Tatham Art Gallery

The highlight of our exhibition programme this year is Jabulisa 2006: the art and craft of KwaZulu-Natal.

190 works by 139 artists and crafters present a visually exciting and intellectually challenging perspective of what is currently being produced. Works range from traditional Zulu ceramics and basketry through embroideries, tapestries, paintings, sculpture, prints, installation and DVD presentations.

From miniature to monumental - there is a vast range of size and media on display. All works have been created since January 2004, the majority of them in 2006 - you can't get more contemporary if you tried! And all under one roof!

This is a huge exhibition which will occupy much of the Gallery display space. You will find Jabulisa works throughout the ground floor, up the back staircase, into the ceramics room and through to the Ferguson Room.

After its run at the Gallery, the exhibition will tour the regional art museums of KwaZulu-Natal before embarking on a national tour.

Natal Arts Trust

Jabulisa 2006 is the third major exhibition of KwaZulu-Natal art and craft to be organised by the Natal Arts Trust and is by far the largest. Eight months' work has gone into putting together a show which celebrates contemporary creative production in our province.

The Natal Arts Trust is an independent organisation whose aims are twofold: to assist public art collections of the province acquire works for their permanent collections; and to foster enjoyment and understanding of the visual arts throughout KwaZulu-Natal. The Trust receives a rand-for-rand subsidy from provincial government to further its work.

The Curators

This exhibition has been co-curated by Jill Addleson, former Curator of Collections, Durban Art Gallery, and Brendan Bell, Director of the Tatham Art Gallery and chairman of the Natal Arts Trust. They have been assisted in this undertaking by the Curators of regional art museums: Empangeni Art Museum, Margate Art Gallery and the Carnegie Art Gallery in Newcastle.

Catalogue

The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue. Each regional art museum contributed an article highlighting various aspects of regional art and craft production in the province.

Selection

Effort was made to solicit entries for Jabulisa from as many artists and crafters in the province as possible. Click here to read the information made available to entrants. Over 600 works were submitted, of which 185 have been selected. Artists were invited to submit a maximum of three works at one of five selection points around the province: Carnegie Art Gallery, Newcastle; Durban Art Gallery, Empangeni Museum, Margate Art Museum and the Tatham Art Gallery.

A core selection panel was appointed by the Natal Arts Trust: Jill Addleson, Brendan Bell and Vulindlela Nyoni, who lectures printmaking at the Centre for Visual Art, University of KwaZulu-Natal. In each region the core panel was joined by the regional curator and a member of the local art community. Selection was by majority vote - and there was very little disagreement. In such cases the works were discussed until consensus was reached.

A feedback session was held by the selection panel at each venue except Durban, due to problems arising from a taxi strike. Feedback took the form of providing a wider context for the exhibition and a general discussion as to why works were selected, using specific examples.

Jabulisa 2006 Selection

Brendan Bell: Director, Tatham Art Gallery

In order to more fully understand the unique qualities of Jabulisa 2006 it is necessary to place the organisers, the selection panel, selection process and the resultant body of selected work in a specific context. Jabulisa 2006 is an exhibition designed and implemented by the five art museums of KwaZulu-Natal. This control extended to selection of work. Concerns of art museums and of those who work in them, therefore, had a strong bearing on selection of work for the exhibition. In short, a specific agenda was in operation. Identifying the nature of this bias and its impact on selection may go some way to justifying the nature of the exhibition, and hopefully provide sound reason for the choices made.

The exhibition is organised under the umbrella of the Natal Arts Trust, an independent body with strong links to the art museums of KwaZulu-Natal. The co-curators of the exhibition both work in art museums, as do the majority of the selection panel. The majority of the Natal Arts Trust Board members are curators of regional art museums in KwaZulu-Natal. The Board appointed two co-curators from its Board to oversee all aspects of ensuring the success of the project. The Tatham Art Gallery undertook to facilitate the practical and administrative management of Jabulisa 2006.

Soliciting work for submission was the responsibility of regional art museums through their respective publicity networks. The co-curators served on the selection panel appointed by the Board, joined by an academic from the University of KwaZulu-Natal's Centre for Visual Art. In order to make submission easier for artists, regional art museums acted as submission points. To contain costs, the selection panel moved to regional points rather than the works moving to a central point. The core selection panel was extended in each region to include the regional curator or his/her representative, and a member of the regional art community identified by the curator. It was felt that inclusion of the regional curator and a community member would provide a regional voice in the selection process.

