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Curatorial Projects
Unisa Art Walk 2023
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Unisa Art Walk, curated by Gwenneth Miller in collaboration with The Unisa Florida Science Campus Art Walk Steering Committee of Unisa (chaired by Dr Thelma Louw). Public project launch: 30 November 2023
UNISA FLORIDA SCIENCE CAMPUS ART WALK Introductory statement
Opening address by Gwen Miller for launch on 30 November 2023.
Article: Stunning sustainable art wows Unisa
Participating artists:
House in my head (2021 - 2024), Heinrich Joemath and Spier Arts Trust in collaboration with Emma Willemse
Kaleidoscope Alchemy (2023 - 2024), by Linda Hanekom (lead artist), with Gideon and Life Dlamimni
Mthimkulu we mpilo (2023), by Sue Clark (lead artist), Kabelo Maya, Daniel Maseko, Jens Juterbock, Richard Clark
Summer Solstice and Winter Solstice (2023), by Marian Hester and Mbangiso Mabaso
African Cosmogram (2024), by Spaza Art Mosaics: Dionne MacDonald (lead artist), with Antoinette Koekemoer, Ayanda Ogqoyi, Hetta Pieterse, Jacob Kwena Ramaboya, Neo Ramushi, Phindi Ramaboya, Simon Mafutso and Zenzele Simelane
Sever (2023), by Ingrid Bolton
Point of View (Portrait of Jakes Gerwel) (2023), by Alicia Vermaak
Emergent Systems (2023 - 2024), Reinhard Sonntag
Uncanny Stories 2021
Academic discussions in the Unisa Art Gallery
2021, Dec- 2022, February. Uncanny Stories, curated by Gwenneth Miller. Unisa Art Gallery.
Exhibition curatorial statement for Uncanny stories.
Invitation to the exhibition
Opening address by Usha Seejarim.
At the heart of the proposal lies the stimulation the research-creation of colleagues. In How to make art at the end of the world, A Manifesto for Research-Creation, Nathalie Loveless (2019:8) writes “I continue to see research-creation as one of those cracks (to paraphrase Leonard Cohen) that lets the light shine in, through its experimental and dissonant forms of practice, research, and pedagogy”. This statement contains the challenge for creative practice to unsettle traditional approaches and disrupt what we take for granted.
Participating artists:
Ania Krajewska, Johann Opperman, Hetta Pieterse, Kabelo Maja, Nombeko Mpako, Elfriede Dreyer, Gwenneth Miller, Daniel Mosako and Sango Filita
Ethics, affect and endurance 2018
Detail of installation by Karin Lijnes
Art as Destination 2018
Detail of installation by Kabelo Maja
Sticky TIME 2017
Detail of installation by Manu Manjesh Lal
Inter-University exhibition 2017
Detail of installation by Xolela Sogoni
NIROX Winter Sculpture festival 2017
Detail of series by Odun Orimolade
Animation celebration 2016
Detail of animation by Joe Redtree
UNISA Animation Project with New Hope School 2014 & 2016
TRANSCODE: dialogues around intermedia practice 2011
Detail of catalogue by Gwenneth Miller
Land: diversity and Unity 2008-2010
Detail of animation by Diek Grobler
2018, Oct: Ethics, affect and endurance, curated by Gwenneth Miller in collaboration with Fikile Mnisi and Nina Newman as part of the IAEE Conference 2018, Spier, Cape Town, South Africa, 3-5 October 2018.
This art exhibition explored the role art plays in nurturing ethics as an affective register of culture and the living environment. This art exhibition explores how we critically reflect on the many cultural dimensions of engagement with one another and the living environment. It is inspired by Rosi Braidotti’s (2013) article, Nomadic Ethics. Braidotti’s ideas encourage us to break away from outdated norms in order to reconsider the relationship of humans to each other and to the world.
Catalogue available as Pdf.
Paper presented by Gwenneth Miller at the IAEE Conference 2018, Spier, Cape Town, South Africa, 3-5 Oct.
Participating artists:
Alicia Hindson, Ingrid Bolton, Kabelo Maja, Karin Lijnes, Nyasha Bwerinofa, Zyma Amien, Carolyn Parton, Emma Willemse, Masenya Fisha, Mem Sevenster, Nathani Luneburg, Mari Retief and Roxanne Wilson.
