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Uncontained: Opening the Community Arts Project Archive

Art.b Gallery, Bellville, 8 May – 18 June 2012
Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, 18 August 2012 – 12 April 2013

The CHR at UWC is a major research platform dedicated to the reconstitution of the study of the humanities in Africa. A strong focus of the CHR is the platform on aesthetics and politics, which aims to foster debates on artistic production and the arts in education, and to elaborate new concepts for research. In keeping with its thematic concerns, the CHR acquired an important and historic body of artworks in 2009 – the Community Arts Project (CAP) Collection.

The Project:

The Community Arts Project (CAP) was established in 1977 in the wake of the student uprisings of 1976, which sparked the final chapters in the revolt against apartheid. Those involved in its establishment were mainly academics from the Michaelis School of Art, University of Cape Town (UCT), South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR), South African College of Higher Education (SACHED) and UCT’s Extra-Mural Studies Department.

CAP was initially housed at 17 Main Road, Mowbray, Cape Town, but moved to the old St Philip’s School (now the Lydia Williams Centre for Memory) at 106 Chapel Street, District Six, in 1982. CAP was a non-racial organisation, with members from across the apartheid divide and from various social layers. However, its particular mission was to provide accommodation, facilities and training in the arts for artists and learners marginalised under apartheid, and to develop the cultural voice of Cape Town’s oppressed communities.

During the liberation struggle in the 1980s, CAP played a prominent role in shaping the notion of ‘culture as resistance’ to apartheid and the idea of people’s culture. In 1982 CAP participated in the historic Botswana Arts Festival in Gaborone, after which CAP members regarded themselves as cultural workers rather than artists. This new identity was adopted to reflect their involvement with the political and social concerns of communities and their organisations, and their intent to make work that upheld the interests and political aspirations of the oppressed.

After the advent of democracy in 1994, CAP transformed from a training organisation, and home for artists, into a more formally constituted education NGO for unemployed adults and youth.

Twenty-five years after the establishment of CAP, the organisation and its offspring, Media Works, which produced resistance posters, amalgamated to form AMAC (Arts and Media Access Centre), located in central Cape Town. As with CAP, AMAC’s goal was to empower people from marginalised communities through training in the arts and media. When AMAC closed its doors in 2008, it brought an end to a chapter in South African cultural history characterised by a firm commitment to, and belief in, the idea that the arts had a vital role to play in the humanisation of disadvantaged people.

The Archive:

Curated by Emile Maurice on behalf of the CHR, ‘Uncontained: Opening the Community Arts Project Archive’ was an exhibition of prints selected from the CAP Collection, which represents a world of creativity far removed from mainstream culture. Consisting of an estimated 3,500 works by various artists, some of whom are unknown by name, it is a particularly important collection because it contributes to understanding the cultural, social and political consciousness of the Western Cape, and the heritage of the region.

CAP is well-known for its resistance posters, particularly those produced in the 1980s and early 1990s by various organisations linked to the liberation movement. These posters form a core component of the CAP collection. The collection, however, also consists of other bodies of visual work, including prints, paintings, drawings, sculptures and photographs.

The exhibition, ‘Uncontained: Opening the Community Arts Project Archive’, introduced the linocuts from the collection, a medium intimately associated with both the now defunct community arts project movement and the history of modern black art practice in South Africa. The title of the exhibition literally referred to the unpacking of the works from boxes, and to the opening to the public of a collection of artworks that had largely lain dormant in the storerooms of CAP and its offshoot, the Arts and Media Access Centre (AMAC). It also referred to the re-activation of the CAP Collection from its neglect by mainstream cultural history. Most of the prints on exhibition were from the turbulent 1980s, the decade marked in history as the final push against apartheid in South Africa. Overall, ‘Uncontained’ offered a complex narrative about human experience, imagination, and social, personal and political relations in the world of apartheid and its aftermath.

Workshops:

Besides the panel discussion at Iziko South African National Gallery on 16 February 2013, the public programme accompanying the exhibition, ‘Uncontained: Opening the Community Arts Project Archive’, also consisted of workshops and public tours at both Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, and Art.b Gallery, Bellville.

