Until October 18, STEVENSON gallery unveils a groundbreaking art event in their Parktown North space and at Everard Read’s CIRCA. “Joburg Hymn”, a two-part exhibition by South African artist Robin Rhode, is a vibrant celebration of contemporary creativity. This landmark partnership between the two South African galleries underlines not only the exceptional talent of Robin Rhode, but also the synergy that is emerging around contemporary African art. The two spaces offer a unique platform for showcasing the artist’s work, while bringing together a diverse audience in search of an immersive experience.
Based in Germany since 2002, Robin Rhode propels his experimental art in his Berlin studio, while continuing to interact with the walls of Joburg. The “Joburg Hymn” exhibition pays homage to his hometown, an emblematic place that has shaped his artistic framework. Through her new animations, photographs, paintings and videos, the artist explores the richness and challenges of Joburg’s complex socio-economic milieu, enveloping the viewer in her personal experiences while evoking the inspiration that shapes her work.
Through his recent creations, Robin Rhode adopts performative and absurdist approaches to pay homage to a metropolis always in renegotiation and renewal. He describes his exhibition as follows: “The exhibition is a celebration, but at the same time I’m occupying spaces in Jozi that are in ruins. The context in which I operate reflects a broader discourse on the decay and collapse of structures and systems in South Africa. The question I ask is: how can we deal with these crumbling structures and breathe life into them at the same time? How can we create new meanings for collapsing structures?”
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The artist’s hard-hitting vision unfolds at both exhibition venues. At Everard Read’s CIRCA space, Robin Rhode offers captivating video works and animations, while at STEVENSON gallery, he presents striking drawings and photographs. Among his animations, pieces such as Garden Service, Stage 15, Padel, and Day Zero come to life in disused West Rand sports fields. More than mere abstract compositions, these decaying leisure installations serve to underscore the undeniable effects of the passage of time on geographical space.
In his works, Robin Rhode chooses to use chalk rather than paint, indexing not only the ardors of erasure, but also those of reinscription, central themes of the “Joburg Hymn” exhibition. Through this approach, he invites viewers to rethink our relationship with derelict spaces, and to consider the multiple lives these decaying places can take on.
One of the centerpieces of this series, Portrait with Keys, refers to Ivan Vladislavić’s 2008 novel. For Robin Rhode, this work perfectly describes the articulation of his own experiences of the city. In the work, we see a character navigate a landscape of keys which, as totems of access and possession, become distilled portraits of individual lives in Joburg. The work’s soundtrack is composed by South African piano prodigy Qden Blaauw, adding depth to the animation and offering visitors an immersive aural and visual experience.
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An extract from Vladislavić’s novel Portrait with Keys
In Johannesburg, the Venice of the South, the setting is always artificial. We’ve planted a forest that birds love. As hills, we have grass-covered mine dumps. We don’t wait for time and the elements to damage us; we change the scenery ourselves, according to our moods. Nature is for others, in other places.
June’s Window and the Jacaranda Vignettes are emblematic works in this exhibition, vividly illustrating the relationship between Robin Rhode and the writer. The former unfolds in the form of a slide projection, confronting the viewer with a poignant scene: the artist and an armed collaborator burying drawings in a mining dump. Captured in 2006, this ceremony revolves around sketches of domestic tools that once belonged to the artist’s mother, on an artificial hill visible from her kitchen window. This gesture, both ritual and performative, acts as a historical echo, linking past and present while fusing drawing, performance and photography in a captivating visual dance.
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The much more recent Jacaranda Vignettes cross new artistic boundaries and reflect a bold turn in her photographic practice. Each unique piece reveals a delicate drawing of the emblematic jacaranda flowers, superimposed on monochrome images of Robin Rhode’s alter egos animating a wall that has been dear to him for over a decade. The series thus becomes a vibrant celebration of Joburg’s urban landscapes, while exploring the duality of identity and artifice.
In “Joburg Hymn”, Robin Rhode transforms improvisation and the imaginary into a powerful vector of expression in the face of the realities of struggle. He fervently suggests: “I consider it my job, my duty, as an artist, to revitalize these spaces.” With this cry from the heart, he invites the public to consider these deconstructed places not as relics, but as fertile grounds for artistic reinvention and rebirth.