2018, Aug: Art as Destination curated by Gwen Miller in collaboration with Antoinette Odendaal and Jacob Lebeko as part of the International Tourism South Africa (ITSA) 7th Biannual Conference, CSIR IC, Pretoria.
Arts@ITSA in CEMS Let's Talk. July 2018:2.
Catalogue available as Pdf.
The art exhibition explores how we co-create and critically reflect on the many cultural dimensions of engagement with each other and the living world. Internationally art is hugely important to travel industries and this exhibition brings to attention some current global themes experienced from local perspectives. The artworks apply a range of creative methodologies to reflect the diversity of Southern African cultures.
Participating artists:
Adelle van Zyl, Antoinette Odendaal, Carolyn Parton, Christel Liebenberg, Gwenneth Miller, Hanne-Lizé Delport, Kabelo Maja, Karin Lijnes, Katrien Krige Ferreira, Manu Manjesh Lal, Nathani Lüneburg, Nkosikhona Ngcobo, Nonhlanhla Mkwanazi, Sango Filita, Siziwe Sotewu, Smangaliso Khumalo, Timothy C Dawson, Rivone Josie, Tshiamo Kadiege, Xolela Sogoni
2017, Oct: Sticky TIME, curated by Gwen Miller for Rooftop IX, St Lorient Gallery, Pretoria.
Catalogue available in Pdf.
The plasticity of time in our present experience not only creates complexity but also can seemingly stretch or freeze the present negating the clock. Time could be slippery or sticky, proceeding with “increments and losses in transit, with resistances and transformers in circuit” (Kubler2013:28).
Participating artists:
Alex Trapani, Ania Krajewska, Anne-Marie Saayman, Batlile Ngcobo, Carolyn Parton, Celia de Villiers,
Ciara Struwig, Gordon Froud, Gwen Miller, Karin Lijnes, Manu Manjesh Lal (invite image), Muzi Gigaba, Nathaniel Stern & Jessica S Meuninck-Ganger, Noa Maubane, Odun Orimolade, Paul Cooper & Kate Ferguson, Sarel Petrus, Siziwe Sotewo, Sylvester Mqeku, Timothy Dawson, Xolela Sogoni, Yvette Dunn-Moses.
2017 March: Inter-University exhibition, curated by Gwenneth Miller, Gordon Froud, Avi Sooful and Carol Kuhn for the Pretoria Arts Association.
Invited by the Pretoria Art Association to bring transformation on several layers into the gallery, academics from four major tertiary institutes brought recent graduates together. The curators presented UNISA, University of Johannesburg, University of Pretoria, and the Tshwane University of Technology.
For Unisa, I curated installations of digital art (motion and two-dimensional prints), sculptures created from soap and paper, collages, and a mixed media installation, reflecting a wide range of media and concept experimentation.
Participating UNISA artists:
Odette Viljoen, Marian Nowak, Karen Pretorius, Salomon J Schoultz and Xolela Sogoni.
2017 April: NIROX Winter Sculpture festival, curated the UNISA component: Against the Surge with Nombeko Mpako and Maaike Bakker.
The verb “surge” suggests notions of power and force, directly evoking vivid imagery rooted in nature. The word also recalls tumult or movement that is under negotiation. As turbulent time rolls over and within us on political and ecological fronts, we find ourselves amidst the swell of tensions. he curatorial theme of “Against the surge” allows artists to engage with this theme in the broader sense, bringing their cultural diversity to the NIROX sculpture park, a space imbued with historical change.
The artists come from diverse regions of the world: Pretoria, Western Cape, Botswana, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu Natal and Nigeria. This offered a particular profile of the Unisa student demographic, being an institution with an international reach
Participating UNISA artists:
Alex Trapani, Emma Willemse, Manu Manjesh Lal, Nelmarie du Preez, Odun Orimolade, Siziwe Sotewu, Smangaliso Khumalo and Yvette Dunn.
2016, Sept: Animation celebration, curated by Gwenneth Miller, Avi Sooful, Gordon Froud and Pluto Panoussis for the Pretoria Arts Association.
Curators were invited by the director of the Pretoria Art Association, Pieter van Heerden, as part of an initiative to bring fresh ideas into the space. This animation event was the first of its nature at this venue. After the call, all curators held a selection session viewing a large group of submissions. During the event we presented talks about the conceptual and technical processes of the animations.
