Dis-Location/Re-Location

Cultural Hybridities and Purities: Art Exhibition - Durban Art Gallery

Produced by Leora Farber, in collaboration with the South African design team Strangelove, Carlo Gibson and Ziemek Pater, 'Dis-Location / Re-Location' will be on show at the Durban Art Gallery from 15 May until 27 July.
The premise of this multi-media, multi-disciplinary exhibition is how cultural identities are formed, re-defined and become 'hybridised'. The body of artwork challenges common assumptions that exist regarding cultural purity — one such assumption being that identity is static.

Leora Farber is a senior lecturer in the Fine Art Department at the University of Johannesburg. She has exhibited both nationally and internationally and is the recipient of numerous awards and research grants. Clothing designers Carlo Gibson and Ziemek Pater are the owners of the company and clothing label Strangelove which specializes in designing and producing original, individual and innovative clothing.

Creative Inspirations from the course!

Hi. As one of the creative inspirations from the course, and inspired by the movie Crash, one of the students has presented the following poem... Here, I am sharing it with the rest of you! My own inspirations are attached here too... in the form of paintings...The first one is called 's o c i e t y', and is a beaded canvas (i used square plastic beads and chains, and the play of colour and light is of particular interest to me).. and the second one is an oil on canvas, titled 'MultiCULTuralism'.


WHY RACISM?

What is a difference
Something unique and distinct
New and never experienced
opposing what you are used to

A difference is what we strive for
In day to day living
We sweat to bring a difference
A difference in a form of bread for survival

We even long for that special someone
Whom we wish to devot our lives to
To make our lives different
Pleasant and sharable with the other

Perhaps after vows are done
We want to celebrate in a different way
In a different special place
To make it a rememberable one

Race is the difference
A distinction according to colour
Skin colour,eye colour
And perhaps the degree of the streaghtness of the hair


There are two types of dfifference good and bad
Who created diffference
Perhaps God for if it was men
It would imply that man created man

Who decides which difference is good or whichj is bad
Perhaps man satisfying his attitude and beliefs
Why racial prejudice
Historically white to black
post-election black to white or vice verca

Why not see race a a good difference
A difference that is embedded within cultural diversity
And thus race could be adventurous
We unlock the uniqueness and distinctiveness
across racial bounderies

Who created colour and certain connotations related to each
Red for love,pink for feminity
Altimately white for brightness and civilisation
Black for backwardness and damness
As defined by the Western Oxford dictionary

Human beings are not animals or things to be identified by colour
Neither are they objects around our social world
What is being refered to as white is not really white
But perhaps pinkish
What is labelled black may be brownish

Who catergorised human to racial groups
Why not perhaps according weight,or hieght
Why colour when physical features and blood is the same colour
There is but one race,the human race!!!

written by :Nokulunga Khanyisile Mkhize
206506219

Week Two: Beliefs, Traditions, Customs, Culture

Beliefs; Traditions; Customs and Culture...

While i was reading the previous post' comments, I thought to ask myself: well, what are beliefs? what are traditions? what are customs?
rather.. what are our assumptions about them?

Beliefs can be value-systems. Strong MORAL codes. Or they can be seen as PREJUDICES. How do you tell the difference?? When does one persons 'belief' in something become a prejudice or an attack on someone else? And what kind of beliefs are these??

What is culture; and what are the ten UNIQUE features of what you might regard as 'your culture'? Please post your answers from todays class assignment here!

Also, do you think that there is a LINK between Culture and Race?
Yes or No, tell me why you think so..