News AND EVENTS
Kuru Art in Gaborone again. 25 November to 3 December 2010.
For the San artists at the Kuru Art Project , the upcoming exhibition at the Botswanacraft gallery will truly be a celebration of life.
Life Circles, an exhibition of paintings and graphic art will open on the afternoon of the 24th November 2010 and will run until the 3rd of December 2010.
Featuring artists are well known names like, Coex'ae Bob, Cg'ose Ntcox'o, Thamae Kaashe, Gamnqoa Kukama, Xgaiga Qomatca, Nxabe Tase, Qhaqhoo Xare, Qgocgae Sara Cao, Cgoma Simon, Jan John, Kg'akg'am, Tshabu and Xaga Tcuixgao. Ncaote Kase, wife of the late Thamae Setshogo, joined the project this year and her work is of an amazingly high standard. Also included will be some of the last lino cuts of the late Thamae Setshogo and Dada Qgam.
As an edition to the art of the Kuru artists some beautiful embroidered pieces by artists from the Keiskamma Art Project in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, will be shown. The Keiskamma Project, which work amongst the underpriviledged people of the Eastern Cape, are well known for their large multi media pieces like the Keiskamma Guernica and Keiskamma altar pieces. The embroidered pieces for this exhibition are all inspired by Kuru art and shows that art can communicate across boundaries.
Our art is about our lives, remarks one of the Kuru artists. Pictures of ancient plant forms, insects, ant hills, sand dunes and animals that you do not find in D'Kar any more, come to mind. Titles like Skin Bag, Tortoise and Woman collecting veldfood, Living in the Past, Past and Present life, Birds and Seeds that Curl, The importance of an Ostrich and The Giraffe and Ncama Cucu, speak for themselves
Life Circles will cheer up the lives of all who take the time to visit this exhibition.
Techniques refresher workshop with Ann Gollifer. December 2008.
Adding the first colour
In December 2008, well known Gaborone based artist, Ann Gollifer came to do a techniques refresher workshop, illustrating different painting techniques to the artists. The artists worked on unstreched canvas with acrylic paints, building up their paintings with thin layers of paint. Ann had her hands full to demonstrate the techniques and assist fifteen artists in one week!
Discussion time during the workshop
Teambuilding and clay modeling
Cg'ose working in clay for the first time
A teambuilding and sculpture workshop was facilitated by Jedidjah Slagter and well known Dutch sculptor, Britt Wikstrom in November 2008. The artists had the chance to model in clay for the first time in their lives. All enjoyed it tremendously!
The San of the Kalahari has never worked in clay before. It has never been a tradition as in so many other parts of Africa, simply because clay is not easily obtained in the sandy Kalahari where there are no rivers. The little clay figures that evolved during this workshop have a distinctly primitive feel and it waits to be seen if this art form will be maintained by these artists.
Britt Wikstrom with some artists in the studio
Exhibition news
Créer pour exister / Art for Existence was the name of the exhibition of Kuru art in Dordogne, France. This exhibition held in Montignac during August/ September 2008, was one of the most successful ever done by the Kuru artists. It was organized by the organization RUP'ART and the Kuru Art Project.
"We are proud and happy to receive in the Dordogne, for its "premiere" in France, this strong artistic testimony from southern Africa, here in the Vezere Valley, another site world renowned for its human expression." (Bernard Cazeau, Sénateur de la Dordogne, Président du Conseil Général, Président du Pôle International de la Préhistoire, in: Pôle International de la Préhistoire ; RUP'ART (ed.), 2008: 5).
"By their nature, the plastic arts in general, and particular graphic techniques such as drawing, lithography, linocut, and the favoured painting on canvas at the Kuru Art project, support and compliment what is expressed in these communities by other performing arts such as singing, dancing, music, storytelling, etc. – which shows a very rich, lively and dynamic contemporary cultural expression. Pictorial creation is particularly apt to celebrate this inherited culture of complexity and an often very sophisticated spiritual richness." (Dr. Jean-Michel Geneste, Director of the Centre National de la Préhistoire, Curator of the Lascaux cave, in: Pôle International de la Préhistoire ; RUP'ART (ed.), 2008: 8-9).
This is Us: The San in Botswana today
"San art set to survive the test of time" reads the headline in the entertainment and leisure section of Mmegi, Botswana's most read newspaper, on 16 November 2007.
The front cover of Peolwane, the in-flight magazine of Air Botswana for January 2008, features a bright painting by Gamnqoa Kukama. Again the words "San Art" form part of the headlines for the magazine.
This and much more are the results of the very successful exhibition, This is Us, The San in Botswana Today, to celebrate the 21st anniversary of the Kuru Family of organizations ( www.kuru.co.za) at the Botswana National Museum and Art Gallery from the 6th to the 25th of November 2007. The exhibition was housed in both the Octagon and the Main Gallery of the Museum. Apart from the photographic exhibition telling the history of the San up to recent times, the 19 Kuru artists managed to fill the galleries with over 200 pieces of art including paintings, prints, sculptures and hand painted ceramic pots.
OTHER EVENTS
SCULPTURE AND KURU ART
Dancing figures by Thamae Kaashe at This is Us, the San in Botswana today.
For a long time some of the Kuru artists made small wood carvings that were sold in the Kuru Craft shop in D'Kar, Botswana. Some of these small wooden sculptures were so original that they were occasionally exhibited in Kuru art exhibitions.
In October 2007 the artists interested in sculpting got the chance to improve on their skills during a workshop held at the Kuru Art Project. The San in the Kalahari are not used to carving large pieces of wood. Whatever carvings were made traditionally were used to decorate everyday utensils, like containers or walking sticks.
This workshop tried to put contemporary San sculpture in a cultural and historic perspective. The artists looked at pictures of the rock art made by their ancestors thousands of years ago. Inspired by these images they searched for a way to portray them in a three-dimensional form. They also looked at what materials are available in their own natural surroundings. The San used soft wood for earlier carvings, where they sought for a piece of wood resembling the animal, figure or creature they wanted to make. Applying the same principle they looked for pieces of wood that resembled the figures in the rock art. From this grew the numerous stick figures that adorned the floor at the This is Us exhibition in Gaborone. The sturdy thick pieces of wood used to make the stands for the sculptures were sourced from non-indigenous trees. The artists merged their cultural and historic figures with the contemporary, by adding bright colours.