Threshold is the title for the annual winter solstice group exhibition exhibition at The Cape Gallery. The opening on Thursday, 5th June 2014 at 5.30pm is in conjunction with First Thursdays.
Participating artists include: Tania Babb, John Bauer, Paul Birchall, Leon de Bliquy, Hardy Botha, Kitty Dörje, Derek Drake, Gary Frier, Ann Gadd, Rae Goosen, Margot Hattingh, Niel Jonker, David Kuijers, Christopher Langley, Jen Lewis, B. Ernest Manfunny, Peter Meikle, Sue Meyer, Xolile Mtakatya, Tanya Nockler-Golding, Sheila Petousis, Uwe Pfaff, Michele Rolstone, Jan Uitlander, Peter van Straten, Mandla Vanyaza, Aidon Westcott, Judy Woodborne
Threshold, the title of the 2014 Winter Solstice exhibition, considers the idea of an actual or perceived paradigm shift. While exploring this exceptionally broad theme, artists have crossed cultural and geographical borders, thresholds of time, life and death, memory, love and desire, altered physical and metaphorical states, belief and disbelief, as well as thresholds between real and surreal worlds to create an interesting selection of work.
Ann Gadd lends humour to a serious subject with ‘Zulu Lulus’. Crossing the cultural threshold, the painting depicts an ethnically stereotypically doll with a dark history. Originally designed in Japan as a statement by a younger generation who felt they were outcasts from politics and society, the doll was later introduced in South Africa as an affordable ‘black’ toy. The innocence of the doll is juxtaposed by the underlying racial tension.
Paul Birchall looks at the threshold of time and the theme of possession. The paintings featured in Threshold are extracted from a larger series exploring nostalgia. Paul visits museums and antique shops, rooms filled with physical remnants of the past that exist in the present. He focuses on memory and the capacity of physical objects to trigger emotional responses.
Many of artworks included in Threshold, while personally motivated, encourage the viewer to engage in the free association of colours and visual imagery, stimulating various emotional responses.
WHEN: 5 – 28 June 2014
WHERE: The Cape Gallery, 60 Church Street, Cape Town 8001
