Image credits: © Anthea Pokroy
WHAT WE KNOW
Keyes Art Mile, Johannesburg
28 January – 25 February 2023
blk banaana
Nina Jacobson
Khanyisile Mawhayi
Selloane Moeti
Vanessa Tembane
Helena Uambembe
With editions from
Flood House + Dream Press
Keyes Art Mile, Johannesburg
28 January – 25 February 2023
blk banaana
Nina Jacobson
Khanyisile Mawhayi
Selloane Moeti
Vanessa Tembane
Helena Uambembe
With editions from
Flood House + Dream Press
WHAT WE KNOW is an exhibition project organised by INCCA considering generational and embodied knowledge by way of ‘unlearned’ art-making. Many of the artists we are researching are formally trained, some are recent graduates and all of them speak to the sometimes necessary phase of unlearning institutional pedagogy. They embody the idea of learning the rules in order to break them, pointing to the way in which many artists based on the tip of Africa are establishing a singular voice that taps into internal knowledge. The participating artists follow various personal steps to create their work: an assembly of fragments that punctuate self-reflection. The project is also a continuous contemplation of our research and appreciation of reflections of artistic expressions and shared knowledge inherited from people’s ancestors. The exhibition aims to showcase different forms of knowledge and practices concerning personal narratives, nature and the universe.
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