Artwork-titles such as Finding Hope, Buckets of Dreams, Tjailatyd: At the end of an (dis)honest day’s work, and A Diamond is forever, clearly depict that the Eureka exhibition is a journey delving into artisanal mining in Kimberley.

The exhibition launched Wednesday (17/08) at the William Humphreys Art Gallery (Whag) in Kimberley. It is an interdisciplinary collaboration between the Northern Cape artist and public health physician, André Rose, and the Free State artist and University of the Free State associate professor, Janine Allen-Spies.

Rose invited Allen-Spies to participate in this project in which the researchers explore interdisciplinary and visual story telling methods to highlight various psychosocial and environmental issues surrounding mining communities in Kimberley. Storytelling is done through mulitdimensional and complexly formed artworks using a variety of art mediums.

Eureka is the name the first reported diamond discovered in South Africa, and alludes through Archimedes’s well-known exclamatory remark, a process of discovery.

In a walkabout during which the artists answered questions of art students who attended the art gallery’s exhibition of the Kimberley Art Centre, Allen-Spies drew a similarity between the artisanal miners and artists, saying both use a combination of engineering and imagination.

Rose said he intended to create a dreaminess with his photos by exposing the images on a film camera more than once, thereby building a layer into the artwork. “This speaks to the complexity of the question,” Rose remarked.

MC Roodt, curator at WHAG, said they are excited to host Eureka in the year when the museum celebrates its 70th year in existence.
“An exhibition like this truly legitimises the lived experience of undocumented workers, a larger and important community that is shaping Kimberley in numerous ways.”

Source: Noordkaap Bulletin
24 August 2022