WORKS: Lallitha Jawahirilal – Projects and Research

Projects and Research run by Lallitha Jawahirilal

1998 Research proposal
Puddled Sand and Red Ashes: A photographic documentary of the Kumbh Mela
Supervisor: Vedant Nanackachand, Department of Fine Art & History of Art, UDW
[download project outline here]

1997 Research survey
The role of public art in a post-apartheid society with special reference to the Greater Ladysmith area 1997-1998
Field workers: Lallitha Jawahirilal, Vukile Ntuli (Lecturers in Painting, UDW)
Supervisor: Vedant Nanackachand, Department of Fine Art & History of Art, UDW
Research Assistant: Tracey Andrew
[download questionnaire results here]
[download Aloe Park Primary Mural Project letters here]
[download Aloe Park Primary photo documentation here]
[download Ladysmith Provincial Hospital Mural Project letters here]

1995 Research project
The role of public art in a post-apartheid society with special reference to the Greater Ladysmith area 1995-1996 (coordinated together with Mr Vukile Ntuli, Lecturer in Painting)
Participants:
Vedant Nanackachand, Department of Fine Art & History of Art, UDW
Students and artists from UDW and the greater Durban and Ladysmith Area
[download project outline here]

On the Wall of Reconciliation in Ladysmith (painted in 1995 by students from the Fine Arts Department at the University of Durban-Westvilleunder the co-ordination of Lallitha Jawahirilal) the rainbow motif dissolves and disintegrates into a layered wavy pattern that, in a sweeping motion, formally links separate panels and provides a useful compositional structure for dividing up the wall into separate emblematic units. With its expanding and contracting motions it appears alive and throbbing, thus off-setting some of the more rigid images. Its further appeal lies in the ambiguity of its meaning. In some sections the parallel stripes of primary colour, partly flowing out of a flag, prompt a reading as a rainbow, while in other sections the “rainbow” dissolves and integrates with the features of the landscape.

In: Marschall, S (2001) The Poetics of Politics, Safundi, 2:2, p. 9
doi: 10.1080/17533170100102201

WORKS: Natasha Becker – Curatorial Work

Selected exhibitions

2020

A PERFECT STORM
Group Show, Faction Arts Project, New York, NY, February 15 – March 8, 2020
View here

FOREVER IS COMPOSED OF NOWS
Group Show, A.I.R gallery, New York, NY, February 14 – March 15, 2020
View here

2019

GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS
LeAndra LeSeur Solo Show, Assembly Room, New York, NY, October 17 – December 1, 2019
View here

RADICAL LOVE
Group Show, Ford Foundation for Social Justice Art Gallery, New York, NY
https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/ford-foundation-gallery-radical-love-1612009

PERILOUS BODIES
Group Show, Ford Foundation for Social Justice Art Gallery, New York, NY
View here

INTERIOR LANDSCAPES
Group Show, Assembly Room, New York, NY
View here

2018

MULTIPLICITIES
Group Show, Assembly Room, New York, NY
https://hyperallergic.com/468273/assembly-room-curatorial-collective/

WHAT CAN BE SEEN
Group Show, Spring/Break Art Show, New York, NY
View here

2017

DIALOGUES IN DRAWING
Group Show, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, CA
https://www.artsy.net/show/jenkins-johnson-gallery-dialogues-in-drawing#

AMERICANAH
Group Show, Spring/Break Art Show, New York, NY
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-16-curators-watch-springbreak

WEIGHTS & MEASURES
Solo Show and Civic Dialogues, Constitution Hill Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa
https://www.contemporaryand.com/magazines/justice-under-the-spotlight/

2016

SHIRIN NESHAT: DREAMERS
Solo Show, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa,
http://www.goodman-gallery.com/exhibitions/624

SUE WILLIAMSON: THE PAST LIES AHEAD
Solo Show, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
http://www.goodman-gallery.com/exhibitions/611

2015

RUBY AMANZE ONYINYECHI: SALT WATER
Solo Show, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
http://www.goodman-gallery.com/exhibitions/590

EDGE OF SILENCE
Group Show, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
http://www.goodman-gallery.com/exhibitions/573

SPEAKING BACK
Group Show, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
http://www.goodman-gallery.com/exhibitions/559

WORKS: Natasha Becker – Writing

Texts by Natasha Becker

MA Thesis

Becker, Natasha (2002) Inside and Outside the Family Album. Making, exhibiting and archiving the photograph in the South African National Gallery and the National Library of South Africa. Univerity of the Western Cape.
Available here

One of the first things that reached me about photography was how a photograph tells a story or stories. This experience is perhaps most common when viewing personal photographs. A few years ago I was looking through a vast number of personal photographs, of a family I knew well, and was struck by how all the photographs (in albums, framed or lying loosely about) were part of a particular family narrative. Even without the storytelling, which accompanied my viewing of the photographs, I could still ‘read’ bits and pieces of the family history (and the broader social, political and cultural histories) in their photographs.

Journal articles and essays

Becker, Natasha (2021) ‘In the Wake of Okwui Enwezor’. NKA: Journal for Contemporary African Art. Special Issue on Curator Okwui Enwezor.
Available here

Becker, Natasha (2020) ‘To Imagine a Future World’. Curatorial Essay, exhibition catalogue, Present Passing, Osage Art Foundation, Hong Kong, China. March 2020.
Book available here

Becker, Natasha (2020) ‘Forever if Composed of Nows’ Curatorial Essay, exhibition catalogue , A.I.R gallery, New York, NY. February 2020.
Press release PDF

​Becker, Natasha (2020) ‘Pushing Through a Public Memorial’. Guest Contributor, Brooklyn Rail Critics Page, New York, NY. February 2020.
Available here

Becker, Natasha (2019) ‘An Ode to Love’ Curatorial Essay, Ford Foundation Art Gallery, New York, NY. may 2019.
Available here

Becker, Natasha. 2015 ‘Encountering Virginia Chihota’ Exhibition catalogue essay, Tiwani Contemporary: Virginia Chihota. A Thorn In My Flesh (munzwa munyama yangu). October 2015.
Available here

Becker, Natasha (2008) ‘Primitivism revisited: After the end of an idea’. African Arts, 41:1, 86-88.
Available here [download pdf here]

Becker, Natasha (2001) ‘The “Lives of Colour” Exhibition. South African National Gallery, September 1999’ Kronos 27 Visual History, 270-291.
Available here [download pdf here]

News Articles

Becker, Natasha (2021) Tschabalala Self with Natasha Becker. The Brooklyn Rail. March 2021.
Available here

Becker, Natasha (2022) Gary Simmons with Natasha Becker. The Brooklyn Rail. May 2022. Available here

Becker, Natasha (2019) ‘Where Does My Heart Reside?’ Guest Contributor, Brooklyn Rail Critics Page, New York, NY. November 2019.
Available here