What do Emily Hobhouse and Charlotte Newman have in common?
In July 2019 the National Museum in collaboration with the Leeds Becket University (England) hosted a satellite exhibition on Emily Hobhouse and the home industries as part of the War Without Glamour: the Life and Legacy of Emily Hobhouse exhibition presented at the Free State Arts Festival in Bloemfontein.
The discovery of diamonds in 1869 and of gold in 1886, and the influx of several thousand fortune seekers which followed these events created new markets for grain products in Kimberley and the Witwatersrand. This, in turn, encouraged the cultivation of wheat and mealies in the Free State and Basutoland (Lesotho).
Every year, thousands of insects visit our gardens. While some are purely pests (such as plant lice), and others are pollinators (such as honey bees); there is a group of insects that skirt the knife’s edge between being both pests and pollinators, with the added bonus of being pretty too: Butterflies (and sometimes moths).
The age- old joke of “What do you call a fly without wings? A walk!” is to most just a typical dad-joke. But what many people don’t realise is that flies (Insect order Diptera) have quite a few species that are indeed “walks”.
The earthy ochre tones and dark scrawls in Asanda Kupa’s Chained in blue (2017) evoke a mass of figures united under a banner of resistance. The canvas appears as an eruption of expressive marks and dynamic energy. The piece seems to summon songs and chants for freedom. It is an especially poignant piece in the Artbank of South Africa’s collection. In an interview Kupa describes how, “I use crowds as a symbol of oneness, that everything is connected, and all is one”.