53
[download pdf here]
Rothbart, Tamara (1997) Sophie Peters “Breek of baas”, Marie Claire June 1997, p. 32
[download pdf here]
Blerk, Gareth van (1995) Life’s experiences as Art, n.p.
[download pdf here]
Eastern Reporter (1995) Resolute Sophie fulfils her dream. The Argus, Wednesday 14 June 1995, p. 16
[download pdf here]
no author (1995) Sophie Peters: A Cry From the Heart, Belville Arts Association
[download pdf here]
Neill, Shannon (1994) Sophie’s choice. South Side – Life and art, 1-5 April 1994
[download pdf here]
Northern Reporter (1994) Sophie ‘Made A Deal With God’ To Become An Artist. The Argus June 1994
[download pdf here]
van der Merwe, Lydia and Ina Duvenage (1994) Die Drie Vrou Kan n Kwas Swaai. Sarie 30 March 1994, pp. 34 – 35.
[download pdf here]
An interview with David Koloane, Helen Sibidi, Bhekisani Manyoni, Maggie Makhoana, Sophie Peters, Tshidi Sefako. In: Oliphant, Andries Walter (ed.) (1993) Culture and Empowerment: Debates, Workshops, Art and Photography from the Zabalaza Festival. Johannesburg: COSAW
[download pdf here]
Adams, Shireen (1993) Sophie skets ‘wat sy voel’. Metro-Burger, November 1993
[download pdf here]
no author (1993) Group Show. Sophie Peters. Femina
[download pdf here]
Workshops facilitated by Sophie Peters
2006
Community Art Workshop, Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town
2004
Renaissance Printmaking Workshop, Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town
2001
Greatmore Studios, Cape Town
Caversham Press, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
2000
Print 2000, Maastricht, Netherlands
1997
Printmaking Project, Robben Island, Cape Town
1990
Zabalaza Festival, London
Exhibitions by/with Sophie Peters
Solo exhibitions
2007
Hand to Plough Landscapes, The Framery Gallery, Cape Town
1995
Cry from the Heart, Belville Association of Arts, Cape Town
Group exhibitions
2022-2023
When Rainclouds Gather: Black South African Women Artists, 1940 – 2000, Norval Foundation, Cape Town.
Access exhibition page here
2019
Botanica II, Contemporary Botanical Art at Art B. Gallery in Belville
Lino Printmaking Workshop Hout Bay Contemporary
Digital Museum of Art and Memory, District Six Museum
2018
Woordfees The Endless Horizon Print Portfolio
2010
1910-2010 From Pieneef to Gugulective, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town
Gill Alderman Gallery, Kenilworth, Cape Town
2008
Provoke, Association for Visual Arts, Cape Town
Some South African Voices, Rose Korber Art Consultancy, Cape Town
Mapping Cultural Echoes – Voyage Ensemble, Harare International Festival of Arts (HIFA), Harare
2007
africa south, Association for Visual Arts Gallery, Cape Town
2006
Art in Business, Artscape, Cape Town
Face (In) Cape Town, Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town
A Journey Together, Voyage Ensemble, Scalabrini Centre, Cape Town
2005
Botaki Exhibition 2, Old Mutual Asset Managers, Cape Town
Botaki Exhibition 4, Old Mutual Asset Managers, Cape Town
2004
Her Story, Association for Visual Arts Gallery, Cape Town
Renaissance, Cape Gallery, Cape Town
2004
A Decade of Democracy, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town
2003
Dreams of Our Daughters, Klein Karoo Kunstefees, Oudtshoorn
2001
The Hourglass Project A Women’s Vision, Art on Paper, Johannesburg; UNISA Gallery, Pretoria
Homecoming, Guga S’Thebe, Cape Town
2000
How the Land Lies, Chelsea Gallery, Cape Town
Greatmore Studios Official Opening, Greatmore Studios, Cape Town
Exhibitions in Germany and Iceland
1999
Portfolio for Playing Cards, Sasol Art Museum, Stellenbosch; Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria; Gencor Gallery, Johannesburg (Print Exchange)
Ten Years of Printmaking, Hard Ground Printmakers, Sanlam Art Gallery, Cape Town
1998
Siwela Ngaphesheya, Crossing the water, Robben Island Museum, Robben Island
Ekhaya, travelling exhibition, Western Cape
