Image credits: © Anthea Pokroy
Dee Marco
The House of Complaints
Gallery 1, Keyes Art Mile, Johannesburg
November 2023
The House of Complaints
Gallery 1, Keyes Art Mile, Johannesburg
November 2023
After Dee Marco conducted a powerful workshop as part of INCCA’s Art After Baby initiative, we included her project The House of Complaints in the exhibition space at Keyes Art Mile. “House of complaints,” explains Marco, “is an invitation to all caregivers and mothers to lay a complaint about any part of their care identities. It is a simple space that emulates my own lounge, a space that is curated with care and openness to invite any story of complaint in… sad, happy, adventurous, depressing, unbelievable, very believable, recognisable, grotesque. The House of Complaints is a home for mothering complaints - stories often lost or forgotten in a caregiver’s mind or in the short years, but long days that constitute the framework for care work for children. The House of Complaints invites us to read complaints by caregivers and mothers as method in itself, allowing for greater fluidity in what it means to care and practise the everyday labour of mothering tasks and the physical and emotional demands that accompany them. The House of Complaints is a growing home, which can never be filled, yet, it moves, wherever it is welcome, for more caregivers and mothers to form part of a collective voice, a cacophony of mothering realities from all around the world.”
Art After Baby was a collaborative project, supported by the National Arts Council South Africa (NAC) Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme (PESP 4).
Art After Baby was a collaborative project, supported by the National Arts Council South Africa (NAC) Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme (PESP 4).
Open call project ︎
Art
Siviwe James
Ubuhle Ngaphaya Kwameva
Opening Sunday 2 February 2025 at 10am
Victoria Yards, Lorentzville, Johannesburg
Phumelele Kunene
In My Element
Opening Sunday 2 March 2025 at 10am
Victoria Yards, Lorentzville, Johannesburg
Art
After
Baby Vol.2
Siviwe James
Ubuhle Ngaphaya Kwameva
Opening Sunday 2 February 2025 at 10am
Victoria Yards, Lorentzville, Johannesburg
Phumelele Kunene
In My Element
Opening Sunday 2 March 2025 at 10am
Victoria Yards, Lorentzville, Johannesburg
INCCA is pleased to announce the two incredibly talented artists selected from our Art After Baby (AAB) open call – Siviwe James and Phumelele Kunene. Each artist will hold their own solo exhibitions in February and March 2025 at Victoria Yards, Lorentzville, Johannesburg. We look forward to revealing more and platforming their powerful work to our network in the coming weeks.
The second edition of AAB is again supported by the National Arts Council South Africa (NAC) Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme (PESP 5). AAB is an ongoing project initiated by INCCA in 2023 that supports those who are trying to juggle art-making with motherhood, care-giving or have been impacted by loss. This is one of the few projects in South Africa that acknowledges that artists are often “zero-hour workers” with a sporadic and unreliable income, and that many women carry the responsibility of being primary caregivers without the financial cushion to continue their practice.
The selected artists both create deeply personal work that reflects not only their positions as caregivers and artists, but also how they have navigated loss, which has impacted their roles as mothers and created new, unexpected paths for them as creatives.
The overall aim of AAB is to confront what remains a taboo subject, and to find pathways for the accepted applicants to participate in an industry often still dominated by men and/or privilege, and also to explore how art-making itself can be a cathartic salve for the many challenges of motherhood, caregiving and/or trauma and loss. AAB aims to provide artists with a short period of breathing room to focus on their work, and motivates those who are battling to juggle a career in the arts to find spaces and avenues to continue producing. In addition, we hope to establish routes and approaches for others in similar positions.
Previous recipients include artists Ditiro Mashigo and Naledi Chai.
The second edition of AAB is again supported by the National Arts Council South Africa (NAC) Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme (PESP 5). AAB is an ongoing project initiated by INCCA in 2023 that supports those who are trying to juggle art-making with motherhood, care-giving or have been impacted by loss. This is one of the few projects in South Africa that acknowledges that artists are often “zero-hour workers” with a sporadic and unreliable income, and that many women carry the responsibility of being primary caregivers without the financial cushion to continue their practice.
The selected artists both create deeply personal work that reflects not only their positions as caregivers and artists, but also how they have navigated loss, which has impacted their roles as mothers and created new, unexpected paths for them as creatives.
The overall aim of AAB is to confront what remains a taboo subject, and to find pathways for the accepted applicants to participate in an industry often still dominated by men and/or privilege, and also to explore how art-making itself can be a cathartic salve for the many challenges of motherhood, caregiving and/or trauma and loss. AAB aims to provide artists with a short period of breathing room to focus on their work, and motivates those who are battling to juggle a career in the arts to find spaces and avenues to continue producing. In addition, we hope to establish routes and approaches for others in similar positions.
Previous recipients include artists Ditiro Mashigo and Naledi Chai.
Explore Previous AAB projects and texts below