Tired of English outbursts, French tantrums, Italian dives in the penalty area and Brazilian handballs? Take a moment to visit a new art exhibition called The Lie of the Land, on at the Old Town House in Greenmarket Square.
The exhibition, which is curated by Michael Godby, consists of diverse representations of the South African landscape, arranged according to five themes: Interface; Contestations; Interventions; Inventions; and Interrogations. This allows the exhibition to cover the wide range of purpose in landscape painting: “from statements of awe in the face of a new landscape; to celebrations of various methods of exploiting the landscape; to commemorations of struggles over possession of the landscape; to expressions of poetic or patriotic feelings through the medium of landscape; and to recent questionings of the very means of representing landscape” (Godby, Introduction).
My favourite: Landscape, Ponte City, Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse, 2008
Blue Screen Day (detail), Virginia MacKenny, 2010
Angola or Kunene Republic (detail), John Muafangejo, 1974
Avant Car Guard at J.H. Pierneef's Grave, 1954, Avant Car Guard, 2006
Umgababa, Irma Stern, 1922
Conurbation, Robert Brooks, 1988
Another favourite: Before the Storm, Peter Clarke, 1961
Did you know?: Originally called the Burgher Wachthuis, the Old Town House was built between 1751 and 1791 to house the town guard. When Cape Town became a municipality in 1840, it became the first town hall, thus marking the origins of the system of local government in South Africa. A circle set into the floor of the Town House entrance marks the spot from which all distances to and from Cape Town are measured.
I will definitely go check this exhibition out, another interesting exhibition is the one at the S.A art gallery in company Gardens called ” FromPierneef to Gugulective,” I really enjoyed it.