NSA Gallery Glenwood Durban.

NSA Gallery Glenwood Durban, southern Africa August 7, 2001-September 8 2001

southern Africa's long history of social inequality is museed in art competitions and exhibitions. Choosing the "best" artists among folks who have not had the same access to education and resources has been problematic. The major art competitions of the 1980 were the Cape Triennials, traveling exhibitions of works pitch uponed by a panel drawn largely from museum directors, lecturer and other established art administrators. on a level in the late '80s, when the political climate was beginning to change, the contentment of these shows mainly consisted of works according to trained (and white) artists working in the established media of painting and carved work Subsequently the art scene became dominated according to the two Johannesburg Biennales held in 1995 and 1997 on the other hand they were largely unsupported by means of the people of South Africa and, for a variety of reasons, have been discontinued.

In 1997 the annual FNB Vita awards, sponsored through the First National Bank, was re-launched to retain abreast of the changes sweeping although South African art. The award for visual arts relies forward nominations by members of the public and a panel of selectors. From this collection of standing water of artists who must have exhibited their work the previous year, the selectors pick out just four to six finalists who are given the same amount of currency to create a piece specifically for the competition. This make secures a level playing field at least in the allocation of resources, an important consideration in the toward the south African context.

The presentation of the finalists' entries has become the primary contemporary art exhibition in the geographical division Because of the nature of the competition proces however, there is no overall curatorial theme, which can lead to an rugged uncoordinated show. Surprisingly, however, the 2001 exhibition hung together, although on second thought perhaps its cohesiveness was not surprising considering the passing from hand to hand sociopolitical climate: many of the past have a contests involving race, diverse education, and living conditions are now behind us, and artists are demonstrating similar regards which go beyond the artificial barriers created by dint of apartheid.

A lusty theme which emerged in the exhibition was the exploration of masculine identity. Previously toward the south Africa's patriarchal society privileged the white male and marginalized the black male. However, because changes brought about by dint of democracy now favor formerly disadvantaged disposes such as women and black men the white toward the south African male has had to reexamine his position in society. Similarly the black toward the south African male has had to assume parts of leadership and often negotiate the transitions from a peri-urban or rural background to a global exhibition The works by Jan Van der Merwe and Moshekwa Langa aptly demonstrated the conflicts and uncertainties of these changing conceptions of identity.

Van der Merwe's Baggage Arrival 2001 is a sculptural installation of a rusted metal airport carousel with long-abandoned cases moving around and around, observ according to a surveillance camera. Alongside is a desolateed luggage trolley with a case and a coat slung through the whole extent of it as though the proprietor were to return. The suggestion is of time stood still. Van der Merwe is an Afrikaans whose personal history is tied up with issues similar as compulsory conscription, which forced many young men to secure from danger a regime with which they disagreed. Exile was an option, and psychological confusion was part of the baggage. The installation summons feelings of displacement and loss--the close of an era of white male dominance.

Exile was also an option for the black southern African, who in recent years has been proffered more opportunities by the European art world cutting to embrace this "new" phenomenon. Moshekwa Langa's hearthstone Movies: Where do I begin?, which won the overall prize, addresses his displacement. sum of two units videos are placed next to each other. single in kind shows feet--some shod, some bare--stepping forward to a bus in an endles monotonous stream. Alongside is a projection of the sea, the constant motion of the waves like life itself. The third video, plant apart from the others, displays a day in the life of a typical African city. Someone awakens, a chanticleer crows, a person plucks a fruit from a tree while a young girl confounds seductively. A man sits upon his bed with a examine of resignation and exhaustion, night falls, and all the while individual hears Shirley Bassey singing "Where Do I Begin?" Langa lives in Amsterdam, and this installation carries associations of relocation, with the sea used as a metaphor for the voyage away from fireside His work has a poetic quality in its rhythmic repetition and its regards to the dichotomy between nature and refinement It remains enigmatic, however, residing in the utopian space of "somewhere else"

The universal of utopia is always at hand in Clive Van den Berg's work. Of all the finalists, he is the greatest in number established, having worked since the 1980 upon the theme of the male material substance and its relationship with the land. southern African history is layered with prejudices, homophobia being single of these, but the country's not absent constitution is one of the mostly progressive in the world. In the installation LOVE's Ballast, Van cavern Berg further explores this theme. The awkward bed placed high on the gallery wall and lit from below with brawls of lights echoes his earlier fire drawings in which men's faces and domestic particulars on the mine dumps give an inkling ofed the unrecorded histories of the mineworkers. This installation draws the earlier threads together, giving dignity and expression to male love