Gallery

Emile Maurice, curator of ‘Uncontained: Opening theEmile Maurice, curator of ‘Uncontained: Opening the Community Arts Project Archive’, conducting a tour of the exhibition, Iziko South African National Gallery, 24 September 2012 (Heritage Day in South Africa) Community Arts Project Archive’, conducting a tour of the exhibition, Iziko South African National Gallery, 24 September 2012 (Heritage Day in South Africa)
The exhibition, ‘Uncontained: Opening the Community Arts Project Archive’, was accompanied by a public programme, including art workshops. This linocutting workshop was run by artist Garth Erasmus at Art.b Gallery, Bellville, on 23 June 2012. Photograph: Tiaan van Deventer
Garth Erasmus conducting a tour of the exhibition, ‘Uncontained: Opening the Community Arts Project Archive’, at a linocutting workshop, Art.b Gallery, Bellville, 23 June 2012. Photograph: Tiaan van Deventer
Linocutting workshop, Art.b Gallery, Bellville, 23 June 2012. Photograph: Tiaan van Deventer
Garth Erasmus conducting a linocutting workshop, Art.b Gallery, Bellville, 23 June 2012. Photograph: Tiaan van Deventer
A participant at the linocutting workshop, run by Garth Erasmus,showing her work to the class, Art.b Gallery, Bellville, 23 June 2012. Photograph: Tiaan van Deventer
A participant at the linocutting workshop, run by Garth Erasmus,showing her work to the class, Art.b Gallery, Bellville, 23 June 2012. Photograph: Tiaan van Deventer
Garth Erasmus with a participant at the linocutting workshop,Art.b Gallery, Bellville, 23 June 2012. Photograph: Tiaan van Deventer
Linocutting workshop, Art.b Gallery, Bellville, 23 June 2012. Photograph: Tiaan van Deventer

The Book:

The exhibition, ‘Uncontained: Opening the Community Arts Project Archive’, was accompanied by a book of the same title, and was the outcome of a writing project on the CAP Print Collection, initiated by the CHR. Edited by Heidi Grunebaum and Emile Maurice, the book comprises contributions by 31 authors from universities, cultural organisations and NGOs. Each author was invited to write a ‘thought-piece’ on a particular set of artworks from the CAP Print Collection. The texts offer a variety of approaches and perspectives and, in different ways, are all contributions to re-vitalising the question of the human condition that remains at the heart of current-day post-apartheid society.

Related News


Hidden voices in the arts after apartheid

Iziko South African National Gallery (Iziko SANG), 16 February 2013

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Community Arts Project Photo Collection

The Community Arts Project (CAP) Collection was acquired by the CHR at UWC in 2009 through a donation from the Arts and Media Access Centre (AMAC), which had previously operated as CAP. The collection consists of various bodies of visual work, including paintings, drawings, sculptures, posters, prints and photographs.

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Community Arts Project Poster Collection

Community Arts Project Poster Collection The Community Arts Project (CAP) Collection was acquired by the CHR at UWC in 2009 through a donation from the […]

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Community Arts Project Print Collection

Community Arts Project Print Collection The Community Arts Project (CAP) Collection was acquired by the CHR at UWC in 2009 through a donation from the […]

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Uncontained: Opening the Community Arts Project Archive – The Centre for Humanities Research

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Centre for Humanities Research