Dis Nag – The Cape’s Hidden Roots in Slavery, Iziko South African Cultural History Museum, Cape Town
Artist for Africa, Sweden
Recent Publications, Hard Ground Printmakers, Grahamstown Festival, Grahamstown
1997
Recent Publications, Hard Ground Printmakers, Association for Visual Arts Gallery, Cape Town
The Body Politic, Association for Visual Arts Gallery, Cape Town
Sicula Sixhentsa Xa Sisonke – The South Africa Aesthetic (USA travelling exhibition), Mississippi, Detroit, New York
1996
Human Rights, South African Cultural History Museum, Cape Town
Barricaded Rainbow, Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town, Cape Town
Artists Against Apartheid, Parliament, Cape Town, South Africa
1995
Relief in Black and White, Brighton Festival, Brighton
1994
Creating Image, Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town
Exhibition (USA travelling exhibition), Brooklyn, Massachussets
1993
South Africa in Black and White, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town
Picturing Our World, Grahamstown Festival, Grahamstown; Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town
Women on Women, Seef Trust Art Gallery, Cape Town
1992
Looking Back, Community Arts Project, Cape Town
Visual Arts Group Travelling Exhibition, Zolani Centre, Nyanga East; Uluntu centre, Gugulethu; Mannenberg People’s Centre; Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town
Tapestry Wall, Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria
1991
Visual Arts Group Travelling Exhibition, Cape Town
Transitions, Baxter Theatre Gallery, Cape Town
Art in the Avenue, Cape Town
1990
Zabalaza Festival, Institute for Contemporary Art, London
1989
Nude, South African Association of Arts, Cape Town and Serendipity Gallery, Cape Town
1987
Peace for South Africa, Geneva, Switzerland
Volkkas Atelier Exhibition, invited artists exhibition, Johannesburg Art Foundation, Johannesburg
1986
The Eye of an Artist, Gugulethu
Young Blood, South African Association of Arts, Cape Town
Commissions: Murals and Book Illustrations
2008
Arts Cape mural
2007
Safmarine, Cape Town (four paintings)
2004-05
Pentecostal Rapha Mission (mural)
2004
Adderley Street flower-sellers mural, Sea Point Protea Hotel, Cape Town
1998
Puleng and the Pumpkin (children’s book illustration)
Hair (children’s book illustration)
Truworths’ Millenium Calendar (linoprints)
1997
True Love at Last (written by Ginwala Dowling, illustration)
No More Stars in my Roof (written by Ginwala Dowling, illustration)
The Original Natural Living Diary (illustration)
1996
Robben Island Museum, Cape Town (mural)
District Six Museum, Cape Town (mural)
Department of Health, Cape Town (mural)
Mayibuye Centre, University of Western Cape, Cape Town (mural in celebration of Heritage Day)
The Black Sash Trust Annual Report (book cover illustration)
Day-by-Day English, Maskew Miller Longman, Midrand (book illustration)
1994
Nico Malan Opera House / Artscape Opera House, Cape Town (mural with Tshidi Sefako and Xolile Mtakatya)
Hanover Park Murals, Cape Town City Council
Peace in our Land (mural commissioned by Nedbank)
Mafia and the Aeroplane, written by Max Sed, published by Human & Rousseau
1992
The Old Days (woodcut) in: Staffrider, 10:3, Cosaw Publishing, Johannesburg, p. 171991
Transitions, Baxter Gallery, Cape Town (mural with members of Hard-Ground Printmakers Workshop)
1990
Zabalaza Festival, London (murals in collaboration with other artists)
1987
Community House, Salt River, Cape Town (murals in collaboration with other artists)
Select solo and group performances by Mamela Nyamza
2022
Andizi, perfomed by Mamela Nyamza, Lulu Mlangeni and Thandazile Sonia Radebe at The Market Theatre, Johannesburg.
2021
GROUNDED, Festival Theater der Welt 2021 in Dusseldorf, Germany.
2020
Pest Control, premiered on the 26th of June 2020 on the Virtual National Arts Festival website.
2018
Black Privilege, National Arts Festival in Makhanda.
De-Apart-Hate at the 5th annual Plett ARTS Festival.
