AFRICAN histories and traditions are amongst the leading focuses of the visual arts programme of this year’s National Arts Festival in Grahamstown (29 June to 8 July).
One of the main attractions is the solo exhibition of Churchill Madikida, winner of the 2006 Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Art. Madikida uses video, photography and performance, among other media, to interrogate traditional rituals like male circumcision.
The debate Madikida opens is broadened in Figuring Faith: Images of Belief in Africa - an interpretative tour de force featuring objects in a variety of media from the Wits Art Galleries and Standard Bank collections of African art, with items drawn from other private and institutional collections.
Dogma, a collection of oil paintings, assemblages and installations by Anton Brink, expresses his outrage at the apathy that has resulted in the failure of critical thinking and a subversion of democracy.
Tracking trends and patterns in South African art from the 1920's until the present, Making Waves presents an extensive array of work by more than 100 artists, selected from the SABC’s formidable corporate collection.
Moving from the macro to the micro, Andries Gouws' exhibition, Hiding Behind Simple Things, features small intimate studies in which the most mundane of everyday objects becomes transfigured because it is given close attention.
Drum in the 70’s is a telling reminder of how photographs chronicle history. The exhibition comprises pages from the legendary magazine published round the time of the Soweto Uprising.
Documentary photographer Roger Ballen has now moved into a metaphoric domain and his exhibition Shadow Chamber includes surreal images from his new book published last year by Phaidon.
Comics Brew International showcases sequential art by six leading “New Generation” artists, including Congo's Pat Masioni and South Africa's Leonora van Staden. The exhibition is part of the bi-annual Festival of International Comic Art in Southern Africa.
Two exhibitions showcase the excellence of Eastern Cape Art and Craftart. The Visual Arts Exhibition features the work of seven artists, one selected from each district of this extensive and prolific region. The second show celebrates craft production: 14 of the province's top craft artists will be at work in a special tent at the Village Green. A handsome catalogue will be for sale along with a vast array of artefacts.

GILLY HEMPHILL