2 weeks ago

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Tomorrow, Friday 8 September, Itumeleng Wa Lehulere will be giving a talk at the University of Minnesota’s Interdisciplinary Centre for the Study of Global Change. Titled ‘Standing Stage Left at South African Theatres’ and scheduled for 19:00 – 20:00 (SAST), Wa Lehulere will reflect on his artistic journey from the late 1970s; what he calls “his comrades marathon” and a “journey of brutality, grief, and healing; breaking and mending,searching and searching...and observing”. Please make time to listen to a conversation about art as a weapon of struggle and resistance. You can livestream by following this link: buff.ly/3P6zCTB. Itumeleng’s life in the arts and political fraternities spans over thirty years. Beginning as an activist in apartheid South Africa, he was renowned as a very influential figure that many young people listened to and followed. He played a significant role in the formation of COSAS in the Western Cape, while playing a prominent role in the church, being part of the choir and playing marimba for the St Gabriel’s Catholic Church. His artistic career started as a poet, musician and dancer who later worked with Gibson Kente Productions in Johannesburg, playing lead roles along side Brenda Fassie in “Hungary Spoon”. Affectionately known as Bra E, he has conceptualized and directed a number of prominent pieces of provocative pieces for theatre, like… “You strike the woman, You Strike the Rock” “Down Adderly Street” “Gap toothed Sisters “Roxy” the musical “Diaries of my Womanhood” “Red Winter” “Echoes of our Footsteps”, all of which were played out in the major theaters of South and abroad, spanning a period of over 20 years. After completing his performance Diploma under the prolific Professor Mavis Taylor, Itumeleng worked with many Directors in Theatre that include: Barney Simon, Janice Honeyman, Ester van Ryswerk, Mark Fleishman. Itumeleng has also worked intensively with the legendary Mike van Graan at the Community Arts Project School of Popular Theatre. His best work appeared at the Market theatre under owners of The Handspring Puppet Companies Basil Jones and Adrian Kholer in a production entitled “Carnival of the Bear”. Itumeleng was instrumental in the forming of the Market Theatre laboratory alongside Mark Fleishman under the leadership of Mannie Manim and Barney Simon. Itumeleng has taught at the following institutions: Alexander Arts Center(JHB), Fuba Academy(JHB,) New world Foundation(CT), Community Arts Project(CT), and tutored at the University of Cape Town Drama School. Itumeleng was one of few actors to be contracted to the Performing Arts Council of the Transvaal(1990). He has since been commissioned by City of Cape Town (writer/director: Affirmative Action Education program) which was converted into a video drama also directed by Itumeleng. Itumeleng then moved on to found and direct for twelve years the multi award-winning Ikhwezi Annual Theatre Festival in association with the Baxter Theatre Center at the University of Cape Town under the astute leadership of Mannie Manim. The Festival was chosen as the Cultural Development Project of the year(2004). Itumeleng is also very interested and involved in writing, directing and acting in television series and movies, the latest of which was conceptualizing, writing and directing the acclaimed romantic comedy "Forced Loved" produced by Penguin Films. Itumeleng was the Artistic Director of the Jozi Bookfair, hosted by Khanya College at Wits University (2014-2016). Wa Lehulere is an intellectual who strives to tell current and thought provoking works, that speak to the times. His approach to theatre is avoiding the over use of props to encourage the actor to use his/her instrument(body and voice) to tell the story holistically. He is in residence with ICGC in August and September 2023. ... See MoreSee Less

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#MemoryLaneMonday! Throwing it back to our Winter School in August. We even managed to get schooled by our very own Phokeng Setai at the @norvalfoundation's Berni Searle retrospective, 'Having But Little Gold'. ... See MoreSee Less

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Centre for Humanities Research

3 weeks ago

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We had a wonderful writing workshop and masterclass yesterday with Eoin McNamee, the CHR's inaugural #Maxeke-Robinson Research Chair. If creative writing is, according to McNamee, ultimately an act of bearing witness, then “teaching” writing is really about teaching the art of careful observation, attentiveness, and deep perception; moving from the periphery to the centre and building each piece of writing from the negative space that surrounds characters and effects. Details matter and the writer's craft entails sharp attentiveness to the minutiae of a story in order to activate the reader's sensory faculties. We had the great pleasure of welcoming colleagues from the English Department’s Creative Writing programme and hope this workshop catalyses other opportunities for collaboration. ... See MoreSee Less

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Recently Added

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    September 20, 2023
  • Oscillations Workshop: Sonic Inquiries and Practices
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