THE READING ROOM: Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi and Alphabet Zoo

The Reading Room is a place for contemplation, conversation, screenings, small-scale events, and reading.

In this room and the workshop adjacent to it, a group of artists will respond to another’s work over a period of 12 weeks.

The starting point for this engagement is the series of portrait paintings entitled Heroes (by Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi). The series is an ongoing inquiry into the subjective nature of the term ‘hero’: What is a hero? Do we need and therefore create our heroes? Who gets memorialised and who is forgotten?

Alphabet Zoo (artists Minenkulu Ngoyi and Isaac Zavale) will initiate a series of workshops in which artists respond to Nkosi’s portraits in various forms, creating new readings of the work. Participating artists include Andile Buka, Simnikiwe Buhlungu, Mooki Mooks, Kgomutso Neto Tleane, Jack Dyamonds, and the Danger Gevaar Ingozi collective.

Visitors to The Reading Room are invited to observe the development of the space over the project period. Visitors will also be invited to engage directly with the artists’ processes— including opportunities to participate in a programme of workshops and public events. The idea is that what is generated in the space will build on the narratives already present, and populate The Reading Room with a multiplicity of voices.

The public is invited to directly engage with The Reading Room during the following events:

26 May 2018 | 2-4pm | Reading Sessions:
Selected texts to be read and discussed at The Reading Room

01 + 02 June 2018 | 10-5pm | All Day Screenings
Screenings of documentary films to run over two days

07 June 2018 | 6-8pm: Public Discussion (TBC)

27 July 2018 | Public Zine Workshop with Alphabet Zoo

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