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12 Apr 2023 (3 min) read
The discussion will focus on Dyalvane's extended body of work, 'iThongo' (Ancestral Dreamscape), which focuses on a gathering of dreams, seated in the soul, held by the spirit of our ancestors.
Southern Guild and Blanc Gallery, in collaboration with Norman Teague Design Studio and Michael Graham/Balloon, present “South x South” featuring ceramic artist Andile Dyalvane on Saturday, 15 April. The event at Blanc Gallery on Chicago’s South Side takes place during Expo Chicago, where Southern Guild is exhibiting for the first time. One of Africa’s foremost ceramic artists, Dyalvane will be in conversation with independent curator and cultural strategist Ashara Ekundayo, highlighting the connections between Black artists from South Africa and Chicago’s South Side. This event was also made possible by the support of the Rebuild Foundation.
The discussion will focus on Dyalvane’s extended body of work, iThongo (Ancestral Dreamscape), which focuses on a gathering of dreams, seated in the soul, held by the spirit of our ancestors. For Dyalvane, the language of dreams is symbolic and realised as “uyalezo”, messages from our ancestral spirits. iThongo debuted in the artist’s rural village, Ngobozana, in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, before being exhibited at Southern Guild’s Cape Town gallery in 2021. The journey was also documented in a short film which will be screened at the event.
Ekundayo is a queer, Black feminist interdisciplinary independent curator, visual maker, cultural theologian and arts organiser whose creative practice is rooted in joy-informed pedagogies and the study and creation of Black archives, site-responsive ceremony and artist-based strategies that illuminate the specific expertise of Black womxn of the African Diaspora. She is the owner at AECreative Consulting Partners, LLC and the founder/director of Artist As First Responder, which serves as a platform to reify and support creatives whose work heals communities and saves lives.
Andile Dyalvane (left) and Ashara Ekundayo (right)
Ekundayo has held several national and international artist residencies and is currently the Archival Research Fellow at Muholi Productions with photographer and visual activist Zanele Muholi. She navigates her social practice living between the San Francisco Bay Area and her hometown of Detroit, Michigan.
The evening at Blanc will include house music by Celeste Alexander, aka CelestetheDJ, the only female DJ from the earliest days of Chicago House, as well as a performance by Chicago’s African Dance and Music Institute as a welcoming response to Dyalvane.
Southern Guild artists Zizipho Poswa and Zanele Muholi will also be represented at the event with the sale of newly published books: Muholi’s Connect the Dots, and Poswa’s uBuhle boKhokho monograph.
EVENT INFORMATION:
DATE: Saturday 15 April 2023
TIME: 7:00 – 10:30pm
LOCATION: Blanc Gallery, 4445 S Martin Luther King Dr, Chicago
This event is free and open to the public. Click here to RSVP.