OTHERWISE, HEALTHY is the umbrella title of a new group exhibition currently showing at GalleryOne11 on trendy Loop Street in Cape Town, which opens officially on First Thursday and runs in various forms until 16 September.
This moody new exhibition explores the human experience as a metaphor which transcends textbook meanings of “health”, speaking to a functional or dysfunctional society that may in fact be ill within its own realms. Conceptually, the exhibition aims to investigate the strangeness of the human position – as a living, breathing body of flesh and bones that carries the unique ability to experience consciousness, express identity and to comprehend mortality. It seeks to echo the eternal human process of recording the simple fact that we exist. Subsequently, it also begs the questions: “what is all of this?”, “what exactly are we?”, and “who is asking these questions?”
Capetonian-based artist and exhibition curator, Kyle Richard Solms, details the concept behind the exhibition explaining, “The idea has been to examine the overall insanity of the individual experience, the profoundness of the shared collective, the exhilaration in self-discovery, the comedy of personality, the looming fear of mortality, and the utterly bizarre concept of a body of meat expressing ‘identity’.”
“This exhibition sets out to discover how these constructs intersect, erode, mutate, atrophy, or even reproduce when positioned in relation to our inherited notions of physicality, spirituality, sexuality, normality, community, ancestry, and legacy,” Solms says.
The extended timeframe of this run offers a unique opportunity for the exhibition’s structure to adopt multiple forms, which is how this concept has been translated into separate parts for static work, performance, and collaborative sessions.
First, the ground floor has been designated to exhibit the eclectic collection of static work from a diverse range of local artists, ultimately concluding on 16th September. With original paintings by the likes of Jimmy Law, Kelly John Gough and Bongani Vincent, limited edition prints by Adrian Owen, Tosca Neena and Karen Harkema, as well as utterly unique mixed-media sculpture pieces by Rian Olivier and Stian Deetlefts, to name only a few participating artists. This exhibition does not fail to captivate, challenge, and ask all the right questions.
The second floor of the gallery has been constructed in a more dynamic manner, to accommodate a fluid series of performance pieces, installations, and collaborative happenings through-out this period.
Says Kyle Richard Solms, Curator of Otherwise Healthy: “GalleryOne11 will be alive this month with a series of performances, installations, workshops and collaborative sessions that include video screenings, life drawing sessions, roping workshops, an open-mic spoken-word poetry evening, and a book reading and floor discussion with Jay Badenhorst, author of Beautiful Monster.”
Kicking off this smorgasbord of dynamic, local art fare in what is set to be a show-stopping month for GalleryOne11, will be this First Thursday (1st September 2022), where the curator himself opens an installation entitled Hair Today Gone Tomorrow, and internationally acclaimed performance artist William Scarbrough debuts his new performance piece Salt for Sore Eyes at 8pm. The gallery invites the public through its doors from 6pm on First Thursday and boasts a 15% discount on all wall prices from valid 1st – 3rd September 2022.
For more information around this exhibition, a detailed list of dates and times of performances, installations and workshops, as well as an overview of featured artists and their incredible work, please follow @GalleryOne11 and @KyleSolms on Instagram, or visit the website at www.galleryone11.com.