The process of selecting work for Jabulisa 2006 was no different from previous Jabulisa selections. Works were selected on a majority vote by selection panels. Where there was uncertainty, works were debated until such consensus was agreed. What was different, and which has caused concern, is the fact that, unlike previous Jabulisa selections, there was no pre-selection from regional Biennale exhibitions. The concept of Jabulisa exhibitions as a major provincial show developed from Biennale exhibitions organised by the Natal Arts Trust, dating back to the mid-1980s. These Biennale exhibitions were selected from submissions to a central point. The resulting exhibitions were in most cases toured to different parts of the province, in some years to as many as twenty venues, including art museums and libraries.

By 1996 five art museums were functioning in the province. It was considered appropriate that each museum organise a regional Biennale exhibition to reflect aspects of regional creative production. Works from those Biennale exhibitions were selected to form the first Jabulisa exhibition, shown in Pietermaritzburg and Durban before moving to the Grahamstown Festival. The Jabulisa exhibition of 2000 was selected along similar lines, although to make it more accessible it was shown at all the art museums in KwaZulu-Natal and at major art museums around the country.

As with other aspects of life in South Africa, past divisions and separations were instrumental in entrenching uncertainty, ignorance and therefore fear of others, their cultural practices and aspirations. The separateness of white urban and rural existence from black township and black rural existence has ensured that physical as well as creative engagement and integration is a fairly recent phenomenon. In many cases the buildings housing art museums are remnants of a colonial past, reminders of a "whites only" access policy. Most art museums are placed in urban areas, which make physical access for rural people difficult. The importance of providing wide exposure of Jabulisa 2006 in correcting these imbalances is not lost on the organisers.

In discussions leading to Jabulisa 2006, the Tatham and Durban Art Galleries raised concerns about too much duplication in those venues, since a high proportion of works selected for the previous Jabulisa exhibition had already been displayed in their respective Biennale exhibitions. A decision was taken by the Natal Arts Trust Board to leave the option of holding regional exhibitions to the discretion of regional art museum curators. The Carnegie Art Gallery and the Empangeni Museum opted to mount exhibitions, neither of which pre-selected work. Works for Jabulisa 2006 were selected from those shows. Durban, Margate and Pietermaritzburg opted to forego Biennale exhibitions in favour of one-off selections. This created one less step in the selection process. There was no intermediate buffer between submission and selection for Jabulisa 2006.

Whereas in the past there were two opportunities for work to be accepted and exhibited in public galleries, now there was only one. It would be true to assert that selection for regional Biennale exhibitions was more lenient. There are several reasons why those selections were less stringent. The emphasis was on encouraging regional creative production, to the extent that in some instances it was stipulated that at least one work by each artist would be shown. This assurance no doubt had a positive impact on the morale of artists. The number of works submitted to any regional venue allowed selection of an exhibition that the regional venue could comfortably accommodate. There were no cost issues of packing and transporting work. Overall, Biennale exhibitions were well supported by artists and public alike. They provided a showcase of regional creativity in which there were no losers. For many artists having at least one work guaranteed a showing in their regional art museum lessened potential disappointment in not having that work selected for Jabulisa.

Without the intermediate Biennale, selection was more rigorous. The brief of the organisers and the co-curators was that the panel was to select a body of work that it felt reflected the diversity of creative production across the entire province, taking consideration of both art and craft production. The panel had to bear in mind the fact that Jabulisa 2006 is a touring exhibition. Spaces to accommodate the show needed consideration, as did the costs of packing, transporting and insuring the exhibition.

Selectors were required to consider diversity of media used by artists and crafters, diversity of aesthetic and technical issues concerning artists, and diversity and/or commonality of intellectual and emotional issues that inform artists in their attempts to communicate some aspect of experiencing life in this province. These were all constraints demanding a focussed approach, which the panel approached with professional assertiveness. It sought the most appropriate and relevant work from those submitted and exercised its right to solicit works from outside the selection process where necessary. In the end, the panel felt it had successfully fulfilled its brief, a feeling that has not necessarily met with universal approval, particularly amongst some artists and crafters whose work was not selected.

