https://iomakandal.com iomakandal Fri, 15 Nov 2024 11:22:02 +0000 https://iomakandal.com en https://iomakandal.com/A-Feral-Commons Fri, 15 Nov 2024 11:22:02 +0000 iomakandal https://iomakandal.com/A-Feral-Commons A Feral Commons: Johannesburg︎Aferalcommons Io Makandal |Commission public sculpture at Victoria Yards as part of the Global Co-commission under the curatorial theme A Feral Commons curated by Tairone Bastien. Ophidian’s Promise, public sculpture 2024-ongoing <img width="5400" height="3600" width_o="5400" height_o="3600" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b908f584198e135445c7260542d4c358d1f16e40946a3b8b441900d4ca05f96a/Io-Makandal-Documentation-135.jpg" data-mid="221815410" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b908f584198e135445c7260542d4c358d1f16e40946a3b8b441900d4ca05f96a/Io-Makandal-Documentation-135.jpg" /><img width="5706" height="3804" width_o="5706" height_o="3804" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2fbd0306dacf9f7d0d4ed2853c655f0a0643ffa12f873c20e20a73b052f71509/Victoria-Yards-_-Io-Makandal-_-Melanie-van-Zyl-12.jpg" data-mid="221815657" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2fbd0306dacf9f7d0d4ed2853c655f0a0643ffa12f873c20e20a73b052f71509/Victoria-Yards-_-Io-Makandal-_-Melanie-van-Zyl-12.jpg" /><img width="5400" height="3600" width_o="5400" height_o="3600" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3d279d132b42c918baaaf9f2744161ce47e5673f2ab105f7b9ecac6b0007445d/Io-Makandal-Documentation-247.jpg" data-mid="221815533" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3d279d132b42c918baaaf9f2744161ce47e5673f2ab105f7b9ecac6b0007445d/Io-Makandal-Documentation-247.jpg" /><img width="3600" height="5400" width_o="3600" height_o="5400" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f06af90be4cc12cb132fc0cb7c496aa59f605c3b14188eaa56d5cc185a2d47f8/Io-Makandal-Documentation-210.jpg" data-mid="221815534" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f06af90be4cc12cb132fc0cb7c496aa59f605c3b14188eaa56d5cc185a2d47f8/Io-Makandal-Documentation-210.jpg" /><img width="5398" height="2980" width_o="5398" height_o="2980" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d03ec72c783f70a56e253ca8377724223bc9000ff583658b50d610613dcdbd15/Io-Makandal-vy-Oct2024-4crop.jpg" data-mid="221815612" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d03ec72c783f70a56e253ca8377724223bc9000ff583658b50d610613dcdbd15/Io-Makandal-vy-Oct2024-4crop.jpg" /><img width="3428" height="2524" width_o="3428" height_o="2524" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c24a5140c4499419b86fa020a342cf899dcca067e5bc1d695db8c3b9151b8311/Io-Makandal-vy-Oct2024-102-crop.jpg" data-mid="221815622" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c24a5140c4499419b86fa020a342cf899dcca067e5bc1d695db8c3b9151b8311/Io-Makandal-vy-Oct2024-102-crop.jpg" /> <img width="3600" height="5400" width_o="3600" height_o="5400" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b5c1098d65a0132e7ecf28bdf8a514c173cb3bf3b1de6ad25e8f280947cf1b4b/Io-Makandal-Documentation-189.jpg" data-mid="221815597" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b5c1098d65a0132e7ecf28bdf8a514c173cb3bf3b1de6ad25e8f280947cf1b4b/Io-Makandal-Documentation-189.jpg" /> A Feral Commons is a Global Co Commission public art project spearheaded by the Global Cultural Districts Network (GCDN), and led by Dubai-based Alserkal Advisory. Joint project partners are Kingston Creative in Kingston, Jamaica and Victoria Yards in Johannesburg, South Africa. The project is supported by Urban Art Projects, who are implementing tools to gauge the carbon footprint of the project.Under the title A Feral Commons, the curatorial theme proposes an alternative vision of the commons, which is usually defined as land or resources shared by all people within a community. Instead, this project invites artists to illuminate human and non-human entanglements and explore a more radical understanding of what the commons could mean in a multi-species world. The theme draws upon vi-sionary American anthropologist Anna Tsing’s scholarship and writing on open-ended inter-species gatherings and non-human participants in human projects that are described as feral because they participate independently, resisting human control. Ophidian’s Promise is a public artwork comprising of an urban wildlife eco-duct and a moss wall text. The eco-duct is built with historical clay bricks sourced from the area to make a holding space for the soil and endangered Soweto highveld biome grasses and plants that create the safe passage for urban wildlife over the Jukskei river culvert. The sculpture references the form of a snake as the symbolic more-than-human guardian of rivers. This artistic gesture invites the human back into relationship with the waterbody and its surrounding life forms to encourage civic care over this precarious water source in a time of anthropocentric climate change. The ground making project as the first eco-duct in Johannesburg, sets out to foreground urban ecologies and wildlife as an integral part of the urbanity that depends upon it. https://iomakandal.com/Entangles-Intimacies Fri, 15 Nov 2024 10:49:52 +0000 iomakandal https://iomakandal.com/Entangles-Intimacies Entangled Intimacies, Goethe Institute Johannesburg︎Entanglesintimacies Io Makandal | Group Show curated by Rory Thomas with artists Natalie Paneng and&nbsp;Tzung-Hui Lauren Lee 10/02/2023 - 06 / 05 /2023 <img width="3798" height="2532" width_o="3798" height_o="2532" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6df7706dbe82302c604ea40e8bf6ac819d9c04a59bf9d16783d595951aaf7d93/Io-Makandal_-Clay-impressions-Goethe-Institute_Entangled-Intimacies-2023.jpg" data-mid="221813596" border="0" data-scale="88" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6df7706dbe82302c604ea40e8bf6ac819d9c04a59bf9d16783d595951aaf7d93/Io-Makandal_-Clay-impressions-Goethe-Institute_Entangled-Intimacies-2023.jpg" /><img width="2539" height="3809" width_o="2539" height_o="3809" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f48f2e2e349c394d20623723cef002119234bb04946067dbba1d670cb3c29bfe/Exhibition-3.jpg" data-mid="221813251" border="0" data-scale="88" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f48f2e2e349c394d20623723cef002119234bb04946067dbba1d670cb3c29bfe/Exhibition-3.jpg" /><img width="2450" height="3675" width_o="2450" height_o="3675" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e05753364a919d60354734964f8d9efb8d13030d8d1322fcc4c1984635b9a7f6/Exhibition-7.jpg" data-mid="221813778" border="0" data-scale="88" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e05753364a919d60354734964f8d9efb8d13030d8d1322fcc4c1984635b9a7f6/Exhibition-7.jpg" /><img width="2529" height="3794" width_o="2529" height_o="3794" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0b97b8933d061fe4745731206dd6d76cb36d70a7dafd19fcfda904b4ae987f6a/Exhibition-19.jpg" data-mid="221813275" border="0" data-scale="88" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0b97b8933d061fe4745731206dd6d76cb36d70a7dafd19fcfda904b4ae987f6a/Exhibition-19.jpg" />Entangled Intimacies is an arts-based and curatorial research endeavour that seeks to explore (to a necessarily limited degree) what it might mean to not only be situated within ecological chaos, but to quite literally embody it. This work hopes to find differentiated ways of relating to more-than-human worlds through art in an attempt to evade anthropocentric thinking and the environmental degradation it perpetuates. Featuring new experiential and predominantly installation-based works from Johannesburgbased artists Tzung-Hui Lauren Lee, Io Makandal, and Natalie Paneng, this exhibition, in line with the complexities of ecological thinking, stands as a transdisciplinary and durational spatial experiment. Through mutable practices of artistic worldbuilding and exploration, the works featured in the show – which are open to change and variation throughout its three-month timeline – present opportunities for thinking-, feeling-, and becoming-with the varied terrestrial beings with which we share this intimate planetary bond. Spanning a variety of interdisciplinary modes of artmaking, the works in the Entangled Intimacies exhibition extend their conceptual and material reach far beyond any singular or normative critique of climate change. Ranging from monumental considerations of global atmospheric conditions, to subtle durational reflections on errant landscapes, and the impacts of interconnected digitality on more-than-human worlds, this exhibition tacitly poses an opportunity to engage the climate catastrophe otherwise. The Entangled Intimacies programme will also feature a collection of events centred around its conceptual and aesthetic themes. Sometime during its run, the show will also be supplemented by a co-authored and collaborative forthcoming publication designed to be engaged in conjunction with the central themes of the exhibitionary element. This exhibition is presented as part of the Young Curators Incubator – a programme conceived in collaboration between the Goethe-Institut Johannesburg and the Wits School of Arts History of Art department. The exhibition is curated by Rory Thomas. https://iomakandal.com/Soil-Conversations Mon, 24 Jul 2023 21:02:00 +0000 iomakandal https://iomakandal.com/Soil-Conversations Soil Conversations / Berlin &amp; Johannesburg︎Soilconversationsproject Io Makandal | Group Show curated by Nisha Merit and Yolanda Kaddu with artists&nbsp;Lungiswa Gqunta, MADEYOULOOK, Io