2017
De-Apart-Hate at Johannesburg, Dance Umbrella, 2017
Afrovibes Festival 2017, The Netherlands
In DE-APART-HATE award-winning South African dancer, choreographer and arts activist Mamela Nyamza shows the oppression of women and (gay) sexuality by the church and how to overcome this. The performance is a search for personal freedom, a breathless duet in which she dances with the Bible between her legs. Mamela explores the limits of dance, performance and provocation. DE-APART-HATE gives a glimpse into the current power structures of South Africa where a cry is rising for decolonization of culture.
2015
The Last Attitude, Nelisiwe Xaba and Mamela Nyamza.
Mamela Nyamza and Nelisiwe Xaba take us with them on this exploratory piece, The Last Attitude, which pushes the boundaries and acceptable norms of ballet. Taking on themes of lightness and heaviness, strict movements and free experimentation, they switch effortlessly between the male and female roles. The piece sets out to explore the relationship between men and women in ballet, juxtaposing male and female, support and exploitation, they travel through a number of scenarios in which the typical dynamics of ballet are subverted. Report by Campbell Easton & Aphile Aphile Silolo School of Journalism and Media Studies, Rhodes University.
19 BORN 76 REBELS
Conceptualised and designed by Mamela Nyamza; performed with Faniswa Yisa
Originally co-produced with the SADC, Festival d’Avignon for the France-South Africa seasons 2012- 2013; previously presented at the National Arts Festival, Grahamstown, 2014.
Video preview from the Festival d’Avignon.
19 BORN 76 REBELS at Zeitz MOCAA
2013
Okuya Phantsi Kwempumlo at Infecting the City, ICA, Cape Town
Having recently returned from sold-out performances at the Ovalhouse in London, highly acclaimed choreographer and Donald Gordon Creative Arts Fellow, Mamela Nyamza, presents a startling dance performance Okuya Phantsi Kwempumlo (The Meal), for which she received a Standard Bank Ovation Award at the National Arts Festival 2012. Also featuring Dinah Eppel and Kirsty Ndawo, the work celebrates the creative capacity of young South Africans to subvert and transform instruments of oppression and denigration into expressions of ecstasy and beauty; and reflects on the relationship between women from different generations and races.
A short preview of Mamela Nyamza’s – Okuya Phantsi Kwempumlo / The Meal. Filmed live at The National Arts Festival 2012 in Grahamstown, South Africa.
2012
I Stand corrected, physical theatre, with the British theatre producer Mojisola Adebayo. Ovalhouse, London; Soweto Theatre, Johannesburg; Artscape, Cape Town.
Okuya Phantsi Kwempulo (The Meal). Three women show, South African National Arts Festival 2012 (Standard Bank Ovation Award)
Conceptualised, choreographed and directed by Nyamza, the work is performed together with Dinah Eppel and Kirsty Ndawo. Okuya Phantsi Kwempulo considers cooking, eating, art, love and sex. “Before a meal can be eaten, preparation is necessary. The most basic division is between the creator of the meal and those who are being served. This work examines the process in which the eater becomes one with the meal, though the process of reaching satisfaction can take many forms”, Nyamza comments.
2011
Isingqala and Amafongkong are collaborative productions with the Adugna Dance Theatre Company (Ethiopia) at the National Arts Festival (Grahamstown, South Africa, 2011), and African Footprints (2006).
Isingqala, performed, directed and choreographed by Mamela Nyamza, National Arts Festival, Grahamstown South Africa; Different Voices – Bates Dance Festival, USA; Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Slovenia.
Bates Dance Festival, Danse Afrique Day 3
Amafongkong
Ethiopian Adugna Dance company; South African National Arts Festival 2011
Abangxolayo (Noise makers) choreographed by Mamela Nyamza, premiered at GoetheonMain
Nyamza describes the Noise Makers as “all of those who are no longer in our existence, their names are written everywhere and we still hear of them even today”.
About the performance, which she will create in a collaborative process with a group of dancers at GoetheonMain, Nyamza explains that “it’s like a beauty contest, a function, but yet we are going to mourn or commemorate all of those who have left us with something to celebrate. It talks about the past at once and moving forward with what has been powerfully done by those who never kept quiet, be they artists, politicians, students, children or philosophers. This is a piece written by bodies creating moving images that will not be understood but yet will say something powerful to the viewer.”