Implicit in any selection process is rejection. It is understandable that rejection results in disappointment, a sense that one has failed to win recognition at many different levels. A sense of failure raises questions about one's technical competence, one's intellectual capacity, one's ability to communicate effectively through creative production, and one's ability to find critical acceptance. This situation is exacerbated by the fact that most artists work in relative isolation both from one another and from society in general. Market forces and the taste of an art buying public are not necessarily compatible with the desire of artists to be true to their own creative needs and integrity. The very fact that artists whose work is considered "different" cannot survive financially by their art alone is indicative of their fragile position within society. The more "different" an artist's work is to what is publicly acknowledged through sales the more alienated an artist can feel.

Submission of work to a major project such as Jabulisa 2006 is viewed as a chance to gain critical approval and public recognition from the art establishment as represented by art museums and the professionals who administer them. Submission is a commitment of one's work and oneself to public scrutiny. Rejection can well be another blow to an already fragile self-esteem and ego.

It is not easy to adopt the attitude of "get over it" and move on. Reacting to this disappointment takes different forms: these include retreating into isolation, putting on a brave face through bravado, and projecting anger through nursing resentment and finding fault outside of self.

The question to ask is whether any of the foregoing deals constructively with the core issues. What is it about the work submitted which makes it less desirable for selection than other work? Can I see beyond the personal hurt this rejection caused and reflect with some objectivity? Am I able and willing critically to evaluate my own creativity rather than finding fault outside myself: with the composition of the selection panel, its failure to provide clear selection criteria, or its employment of differing standards? To what extent were regional selection points at fault in soliciting my work, knowing that it would be rejected? Was this not a moneymaking racket? Why was I coerced into submitting work? Of the few works I have recently produced, surely one at least would have found favour with the selectors? My work is commercially viable: it sells, so why was it not selected? My art teacher and fellow artists are positive about my work; why not the selection panel? Was my work rejected because I experiment with different media and techniques, with different subject matter? Was my work unacceptable because it does not deal directly with political or social issues? It is very apparent to me what I am trying to communicate in my work. Why could the selection panel not understand? Has the time of us white artists come and gone? Has the time of us black artists not yet arrived? Did the selection panel take consideration of our disadvantages, our lack of education opportunities, and our inability to fund the purchase of suitable art materials? Would my work have been selected if the selection panel were more representative of all communities? Every one of these questions has been asked and can be answered positively or negatively, depending on individual perspective and individual investment in maintaining personal equilibrium at the expense of moving from comfort zones into the challenging yet frightening area of change. Do I wish to change? If so, what can I change about my work and myself? The following comments may provide pointers to those who are interested and willing to embrace the challenges of change.

Certain conditions of entry were stipulated for eligibility in entering work for Jabulisa 2006. These dealt with practical issues such as the fact that artists and crafters could only submit a maximum of three works each and that work needed to be exhibition ready. Whilst no restraint was placed on size, entrants were cautioned that this, as well as fragility of works, would be considered during selection in view of the fact that Jabulisa 2006 is planned as a travelling show. What transpired was that the selection panel did not exclude works on these grounds. It was decided rather, in the interests of inclusivity, to try as far as possible, to build an exhibition which didn't end up suggesting that artists and crafters of KwaZulu-Natal worked exclusively on robust pieces not exceeding one by one by one metre in size. It was considered important that variations of size, weight and fragility would give a better idea of the diversity of creative production in the province. The challenges of touring the exhibition were therefore a secondary consideration, which it was agreed the organisers would deal with as a separate issue. Available exhibition venues were also a challenge to the selection panel, as were the potential costs of packing, transportation and insurance, it being understood that available space and funding were finite. After discussion, however, it was decided that these constraints would not preclude the panel selecting works. The Tatham Art Gallery undertook to accommodate the entire exhibition and to include all selected work in the catalogue. The size and cost of the touring show would be dealt with as a separate issue. In this way at least one venue would house the full exhibition.

No overall theme was suggested for Jabulisa 2006. This was a deliberate attempt on the part of the organisers to avoid an exhibition which suggests that artists and crafters of the province are bound by common creative explorations. Further, a deliberately short time was allowed between calling for entries and submission dates. The organisers wanted to avoid, as far as possible, a situation in which works were produced specifically for Jabulisa. The intention was rather to assess and select from a body of work being produced with no specific exhibition goal in mind, as this would better reflect ongoing creative efforts within the province.

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