Makandal, Silvia Noronha, Nnenna Onuoha, Natalie Paneng, Theresa Schubert, Gemma Shepherd &amp; Rochelle Nembhard, Mia Thom 26/05/2023 - 18 / 11 /2023 <img width="1125" height="1121" width_o="1125" height_o="1121" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e4760d4a718e6e71fd377ddb2a9982dcc7612245eb6ebff3ad7373609fd057e8/2023-06-11-09.22.53.jpg" data-mid="186285435" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e4760d4a718e6e71fd377ddb2a9982dcc7612245eb6ebff3ad7373609fd057e8/2023-06-11-09.22.53.jpg" /><img width="1125" height="1110" width_o="1125" height_o="1110" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b069a30f3eef526975ac90bd7d18dd777568c6dceb88a8efa9fb2c87b97404ff/2023-06-11-09.23.49.jpg" data-mid="186285437" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b069a30f3eef526975ac90bd7d18dd777568c6dceb88a8efa9fb2c87b97404ff/2023-06-11-09.23.49.jpg" /><img width="1125" height="1049" width_o="1125" height_o="1049" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1c0a186ea0662d51a4a5f5a786a143462f6b03ba9ab7264ab37850d43b08fb0a/2023-06-11-09.23.30-1.jpg" data-mid="186285436" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1c0a186ea0662d51a4a5f5a786a143462f6b03ba9ab7264ab37850d43b08fb0a/2023-06-11-09.23.30-1.jpg" /> <img width="1125" height="1109" width_o="1125" height_o="1109" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e74bd37a9c270228afd522567835b13a9d1ad9038307581b03f9dbec664bbb46/2023-06-11-09.24.08.jpg" data-mid="186285438" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e74bd37a9c270228afd522567835b13a9d1ad9038307581b03f9dbec664bbb46/2023-06-11-09.24.08.jpg" /><img width="2126" height="1290" width_o="2126" height_o="1290" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3411c550983ec183e092e257731426b490e5614a4185e1c74948508542dee8bc/IMG_8382.JPG" data-mid="185972914" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3411c550983ec183e092e257731426b490e5614a4185e1c74948508542dee8bc/IMG_8382.JPG" /> SOIL CONVERSATIONS&nbsp;presents a series of propositions, stretching over time and space. Concerning history and possible futures while thinking with&nbsp;soil&nbsp;as something rhizomatic, it questions the concept of linearity, making a case for the interstitial. What does it mean to think with — and of —&nbsp;soil&nbsp;as a space of meaning and identity making? As a space for excavation? As an archive of history and a political actor? Under the proposition “soil is everything” the exhibition offers a look at the granularity of the ground we stand and build life on, as a moment of close observation, where details, parts and particles become traces of a whole. The exhibition investigates the relationship between ourselves and the environment we live in, both in digital and analogue spheres. Topics of land, history, spirituality and the body — as physical manifestation and theoretical representation — are integral parts of the artworks part of&nbsp;Soil&nbsp;Conversations.By defying a linear ontology of history, Soil&nbsp;Conversations&nbsp;seeks to explore the plurality of the past, and future scenarios which lead into the unknown, aiming to engage with the speculative as a defining position of the here and now, and as a relationship between us and the world — the inner and outer space. Following the presentation at GALERIE IM KÖRNERPARK (26 May - 27 August 2023), the exhibition will take place at JOHANNESBURG ART GALLERY from August 27 to November 18, 2023. This Too Shall Pass: iteration #3 2023 Natural fibre carpet, coconut husk, soil, effective micro-organisms, seeds, LED grow lights, 250 x 345 cm This Too Shall Pass is the artists’ long-term engagement and investigation into transformation and process with cycles of decay and growth.&nbsp;Often soil is perceived as inert and stable. The artist has set up a condition for the materials to react and perform in collaboration with the human. Using commodified generated soil, which is displaced and&nbsp;without any identity or place, and stimulating its aliveness through human interaction,&nbsp;will over time&nbsp;wield&nbsp;the carpet - a cultural object - as a resource to&nbsp;digest and grow from&nbsp;in an environment that is largely considered sterile, preserving, and distant from the touch. It investigates the idea of material culture as static and calls on us to reposition our ideas of value - between holding on and letting go.&nbsp;With this durational artwork, the audience is invited to&nbsp;partake in the observation of the process and send an image to the @Soil_Conversations and @iomakandal instergram accounts to form part of the archive. https://iomakandal.com/Listening-Garden Wed, 03 May 2023 20:32:09 +0000 iomakandal https://iomakandal.com/Listening-Garden Listening Garden / Rupert Foundation Social Impact Arts Awarded Project︎SocialImpact2022 Io Makandal | Listening GardenAwarded ongoing site specific project at Jukskei River, Viljoen St, Johannesburg&nbsp;01.10.22 – ongoing The Listening Garden is situated along the left bank of the Jukskei River culvert at Viljoen Street, Lorentzville, Johannesburg and forms part of the Water For The Future rehabilitation pilot project area along the river.&nbsp; The garden is made up of a variety of endangered grasses and plants belonging to the Soweto highveld grassland biome endemic to the area. Text written by Chloë Reid Johannesburg is built on a watershed, a ridge that runs roughly East to West. Rainwater ends up either in the Atlantic or the Indian Ocean, depending on which side of the ridge it falls. When it rains on the north side, water flows into the Jukskei River, absorbing the city’s stark socio-economic disparities along its course. Channelled through feeble and patchy infrastructure, the Jukskei is vulnerable to waste and sewerage from the commercial, industrial and residential environments through which it passes. In the rainy season, the residential spaces and informal settlements further along its northerly course, are especially vulnerable to the Jukskei and all it has gathered. In Makandal’s work, these terms and the framework they engender are expressed through material choices and processes. The river, humans, industry, plant life and microorganisms are considered performers or participants within a given ecosystem. Makandal seeks to draw out these relationships through her practice, to recognise and marvel at the innate untidiness and entanglement of being. Her living sculpture is a monument to this bricolage code, composed of urban detritus and seeds from the endangered Soweto Highveld grassland biome. Originating from the area on different timescales, the debris and seeds encase and envelop one another, becoming material agents within an amalgamated ecology. Alongside the river and living sculpture, Makandal is working with children from the community to envision and develop a quiet and beautiful space through planting and seating built into a grassy embankment. Makandal’s vision of an opportunistic plantscape refuses to simmer or dwell on the destruction wrought by human intervention on the landscape, preferring instead to celebrate and encourage the symbiotic relations that flourish within dense urban environments. The Jukskei springs in the suburb of Ellis Park, running under the city through concrete channels, until it emerges in Lorentzville. It then flows above and below ground through areas of semi-industrial development as well as precarious and under-resourced neighbourhoods such as Alexandra Township before moving on to wealthy suburbs and estates, including Dainfern and Steyn City in the North. The first expression of the Jukskei in Lorentzville, its ‘daylight point’, is the site of Io Makandal’s ‘Listening Garden’, which builds on existing work aimed at fostering meaningful relationships between the river and the surrounding community. Through the careful landscaping of Soweto Highveld grasses endemic to the area, embankment seating and a durational ‘living sculpture’, the project offers a space for contemplation and reflection for those who live and work alongside the river. Lorentzville is home to an impoverished, multicultural community as well as the upmarket studio and retail complex Victoria Yards, populated by artisans, artists and designers. Accessed through Victoria Yards but with public access points, the Listening Garden intersects with the work of ‘Water for the Future’ and ‘SafeStudy’. The former is an organisation that rehabilitates the Jukskei River to the social, economic and creative advantage of those who share it. The latter is an educational initiative that supports young learners in the area. The Listening Garden is designed to complement these two projects, with young people who live in Lorentzville as its primary audience and collaborators. Listening forms an integral part of this process, both for Makandal, as she develops a sensory understanding of the site, and for the garden, where the sound of the river is clearly audible and serves as an indicator of the river’s presence and participation within a complex and changing ecosystem. ‘Entropy’, ‘third landscape’ and ‘opportunistic plantscape’ are terms that have encircled Makandal’s practice for several years and have a close bearing on her decision to position her work within this particular environment. ‘Entropy’ refers broadly to a state of randomness and disorder, the unravelling of a system or structure. Attributed to Gilles Clément, the ‘third landscape’ delineates the in-between, indeterminate space that persists within built