Event location: Bird Street Gallery, Nelson Mandela University
Event date and time: 05/02/2020 18:00:00
An exhibition highlighting the creativity of Nelson Mandela University’s Visual Arts master's students Micaela Scholtz and Pola Maneli, presenting their respective bodies of work for examination.
“Exposed: Revelations of the one in ten” – Micaela Scholtz
Stereotypical views and misrepresentation impact on how women experience ‘invisible’ gynaecological illnesses such as endometriosis. Patriarchal society forces a particular set of roles and standards upon women to which they must adhere and thus, a limited understanding exists as to how they experience their lived realities with endometriosis.
This study established that women with endometriosis are largely influenced by the societal expectations placed on women as well as how the female body is represented by the media. By visually presenting the lived realities of women with endometriosis, the misperceptions of the disease and its effects are better understood. This exhibition challenges the stereotypical ideals and representations of femininity through presenting that which is often deemed as taboo.
“The Indigenous I/Eye” – Pola Maneli
An interrogation into the construction of identity, space, and meaning in the visual arts landscape, and an exploration of the terrain that lies beyond it. Initially, this body of work came out of a desire to pinpoint and ruminate on some of the reason why so many Black visual artists make work that seems to be in reaction to white peoples’ tastes and sensibilities. Along the way, though, I was encountered with so many other interesting questions, like: what is Blackness? How is it constituted, and what role do our environments and institutions play in that construction? And of course, if something as central to ones identity as race is a construct, then what is left of us, once we strip that away? Is it even possible to?