The art shown at Public Intimacy, a collaboration with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art on display at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, are works that effectively explore the “poetics and politics of the everyday”. These works, on loan from SFMOMA, are a collection of pieces ranging from photography, to more diverse media such as painting, sculpture, video, and performance art. Many of these works are on display in California for the first time, with the majority of them only having been completed within the last half-decade. The showing of Public Intimacy coincides with the 20th anniversary of the fall of apartheid in South Africa, with the goal of detailing and exhibiting the finer details of human emotion and relationships in a still developing country.
One of the first works one comes to when entering the museum is one by Berni Searle. There are a few before you reach Black Smoke Rising, but it is hard to miss the video, as a calm and serene body of water surrounded by greenery greets you, just before a flaming tire swing comes swinging into view, back and forth, from right to left. The visual is striking and hard to look away from. On the left side stands a figure, calmly taking in the landscape, clearly with no worry about the flaming destruction behind them.  |
| Berni Searle Still from Black smoke rising trilogy, 2009-10 Video, color, sound Lull, 2009 Moonlight, 2010 Gateway, 2010 |
There are three videos in this piece. The first is Lull, in which the figure, a woman, enjoying a tranquil day by the lake. A swing hangs in the central shot, slowing rotating back and forth. Before long the swing is replaced by a tire swing which slowly catches fire and is eventually engulfed entirely. The burning tire is a highly effective symbol of murders and political protests of unfair laws that came to be in the years after apartheid in South Africa.
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| Nicholas Hlobo Umphanda ongazaliyo, 2008 Rubber, ribbon, zippers, leather, steel and organza |
Searle, for the majority of her career, has used her own body as a tapestry for creating her art, covering it with spices or other natural pigments in order to bring attention to how complex race is in South Africa, in addition to highlighting her own identity as a person of color. She often makes a connection in her work with use of classic elements such as air, water, fire, and metal. Fire, in this trilogy’s case, is featured heavily. In South Africa, a healthy percent of the country’s economy is derived from extracting metals from discarded materials, such using fire to remove the valuable wire from tires. It’s important to note that this is illegal, as well as harmful to those doing the labor, and the community and environment as a whole. The film has an eerie weight to it, as one watches the tire fire swing back and forth, juxtaposed with it’s majestic backdrop. Snugly placed in a little alcove of the gallery, it is easy to get lost in it’s destructive beauty, and to remember the things that are necessary to do to get by in far off corners of the world.
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| Detail of Umphanga ongazaliyo, 2008 |
Hlobo draws strongly from his Xhosa heritage, mainly focusing on investigating rites of passage and how they can, or can’t, adapt to the changing times. The themes of sexuality, industrialization, and gender are also of interest. His works speak to the question of identity and it’s complexity, especially when trying to combine his own homosexuality with his traditional heritage. The title Umphanda Ongazaliyo translates to “a vessel that never fills up”.
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| Nicholas Hlobo Umphanga ongazaliyo, 2008 |
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| Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse Lift Portrait, 24, Ponte City, Johannesburg, 2008 |
It is about self discovery, not just about the artists and the creators, but of an evolving country coming into its own; creating a new and changed identity. Each artist has their own approach to the documentation and understanding of their heritage and of factors of importance to them. Whether it be Subotzky and Waterhouse’s Lift series, which explores the decline and attempted transformation of the country’s Ponte City Building, or William Kentridge’s charcoal animated films and their take on political and historical events, Public Intimacy features defining moments and important events, and brings them to the foreground of the audience’s awareness in a clear and concise manner. These works, many of which have never been seen on the west coast anytime previously, are well worth the visit, and should be on any art connoisseurs itinerary.
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| Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse Lift Portrait, 16, Ponte City, Johannesburg, 2008 |
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| William Kentridge Drawing for the film Table Tide: Soho on Balcony, 2003 Charcoal on paper |
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