environments. The ‘third landscape’ is perhaps more easily described by what it is not – by what this lack of specificity produces. The term ‘opportunistic plantscape’ (which is Makandal’s own) lends agency to hybrid ecologies that emerge unbidden despite urban development and human intervention. Gathered together, these slippery and mutable terms work to acknowledge the complexities underlying urban environments and motivate for a reconfiguration of the way in which humans coexist with natural resources, plant-life and micro-matter. <img width="4500" height="3000" width_o="4500" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/57d5ec66501255ec6aade74dc23435fcf48e8e09cbd2adad5d63698328e3ff80/LISTENING-GARDEN-07NOV-50.jpg" data-mid="181737549" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/57d5ec66501255ec6aade74dc23435fcf48e8e09cbd2adad5d63698328e3ff80/LISTENING-GARDEN-07NOV-50.jpg" /><img width="4500" height="3000" width_o="4500" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7488d8c5128db380fb58a547c9520fe0b62ce32fb3d3946e6142270eeaf5b12e/LISTENING-GARDEN-07NOV-152.jpg" data-mid="181737974" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7488d8c5128db380fb58a547c9520fe0b62ce32fb3d3946e6142270eeaf5b12e/LISTENING-GARDEN-07NOV-152.jpg" /><img width="3000" height="4500" width_o="3000" height_o="4500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2140a108abe47d76063f813ae57c66acf3c997e3a573ea8c4b393e14c90fdcd1/LISTENING-GARDEN-07NOV-63.jpg" data-mid="181738054" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2140a108abe47d76063f813ae57c66acf3c997e3a573ea8c4b393e14c90fdcd1/LISTENING-GARDEN-07NOV-63.jpg" /><img width="4500" height="3000" width_o="4500" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/250ef08eb2c11f92a901ae01d0a5b511ea33c98773088c9e88ec6333f79ef536/LISTENING-GARDEN-07NOV-98.jpg" data-mid="181738176" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/250ef08eb2c11f92a901ae01d0a5b511ea33c98773088c9e88ec6333f79ef536/LISTENING-GARDEN-07NOV-98.jpg" /><img width="4500" height="3000" width_o="4500" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/75cca4699364e716682f503b395507e11bd9c59fab16710198bf20d5d6344165/LISTENING-GARDEN-07NOV-149.jpg" data-mid="181738347" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/75cca4699364e716682f503b395507e11bd9c59fab16710198bf20d5d6344165/LISTENING-GARDEN-07NOV-149.jpg" /><img width="3000" height="4500" width_o="3000" height_o="4500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7175ccb67b2b43c9789202877abdc363cd8a690ae1bdbd0d6b0aab9cf623ba93/LISTENING-GARDEN-07NOV-27.jpg" data-mid="181738444" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7175ccb67b2b43c9789202877abdc363cd8a690ae1bdbd0d6b0aab9cf623ba93/LISTENING-GARDEN-07NOV-27.jpg" /> https://iomakandal.com/Opportunistic-Plantscapes Sun, 15 May 2022 20:53:38 +0000 iomakandal https://iomakandal.com/Opportunistic-Plantscapes Opportunistic Plantscapes / MFA exhibition︎thepointoforder Io Makandal | Opportunistic PlantscapesMasters in Fine Arts, Practical Exhibition, The Point of Order, Wits Art School, Johannesburg.31.01.22 – 11.02.22 Opportunistic Plantscape: Composting Feral Topographies explores vegetal relations in the urban layout and gestures towards plant potentials to expand a more-than-human perception. Over the duration of the exhibition Makandal will continue to work in the opportunistic plantscape set up at The Point of Order as a “living studio / greenhouse / garden”, playing with material and formal pairings, juxtapositions and gradual composting from one state into another as chance exchanges, contaminations and conversations are encouraged to emerge and culminate into entropy. The exhibition features a variety of vegetal sculpture, drawing, photography and installation that together create an immersive plantscape that invites one to ask, what constitutes vegetal being? <img width="5315" height="3543" width_o="5315" height_o="3543" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/39043f147925afdcf52208c8273e96f3709b9737109eb10d1a2710dba586acd5/Io-Makandal_Amaranth09_45x30cm.jpg" data-mid="142670992" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/39043f147925afdcf52208c8273e96f3709b9737109eb10d1a2710dba586acd5/Io-Makandal_Amaranth09_45x30cm.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="3000" width_o="2000" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6a5acdf6fdb5b5efe423cb5f313297593148e2a484cc614ad829c55b5cf77069/Io-Makandal-Plantscape-38_sml.jpg" data-mid="142672086" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6a5acdf6fdb5b5efe423cb5f313297593148e2a484cc614ad829c55b5cf77069/Io-Makandal-Plantscape-38_sml.jpg" /> <img width="2835" height="1890" width_o="2835" height_o="1890" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/110bb3ec175d79b91819bd273918b8e442df9d28b1557eec875e799750c4bb59/Io-Makandal_concrete-plant-relations16_24x16cm.jpg" data-mid="142670996" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/110bb3ec175d79b91819bd273918b8e442df9d28b1557eec875e799750c4bb59/Io-Makandal_concrete-plant-relations16_24x16cm.jpg" /> <img width="3000" height="2000" width_o="3000" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/eafed8e97dc5b792b5fb256c2d29101f6df47379a33a735e39cc932e131929ef/Io-Makandal-Plantscape-60_sml.jpg" data-mid="142672087" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/eafed8e97dc5b792b5fb256c2d29101f6df47379a33a735e39cc932e131929ef/Io-Makandal-Plantscape-60_sml.jpg" /> <img width="3000" height="2000" width_o="3000" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4a81b542554db9dafd7c6670e707a18d56d1eaf22014e3d8de7bd4bf993de7b0/Io-Makandal-Plantscape-63_sml.jpg" data-mid="142672088" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4a81b542554db9dafd7c6670e707a18d56d1eaf22014e3d8de7bd4bf993de7b0/Io-Makandal-Plantscape-63_sml.jpg" /> <img width="3012" height="2008" width_o="3012" height_o="2008" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/24bf80b82484ab59ab524d8ac59f2ce9a3a02245bbcaec43e0b475dc6605b6d1/Io-Makandal_concrete-plant-relations09_51x34cm.jpg" data-mid="142671002" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/24bf80b82484ab59ab524d8ac59f2ce9a3a02245bbcaec43e0b475dc6605b6d1/Io-Makandal_concrete-plant-relations09_51x34cm.jpg" /> <img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/75c6be958d146fdc5e258111fbceb5e75959bb44df5a04a69fa16e2df17a0eab/Io-Makandal-Plantscape-75.jpg" data-mid="142671477" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/75c6be958d146fdc5e258111fbceb5e75959bb44df5a04a69fa16e2df17a0eab/Io-Makandal-Plantscape-75.jpg" /> <img width="4000" height="6000" width_o="4000" height_o="6000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d69b7066ba00f01caf241746ec4f93a5287521cf29338fb21a6f2bab6f99ac52/Io-Makandal-Plantscape-3.jpg" data-mid="142671416" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d69b7066ba00f01caf241746ec4f93a5287521cf29338fb21a6f2bab6f99ac52/Io-Makandal-Plantscape-3.jpg" /> <img width="4000" height="6000" width_o="4000" height_o="6000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ea59d10d129ec25fe8bfc63a47fc6f1c198c3bc4ca13f1c76b4e889c774c2fd6/Io-Makandal-Plantscape-5.jpg" data-mid="142671484" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ea59d10d129ec25fe8bfc63a47fc6f1c198c3bc4ca13f1c76b4e889c774c2fd6/Io-Makandal-Plantscape-5.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="3000" width_o="2000" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d838ec5f4aa49e79c403f612145dcb4cc2ba18e26a6df46154f97d83b88639bf/Io-Makandal-Plantscape-20_sml.jpg" data-mid="142672274" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d838ec5f4aa49e79c403f612145dcb4cc2ba18e26a6df46154f97d83b88639bf/Io-Makandal-Plantscape-20_sml.jpg" /> <img width="4000" height="6000" width_o="4000" height_o="6000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e7f724624ec197354e2c0e792a42d1774d833fd7ad966ccd5030c76f6ad061ce/Io-Makandal-Plantscape-21.jpg" data-mid="142671584" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e7f724624ec197354e2c0e792a42d1774d833fd7ad966ccd5030c76f6ad061ce/Io-Makandal-Plantscape-21.jpg" /> https://iomakandal.com/Extant-Rewilding Sun, 15 May 2022 19:53:03 +0000 iomakandal https://iomakandal.com/Extant-Rewilding Extant Rewilding / Living Sculpture︎waterforthefuture Io Makandal | Extant RewildingLiving Sculpture, Jukskei River, Water For The Future, Johannesburg.01.01.21 – on-growing <img width="3543" height="2362" width_o="3543" height_o="2362" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8d060f26206218f2f5ec5f6c9523b88dc01069d697656a9d58fabf9d5122b58d/Io-Makandal_Extant-Rewilding01_Dec-2021-30x20cm.jpg" data-mid="142667683" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8d060f26206218f2f5ec5f6c9523b88dc01069d697656a9d58fabf9d5122b58d/Io-Makandal_Extant-Rewilding01_Dec-2021-30x20cm.jpg" /> Text by Jess WebsterExtant Rewilding(2021) is a living sculpture made by Johannesburg artist Io Makandal (1987-). Composed of concrete debris, sand, clay, soil and seeds, the work symbolizes the relationship between living and dying in the modern-day chronicles of nature and industry, urban ecology and architecture. Piles of concrete rubble, the result of development or repair, punctuate the city of Johannesburg. Subtly shifting one’s associations with this waste matter, the artist has shaped the pile into a mound that resonates with ancient cairns – those ritual sites of burial and memory that are found the world over. The mound is also womb-like in its function as an