‘Concatenation’

Central. Lynette Geldenhuys and Minka Schoonwinkel, in association with GUS, curated this thought provoking exhibition for the 2023 Student Takeoverdisplay. The goal was to bring together as many stakeholders in the Visual Art Department as possible. The call to exhibit was extended to Undergraduate and postgraduate students, alumni and lecturers. Of the displayed pieces, most were sold on the opening night, with others sold later on. The central theme of the exhibition was evident in the intermingled portrayal of the various artist’s self-portraits. No distinction was made between student, alumni or lecturer.

“Each artwork is the artist’s representation of themselves, an individual within the collection of the exhibition.”

When asked about what inspired the various works portrayed, Geldenhuys explains,” People were sort of open to interpret it in any way they wanted, whether that be like classic representational, or more conceptual.”

Out of this stemmed a collection full of diversity. Various mediums and disciplines could be seen throughout the exhibition.

The co-curator of the project, Minka Schoonwinkel, elaborated, “Some of it is work that people had previously made and then submitted and other people made self-portraits specifically for this exhibition.” Even at just a quick glance around one could sense the interwoven liberties of artistic freedom. “We wanted people to give us self-portraits that really reflected their art and what they wanted to put out there, which not always just an illustrative self-portrait…” says Lynette Geldenhuys, Visual Arts Hons student.

There is a definite connection to the theme of time throughout the exhibition.

Andrew Sutherland, the curator of GUS and a lecturer at the Department of Visual Arts comments,“…it’s nice to see the connection between past, present and almost the connection to the future as well. Because it’s not just undergraduate students, but it’s also lecturers and alumni; some lecturers that studied here at Stellenbosch… most that didn’t and alumni as well, like Melissa Wrench did the little projection piece... and even in that piece you can see three generations that are layered with each other… so it’s nice to connect the undergraduate

Hi Maats! Die Matie here, and we have the biggest news EVER. This is a new colomn we’ve dubbed “Die Matie Says”. Here we will spill the hottest tea and say what’s on everyones minds.

<3 GriepGriep: why is everyone always getting ill as soon as campus reopens? Y’all be safe out there :0 students and their pieces into the greater artistic community through past students and lecturers as well, all in the same space, all on the same wall, with nothing special to really differentiate between who’s a student and who’s an established artist.” The idea of Concatenation was to connect, whether that be the connection of artists, the connection of art, the connection of a department or the connection of the past, the present and the future is a subjective choice of the viewer. Through the vision of Geldenhuys and Schoonwinkel, a space was created where artistic freedom could roam about and entice the viewer. A space was created where the viewer could truly connect to the artists and leave with the question: how do I then see my own self?

<3 Wingerdgriep: We hear all the Maties had a very golden week and hope that the gees will spill over to the upcoming studies of this semester.

<3 Don’t even get me started on the Sunlearn redesign! The university promised it would be the best thing since sliced bread but all they did was drop a lot of dough for nothing. The university try to fix something that wasn’t broken?

<3 The Neelsie was particularly stinky this week... some of our readers took a wild guess at what it might be. Some said it smelled like, and we quote, “feet”, “baby diapers” or “ham croissants at Vida”. While all of these are valid guesses there is unfortunately only one cause for the smell and that was a burst sewage pipe. #ewww