Open Plot | A Group Exhibition | 22 September - 26 November 2022 | THK Gallery

Open Plot
Alex Coetzee | Nonzuzo Gxekwa | Oliver Hambsch | Jeanne Hoffman | Bella Knemeyer | Pardon Mapondera | Mikhailia Petersen | Jonah Sack | Ben Stanwix | Xhanti Zwelendaba
THK is pleased to present Open Plot, a group exhibition curated by RESERVOIR.

The title plays on the double meaning of ‘plot’, both as a narrative device and a designation of space. The exhibition considers a selection of ten artists’ work against the conceptual backdrop of a vacant plot: exploring questions around distance, design, and the memory of the landscape. These spaces are often in some stage of rewilding, with transitory inhabitants adding to the texture and sediment.

Open Plot is an offering of open-endedness: as a reflection on place, latent space, and the charged ambiguities of overlapping storylines.
Artworks
Alex Coetzee
Significant Other (Pale), 2022
Oil, fiberglass & resin over foam core
58.5 x 20 x 29 cm
Plinth: 90 x 25 x 25 cm
- Alex Coetzee
  Significant Other (Thin), 2022
  60 x 35 x 24 cm
  Plinth: 90 x 25 x 25 cm
  Oil, fiberglass & resin over foam core
Artworks
Jeanne Hoffman
Patience is a freelance writer, 2022

The stasis of the demarcated land, not-quite-enclosing the weedy wilderness within, speaks to Jeanne Hoffman’s treatment of her canvases as sites. Hoffman is known for creating spaces where improbable realities coexist, at times covering large swathes of painted details and sparing only small masked out portholes. Within the boundary of the fence and the frame, perpetual synthesis is possible - of order and growth, of reality and dream.
- Jeanne Hoffman, Dust of a dream, 2022
- Jeanne Hoffman, Searching for something big, 2022
Artworks
Jonah Sack
Storm Diagram, 2022

The exhibition is guided by a strong sense of drawing; with light, negative space, in ink and by walking. Jonah Sack started by drawing the Carlton Hotel, and ended up with a jumbled pile of buildings on board, interspersed with wry finger pistols. Bad buildings. Joburg’s ‘abandoned’ spaces. The structures are stacked on a shelf too narrow for their depth, mere facades. Along with the empty threats of make-believe guns, they become a kind of game of appearances, as well as a reflection on distance - the closest-to-hand, literally, and the furthest away.
- Jonah Sack
  Bad Building series, 2022
  22 works of various sizes
  Ink on board
Artworks
Bella Knemeyer
Wind on wind, 2022

Bella Knemeyer enshrines this farness through an unsparing blue, equating distance with longing, and longing with fulfilment. Each of her mulched paper works harbours a secret age and origin; the handwritten notes of a compulsive list maker, the sheet music of a posthumously released composition, or a 1970s car manual. While the abstract colourfield disguises these backstories, the landscape remembers - the pollen yellow in Wind on Wind just like fields of black mustard that flourish where the earth has been disturbed.
- Bella Knemeyer
  Some things we have only as long as they remain lost, some things are not lost only as long as they are distant, 2022
  181 x 137 cm
  Mulched paper on fabric board
Artworks
Nonzuzo Gxekwa
Coffee, 2020
Archival inkjet print on enhanced matte paper
42 x 59.4 cm
Edition of 8 plus 2 artist's proofs
Artworks
Ben Stanwix and Xhanti Zwelendaba
Phesheya kweNciba, 2022

In Phesheya kweNciba by Ben Stanwix and Xhanti Zwelendaba, three panels of ikhuko (woven straw mats) are printed with landscapes of misleading origins, and a scribbled line generated by Zwelendaba’s Strava in effect crosses three continents rather than the former Transkei, as suggested by the printed heading. This subliminal information speaks to the globalisation, frontier wars and eventual existence of the Bantustan’s sham independence. Longstanding collaborators, Stanwix and Zwelendaba came into possession of a collection of apartheid era South African stamps, bizarrely idealistic in design, another version - like Sack’s hollowed out city - of a Potemkin village.
- Ben Stanwix
  TODAY'S NEWS, 2021
  77 x 60 cm
  Linen and canvas
- Ben Stanwix
  YESTERDAY'S NEWS, 2021
  77 x 60 cm
  Linen and canvas
Artworks
Pardon Mapondera
HOSHA, 2021
Plastic straws, thread, rubber tube and textile
137 x 91 x 36 cm
Artworks
Oliver Hambsch
Christmas Tree after Boltanski (diptych), 2022