atmospheric condenser. As it draws moisture back into ground-water levels, the mound becomes a site of gestation and germination. In the center stands a pillar of sand, soil, and clay, encasing endangered Soweto Highlands Grassland&nbsp;seeds. The pillar represents a phallus&nbsp;that&nbsp;will&nbsp;slowly break down and sow the seeds, covering the concrete with wild grass to create an alternative terra-scape in the brownfields of Johannesburg city. <img width="1772" height="1181" width_o="1772" height_o="1181" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3ec76ac55c511356fe4968a2cb584e9aa5f7a807eab59b774f330fd0490c848f/Io-Makandal_Extant-rewilding03_Dec-2021_15x10cm.jpg" data-mid="142670177" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3ec76ac55c511356fe4968a2cb584e9aa5f7a807eab59b774f330fd0490c848f/Io-Makandal_Extant-rewilding03_Dec-2021_15x10cm.jpg" /> <img width="1772" height="1181" width_o="1772" height_o="1181" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f539dd415102d141567f63561485ee608b4c9cc3eaaf35cf178d91f7d34b44cb/Io-Makandal_Extant-Rewilding04_Dec-2021_15x10cm.jpg" data-mid="142670178" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f539dd415102d141567f63561485ee608b4c9cc3eaaf35cf178d91f7d34b44cb/Io-Makandal_Extant-Rewilding04_Dec-2021_15x10cm.jpg" /> <img width="1063" height="709" width_o="1063" height_o="709" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c56d0256a0ed51d4c7680fecc1d1c159ab7ff9fa022f70352292885a035a8c61/Io-Makandal_Extant-rewilding07_Oct-2021_9x6cm.jpg" data-mid="142670303" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c56d0256a0ed51d4c7680fecc1d1c159ab7ff9fa022f70352292885a035a8c61/Io-Makandal_Extant-rewilding07_Oct-2021_9x6cm.jpg" /> <img width="4500" height="3000" width_o="4500" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e1ae925b2d842ab369f061ad5b9ac80ad4b62ecc501ea6ac1871ccf3e4c02ec2/Io-Makandal--Victoria-Yards---Oct-2021-49.jpg" data-mid="142670328" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e1ae925b2d842ab369f061ad5b9ac80ad4b62ecc501ea6ac1871ccf3e4c02ec2/Io-Makandal--Victoria-Yards---Oct-2021-49.jpg" /> https://iomakandal.com/What-is-a-weed Mon, 17 May 2021 21:12:51 +0000 iomakandal https://iomakandal.com/What-is-a-weed What is a Weed? / Digital Project︎whatisaweed? Io Makandal and Eve Tagny | What is a Weed?Leonard &amp; Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Montreal.01.02.21 – 16.05.21 <img width="1160" height="642" width_o="1160" height_o="642" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ecc5585ef481a2a023306f5bf5ffb7f5ccc47ed338b629a7871438ed26f0dac3/New-promo-image_website.jpg" data-mid="108734930" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ecc5585ef481a2a023306f5bf5ffb7f5ccc47ed338b629a7871438ed26f0dac3/New-promo-image_website.jpg" /> EXPLORE THE PROJECT HERE SIGHTINGSMEASURES Launched in 2012 in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Leonard &amp; Bina Ellen Art Gallery’s Permanent Collection, the SIGHTINGS satellite exhibition program was conceived as an experimental platform to critically reflect upon the possibilities and limitations of the modernist “white cube.” As part of this program, artists and curators are invited to develop projects for a cubic display unit located in a public space at the university, with the aim of generating new strategies for art dissemination. The 2020-2021 SIGHTINGS programming takes place outside the limits of Concordia’s Hall Building to unfold online in response to the stakes of the cube, itself reformatted as an open and virtual site. The cycle of projects will work with the notion of measures—as a means of negotiation, calculation and representation of slippery in-between zones. Measures are commonly referred to as abstracted indicators or as a set of regulatory actions and procedures designed and implemented to manage, prevent or redress a situation: over time, new measures become default standard practices. The current edition of SIGHTINGS contemplates measures as a way to interpret and confront the subtle and not so subtle agents that indistinctly permeate beings, spaces, and things, invisibly link them and regulate their relations; those determinants of distance and proximity, access and isolation. The SIGHTINGS program is developed by Julia Eilers Smith. SIGHTINGS 31 - Io Makandal and Eve TagnyFebruary 1 – May 16, 2021 A collaborative online project co-created by Eve Tagny and Io Makandal “What is a weed? Oh, what is a weed?”– Julian Bannerman, Great Gardens: Trematon Castle A weedis defined as a plant growing freely where it’s not wanted. Therefore, its characterization is purely based on human notions of desirability in a given context, rather than on any other of its properties. Vegetal practices such as landscaping and gardening have a long history of control and conditioning of nature — the desire to tame it in accordance with human’s use of space — “weeding” out undesirable plants is a part of these practices. What potential then lies in relinquishing control to these undesirables? Is this ground for a rewilding revolution, a quiet resistance or an unrealistic utopia? A weed,an undervalued plant, a displaced plant, yet, a plant that not only grows but thrives in disturbed areas and its soil, holding ground together with others, their strong roots acting as little healers of the wounds of depleted earth. When allowed to survive within the urban environment, weeds claim their occupation in the liminal, in between, left-over spaces — the “Tiers Paysage” (Third Landscape) as defined by gardener and author Gilles Clément. Weeds,known for their vigorous, at times aggressive growth, populate these new territories of nature, providing grounds for thinking about adaptability and resilience on contested lands. Through a cross-continental, collaborative methodology, What is a weed? attempts to map out a plant-centric third landscape, letting weeds act as a guide through reflections and investigations that touch on questions of desirability, patterns of migration, botanical colonialism, ruptures between body and nature, and the tensions between organic and synthetic environments. Io Makandal is an interdisciplinary artist based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Working primarily with drawing, photography, organic matter and installation, her practice is concerned with feminist and environmental embodiments of process, entropy, the binary between nature and artifice, living and dying, urban ecology and hybrid environments during a time of environmental shift. Eve Tagny is a Tiohtià:ke/Montreal-based artist. Her practice focuses on the correlations between the bereavement process and nature’s rhythms, cycles, forms and materials, which serve as the ultimate guides for renewal. Navigating between writing, photography, video and installation, her work explores the various pathways of resiliency adopted by culturally hybrid communities in order to free themselves of colonial and patriarchal heritages and formulate sustainable futurities. We would like to thank Alex Nawotka and Carms Ng for the web development of this project, Charlotte Dion for providing first phase assistance, as well as Julia Eilers Smith and the team at the Leonard &amp; Bina Ellen Art Gallery. As artists leading this project animated by interrogations about nature – landscape – environment, we want to acknowledge that we are doing so while being located on colonised indigenous lands. As we aim to reconsider and challenge inherited Western imperialistic perceptions of and relationships with nature, we recognize that we benefit from settler privilege. The amount of security provided by this allows us to take steps such as this one, towards unlearning mechanisms and approaches detrimental to sustainable and egalitarian futures. https://iomakandal.com/Terra-Visions Sun, 27 Dec 2020 09:06:55 +0000 iomakandal https://iomakandal.com/Terra-Visions Terra visions / Solo Exhibition︎ everardreadgallery Io Makandal | Terra VisionsSolo Exhibition at Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town.08.10.20 – 29.10.20 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<img width="4912" height="7360" width_o="4912" height_o="7360" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7e224d5870d8bd6812feb203ac75d3d3feaa7b7b9556135e002a4ae6fc9fe89d/BXJ-6.jpg" data-mid="93155803" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7e224d5870d8bd6812feb203ac75d3d3feaa7b7b9556135e002a4ae6fc9fe89d/BXJ-6.jpg" /> <img width="3844" height="5399" width_o="3844" height_o="5399" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3add4dd4bd178c3582049506e63a64349e4e29bf936c2d635b0c527cfd3f0860/Io_Makandal_Speculative-Fabulation_2020_141x100cm_Mixed-Media-on-Fabriano.jpg" data-mid="93161043" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3add4dd4bd178c3582049506e63a64349e4e29bf936c2d635b0c527cfd3f0860/Io_Makandal_Speculative-Fabulation_2020_141x100cm_Mixed-Media-on-Fabriano.jpg" /> <img width="4912" height="7309" width_o="4912" height_o="7309" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0fb2d9f2dc4ced18dad1c563eb4ccfff797206ed64af11d6e060c8c77a56351d/BXJ-43.jpg" data-mid="93155828" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0fb2d9f2dc4ced18dad1c563eb4ccfff797206ed64af11d6e060c8c77a56351d/BXJ-43.jpg" /> <img width="4912" height="7360" width_o="4912" height_o="7360" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5ffcf2684bd884e1d927599ee05772e8fc0f61d5982ad1c248f2b56090f4b8ea/BXJ-74.jpg" data-mid="93155840" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5ffcf2684bd884e1d927599ee05772e8fc0f61d5982ad1c248f2b56090f4b8ea/BXJ-74.jpg" /> <img