In his debut solo exhibition, Resonance of My Body, Bruce Bowale invites the viewer to embark on a journey to ponder the realms of existence and coexistence of our nature as human beings. Although our individual existence may be experienced differently due to different socio-economic realities that we are born into which inadvertently shape our initial life experiences, there are moments where ruptures occur and our journeys coalesce through shared life experiences within the sociocultural paradigm such as going to an educational institution. Such experiences leave us enriched.
Through mixed media, Bowale has sought to bring these experiences to life, offering a glimpse of his own perspective with a particular focus on the family as a nucleus of our existence. To conceive the body of work comprising this exhibition he has drawn inspiration from his own family history through use of photographs, his upbringing and his community. During the production of the work, he found resonance in the book Poor Folk/s, a collection of short stories written by Tokelo Hlagala. This sparked a collaboration between the two creatives.
Sampling out the text of the short story For Whom The Bell Tolls Bowale masterfully interweaves the text of this short story into the surface of his drawings through a fusion of pencil, charcoal, soft pastels, ink and watercolours to create the body of work comprising this exhibition.
As a project exhibition Resonance Of My Body has been long coming. The glimpse of its possibilty germinated during the artist’s residency at the Pretoria Art Museum’s Kopanong Art Studio between 2021-2022. As part of its formal opening proceedings on 18 May 2024, the author Tokelo Hlagala will read an extract from the short story For Whom The Bell Tolls which permeates the surfaces of the body of work comprising this exhibition.
The exhibition opens at 11:00 on Saturday, 18 May 2024, and will close on Sunday, 14 July 2024.
The Pretoria Art Museum is open on Tuesdays to Sundays from 10:00 to 17:00 and is closed on Mondays and public holidays.
Self Reflexion, 2024 (detail of diptych), charcoal and coffee on Fabriano paper, 350x250mm
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