The lives and work of three women intersect in this exhibition – Bronwyn Findlay, Daina Mabunda and Faiza Galdhari. Each derive from a wholly different cultural and ethnic group and have consequently been moulded by divergent world views and experiences that are central to their creative expressions.
The vocabularies these artists have developed are inevitably drawn from their own surroundings and experiences, ideals and affinities. What links these women is their creativity and friendship, as well as shared experiences and vulnerabilities. Although they work independently, their work has interestingly manifest uncanny thematic and formal similarities.
Findlay, the co-ordinator of this exhibition, has long displayed a nurturing and inclusive tendency in supporting and encouraging creativity. She invited Mabunda and Galdhari to exhibit this year in what has turned our to be a crucial period in their respective lives: Findlay has recently been subject to retrenchment when the Fine Arts Department at the University of Durban-Westville was closed down in 2000.
Mabunda was recently divorced and has had to independently renew and further develop her own enterprise, product and market for her work, and Galdhari, a highly promising master*s graduate, one of the few Muslim artists in South Africa, has been challenged by her role as a mother, and devastated by the illness of her husband (a heart transplant recipient), resulting in a reclusiveness and revised iconography as she increasingly gravitates towards more devout Muslim practice.
This exhibition represents a turning point in their respective careers, as all are currently faced with significant choices and challenges, both in terms of future developments and emphases, but also in terms of more fundamental economic and logistical considerations. They are equally concerned with retaining their integrity.
A full colour catalogue accompanying the exhibition, with text by art historian Juliette leeb-du Toit, will also be on sale during the run of the exhibition.
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