width="4811" height="7316" width_o="4811" height_o="7316" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/acd2c64cbd38ad8d36b707962f2af660557b2eda76942c73f1900a5e0f4cdf71/BXJ-9.jpg" data-mid="93155809" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/acd2c64cbd38ad8d36b707962f2af660557b2eda76942c73f1900a5e0f4cdf71/BXJ-9.jpg" /> <img width="7360" height="4912" width_o="7360" height_o="4912" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4453f8b817334acc6e40bae3757f977b1325a6a7af14433f3ef2b1ff86f0a753/BXJ-23.jpg" data-mid="93155822" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4453f8b817334acc6e40bae3757f977b1325a6a7af14433f3ef2b1ff86f0a753/BXJ-23.jpg" /><img width="2636" height="3702" width_o="2636" height_o="3702" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6116800d2396eeb1b70d876a5ec4150df5244d6d7ffb886f8f20699f1370bd21/Io_Makandal_Matter-Mattering-II_2020_100x70cm_mixed-media-on-Fabriano.jpg" data-mid="93160959" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6116800d2396eeb1b70d876a5ec4150df5244d6d7ffb886f8f20699f1370bd21/Io_Makandal_Matter-Mattering-II_2020_100x70cm_mixed-media-on-Fabriano.jpg" /> Essay by Ashraf Jamal REWILDING – IO MAKANDAL ‘To contaminate, to keep things intertwined in a transformative mutualism is to be sticky with the trouble on terra, now. How else does one envision these speculative futures, if not to look through and think with the earth, with every non-human thing and being in and on earth to create terra visions.’ What’s in a name? In the case of Io Makandal much that deserves our attention. Given the artist’s concern with the imbalance built into binary systems, be they technological, ecological, social, or political, her first name, Io – pronounced I/O – is a striking moniker. The definitions vary: input/output, industrial/organisational, instead of, in out, interoperability, insertion order, instrument operator (land surveying), idiot operator (as in an I/O error). Makandal delights in the acronym, then tells me that Io also Jupiter’s largest moon, the most volcanically active in our solar system. Makandal keeps all these readings in play, but what most compels the artist is how we absorb the imbalances within perceived order and alter an inherited Western Enlightenment project which has come to define the way we see and experience the world. Binarity diminishes complexity. For Makandal, we are not the sum of an oppositional or dualistic logic, despite the fact this logic informs all systems today, be it technological, juridical, familial, or socio-political in the broadest sense. That we have become increasingly averse to binary systems – despite their dominance – is evident in the drive towards ‘fluidity’ in the case of gender politics, or ‘rewilding’ in the case of nature conservation. If Makandal sees dualism as a limiting faculty, it is because, after the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze, she intuits that systems work because they do not work, that they are designed to suppress greater difficulty, uncertainty, and innovation. Nassim Nicholas Taleb shares this view, noting the importance of ‘uncertainty, randomness, probability, disorder … in a world we don’t understand’. No one can dispute that today we find ourselves confronted with an end game. There is much talk of the moral bankruptcy of systems, received practices and modes of conduct. Ours is the Age of the Anthropocene, a man-made world that is fast destroying the earth’s ecosystem by subjecting it to the arrogance and narcissism of human need. Ours is not a consumer age but a consumptive one in which human gratification is the plus ultraor ‘further beyond’ of a nihilistic drive or built-in death instinct. Io Makandal is not exercised by this deathly instinct, which for Friedrich Nietzsche is the root of decadence, but with what we must do in the face of its consuming control of our lives and systems. If COVID 19 tells us anything, it is that we are not immune, that a zoonotic infectious disease can leap from animal to animal, non-human to human, and radically arrest all known function. The extremity of this arrest, resulting in a global lockdown, is the most glaring indicator of the vulnerability of all systems, all kingdoms, be they natural or secular, or, more tellingly, their combination. Because no one thing is easily distinguishable from another, life interpenetrative, it follows that we need to be attentive to the co-dependent interoperability of all living organisms. This is the grounding premise of Makandal’s 2020 showing at Everard Read’s Circa Gallery, Terra Visions. Her primary focus is not pathogenic, it is sympoetic. She is not concerned with a viral exchange but an inter-generative one. In her world death does not come after life, it is a vital dimension of living, ‘to engage with theact of the sympoetic processes of living with dying.’ Terra Visions– which follows her 2019 show Life in the Entropics– continues a preoccupation with entropy, the degree of disorder or randomness in systems. &nbsp;If entropy is vital to Makandal’s vision it is because it absorbs difficulty and allows for the inevitability of change – for a constant chaos. If hers is a heretical vision it is because Makandal compels us to rethink dogma and faith, specifically with regard to art. As the critic, Jerry Saltz, wittily remarked, ‘Venice is the perfect place for a phase of art to die. No other city on earth embraces entropy like this magical floating mall’. Saltz’s view has a deeper cogency. The emporia that houses art – an art gallery or art fair, a private home or public thoroughfare – are all, in varying ways, a ‘floating mall’, sites suspended despite the avidity of their placement, which ask us to consider art’s role therein. In Makandal’s case, Circa Gallery located in Africa’s greatest shopping mall, the V&amp;A Waterfront, is a fitting location to examine the interoperability of art in-and-of the world. Unlike Saltz, however, Makandal is not preoccupied by a wry conceit, what interests her is the conversation of the organic and inorganic, natural and secular – art’s function in nature. Terra Visions&nbsp;is distributed across three platforms on the top floor of Circa, overlooking Africa’s shopping Mecca and the Atlantic Ocean. Sunlight, design’s natural influencer, is shot through opaque sheeting, the rest is electrified. It is the works which toll the exhibition’s primary theme – nature. Four floors are dominated by installations which fuse the organic and inorganic. Rusted metal rods twist out of concrete blocks … ‘weeds’ thrust upward and outward from glass vases … homespun dreamcatchers made of snapped branches and blown glass disks seem frozen in time … two carpets – a runner for a corridor, a broad rectangle for a lounge – are transformed into a ground for growth. The carpets are ‘at various stages of digestion … organisms, bacteria and other critters process and digest the woven fabric of human culture and society’. They are laid out in the sun, rain-drenched, then rolled up and left in a corner to “cure”, before covered with compost. Makandal’s intervention is irregular. What it tells us is that we need to break down, regrow, and rewild the world.&nbsp; Are Makandal’s weed-latched carpets the rafts which carry the living and the dead? Are they not afloat, suspended between worlds, the one familiar, the other strange? And is it not this estranging of a received norm which is the vital point? If weeds are integral to a world vision as bacterium it is because they are ‘plants out of place’. It is their disjunctive seemingly random placement that is the key to Terra Visions. Literally and conceptually, her works are digestive, organic, bacterial. Her weed-strewn world, intentionally planted and painted, is the marker for generative alterity, they invoke a healthily entropic impermanence. ‘The spaces which weeds occupy form a third landscape’, she says, ‘a generative in-between ground left to mutate and thrive beyond human activity and design’. The term was originated by the philosopher-gardener, Gilles Clament. For Makandal, however, its significance in a South African context is further aggravated. The “wasteland” of District Six, Cape Town’s ground zero and source for the wild flowers-cum-weeds which Makandal displays in glass vases in one of her installations, is the embodiment of this third landscape – site of a destroyed culture, abandoned, rendered inexistent, superfluous, and yet, despite all, an integral present-absence in the city’s psyche. Across South Africa these spaces – the buffer zones and ‘uitvalgrond’ of apartheid’s separate development project – signal a psychogeography that persists to this day. Makandal’s interaction with these buffer zones – neither here nor there, indeterminate – is implied. Hers is not a prescriptively political take, but an evocation of an interzone that cannot be suppressed. It defines our psychic make-up, the unsaid that plagues us. Its roots lie in the Natives Land Act of 1913, in which 90% of the land was assigned to a white minority, the black majority left dispossessed, unaccommodated, landless. That these interzones remain – vacant lots in a national imaginary, untended, uncared for, aggressively cordoned off from human occupation, activity or cultivation – is, for Makandal, the sign for a profound error. In choosing this third landscape as the terrain, the fieldwork, the