Celebrate Women Artists in Aug – do it girls!
If you have not been to the awesome ConHill in Braamfontein/Parktown yet, here is your chance, ladies and guys get your friends together and go and celebrate some of our most prolific female artists in SA. If you go on Sunday the 11 August, you get to meet the artists’s and chat to them about their work – a rare opportunity indeed. Go Go Go.
To celebrate National Women’s Month in August, an exhibition of contemporary photography and poetry by 14 South African women is being held at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg. Titled Isis X, this exhibition seeks to evoke the spirit of the mythological Egyptian goddess and, at the same time, pays tribute to the creativity of her modern-day earth-bound counterparts.
The exhibition, which can be viewed from now to the 31 August 2007, is being presented by Botsotso, a grouping of South African poets, writers and artists that has been in existence for 13 years.
The four female photographers taking part in the Isis X exhibition are Neo Ntsoma, Suzy Bernstein, Riana Wiechers and Anna Varney. The latter two women will also be displaying their poetic prowess, and joining them are fellow poets elsbeth e, Sumeera Dawood, Lisemelo Tlale, Elizabeth Trew, Anet Kemp, Baitse Mokiti, Myesha Jenkins, Arja Salafranca, Makhosazana Xaba and Bongekile Mbanjwa.
On display are 50 photographs and poems taken from the book Isis X, edited by Allan Kolski Horwitz and available through Botsotso Publishing.
“Such an openly women-only venture might attract projections of stereotyped feminism or effeminate style,” commented poet Eva Kowalski of the book, “[but] neither is valid concerning this intelligent, varied, yet ultimately coherent anthology.”
Similarly, the Isis X exhibition aims to reflect the humorous personal insights, poignant social observations and spirited expressions of anger and hope reflected by the female contributors in the book. It is hoped that visitors to the exhibition will conclude that a female artist’s pen and lens are, indeed, mightier than the sword.
The opening will take place at 6pm for 6.30pm on 2 August, in the atrium of the exhibition space at the Women’s Jail at the Constitution Hill Complex in Kotzé Street, Hillbrow. Keketso Semoko (Isidingo actress and women’s rights activist) and Odette Geldenhuys (legal rights activist and documentary film maker) are the guest speakers, and several of the poets will also give readings of their work.
There will be a walkabout for the public on Saturday, 11 August at 11am, during which the photographers and poets will be present to discuss their work.
In addition, there will be an evening of women’s poetry at the same venue at 6pm on Friday, 24 August. This will feature poets Makhosazana Xaba, Uhuru Mahlodi, Donna Smith and others, and will have an open mic component for all the would-be wordsmiths out there.
For more information on the exhibition phone Allan Horwitz 082 512 8188
For general information phone Constitution Hill at 011 381 3100 or e-mail visitorscentre@constitutionhill.org.za. To find out more about the Botsotso artists’ collective, visit http://www.botsotso.org.za/.
