creative gatherings around the theme of “women’s work as artistic practice”

August – September 2023

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Johannesburg-based artist Bev Butkow and independent curator Candice Allison have assembled four creative gatherings around the broad theme of women’s work as artistic practice. The creative gatherings showcase a varied selection of South African artist-women, academics and thinkers, and serve to provoke, question, and reframe how we exist in the world as individuals, in community, and in relation to all other living beings. The gatherings frame artist-led curiosity as a source of generative insights and knowledge, as well as creating space for collaboration and community around shared interests.

The gatherings are run alongside Bev Butkow’s solo exhibition titled re-weaving m/other at the Origins Centre, Wits University, which runs from 20 August to 30 September 2023.

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Gathering 1 – the body and art – Wednesday 30 August 2023

Livestream: https://www.youtube.com/live/0O3VMEn9ULY?feature=share

The body and art explores action, gesture and the knowing bodies of both maker and viewer, by considering dialogues that occur somatically within both the creative process and the encounter with an artwork.

Presenters:

Keynote address – Buhlebezwe Siwani

Promptor – Katherine Dewar

Speakers – Shanti Govender, Prof Jenni Lauwrens, Fatima Moosa, Dr Kirti Ranchod

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Gathering 2 – a material uprising – Wednesday 6 September 2023

Livestream: https://www.youtube.com/live/FKgtVpbPxqQ?feature=share

A material uprising considers how materials ‘speak’ by exploring the intimate, symbiotic, synchronistic and receptive relationships that artists have with their material

Presenters:

Keynote address – Weiwei Wang

Promptor – Tracy Murinik

Speakers – Kutlwano Monyai, Hannelie Coetzee, Dr Adelheid Frackiewicz, Bev Butkow

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Gathering 3 – the value of women’s labour – Tuesday 12 September 2023

Livestream: https://www.youtube.com/live/LnmsM0bSsu4?feature=share

Presenters:

The value of women’s labour considers the burden of care on artist-women/artist-mothers, while simultaneously foregrounding care as a guiding philosophy of creative process, and of a re-visioned world.

Keynote address – Grace Cross

Promptor – Lara Koseff

Speakers – Mary Corrigall, Philiswa Lila, Princia Matungulu, Nina Barnett

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Gathering 4 – traces we leave upon the Earth – Thursday 14 September 2023 (online only)

Traces we leave upon the Earth thinks deeply about our impact – materially, socially, environmentally and otherwise – on each other and Mother Earth in the age of the Anthropocene. What ethical, moral and material responsibilities do we have to the traces that we leave? How do we walk upon this earth?

Presenters:

Keynote address – Zayaan Khan

Promptor – Candice Allison

Speakers – Dr Jessica Webster, Io Makandal, Miliswa Ndziba, Langelihle Mthembu, Dr Meghan Judge

Zoom link:
https://us05web.zoom.us/j/88125600029?pwd=SogUprwMHqVam0X9yAhzbD35T4ek1w.1

Meeting ID: 881 2560 0029

Passcode: 3x1Dfu

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Details:

All gatherings take place from 4-6 pm SAST.

Attendance is either in person and online. 

Please rsvp in advance to tammy.hodgskiss@wits.ac.za for online links.

In person attendance:

The Origins Centre is excited to host the gatherings free of entrance fees.

Enter Wits University through Enoch Sontonga Ave or Empire Rd. Once on campus, access to the Origins Centre is gained through Yale Rd. The Origins Centre has dedicated parking and you can call 011-717-4700 or bookings.origins@wits.ac.za to receive the access code. Please bring your driver’s licence/ID and leave sufficient time to get through formalities, as the gatherings will run to a strict time schedule.

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Acknowledgements:

Convened by Bev Butkow alongside her exhibition re-weaving m/other

Curated by Candice Allison

Supported by the National Art Council, South Africa

Supported by Guns & Rain gallery

Hosted by Origins Centre, Wits University

Catering by Lady Day

Audio visuals by Ilan Segal