artist invites us to reconsider the redemptive promise they afford. It is because these non-spaces are resilient, because they beckon us, allow us to refashion what we think ourselves to be, that they assume an enlivening force in her work. That Makandal has a preoccupation with these interzones is telling. Weed-strewn, they are the core of her re-visioning. Her mulched carpets are the ciphers for this vision. If her installations remind us that weeds emerge inside the home and gallery, break through all our strategies of containment and order, it is because they cannot be suppressed. Weeds are uncontrollable, entropic, resilient. And, of course, weeds are flowers too. In Makandal’s installations they possess an uncanny homeliness and a canny unhomeliness. Weeds disturb us. Their presence in Makandal’s art signals the instability, even impossibility, of any mutual exclusivity. In her world vision everything is contaminated, every element and dimension a part of a greater more enriching weave, which is unsurprising given that for Makandal all things, organic and inorganic, human-hewn or natural, are interwoven, ‘humans are entangled and not separate from nature’. It was Gilles Deleuze who developed a vision of the world defined by the ‘rhizome’ or weed, he who reminded us that the weed – misunderstood, dismissed, rooted out – allows us to rethink our appropriative relationship to the earth. Weeds ‘deterritorialise’ territory, alter what we expect to see, define as knowable. For Deleuze, the rhizome provides a different ‘image for thought’, while for Makandal they offer a different vision for-and-of art. If weeds are integral to Makandal’s installations it is because they allow us to re-evaluate what we regard as supplementary or irrelevant to the main event – why we look at art, what matters in art. As Deleuze reminds us, ‘underneath all reason lies delirium’. This is because everything is inter-operational, both wheat and chaff matter, it is the tendency to enforce dualism, and thereby sustain inequality – a privative relationality – which dumbs down complexity. Makandal thoroughly recognises this proclivity and refuses it. Instead, after Deleuze, she chooses to ‘bring something incomprehensible into the world’, and, thereby, remind us that ‘delirium and drift’ is vital in the act of creation. Makandal’s mixed media works on plasterboard, Fabriano, and archival paper – the sellable component of the show, art as commodity – are visual echoes of Deleuzean thought. How so? Because while the works are framed, cordoned off, given shape, whether rectangular or obtuse – some of the framed works resist customary forms – it is what occurs within and across the plane that deserves our attention. The paintings are febrile, animate, unsettling in their seeming stillness. Feral. The degree to which they are centrifugal or centripetal is unclear. Do the works cohere, or do they break away from a perceived consistency? Are they constant or inconstant? Is this uncertainty not the point? Are we not in fact broaching delirium and drift within calm? The colour palette is a softly muted panoply in greens, though other tones appear. One’s first impression is of swathes and flecks of grass, reeds, weeds, a tangled quiet firmament. Growth patterns. Triggers and flights of animate nature. Geometry. Geography. Inscrutable disorder in the midst of order.&nbsp; In ‘Corsons Inlet’ the American poet, A.R. Ammons, captures the rich and subtle variegation one finds in Makandal’s paintings. While walking along a grassy dune he notes, I was released from &nbsp; &nbsp;forms, from the perpendiculars, &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;straight lines, blocks, boxes, binds of thought into the hues, shadings, rises, flowing bends &nbsp; &nbsp;and blends &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;of sight: &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;I allow myself eddies of &nbsp; &nbsp;meaning: yield to a direction of significance running like a stream through the geography of my &nbsp; &nbsp;work: &nbsp; &nbsp;you can find in my sayings &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;swerves of action &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;like the inlet’s cutting edge: &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;there are dunes of motion, organisations of grass … in nature there are few sharp lines While there are many astonishing insights in this poem, this extract returns us to Deleuze’s vision of delirium and drift, as they return us to Makandal’s vision and practice. She, like the American poet and French philosopher, is fascinated by all that breaks received boundaries. If the weed is an exemplary figure in her work, it is because it will not be tempered. Ammons’ writes of ‘irregular swamps of reeds’ which cannot be shut out or shut in, of ‘manifold’ events everchanging, ‘transitions … spread out, allowed to occur over a wider range than mental lines can keep’. Deleuze similarly notes that ‘Art, science, philosophy, are neither contemplative, nor communicative. They are creative, that’s all’. If this provocation matters, it is because it supports Makandal’s view that reason, and the dualism it feeds upon, cannot override a greater driving truth that art is irreducible to the forms it assumes. Shapes shift, things alter – perpetually. Art and life thrive inside a riddle, they are riddling. Makandal’s paintings are Ammons’ grassy dunes. Her sheets of archival paper and Fabriano, like her carpets, are generative surfaces. For her abstraction is not an act of mind alone, it is a felt thought. As I have noted elsewhere, ‘It is abstraction that consumes us; abstraction which obscures the presumed existence of some definable reality. Why? Because the abstract is both the kernel and husk of the real’. It is this realisation which consumes Makandal. For her, abstraction is visceral, it precedes and informs all ventures on behalf of order. Her conviction stems from a sensitivity both to the microbiological – what the eye cannot see, those ‘critters’ processing and digesting the ‘woven fabric’ of humanity &nbsp;– and that which we do see, when we are able to. That she lovingly tends to a compost pile in her back garden supports this view. What interests her is ‘the microsystems of compost’. For her, ‘soil is the immune system of the earth’, its immunity stemming from the ‘healthy diversity in organisms and mineral soil’, without which earth is lifeless – as it is under the heavy hand of mono-crop human-centred agriculture. This reduction of the complexity and diversity of the earth – and the world more generally – amounts to a subtraction not an abstraction. If Makandal’s paintings matter in this regard, it is because they ask us to relook at what we see and what we value. For her, delirium and drift are microbiological, unseen, yet ever-present – a nurturing bacterium. By foregrounding the hidden within the seen, Makandal realigns the world, while at the same time resisting the false appeasement such a realignment might offer. Her approach, revealingly, is never unsettling. She is never inspired to invoke dread, even when she might be experiencing it. Instead, what she offers us is a visceral, physical, and phenomenological response to the unsettlements and uncertainties we experience. The softness of her touch, the somnolence inside of fervour, the febrility, fertility, writhing dances of vegetal matter she conjures, speak to a missing-eroded-suppressed link in the greater chain of life and being. I began by reflecting on the artist’s first name Io – I/O – because it cannily mirrors an error in the fabric of human life, that is, the mistaken belief that dualism can save us. Instead, we find that it is precisely dualism, now robbed of its dialectical capacity to synthesise opposing viewpoints, belief systems, cultural practices, modes of conduct, which has worryingly emerged. It is this well-nigh fascist tendency to construct absolute and opposing worlds which Makandal refuses. Her works resist what A.R. Ammons terms the ‘straight lines, blocks, boxes , binds of thought’. They offer images for a different thought in which ‘relational entanglements’ are key. While, like all of us, Makandal is caught in the grip of a global dread, she will not allow herself to succumb. As people grow more righteous, more intolerant and unloving, she chooses tenderness, ‘to live and die kind’. In nature – and art’s relationship with nature – she has discovered a grail, some consolation that, while quiet, is never restful, never final, but infinite. The earth is not dead. We are not dying – or dying only. Plus Ultra– the ‘further beyond’ – is not her goal. Hers is a terra-bound world. She does not long for Jupiter’s distant moon. Rather, for Makandal it is a connectedness to all that we cannot control, ‘ to become sticky with’ or countermand that matters. Her Terra Visions&nbsp;express this generative release – it is her rewilding. