
Towards a labyrinth of portals: a space for exchange
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It is a great joy to be accompanying Gert Swart in the run-up to his exhibition Towards Easter Sunday 2025: Who am I? which opens at the Tatham Art Gallery in Pietermaritzburg next Spring, and to be writing this website's inaugural blog post.
Three of us thus far, Gert (whom I've yet to meet in the flesh), his friend and mine Walter Hayn, who is a painter, and I (a writer and researcher), have been collaborating to create this online space for exchange. We hope will also serve as a seed bed of ideas for a multi-authored exhibition catalogue.
A participatory progression towards the exhibition, and a participatory approach to art in general, is of great importance to Gert. He has often worked collaboratively. Between 1983 and 1987, for instance, he taught in the non-racist Community Arts Workshop, Durban, of which he was a founding member. That is just one instance among many. In a WhatsApp exchange last November (27/11/23) he introduced me to a concept that has become dear to his heart:
I've recently become aware of the neologism 'scenius' and would like to explore it some more in relationship with our Christian endeavours in the arts.
'Scenius' was coined by the musician and producer Brian Eno. In his words:
So I came up with this word ‘scenius’ – the intelligence of a whole operation or group of people. I think that’s a more useful way to think about culture. Let’s forget the idea of ‘genius’ for a little while, let’s think about the whole ecology of ideas that give rise to good new thoughts and good new work.”
[Source: Alex Gentry ' What is the "Scenius"? Medium / Circuit Youth Salvo, 3 February 2017.]
Well, now we have a wonderful opportunity to get immersed in such a scene and we hope that many others will join in.
Gert's exhibition will be focused on portals and thresholds, a theme that has been of great importance to him throughout his life as an artist. For the exhibition, he is working on a labyrinth of portals which visitors are invited to navigate. At first sight, the space may seem overwhelming; a space in which one is likely to get lost. But as you find yourself drawn to a particular portal and as you begin to engage with it, the idea is that you will begin to find yourself in some way. Perhaps you will re-find a dimension of yourself that was somehow mislaid. As you find orientation, you might decide to tackle other portals that felt less immediately intuitive or appealing. Perhaps they felt intimidating? In any case, here is the promise of another scene - a scene of display - that will be alive, active, exploratory and challenging, personally and collaboratively.