Kim Bagley: Africa and the West: an exhibition of ceramics
Bagley, Kim (2014) Kim Bagley: Africa and the West: an exhibition of ceramics. [Ceramics, Exhibition/show]
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This exhibition of handmade ceramic work was created over three years in the ceramics studios at UCA, Farnham. The work is an exploration of the artist's own African and South African identities. The exhibition forms part of a practice-led PhD thesis entitled: Africa and the West: a contested dialogue in modern and contemporary ceramics.
The exhibition comprises three themes in which an animal or animal-related symbol has been used as a metaphor and a starting point for examining questions of identity and representation.
In the first phase this is relatively simple. Nguni cattle are synonymous with KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, where the artist comes from. In 'Object/ify', cattle forms are arranged to create a large herd-like grouping.
The second theme is centred on notions of official forms of identification and identity documents. The plastic ear tag commonly used to 'mark' cattle in commercial farming practices all over the world have been remade in clay in their hundreds, and suspended using silk thread.
The third animal symbol is more abstract. The group of insects known collectively as 'wood-borer' pose a significant threat to suburban houses in the port city of Durban, South Africa. To get rid of these insects, pest control companies use extermination tents. These large tarpaulins cover entire houses during fumigation. The striking forms of these giant 'skins' over houses have been translated into an installation of ceramic 'Extermination Tents' made from thin porcelain and terracotta paper clay. Inner structures of grey stoneware clay that echo scaffolding hold up some of these fragile tents. Through this careful grouping of objects, the project moves away from rural symbols. This draws more closely from the artist's own experience, that of growing up in an African city.
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