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*** Ashraf Jamal is a Research Associate in the Visual Identities in Art and Design Research Centre, University of Johannesburg. He is the co-author of Art in South Africa: The Future Presentand co-editor of Indian Ocean Studies. Jamal is also the author of Love themes for the wilderness, TheShades, Predicaments of culture in South Africa, In the World: Essays on Contemporary SouthAfrican Art, and Strange Cargo(forthcoming). https://iomakandal.com/Life-in-the-Entropics Fri, 24 Apr 2020 12:57:58 +0000 iomakandal https://iomakandal.com/Life-in-the-Entropics Life in the Entropics / Solo Exhibition︎ kalashnikovvgallery Io Makandal | Life in the EntropicsSolo Exhibition at Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg.06.07.19 – 07.08.19 <img width="3744" height="2496" width_o="3744" height_o="2496" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fba75d0187f879b6ca165bec79417f73afed80e1781dbd56aaea48619539e8d2/_MG_1179.jpg" data-mid="68296825" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fba75d0187f879b6ca165bec79417f73afed80e1781dbd56aaea48619539e8d2/_MG_1179.jpg" />Life in the Entropics, solo exhibition, installation view. 2019 <img width="2311" height="3129" width_o="2311" height_o="3129" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fdf4d7bcd8085c886f25a165ef41746ed77e5e6fd66fd64a0ebcf7e145329cf2/_MG_0993.jpg" data-mid="68296758" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fdf4d7bcd8085c886f25a165ef41746ed77e5e6fd66fd64a0ebcf7e145329cf2/_MG_0993.jpg" /> Placing space II, 2019,&nbsp;Mixed media on Fabriano, 2000 x 1560mm <img width="2496" height="3744" width_o="2496" height_o="3744" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2293c5c12c38bd1dc28caf1e4126f660c428b64f130364f1701497b72ff92a9a/_MG_1125.jpg" data-mid="68337030" border="0" alt="Life in the Entropics,2019, concrete, stone, tar, wood, plastic, metal wire, toughened glass, cotton fabric, snails, plants, mielie cob, installation view, diamensions variable" data-caption="Life in the Entropics,2019, concrete, stone, tar, wood, plastic, metal wire, toughened glass, cotton fabric, snails, plants, mielie cob, installation view, diamensions variable" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2293c5c12c38bd1dc28caf1e4126f660c428b64f130364f1701497b72ff92a9a/_MG_1125.jpg" /> Life in the Entropics,2019, concrete, stone, tar, wood, plastic, metal wire, toughened glass, cotton fabric, snails, plants, mielie cob, installation view, diamensions variable <img width="3744" height="5616" width_o="3744" height_o="5616" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/02cb5fff7a03bf4113cd9e18de466863c0b81dc105141174f3a1d6ab001c786b/_MG_1129.jpg" data-mid="68338276" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/02cb5fff7a03bf4113cd9e18de466863c0b81dc105141174f3a1d6ab001c786b/_MG_1129.jpg" /> <img width="3744" height="5616" width_o="3744" height_o="5616" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a25b297a3f272c1305a1da6ed9174974d0eaf3151804c52bf7e07d8c207965da/_MG_1130.jpg" data-mid="68338212" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a25b297a3f272c1305a1da6ed9174974d0eaf3151804c52bf7e07d8c207965da/_MG_1130.jpg" /> <img width="2496" height="3744" width_o="2496" height_o="3744" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6ce662cfe261f1444545d3454cd789b76c7e79dd097034592fb69573369efbbd/_MG_1131.jpg" data-mid="68337547" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6ce662cfe261f1444545d3454cd789b76c7e79dd097034592fb69573369efbbd/_MG_1131.jpg" /> <img width="3744" height="5616" width_o="3744" height_o="5616" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/83d01c4a52f09fb1e4969f28343c2c080d8f07e211bb8c9028e4fd5a3c57a399/_MG_1134.jpg" data-mid="68337864" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/83d01c4a52f09fb1e4969f28343c2c080d8f07e211bb8c9028e4fd5a3c57a399/_MG_1134.jpg" /> <img width="5616" height="3744" width_o="5616" height_o="3744" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/de78affae6babc3ef3db338c1feee35ca2536e4fb58304c2019af2f93a7d9d0e/_MG_1152.jpg" data-mid="68338854" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/de78affae6babc3ef3db338c1feee35ca2536e4fb58304c2019af2f93a7d9d0e/_MG_1152.jpg" /> Life in the Entropics, solo exhibition, installation view. Kalashnikovv Gallery / 2019 <img width="1908" height="1873" width_o="1908" height_o="1873" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9d80af858932c029851f6a43b33db40d653af8e561ecff0287b9f1ab02557b04/_MG_1046.jpg" data-mid="68359771" border="0" data-scale="74" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9d80af858932c029851f6a43b33db40d653af8e561ecff0287b9f1ab02557b04/_MG_1046.jpg" /><img width="1911" height="1871" width_o="1911" height_o="1871" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f228e9ced097efa1ccc737c8218bf06cd35548a397a210e0f90eb9bde2af19b8/_MG_1045.jpg" data-mid="68359776" border="0" data-scale="74" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f228e9ced097efa1ccc737c8218bf06cd35548a397a210e0f90eb9bde2af19b8/_MG_1045.jpg" /><img width="2967" height="2245" width_o="2967" height_o="2245" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dbaa0618805ec237faca2b372a8010bb5591c1fcc1e52a10470450eeadddcf12/_MG_1009.jpg" data-mid="68359802" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/dbaa0618805ec237faca2b372a8010bb5591c1fcc1e52a10470450eeadddcf12/_MG_1009.jpg" /> <img width="2969" height="2247" width_o="2969" height_o="2247" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/17e66e7ce1b36c458764bfb94913333f23e389773c03d02ef3bbed83436a34e5/_MG_1007.jpg" data-mid="68359804" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/17e66e7ce1b36c458764bfb94913333f23e389773c03d02ef3bbed83436a34e5/_MG_1007.jpg" /> <img width="2966" height="2328" width_o="2966" height_o="2328" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1fa8c3ae822c5f4ed95d97373a51fd6e96f9df61f209c65695e55aeb29ad46dd/_MG_1011.jpg" data-mid="68360103" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1fa8c3ae822c5f4ed95d97373a51fd6e96f9df61f209c65695e55aeb29ad46dd/_MG_1011.jpg" /> <img width="2967" height="2245" width_o="2967" height_o="2245" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dbaa0618805ec237faca2b372a8010bb5591c1fcc1e52a10470450eeadddcf12/_MG_1009.jpg" data-mid="68359802" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/dbaa0618805ec237faca2b372a8010bb5591c1fcc1e52a10470450eeadddcf12/_MG_1009.jpg" /> <img width="3075" height="2293" width_o="3075" height_o="2293" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fb594df4b69bf58e15b912d481605a1664f7ac31568108abafa0e3a90e52d53b/_MG_1016.jpg" data-mid="68360120" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fb594df4b69bf58e15b912d481605a1664f7ac31568108abafa0e3a90e52d53b/_MG_1016.jpg" /> <img width="1937" height="1921" width_o="1937" height_o="1921" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1f8d3db105d7ea23880202e9d486a8325628289fa2a1a9980264cd95fdfba5d2/_MG_1100.jpg" data-mid="68359788" border="0" data-scale="63" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1f8d3db105d7ea23880202e9d486a8325628289fa2a1a9980264cd95fdfba5d2/_MG_1100.jpg" /> <img width="3122" height="2203" width_o="3122" height_o="2203" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5afaf8ec1117590c21ebb048dcf536da8506cbc87fea03d77bb3ad3524b320db/_MG_1030.jpg" data-mid="68359784" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5afaf8ec1117590c21ebb048dcf536da8506cbc87fea03d77bb3ad3524b320db/_MG_1030.jpg" /> <img width="2851" height="2517" width_o="2851" height_o="2517" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/57ff88997c8653e8b2618d7a15796c0a560bd7bd5f5199cca90cac934ab6e2c8/_MG_1098.jpg" data-mid="68359856" border="0" data-scale="77" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/57ff88997c8653e8b2618d7a15796c0a560bd7bd5f5199cca90cac934ab6e2c8/_MG_1098.jpg" /> <img width="2735" height="2040" width_o="2735" height_o="2040" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/26bdb8ed5a60d5d4f54fccb84816facf46c52b3541d48339866d40aef8849e86/_MG_1067.jpg" data-mid="68359924" border="0" data-scale="64" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/26bdb8ed5a60d5d4f54fccb84816facf46c52b3541d48339866d40aef8849e86/_MG_1067.jpg" /> <img width="2145" height="3141" width_o="2145" height_o="3141" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3fe04d71ceae1f8c21e1f83dc44f20d9213144097b01f933832ca2adb424d916/_MG_1024.jpg" data-mid="68359915" border="0" data-scale="75" data-rotation="-180" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3fe04d71ceae1f8c21e1f83dc44f20d9213144097b01f933832ca2adb424d916/_MG_1024.jpg" /><img width="3744" height="2496" width_o="3744" height_o="2496" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f610e140aa5341856ef4e1ba6f6116056488fd736884068856730e1b97f71b97/_MG_1153.jpg" data-mid="68359857" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f610e140aa5341856ef4e1ba6f6116056488fd736884068856730e1b97f71b97/_MG_1153.jpg" /> Life in the Entropics, solo exhibition, installation view. 2019 Exhibition Text by Natasha Norman Life in the Entropics is Io Makandal’s second solo exhibition with Kalashnikovv Gallery. It marks a conscious embodiment of Gilles Clément’s (2004) notion of the Third Landscape, those spaces neglected by human development that exist as ecological and genetic reservoirs in the environment. By inhabiting the material potential of liminal urban space as ‘actant,’ in terms of New Materialist theory, Makandal introduces us to the inherent vibrancy of matter itself. Makandal’s artistic practice is premised on the action to draw attention to space. Her particular field of exploration is partly mythical and partly an augmented reading of an existing subcutaneous urban reality. Detritus from the street, plant matter, commodity objects or industrial matter jostle together in her tactile drawings that combine the experience of materials with an experience of space. The works employ Nathanial Stern’s (2018) assertions that