As each year passes, many are considering South Africa one of the top five destinations for visual art, music, theater and television. So we weren’t surprised when we heard that after rave reviews in Cape Town, Distant Relatives/Relative Distance has traveled to Johannesburg at Standard Bank Gallery and will be on view until December 2, 2006. Plus we're glad to see our old friend Joost O. Bosland, curator of the show, is continuing to bring us some of the most boundary-busting new art being shown in South Africa.
Bringing together paintings by Odili Donald Odita, Senam Okudzeto and Kwesi Owusu-Ankomah, prints by Julie Mehretu, a video projection by Wangechi Mutu and an installation by Barthélémy Toguo, Distant Relatives seeks to link each artist to one another as “socially and physically displaced persons…under globalization.” Covering subjects that range from Hurricane Katrina and identity to travel/migration and AIDS, Distant Reletives doesn’t merely present the complications of geographical classifications/assumptions, but also illustrates the artists’ negotiation of their relation to Africa and the rest of the world.