Artslink
2010
Hatched performed, directed and choreographed by Mamela Nyamza at Out The Box Festival 2010 (Grahamstown South African National Arts Festival 2010); Dance Umbrella, London 2011; the 8th Pan-African dance biennial, Danse l’Afrique danse! in Mali, Bamako.
Art Africa Magazine: Danse l’Afrique danse!
HATCHED by Mamela Nyamza
Dance Umbrella 2011, Performed on 28 and 29 October at The Place
Mamela Nyamza’s autobiographical and passionate Hatched reveals an intriguing tension between Western balletic conventions and traditional African forms. A moving and evocative piece, Hatched conveys the challenging issues of a woman’s evolving sexuality within the customary rites and rituals of marriage.
The performance celebrates the lives of, and commemorates, all women in sport, including Eudy Simelane, the Banyana Banyana soccer player who was stabbed 27 times because she was acting ‘like a man’. The work draws attention to the stryggle of women in sport and to girl children who experience discrimination in their own country, such as is currently the case with Caster Semenya. Mixed media link the drama and the dance, the 1960s and the present day, contextualizing the stories and serving as a bridge between different places, times and spaces, giving context to the idea that issues relating to sexuality necer take place in isolation.
Fifteen years after democracy, what are the gaps between anti-apartheid aspirations and present day realities? Hoe can the most progressive constitution in the world, which was worked our and earned through a historic liberation struggler in South Africa and which enshrines equality for people of all sexualities, be fulfilled in reality? It looks at private and public life, tradition and the law, the state and the individual, and at the struggle against apartheid and for sexual liberation. (Artist statement)
Fancy footwork, now world’s at her feet. The Star 27 Oct 2010.
Mendi 2, Dance Factory, Newtown
Sunday Times 14 February 2010: Moving Bodies made to tell stories that matter
2009
Kutheni, two women show performed by the members of Jazzart Dance Theatre, commissioned work for the FNB Dance Umbrella
I-Dolls,performed by the Cape Dance Company, commissioned by the South African National Arts Council
2008
If Clothes Could Talk, performed by the Cape Junior Ballet
Our Fear, outreach project performed by Dance for All students
HATCH,one woman show, performed by Mamela Nyamza, On Broadway, Cape Town
“Hatch is a dance piece that seeks challenging issues of culture to convey, tradition and woman’s evolving sexuality with and outside the customary rites and rituals of marriage, starting from the time a girl-child is born until she realises her true identity after years of hardship in a loveless marriage.”
Mamba Online
Mexico: Foro Performatica, festival brochure
2007
The Classroom, performed by the Zama Dance School
2006
Some of Us Can Change, performed by the Zama Dance School
2005
Angels in Strip, with the Free Flight Dance Company at Arts Cape; Window into a World
2003
Umakoti welixesha,The Woman’s Festival at the Dance Factory, Johannesburg
2002
Performed at the opening of the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa.
2000
Lead / Principal Dancer for hit musical(2000). Toured in London, UK and Atlanta, US
1999
Reality Check,The State Theatre Dance company, Johannesburg
1997 -2000
Performed with State Theatre Dance Company,SA. The first public performance with the company, FNB Dance Umbrella, followed by the KKNK in Oudtshoorn; Oude Libertas; Grahamstown National Arts Festival; Dance Factory and the Civic Theatre seasons. First trip out of the country with the company: Israel, performed in Eilat and Ranana. Collaborated with The Danish Company (1997- 199) and performing inDenmark, Finland, Switzerland. performed internationally choreographed pieces by Robert North, Edd Wubb, Redha and Bebe Miller and South African choreographed pieces by Candice Johnstone, Esther Nasser, Alfred Hinkel’s famous Bolero, Debbie Rakusin; Sean Bovim & Christopher Kindo’s Me and You.
1995-1996
Performed with Pretoria Dance Technikon in all of their seasons, performed in works of South African acclaimed choreographers such as
Vincent Mantsoe, Moeketsi Koena, Boyzie Cekwane, Robyn Orlin; David Matamela; Debbie Rakusin and Sonia Mayor.
1986 -1993
Grahamstown Arts Festival; FNB Dance Umbrella; Sea Point Eistedford with the Zama dance school. Works choreographed by Arlene Westergaard and the students of the school.