matter ought to be recognised for the way it thinks, perceives and moves; what historian Nicole Ridgway (2017) terms an ‘event’ of thought. In the realm of artistic knowledge, thinking is done through materials (matter) and foregrounds the artwork as a site from which thought may proceed (Stern 2018). As such, Stern’s assertion that, “The question is not, what does this artwork mean? It is rather, what does this artwork do?” is particularly relevant in an experience of Makandal’s Entropics. If we consider her forms as characters or swarms in the way that abstract artist, Julie Mehretu, terms her visual components, we begin to see how these marks, read as social agents or individuals, actually create space in the exhibition. Rather than perceiving Makandal’s entropy as a regressive movement, the flow of marks, materials and forms is positioned to enable a different kind of understanding. In the 21st century we have become better acquainted with occupying the space of uncertainty. While the human animal in us bulks at surrendering to the unknown, we have discovered that there are many unknown territories outside the failing Modernist classificatory systems for us to inhabit. Contemporary concerns with new approaches in this age of the Anthropocene draw attention to the vast interconnected nature of ecology and politics, the advent of rhizomatic thinking and categories based on thoughts in constellations not in lineage. “Think about it as evolution, not something cataclysmic,” Makandal says. The groundwork for these ideas in Makandal’s practice find form in works such as Open Ceiling, Roadside I&amp;II and Detritis I. These explorations of the moments on the verge of delineated spaces offer a visual language that finds further articulation in the rest of the works. Larger drawings such as Placing Space I &amp; II extend this vocabulary into a more comprehensive inhabitation of the alternative entropic order. The Horizon series charts a visual evolution where layered fragments hybridize Makandal’s visual dialect and offer suppositions of a new condition. Life in the Entropics draws us through the residue of human activity into an experience of the way that activity produces space. To think through the exhibition is to find thought residing in matter and action where entropy is not the dark side of a binary with order but, ironically, the by-product of progress. To inhabit entropy as a space of material potential proposes a system in parallel to dominating modes of thinking. References: Lawrence Chua, 2005. “Interview with Julie Mehretu” in Bomb (91) Spring 2005. Gilles Clément, 2004. Manifesto of the Third Landscape. Éditions Sujet / Objet : Paris. Nicole Ridgeway, 2017. “The Hermaphroditic Image: Modern Art, Thought, andExpérience in Michel Foucault.” In Understanding Foucault, UnderstandingModernism, edited by David Scott, 213–30. New York: Bloomsbury. Nathaniel Stern, 2018. Ecological Aesthetics: Artful Tactics for Humans, Nature and Politics. Dartmouth College Press: Hanover, New Hampshire. https://iomakandal.com/Rest-Draw-Rest-1 Fri, 24 Apr 2020 12:57:59 +0000 iomakandal https://iomakandal.com/Rest-Draw-Rest-1 Rest. Draw. Rest / Duo Exhibition︎ kalashnikovvgallery Io Makandal &amp; Lucy Jane Turpin | Rest. Draw. RestDuo Exhibition at Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg01.11.18 – 04.12.18 <img width="2454" height="2031" width_o="2454" height_o="2031" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5c779c5df52638d7d2de63df0fab6bc0f145953474733c4ac6cf0f8b0b7fb14d/IMG_3371-e-no-frame.jpg" data-mid="68342893" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5c779c5df52638d7d2de63df0fab6bc0f145953474733c4ac6cf0f8b0b7fb14d/IMG_3371-e-no-frame.jpg" />Io Makandal,&nbsp;View from the studio, 2018, Mixed media drawing on fabriano, 1500 x 1800 mm <img width="2592" height="3888" width_o="2592" height_o="3888" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/40b5036262c3e81ef38492c0df9f655ffb83149a0a3985677145844c709a1d08/IMG_3410-e.jpg" data-mid="68341660" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/40b5036262c3e81ef38492c0df9f655ffb83149a0a3985677145844c709a1d08/IMG_3410-e.jpg" /> <img width="2634" height="1996" width_o="2634" height_o="1996" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5848bff1d378e3d7803db493e7847b05dbba078ec46e2a051a876d67999ebc9b/IMG_3359-e-no-frame.jpg" data-mid="68341793" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5848bff1d378e3d7803db493e7847b05dbba078ec46e2a051a876d67999ebc9b/IMG_3359-e-no-frame.jpg" /> <img width="3888" height="2592" width_o="3888" height_o="2592" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a16c0f2616bf929facd547921373c201de7cdcef1697b136c7f78713fa09c400/IMG_3407-e.jpg" data-mid="68341938" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a16c0f2616bf929facd547921373c201de7cdcef1697b136c7f78713fa09c400/IMG_3407-e.jpg" /> <img width="3888" height="2592" width_o="3888" height_o="2592" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8579f6e0d266a6653a52d035cbe1c8d4a888e840aa28e2b4fc26b9eb305b3247/IMG_3414-e.jpg" data-mid="68345857" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8579f6e0d266a6653a52d035cbe1c8d4a888e840aa28e2b4fc26b9eb305b3247/IMG_3414-e.jpg" /> <img width="2071" height="2844" width_o="2071" height_o="2844" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a713972f9ca44704ecb085c3cd649b7f1ef8b46373a8ebcbaba17664c3c01169/IMG_3353-e-no-frame.jpg" data-mid="68343186" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a713972f9ca44704ecb085c3cd649b7f1ef8b46373a8ebcbaba17664c3c01169/IMG_3353-e-no-frame.jpg" /> <img width="3888" height="2592" width_o="3888" height_o="2592" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a2a2d7067f7b3bc63e3f354292ec1546262bfbc16a1b87e57d4cb4530e57f23a/IMG_3428-e.jpg" data-mid="68345943" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a2a2d7067f7b3bc63e3f354292ec1546262bfbc16a1b87e57d4cb4530e57f23a/IMG_3428-e.jpg" /> <img width="2620" height="1900" width_o="2620" height_o="1900" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e7651819a8ca9761f5dc5562fdb3e5429a693db35df5787f969b53cfa8114c7c/IMG_3361-no-frame.jpg" data-mid="68345624" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e7651819a8ca9761f5dc5562fdb3e5429a693db35df5787f969b53cfa8114c7c/IMG_3361-no-frame.jpg" /> <img width="3888" height="2592" width_o="3888" height_o="2592" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9a6f74f42e083cb92ea7193ebe6f0e31617e9c6867b2a79b415c298ec3554e97/IMG_3436-e.jpg" data-mid="68341916" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9a6f74f42e083cb92ea7193ebe6f0e31617e9c6867b2a79b415c298ec3554e97/IMG_3436-e.jpg" /> <img width="3888" height="2592" width_o="3888" height_o="2592" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e7d238fb1d5d109323ac64880a01a195d67bfc6b1d91870f6fc55c754da5c47f/IMG_3427-e.jpg" data-mid="68345689" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e7d238fb1d5d109323ac64880a01a195d67bfc6b1d91870f6fc55c754da5c47f/IMG_3427-e.jpg" /> <img width="2820" height="2034" width_o="2820" height_o="2034" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9b27a8ab9c04e30d29936bb2d43ea2d942e448693ee572a9effde9233c79064e/IMG_3367-e-no-frame.jpg" data-mid="68342498" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9b27a8ab9c04e30d29936bb2d43ea2d942e448693ee572a9effde9233c79064e/IMG_3367-e-no-frame.jpg" /> Io Makandal, Space to Place III, 2018, Mixed media drawing on archival paper, 1000 x 1400 mm&nbsp; <img width="2275" height="2824" width_o="2275" height_o="2824" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4fc9334f7715e19a8d2aa06dbd8d6c9784ce2e6d0383f9deeaef0bcad89d1999/IMG_3391-e.jpg" data-mid="68343393" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4fc9334f7715e19a8d2aa06dbd8d6c9784ce2e6d0383f9deeaef0bcad89d1999/IMG_3391-e.jpg" /> <img width="2286" height="2799" width_o="2286" height_o="2799" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/79f6823a351e0f8fc8620ef298b61398ee039b2303b5478cd96001d79bc4762d/IMG_3393-e.jpg" data-mid="68343401" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/79f6823a351e0f8fc8620ef298b61398ee039b2303b5478cd96001d79bc4762d/IMG_3393-e.jpg" /> <img width="2273" height="2789" width_o="2273" height_o="2789" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c965cc658747b7f181c65e4e2b3461a2adda72d862649252647bd74906cd839c/IMG_3395-e.jpg" data-mid="68343407" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c965cc658747b7f181c65e4e2b3461a2adda72d862649252647bd74906cd839c/IMG_3395-e.jpg" /> <img width="1904" height="2718" width_o="1904" height_o="2718" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/56ea545c5a6a72fdbe330d691819e0f28da7150715d2ba71c1fed95fe5b4d6f4/IMG_3349-e-no-frame.jpg" data-mid="68346376" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/56ea545c5a6a72fdbe330d691819e0f28da7150715d2ba71c1fed95fe5b4d6f4/IMG_3349-e-no-frame.jpg" /> Io Makandal, Static Wall, 2018, Mixed media drawing on Fabriano,&nbsp;1000 x 700 mm A collaborative exhibition of recent explorations and preoccupations by Io Makandal and Lucy Jane Turpin. form / wait / paint / rest / draw draw / rest / paint / wait / form When does drawing begin?When does drawing cease?When does drawing exist as a painting, as an installation of matter, as a structure, a space?When does drawing meet with painting, meet with matter, meet with form, line and space and when does painting, matter, form, line and space meet with drawing? In meeting / in making / in merging / in conversing, we draw