03 August 2021 – 26 February 2022 Joburg Contemporary Art Foundation No 1 Durris Road, Forest Town, Joahnnesburg, RSA

Liminal Identities in the Global South forms part of JCAF’s first research theme: Female Identities in the Global South. The second of three exhibitions in this theme explores hybridity and resistance in the artistic practices of seminal women artists from Latin America, alongside artists from the MENA region, the African diaspora and South Africa. The exhibition considers heterogeneous forms of expression across art, architecture and music, from the 1960s to the present.

Liminal Identities in the Global South explores hybridity and resistance in the artistic practices of seminal women artists from Latin America, alongside artists from the MENA region, the African diaspora and South Africa. The exhibition considers heterogeneous forms of expression across art, architecture and music, from the 1960s to the present.

Given the impact of Covid-19, the pandemic body is a second curatorial thread running through the exhibition. The pandemic has placed many of us in a state of limbo or liminality, so that we are caught between a pre-Covid-19 world and one in which we imagine a better future.

The exhibition is divided into five areas: Prelude, Requiem, Movements I, II and III, each conceptualised according to a musical tempo, either moderate, fast or slow, denoting a time-based experience of the exhibition.

Featured artists: Jane Alexander (South Africa) Lina Bo Bardi (Italy/Brazil) Lygia Clark (Brazil) Kamala Ibrahim Ishag (Sudan) Kapwani Kiwanga (Canada/France) Ana Mendieta (Cuba/US) Lygia Pape (Brazil) Berni Searle (South Africa) Sumayya Vally/Counterspace (South Africa)

A virtual tour of the exhibition is available on the JCAF website.

After Image (2021) is inspired by the iridescent quality of Johannesburg’s skies said to be a result of the chemical elements found in mine dust, including copper, aluminium, cobalt and ferrous. The mirrors in this work show the light and the surroundings, and also capture the fleeting moment in which the viewer is reflected. The installation functions as an afterimage, recording the imprint of empire and the exploitative consequences of extraction in Johannesburg’s mining history.