Art enthusiasts are invited to explore Joburg Contemporary Art Foundation (JCAF)’s exhibitions
Ecospheres opened to the public on May 31 aims to address the topic of ecology, environment, climate, and the natural world.
The Joburg Contemporary Art Foundation (JCAF) in Forest Town is embarking on a new three-year research theme called Worldmaking, which refers to ways that make the spaces that we inhabit around us through symbolic practices.
The first exhibition Ecospheres, opened to the public on May 31 and aimed to address the topic of ecology, the environment, climate, and the natural world through the concept of making-with (living with).
“The human drive towards meaning-making leads us to consciously and unconsciously build our world from social conditioning, scientific rationality, artistic traditions, and our struggle for survival,” said JCAF’s executive director Clive Kellner.
Over the next three years, JCAF will explore this concept through a trilogy of exhibitions and an accompanying series of talks and publications.
“The process of making-with suggests that nothing makes itself. When we make with, we are inextricably bound to the earth, there is a sense that we are responsible for the planet and all living creatures as a form of stewardship.”
Ecospheres unpacks the notion of symbiocene the thinking that humans are to live as part of a harmonious interaction between all living creatures. This is opposed to the period we are currently living in, known as the Anthropocene, where human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment.
Based on the elements of water, air and earth, the exhibition is divided into three-atmosphere rooms.
These atmospheres function as conceptual spaces that foreground and amplify various artists and artworks about the thematic ideas of the exhibition. Water is a mediator connecting the natural world to people, places, and identity.
The properties of air as both a political and poetic construct, are examined through the bonds of kinship, migration, diaspora, and the lingering effects of atmospheric violence.
The section on Earth embodies ideas of indigenous knowledge and sustainability, exploring how local indigenous knowledge informs the creation of ideas that shape art, culture, and food.
The exhibition is an immersive experience that includes installations of hydroponic plants, oceanic-inspired knitted textiles, botanic photography, sound and meditative paintings of migratory birds.
The exhibition runs until December 7.
Visitors will also have the opportunity to enjoy a newly built reading room within the gallery.
This space, designed by Wolff Architects, serves as a library for one book: the Ecospheres Reader, and is intended for convivial gatherings and discussions.
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