Disrupt I, Cape Town
August 27, 2021 - September 29, 2021
Disrupt I
Access the review by Melvyn Minnaar here
Commissioned by Spier Arts Trust and exhibited at Union House in Cape Town, Disrupt I included the entire hundred and one artist's books comprising the '101 ways of longing for a home' installation.
Disrupt I included Willemse's conceptual artworks exhibited at the 1:54 African Art Fair in London in 2018, which have been brought back to South Africa by Spier Arts Trust to be shown for the first time on home soil. In addition Wilemse exhibited a range of new works dealing with the theme of disruption, evoking the zeitgeist of our times.
The focus of the exhibition was the installation of a hundred and one handmade artist's books, entitled 101 ways to long for a home. Seeking to subvert the traditional notion of linear word-based storytelling, the installation employs a fragmented visual language and rely on the multi-layered meanings generated by found material.
The discarded parquet floor blocks featured in the intricate construction of the books and objects are sourced from Woodstock in Cape Town, where a gentrification process causes demolishment of old homes and buildings.
The exhibition included a walkabout, a performative intervention by the artist, as well as a performance of the New Music piece called Displaced: 101 ways to long for a home (2018) by the composer Michael Blake.