Tactile Visions-Woven, curated by Prof Sharlene Khan, a new addition to the fair, presents a curated selection of tactile-based works in an expanded conversation with the notions of ‘materiality’ and ‘tactility’, as contemporary artists engage these in performance, installation, photography, painting, dance, printmaking and sculpture, responding to the precarious conditions of the world in which they find themselves as individuals and as members of society. The exhibition also aims to show, through the porosity of the categories of ‘fine arts’/ ‘crafts’/ ‘women’s art’/ ‘popular culture’ that these are not – and simply never were – tenable in the fluidity that are our African lives.
read more here
Bev Butkow
Buhlebezwe Siwani
Londiwe Mtshali
Philiswa Lila
Reshma Chhiba
Mary Sibande
Nono Motlhoki
Zodwa Skeyi-Tutani
Dean Hutton
Lebogang Mogul Mabusela
Willemien de Villiers
Thania Petersen
Lindelwa Masuku
Curator Sharlene Khan
Curated by Sharlene Khan, Tactile Visions-Woven is an expanded conversation on our relationalities with materials; processes by which we engage them; histories implicated by them, as well as how we envision ourselves and our world through sartorial codes. South Africa has an immensely rich history of tactile arts – from beadwork to embroidery, leather work, quilts and blanket making to doilies and the weaving of baskets with telephone wires to the ability to decorate with ordinary steel pins. The exhibition is interested in how contemporary artists are using the language of these everyday tactilities to question a range of social issues that affect them as individuals and a world which seems perched on a precarious edge. At the same time, this act of using the ordinary is redefining the very terrain of what we associate as ‘fine art’ versus ‘craft’ and have categorised into ‘women’s art’, ‘popular culture’ and ‘fashion’, showing that these positions never had any place in our African lives or histories. And so it is fascinating how the field of contemporary visual arts has become reconfigured at this intersection of the everyday and, sometimes, even the unspectacular. The exhibition presents works of established and emerging artists in dialogue with each other as they speak to similar narratives through a range of different subject positions, showing that our battles may seem different, but, indeed, our struggles are interconnected and, thus, so should our visions for a better world.
About the curator:
Sharlene Khan is a South African visual artist who works in multi-media installations and performances which focus on the socio-political realities of a post-apartheid society and the intersectionality of race-gender-class. She uses masquerading as a postcolonial strategy to interrogate her South African heritage, as well as the constructedness of identity via rote education, art discourses, historical narratives and popular culture.
She has exhibited in the UK, Italy, France, Germany, South Africa, India, South Korea, Greece and has participated in various international conferences. Her writings on contemporary visual arts appears in journals, books, art catalogues and magazines including Art South Africa, Artthrob, Springerin, Manifesta, Contemporary-And, The Conversation Africa, Imbizo: International Journal of African Literary and African Studies. She has been a recipient of the Abe Bailey Travel Bursary (1998), the Rockefeller Bellagio Arts residency (2009) the Canon Collins/Commonwealth Scholarship (2011), the National Research Foundation Thutuka Grant for her 3 year project Art on our Mind (2017-2019), the Andrew Mellon Decolonial Turn Funds for her Decolonial AestheSis Creative Lab (2017-2018), the African Humanities Post-doctoral Fellowship (2017) and was runner-up winner in the Videokunst Preis Bremen video art award (2015).
She has been nominated twice for the South African Women in the Arts award and has received funding from the National Arts Council multiple times. She has published three books on her work: ‘What I look like, What I feel like’ (2009), ‘I Make Art’ (2017), ‘When the moon waxes red. . . ‘ (2018). She is co-convenor of the African Feminisms (Afems) conference and the bi-weekly Black Feminist Killjoys Reading Group. She holds a PhD (Arts) from Goldsmiths, University of London and is currently Associate Professor at the Department of Fine Art at the Wits University, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Curatorial statement Sharlene Khan
RMB Turbine Art Fair Talk: Threaded Vision
Craig Jacobs, Ethical Fashion Designer in discussion with Sharlene Khan, Curator of Woven.
Art catalogues, books and journal articles featuring works by Lallitha Jawahirilal
Chambers, E. (2014) Black Artists in British Art: A History since the 1950s. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Google Books preview here
Cooney, L. (ed.) (2011) South Africa: Artists, Prints, Community: Twenty-Five Years at the Caversham Press. Boston: Boston University. Exhibition Catalogue, p. 70.
