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
Please note: the application deadline has passed. We will be contacting shorlisted candidates in due course.
Art
After
Baby Vol.2
Please note: the application deadline has passed. We will be contacting shorlisted candidates in due course.
INCCA is pleased to announce the second edition of Art After Baby (AAB), which is again supported by the National Arts Council South Africa (NAC) Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme (PESP 5). Two successful artists will be selected to receive a living wage for two months, as well as their own solo exhibitions at Victoria Yards in Johannesburg in early 2025, mentorship and online promotion of their work through dedicated text.
In November 2024, we put out an open call inviting visual artists based in Gauteng, South Africa to apply (please note that the application deadline has now passed). We appealed specifically to those who are trying to juggle art-making with motherhood, caregiving or have been impacted by loss. This is one of the few projects in the province 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. We also acknowledge that, whether they are parents/caregivers or not, countless women in particular are impacted by pregnancy, loss, and associated complications, and that this can have a deep effect on their ability to work.
In November 2024, we put out an open call inviting visual artists based in Gauteng, South Africa to apply (please note that the application deadline has now passed). We appealed specifically to those who are trying to juggle art-making with motherhood, caregiving or have been impacted by loss. This is one of the few projects in the province 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. We also acknowledge that, whether they are parents/caregivers or not, countless women in particular are impacted by pregnancy, loss, and associated complications, and that this can have a deep effect on their ability to work.
We hope to establish routes for others in similar positions.
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. We aim to establish an ongoing programme that provides 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.
This project is heavily influenced by the research and work of British writer Hettie Judah, who interviewed around 60 artist mothers about their experiences in 2021, resulting in a manifesto, and ultimately a book titled How Not to Exclude Artist Mothers (and other parents). It presents a solutions-based approach on the subject, looking at benchmarks all over the world. Ultimately, Judah suggests that what the art industry risks by not taking intersectional contexts into consideration is remaining more homogenous, precluding “participation by all but the wealthy and carefree”.
Explore Previous AAB projects and texts below