Becoming’is conceptualised as the antithesis of ontology, which concerns the nature of being. However nothing can emerge through stasis and certainly not transfigure creatively in isolation. The adage ‘life is art, as art is life’, reveals a co-existence, if not a reciprocal relationship between humanity, and the intertransdisciplinary nature of the arts, and more broadly, the Humanities. Here, ‘humanity’ is not only made in reference to us as a species, but the essence of Becoming more humane amidst constant encounters with cross-cultures and with crisis.
In this exhibition, the denotative association of time with Becoming, merges with the arts, to cultivate a cartography for the consciousness of another, held gently in space and expressed through materiality. The arts grant the viewer an opportunity to engage with assemblages of an inner life of someone distant, not yet formally met - still the visual narrative bravely shared, finds resonance within you. In time an artwork will accumulate layers of meaning, ‘Becoming’ a repository of shifting interpretation, passed forward through generation, strangers and kin alike.
It is worth mentioning that in the era of increasing globalization and technological advancement, the marketing of art too, is entangled with time - art has a need for attunement, for recognition, for understanding, for contemplation, and dare say, an affinity to be shared.
Before imagination and remembrance, there is first existing in the immediate present. It cannot be forgotten that the element of temporarily is rooted in the creative process itself - its ebbs and flows, its absence and presence, its making and unmaking, It poses questions that may or may not be answered at the moment of its completion; yet we can question if an artwork is ever truly finished…for art can be considered as individual imaginaries made tangible, reflecting the self which remains in a state of constant flux, of being and Becoming.
‘Becoming’, is a group exhibition featuring Kenyaa Mzee, Given Muronga, Mario Soares, Raja Oshi, Hussein Salim, Patrick Seruwu, Samantha Maseko, Sibusiso Ngwazi, Steve Maphoso, Ludumo Maqabuka, Tshepo Phokojoe and Lynette van Tonder, invites you to interact with their subjective experiences and the evolution of process within their visual practice, reaching beyond to invoke new notions of progress and potentialities.