This vernacular of once treasured records, veiled or entirely anonymous to the viewer, extends even to the artists themselves and is central to the series of woodcuts created by Oliver Hambsch for his recently completed MFA degree. Hambsch, drawing from an archive of film photographs of his family in post-war Germany, explores the shortcomings of language when conceptualising memory. The tightly cropped social settings evoke a sense of nostalgia, while the faceless figures and ribboned image communicate more of the covert and the atomic age.
- Oliver Hambsch
  Table with champagne bottle, 2021
  Unframed: 50 x 35 cm
  Framed: 57.5 x 43 cm
  Linocut, black ink on etching paper
  Edition of 6 plus 1 artist's proof
- Oliver Hambsch
  White tablecloth, 2021
  Unframed: 50 x 35 cm
  Framed: 57.5 x 43 cm
  Linocut, black ink on etching paper
  Edition of 6 plus 1 artist's proof
Artworks
Mikhailia Petersen
We trancending, 2022

In contrast to these candid snapshots, Mikhailia Petersen invited friends, Rudo, 10, and Kupa, 12, for a morning of dress-up before school against the backdrop of a utopian mural in central Woodstock. Significant in that it remained a multiracial suburb throughout Cape Town’s segregational past, Woodstock is both a historical homecoming for Cape Malay communities and a space of solace for those who have come to the Cape from beyond South Africa’s borders, in search of new beginnings. In Running into the light, a reverie of childlike imagination unfolds in the morning sun, with accents of picked flowers and silk ribbon adorning the siblings.
- Mikhailia Petersen
  Running into the light, 2022
  59 x 39 cm
  Pigment Print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag
  Edition of 5 plus 2 artist's proofs
About Alex Coetzee

Alex Coetzee (b. 1991, Pretoria, South Africa) lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa. He holds a Masters in Architecture from the University of Cape Town and a Post Graduate Diploma in Printmaking from the Michaelis School of Fine Art.

His artwork extends the practice of spatial representation which he engages with as an architect. Working between digital and analogue mediums in a highly fluid way, he explores the translation of spatial experience into images in ways that extend beyond the optic and static. Coetzee recently presented his solo project, Tjommies, in collaboration with The Plot gallery, which was also exhibited at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair in 2022.
About Bella Knemeyer

Bella Knemeyer (b. 1991, Cape Town, South Africa) lives and works in Cape Town. Fascinated by the complexity of city-making and the intersections of culture, the built and natural environments, she has pursued various studies to shape an interdisciplinary approach to engaging urbanism.

In 2017 she coupled a BAFA, majoring in sculpture from the University of Cape Town, with a Masters in Landscape Architecture from the University of Edinburgh. Over the years, she has both assisted and collaborated with numerous South African artists and academics, worked in landscape architecture practices both in Cape Town and Girona (Spain) and taught on various university programmes. She has exhibited in several group exhibitions, with her work recently forming part of A pebble in the mouth, a group presentation curated by Maja Marx for the 2022 Turbine Art Fair.
About Ben Stanwix

Ben Stanwix (b. 1986, Durban, South Africa) lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa. He completed a post-graduate Diploma in Fine Art at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, in March 2017, after previously reading for an MA in History at the University of Oxford.

Stanwix’s practice spans a variety of media including printmaking, drawing, photography, tapestry, and installation. He has an interest in questions of how we try to understand the past, and the ways in which competing views of history inform the present. The role of chance, mistakes, and mistranslation feature prominently in his work, often with reference to the internet and the increasing influence of algorithms on daily life. Stanwix’s most recent solo shows are Rehearsal for a Public Address, at Knysna Fine Art, in 2020, and There Must Be Some Mistake, at EBONY/CURATED, in 2019. He has been granted residencies at BoxoPROJECTS in Joshua Tree, California, and at Arteles, in Finland.
About Nonzuzo Gxekwa

Nonzuzo Gxekwa (b. 1981) is a Johannesburg based photographer. Her approach to photography favours the everyday over the spectacular; sharing intimate moments by focusing the camera on what is around her as well as on herself. Whether photographing in the street or in the studio, her work explores the human condition in subtle and beautiful ways. Her optic is loving. It’s not simply that she chooses to focus on moments of self love—the way people occupy themselves—but that in the taking, her subjects are never wholly circumscribed. There is always space to manoeuvre. Collaboration is a crucial part of her practice, and she regularly works with photographers and other creatives in Johannesburg and further afield.

Nonzuzo’s work was included in Presence: Five Contemporary African Photographers at the Photographer’s Gallery in London from July – August 2021. In November 2021 Nonzuzo was selected for Self-Addressed, organised by Kehinde Wiley and Jeffrey Deitch in Los Angeles. For this landmark exhibition, Wiley invited a selection of contemporary African artists to produce a self-portrait. Together these portraits presented a new exploration of identity, perception, and self-regard within the global stage. She was also accepted to complete a year long residency at the prestigious Jan van Eyck Academie.

In 2022 her collaborative work, The Mask Project formed part of the exhibition Hope from Chaos: Pandemic Reflections at the ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.
About Pardon Mapondera

Pardon Mapondera (b. 1992, Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe), is a full time artist currently living and working in Harare, Zimbabwe.