[download pdf here]
Brzyski, A. (ed.) (2007) Partisan Canons. Durham: Duke University Press.
Google Books preview here
Marschall, S. (2004) Serving Male Agendas: Two National Women’s Monuments in South Africa, Women’s Studies, 33:8, 1009-1033,
DOI: 10.1080/00497870490890816
Pissarra, M. (2004) The Luggage is Still Labelled, Third Text, 18:2, 183-191
DOI: 10.1080/0952882032000199696
Vale, P., Ruiters, G. (2004) The Right Way Up? South Africa Ten Years On. International Politics, 41, 375–393 (2004).
https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.ip.8800083
Khan, S. (2004) Lallitha Jawahirilal. In: Khan, S. (ed.) The ID of South African artists. Amsterdam : Stichting Art & Theatre, 134-137.
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Deliry-Antheaume, E. (2003) Readings from the walls: art and education. Perspectives in Education, 21:2, 1 – 14.
https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC87202
Marschall, S. (2001) The Poetics of Politics. Imagi[ni]ng the New South African Nation. Safundi, 2:2, 1-20, doi: 10.1080/17533170100102201
Deliry-Antheaume, E. (2000) Murs des écoles, école des murs en Afrique du Sud. Les institutions éducatives vues du dehors. In: Lange, M.F. (ed.) Des écoles pour le Sud. Aube: IRD Editions, 167-175.
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Abstract (english)
School walls, the school of walls in South Africa : how education institutions are seen from the outside
School walls reflect local architectural story in educational establishments. Graffiti and mural art witness to the recent transformations in South African society and often draw attention to the right to education and to the environ- ment in which education is offered. By review- ing a number of creative experiments (with photos), we see that the walls are themselves transformed into « schools » and provide an alternative form of teaching which can contri- bute to the healing as well as the reconstruc- tion of a society undermined by decades of segregation.
Bedford, E. et al. (eds.) (1997) Contemporary South African Art 1985 – 1995 from the South African National Gallery Permanent Collection. Cape Town: South African National Gallery.
Delfina Studio Trust (1990) Annual Group Show at Delfina Studios. London: Delfina.
Sebestyen, A (1990) Lallitha Jawahirilal, City Limits, 6-13 December 1990, 24
Oliphant, A. W. (1989) The art of Lallitha Jawahirilal. Staffrider8:2 (1989), 48-53
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Lilla, Q. (2018) Setting Art Apart: Inside and Outside the South African National Gallery (1895-2016). PhD Thesis, Stellenbosch University, https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/103265.
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Adendorff, D. A. (2017) The Princess in the Veld: Curating Liminality in Contemporary South African Female Art Production. PhD Thesis, University of Pretoria.
http://hdl.handle.net/2263/63007
Pillay, T. (2014) The artistic practices of contemporary South African Indian women artists : how race, class and gender affect the making of visual art. MA Thesis, Unisa, http://uir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/18736
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Malatjie, L. P. (2012) Framing the artwork of Tracey Rose and Berni Searle through black feminism. MA Thesis University of the Witwatersrand
http://hdl.handle.net/10539/11750
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Moodley, N. (2012) Culture, politics and identity in the visual art of Indian South African graduates from the University of Durban-Westville in KwaZulu-Natal, 1962-1999. PhD Thesis, UKZN, https://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za/handle/10413/10724
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Khan, S. (2006) A critical analysis of the iconography of six HIV/AIDS murals from Johannesburg and Durban, in terms of race, class and gender. MA Thesis University of the Witwatersrand, http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/4694
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Burger, M. A. C. (2005) Transformation within personal and public realms through contemporary artmaking processes. MA Thesis, University of Johannesburg
http://hdl.handle.net/10210/5247
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White, E. 2004. There’s no place (like home) : a graphic interpretation of personal notions of home and displacement. MA Thesis, Unisa, University of Cape Town
http://hdl.handle.net/11427/10891
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Khan, S. (2002) A critical analysis of the depiction of women in murals in Kwazulu-Natal. Thesis in partial fulfilment of MA (Fine Arts), University of Durban-Westville. Supervisor: Sabine Marschall). [download pdf here]