ON SHOW AT GALLERY 2

4th - 28th of September 2019 

Betwixt & Between

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Free State Art Collective

  A GROUP EXHIBITION

Please join us on Thursday the 5th of September, as we open Betwixt & Between, by the Free State Art Collective at 18.00 for 18.30.

The opening speaker will be Karen Brusch.

The exhibition will be on show with Gallery 2 from the 5th - 28th of September . 

Liminal Responses by the Free State Art Collective

We live in a constant state of ‘betweenness’, as if existing on the threshold of something new. A movement, a progression, a transfer towards a discourse in diverse reflection - transdisciplinary, transcultural, transgender are words starting to dominate the analytical landscape. Modes of thinking are being re-networked into a myriad of ways. An inescapable need is revealing itself:  for humans to come together, to collaborate and ask the question, What is our collective future in response to a pending ecological disaster, a dominant political culture of lies and a rapidly globalising economy?

It is the artist’s desire to enter that place of ‘betweenness’; betwixt the confines of rule, law, custom, obligation and expectation. That which the anthropologist, Victor Turner, calls the ‘liminal’, i.e. the ambiguous threshold which is neither here nor there, is betwixt and between. This locale is where the artist can re-imagine, re-interpret, re-vision social norms. The liminal realm is where transformation takes place.

Richard Rohr describes this space as:

... where we are betwixt and between the familiar and the completely unknown. There alone is our old world left behind, while we are not yet sure of the new existence. That’s a good space where genuine newness can begin … This is the sacred space where the old world is able to fall apart, and a bigger world is revealed. If we don’t encounter liminal space in our lives, we start idealizing normalcy ...

The people of the Free State live in the heart of South Africa, in a little known and disclosed part of the country. With hardly a nod of recognition, most travellers pass  Bloemfontein and other smaller towns and villages en route to the more popular coastal regions. The region is hidden, misunderstood, betwixt and between. Despite this, there exists a timelessness about the landscape and its people are constantly confronted with the infinity of the ever present horizon. The genius locus of central South Africa holds a mystery and mystique; which the artists feel compelled to respond to in their art making.

Betwixt and Between can be used as a metaphor of this in-between state, the transitory and liminal realm where silence is expressive. It builds tension, can speak of wonders, often breaking through the disruptive expanse with its own serene presence. It is in this threshold and liminal domain that the new can form and be made visible.

Be hole, be dust, be dream, be wind

Be night, be dark, be wish, be mind,

Now slip, now slide, now move unseen,

Above, beneath, betwixt, between.

Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book

 Should you wish to view the catalogue for any of our prior exhibitions, please contact us at info@gallery2.co.za

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