His textile works fashioned from plastic bottles, straws and thread ruminates on the burgeoning ecological crisis that is set to displace swathes of people in the coming decades. While Mapondera’s works acknowledge the presence of manmade waste, they also offer a view for an alternative future where these materials can form part of the climate crisis solution. Mapondera is able to create beauty from that which has been discarded, perhaps a metaphor for humanity’s ability to forge new beginnings from the shortcomings of the past. He proposes, “Artists are the eye of the world, we make futures and are the justice warriors. We look forwards and backwards. We have the ability to change things. Art reveals the truth”.

Growing up in Zimbabwe, his education was affected by Zimbabwe’s economic and political upheavals, but he persevered and completed his education. He applied at the National Gallery Visual Art and Design (former British American Tobacco School of Art) after being encouraged to do so by his brother and mentor, the well-established visual artist Wallen Mapondera, and successfully graduated in 2016.

He is represented in a number of prominent collections, both in Africa and Europe, and received awards and recognition for his work.
About Oliver Hambsch

Oliver Hambsch (b. 1981, South Africa) lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa. He completed his postgraduate diploma in Fine Art in 2019, and a Master of Fine Art degree in 2022 at the University of Cape Town Michaelis School of Fine Art. The primary focus of his work is memory in its varied forms – individual, collective, familial, physiological and philosophical. His postgraduate work focused on how a conceptual engagement with printmaking allows the medium to be used as a metaphorical device to express the processes and experiences of memory. He has exhibited in several group shows, including Apartment, The Fourth Gallery, Cape Town and Making and Interpreting Art in 2021 at the University of Johannesburg.
About Mikhailia Petersen

Mikhailia Petersen (b. 1992, Cape Town, South Africa) is a multi-faceted creative living and working in Cape Town, South Africa. From a background in commercial and fashion photography and styling,

Petersen’s work has a strong portraiture focus. She aims to capture her subjects in a truthful and celebratory manner, portraying her subjects through narrative-based story-telling, as opposed to isolated and essentializing single images. Her practice lends itself towards the emotive - harnessing elements of history, culture and the lived experiences of her surrounding community and the people she works with. Deeply interested in the post-colonial landscape of Cape Town, her work seeks to subvert the way POC and LGBTQIA+ people within this context are frequently lensed through hardship and oppression – instead, framing these groups within their beauty and strength. Her most recent series of photographs, A Hopeful Love, portrays a strong bond between two young siblings, resonating with memories Peterson connected to her own childhood.
About Jeanne Hoffman

Jeanne Hoffman (b. 1978, Cape Town, South Africa) lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa. Whilst Hoffman has worked across various mediums, she is best known for her paintings, which explore the emotional and socio-cultural dimensions of place. Hoffman states: “There is a direct correlation between travelling across a landscape and the path of a graphic mark that transforms a blank page into an imaginary space.” In this sense, “Drawing” translates not only to three-dimensional artistic mediums and physical space, but also to a larger “stage”.

Referential forms are assembled in relation with one another, creating movement, dialogue and meaning on the fringes of delineation. Hoffman has held numerous solo and group exhibitions, both locally and abroad, and has participated in residencies in Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland and South Africa.
About Jonah Sack

Jonah Sack (b. 1978, Johannesburg, South Africa) currently lives and works in Cape Town. He studied at the University of the Witwatersrand, and received his MFA from the Glasgow School of Art in 2006.

He has been a fellow of the Skye Foundation and the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts at the University of Cape Town. Sack states: ‘I work across a range of mediums - including painting, sculpture, video, and artist’s books - but all of these practices emerge from drawing. I’m interested in the fragility of our bodies and minds, and of the things we build, and I explore the ways that meaning emerges from that fragility.’ Sack has exhibited widely in South Africa and abroad, including recent group exhibitions at the Kunsthaus Bregenz in Austria, A4 Arts Foundation in Cape Town, and the Centre for the Less Good Idea in Johannesburg. In 2017, blank projects in Cape Town presented his solo exhibition Obstruction, and in 2022 Sack exhibited According to the Model, a solo exhibition at the Gallery of the University of Stellenbosch.
About Xhanti Zwelendaba

Xhanti Zwelendaba (b. 1992) is a multi-disciplinary artist working in a diverse range of mediums such as sculpting, print-making, installation, performance art and video art. He studied at the Michaelis School of Fine Art in Cape Town and is currently completing and MFA at the University of the Witwatersrand. Zwelendaba’s work deals primarily with the complexities and tensions surrounding Xhosa culture and the modern day culture of contemporary capitalism and nationalism. He situates his artistic practice within the decolonial paradigm, pushing the boundaries and limits of art making from the African continent within the contemporary art sphere.

In 2022, Zwelendaba took part in the Africa Leipzig International Artist Residency exchange programme (LIA) which included a printmaking collaboration with Master Printer Maria Ondrej of the Atelier für zeitgenössische Radierung Leipzig. He was the featured artist of the year at the Turbine Art Fair in 2021, and has exhibited at spaces such as David Krut projects in Johannesburg and the Cape Town Investec Art Fair in 2022.

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