November 14, 2007
By Ndaba Dlamini
MESCHAC GABA'S work is extraordinary. The internationally renowned avant-garde artist is holding a solo exhibition at the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG), where his works Tresses, La Maison, Salle de Jeux and Glue Me Peace are on show until 31 January 2008.
Tresses is a series of braided pieces similar to wigs - Gaba emphasises that they are not wigs, but sculptures - referencing iconic buildings in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Tshwane.
Glue me peace has three components, including a series of video projections of Nobel laureates
Gaba, a native of Benin now living in the Netherlands, uses traditional hair-braiding techniques to construct iconic buildings and towers like the Voortreker Monument in Tshwane, the Good Hope Centre in Cape Town and the Sentec Tower in Johannesburg.
These striking sculptures, which form a larger series of sculptures based on buildings such as the Eiffel Tower in France and the Empire State Building in the US, were also shown at the Michael Stevenson Gallery in Cape Town in August.
In an interview with Joost Bosland, the assistant curator at the Cape Town gallery, Gaba said the process of making pieces for Tresses involved taking pictures of the buildings, which functioned as his drawings.
"I then make the skeletons out of metal wire, and pass them on to real tresseuses [female hair braiders], who braid the hair on to the frame. I do these kinds of projects, projects that require studio work, in Benin."
Talking about his engagement with the buildings in South Africa, Gaba said the buildings here were not the same as those in Paris or New York.
"But at the same time you'll find that many forms are being copied. For the Sao Paulo Biennale I made an imaginary city out of sugar, using hundreds of existing buildings to create one new city. It included many buildings from Benin but people did not recognise them as such."
La Maison is an interactive exhibition that takes the form of the board game Ludo. The playing surface is a carpet and the pieces are chairs on which the player can sit. Visitors can also stop off at the Salle de Jeux, a games room containing puzzles. The puzzles can be solved by moving square pieces on a table to form flags.
La Maison: one of the installations of Meschac Gaba at the Johannesburg Art Gallery
Glue Me Peace is a mammoth installation with three components. It consists of a series of video projections showing the acceptance speeches of Nobel laureates, a juke box that plays the speeches and a Bureau of Peace, from which the viewer can take a poster showing the flags of the different nationalities of the Nobel laureates.
A new installation, Couleurs du Cotonou, comprises a number of paintings made with bank notes from Benin and the United States. The banknotes are used as frames for found objects.
Gaba has participated in a number of events, such as the Venice Biennale and the Sao Paulo Biennale in 2006. His work has also been shown at galleries such as the Tate Modern in London, in 2005, and the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, in 2002. He was also one of the featured artists in the recent Africa Remix exhibition at the Johannesburg Art Gallery.
The Meschac Gaba exhibition is at the Johannesburg Art Gallery until 31 January 2008. The gallery is in King George Street, Joubert Park and is open from Tuesday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm; entrance is free.
For more information contact the gallery on 011 725 3180.
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