Umbilically Connected | Majak Bredell
19 September – 10 November 2024
This multifaceted solo-exhibition by Majak Bredell comprises numerous artworks with lively compositions, and the various combinations of figures, animals, plants and insects in imaginative landscapes, create an intriguing and enjoyable viewers’ experience. INTERCONNECTIONS celebrates the vibrancy and interdependence of all of nature’s many bodies, including the human body. These artworks are well thought through and speak of deep and prolonged contemplation of the concepts that the artist works with.
Majak explains: ‘The work in this exhibition, INTERCONNECTIONS, is organized in two parts: the large works on paper in which I create DIALOGUES & ANALOGIES between the human body and the body of the earth … and LEVELS & LAYERS in which I play with the interconnections between the above and the below and the many elements and creatures that inhabit the earth. In both parts I unravel the strands by which parts of the natural world have been woven through the fabric of religion, mythology, and lore. And, in my hope for the future of our planet, I use this unravelling to suggest that our affinity with the natural and animal world has always been there — hidden in plain sight.’
In the large artworks on paper, DIALOGUES & ANALOGIES, Majak metaphorically and symbolically connect the human body to the sacred body of Earth and the cosmos that surround us. The nude figures become a symbol of humankind that can also be seen to represent the naked truth. In her explorations and dialogues between the human body and nature’s many ‘bodies’ she asks that if we would see the earth as a living organism – similar to our own bodies, would we treat her better? In her words: ‘Would we feel the impact of ecological destruction, pollution, and exploitation as wounds to ourselves?’
The contents of LEVELS & LAYERS are placed on horizontal bands of colour, inspired by the illuminations of the 8th century Spanish monk Beatus of Liébana. Majak finds this a versatile and pleasing arrangement on which to stage interconnected ideas about our relationship to the ‘more-than-human’ world. Through extracting symbols and analogies that connect religion, mythology and lore to nature, the skies and the creatures whether ‘winged, finned, hoofed, clawed, scaled or carapaced’, she wants to draw our attention to earth (our planet) as a living organism or body, as well as the sacred ground of our earthly existence. She explains: ‘Most of us were socialised to look upward to find the sacred in the invisible realm. I reverse this notion in many of the works by returning the gaze earthward, towards the sacred body of the Earth.’
Majak Bredell was born in Kroonstad in 1945, the second of five children who grew up on the farm, Mooidraai. In 1981 she emigrated to New York were her reading and art-making developed a strong feminist sensibility that questioned the gender of god and its effect on women and sense of self. During this time, she wrote Sacred Scars that was self-published in 2017.
The Inner | Majak Bredell
She returned to South Africa in 2004 to build a studio where she lives on the side of the Drakensberg in Limpopo. Majak produced several extensive bodies of work that look at established mythology from a feminist perspective: ALTER IMAGES 1 & 2, ROLL CALL and CODEX MAGDALENE+.
These were exhibited variously at: The Association of Arts, Pretoria, The University of Johannesburg Art Gallery, The White River Gallery in Mpumalanga and The Polokwane Art Museum in Limpopo.
In 2020-21 a retrospective exhibition curated by Elfriede Dreyer, MAJAK BREDELL: THE NEW YORK YEARS 1981-2003 was mounted simultaneously at The Pretoria Art Museum and The Association of Arts, Pretoria.
Before travelling to Oliewenhuis Art Museum, INTERCONNECTIONS was shown at The Association of Arts, Pretoria and The White River Gallery, Mpumalanga.
The exhibition can be viewed in the Reservoir at Oliewenhuis Art Museum until Sunday, 10 November 2024. Oliewenhuis Art Museum is located at 16 Harry Smith Street, Bloemfontein and is open to the public from Monday to Friday between 08:00 and 17:00, and on Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays between 09:00 and 16:00. A ramp at the entrance of the main entrance provides access for wheel chairs, while a lift provides access to the Permanent Collection display areas on the 1st floor. R10 parking fee will be charged but entrance to the museum is free.
For more information on Oliewenhuis Art Museum please contact the Museum at 078 968 4300 or oliewen@nasmus.co.za. Stay up to date by following Oliewenhuis Art Museum on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for all upcoming exhibitions and events.
Wild At Heart | Majak Bredell
Gestural Duet | Majak Bredell
Homage | Majak Bredell