PANGAEA – Saatchi Gallery

I was especially interested in visiting this show at the Saatchi Gallery as it was described as New Art from Africa and Latin America. As an African living in the UK and an artist concerned with identity and displacement this most certainly peaked my interest. Also I have been interested in how over the last 20 years there has been a shift in the notion of globalisation and how a once 'west' dictated art world has moved over more and more to a far more localised understanding of art and new localised centres of art have emerged from around the world.

I was worried that this big show was merely a tick in the curatorial box and objectives of such a large and powerful institution to appease art from the 'diaspora' that they perhaps were obliged to represent every few years (and perhaps it was) however I did feel that the show was exciting and interesting in what it show cased. It somehow did capture for me, contemporary art from Africa and I was interested in the art emerging from Latin America too. It was fresh and held an essence which I can only describe as authentic having come from South Africa and experiencing the local art scene there.

I enjoyed the show and hope to see more and more emerging art like this.

However what really interests me and what begs the question is the title of the show why call it,   'Pangaea'?

Was it someone's half-hearted bright idea? Was it an over site on the curatorial front? Or was it an intentional contradiction?

On looking up the definition of Pangaea the online Encyclopaedia Britannica states, 'Pangea, also spelled Pangaea, in early geologic time, a "supercontinent" that incorporated almost all of Earth's landmasses and covered nearly one-third of Earth's surface.'

I was wondering if this was the curatorial team's idea of including art from outside the west in an attempt to say we are all part of the same continent or if it was a sloppy way of connecting art from Africa and Latin America…forgetting that according the definition of Pangaea we were actually all connected without exclusion! Just a thought!

Wasting Time

Fear blinds us and stunts our growth as artists. So what do we fear and why?

I am speaking to myself over the last several months.

I think what I have feared is wasting time and the possibility that what I have chosen to do is somehow insignificant and irrelevant. Overthinking and lack of momentum builds on this fear and ironically just wastes time.

We know what to do yet somehow doing it becomes impossible. Just do… most of us know that's the remedy however it's the hardest thing to do. Perhaps because for a while it's not just the act of just doing it's also the strength to ignore the nagging doubts that creep into one's mind…

Perhaps it's the change of weather or the urgency I feel (being 6 months pregnant) but suddenly its kicked in and just doing is all that I am doing…. Whether anything of significance will come out of this I am yet to find out but I have remember the fun in just doing and making it all up as I go along.

It's all about being and thinking like a child and when you are a child there is no such thing as wasting time it's all important and you learn the most at this stage.

Watch this space!

As I sit here and enter my first post of my blog I realise that art and life are so intrinsically linked that there is no getting away from it. Without realising it I have been trying to compartmentalise the two whereas in fact I cannot separate them!

I have been on an art standoff for the last couple of months (due to a quite major life experience) which made me question the purpose and importance of even creating art yet somehow I find myself back and obsessively thinking about reflecting life once again.

It seems to be a compulsive obsession I cannot kick!

My interest still lies in the ideas around displacement of people and families and then what one's identity becomes. Recently I feel that there's even more to reflect yet somehow cannot put my finger on what it is or even try put it into words.

I hope that as I come to grips with writing this blog perhaps a new dimension to my art production will develop.

Watch this space!