#firstthursdays #capetown – roll on Thursday 4 September – it’s that time again to enjoy great gallery hopping in the city.
Here are just two of the openings for First Thursdays that we have chosen – but the choice is endless. So put on your walking shoes and party up a storm.
do it @ Michaelis Galleries
From the absurd to the philosophical, the impossible to the seemingly meaningless, Michaelis Galleries is proud to present do it.
Curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, do it is an evolving exhibition created from a series of instructions written by artists as diverse as Marina Abramović (USA) and Nicholas Hlobo (South Africa).
Obrist initiated the exhibition following a conversation, centered on the longevity of exhibitions, with artists Christian Boltanski and Bertrand Lavier at a Paris café 20 years ago. Today, do it is the widest-reaching and longest running ‘exhibition in progress’ ever to occur, enacted all over the world.
The performative aspects of the instructions encourage anyone to follow, inviting the audience to join the process of making, performing or completing an artist’s work. Audience participation is central to the concept, leading to a playful and interactive exhibition.
do it @ Michaelis Galleries
With this is mind, do it joins Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Art’s (GIPCA) Live Arts Festival. GIPCA’s Live Art’s Festival focuses on live art, not just as spectacle, but also in terms of participation. Check in what performances are scheduled for Thursday.
WHERE: Michaelis Galleries, UCT Hiddingh Hall Campus, Orange St, Cape Town 8001
Persephone’s Garden @ The Cape Gallery
A solo exhibition of oil paintings by Judy Woodborne opens at The Cape Gallery.
Judy Woodborne began working on a series of oil paintings and prints that were inspired by the elements of earth, fire, air and water a number of years ago. Persephone’s Garden is an extension of this series, based on the element of water. To her, these paintings represent a visual mediation, a restful moment of contemplation and tranquillity.
Judy says: “In the water-lily series, I have depicted ponds with reflected light and shadow, images of above and below. In many cultures, the image of the lotus flower (water lily) is a sacred symbol with complex meanings, most pertinently that of birth and re-birth. It is also representative of spiritual flowering of knowledge that can lead to the state of awakening. The lotus bud rising from the muddy pond of primeval waters to the surface is also a metaphor for cosmic creation and spiritual unfolding. The blue lotus is considered more sacred than the white and a symbol for modesty and cleanliness in Chinese Buddhism.
Hayden Proud, curator of Iziko Museum called my work symbolist, in an opening address he wrote for an earlier exhibition. This exhibition of work is an example of such; my interpretation and representation of water is symbolic of the creative unconscious, of chaos and of the ebb and flow of life that we are born into – the “water of life”. The fluidity of water is also symbolic of the fluidity of time, of birth and death and perpetual re-incarnation of the human soul.”
WHERE: The Cape Gallery, Church Street, Cape Town 8001