Participating artists:
Christel Liebenberg, Diek Grobler, Hanne-Lize Delport, Jana Vorster, Joe Redtree, Katrien Krige, Megan Erasmus, Trudy-rae Wilson, Tshiamo Kadiege, Samantha Van Den Berg,
2014 and 2016: Animation Workshop and exhibitions with New Hope School
A series of animation workshops, public interactions and exhibitions were held between 2014 and 2026. One of the aims of this project is to solve problems with fun-filled experimentation. The perspective that process, rather than end-product, is pivotal in art. Curated to be part of #SmArtists 2014, the workshops with New Hope School were extended to include public participation at the opening and was combined with an installation of process work. Animation workshops were also part of the Cool Capital Biennale Guerilla as captured in the
Catalogue: Animation workshop with Gwen Miller, Unisa Students and New Hope School: 102- 103. Whilst the Animation project of 2014 was exhibited at Unisa Art gallery, the 2016 project was publicly shown in the New Hope School Hall.
Participating students and art teacher:
2014: Hilde Kleyn (art teacher), Fiwa Maphutha, Karabo Aphane, Antoinette Odendaal, Trudy￾Rae Wilson, Siphesihle Mtungwa, Sane Mahlangu and Grade 9 learners.
2016: Hilde Kleyn (art teacher), Marion Novak, Duduzile Mlilo, Marian Hester, Fiwa Maphutha, Karabo Aphane, Anne Magoekoe, Trudy-Rae Wilson, Sango Filito,Sibisoso Fatman and grade 9 learners.
2011: TRANSCODE: dialogues around intermedia practice, curated as partial fulfilment of the DLitt et Phil in Art History, UNISA Art Gallery, Pretoria.
Catalogue as Pdf in the Unisa Institutional Repository
"In new media lingo, to transcode something is to translate it into another format. The computerization of culture gradually accomplishes similar transcoding in relation to all cultural categories and concepts" (Manovich 2001:64). TRANSCODE seeks to situate intermedial practice not as a singular response, but as a complex and, at times, conflicting range of possibilities. The intermedia artists featured in this exhibition, as practitioners who work between and beyond analogue and digital art boundaries, think through the possibilities of transcoding in their own particular language.
Participating artists:
Carolyn Parton, Celia de Villiers and the Intuthuko Sewing project, Colleen Alborough, Churchill Madikida, Fabian Wargau, Frikkie Eksteen, Gwenneth Miller, Lawrence Lemaoana, Marcus Neustetter, Minette Vari, Nathaniel Stern and Sello Mahlangu.
2009 - 2010: Land: diversity and Unity, curated by Pieter van Heerden of the Art Association of Pretoria and Gwen Miller in collaboration with SANAVA (the South African National Association for the Visual Arts) and the Centre for Exposition of World Arts and Culture (CEWAC), in Hyderabad, India and in Pretoria, South Africa.
Part of the project: A Cultural Bridge to Hyderabad.
The project was part of forming a cultural bridge between Pretoria and Hyderabad. The exhibition was initiation by the Director of the Centre for Exposition of World Arts and Culture (CEWAC) in Hyderabad, India, Mr. G Kishan Rao, to commemorate the event in 2010 that marks the 150th year since the first Indians arrived on South African shores.
Exhibitions took place in Hyderabad and Pretoria.
2004-2008: THE JOURNEY TO FREEDOM narratives, A creative collaboration between Gwenneth Miller, Wendy Ross, Embroidery groups Intuthuko (Celia de Villiers) and
Boitumelo (Erica Luttich), the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA (UNISA), animators, the Melodia UNISA Chorale with choir performance coordinators: Puleng Segalo and Thembela Vokwana.
Celebrating South Africa’s tenth anniversary of independence, this project engaged with the concept of reconciliation through storytelling and song, embroidery and digital arts, amongst others. The project was a platform to tell the personal stories of ordinary South Africans during and after the struggle, by showing how different art forms and different people can find a way to speak to each other - reconciling, mending, stitching together a new fabric for healing.
Miller, G. 2007. Digital Projects, in The Journey to Freedom Narratives, edited by FB Anderson. Pretoria: UNISA: 76-80. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/19468
Catalogue for Weavings of War
Exhibited in the weavings of war, Michigan State Museum, Michigan USA
Weavings of War: Fabrics of Memory by Ariel Zeitlin Cooke; Marsha MacDowell
Song interpretation of Bawo Thixo Somandla by Reboile Motswasele.
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