Over the Rainbow

The Ulwazi Programme is run by the eThekweni Municipality’s Library Services, and as such we tend to focus on stories local to the municipality, but sometimes things outside of the region catch our attention, like the Over the Rainbow exhibition currently on at the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG).

Acknowledging the imbalance in its collection, during the 1980s JAG set out to acquire works that were more representative of the population of South Africa, an effort that gained even more momentum after the 1994 elections. The Gallery made it their mission to include in their collection artworks that reflected contemporary society and the challenges faced by our new democratic society. Now twenty years on, JAG has curated an exhibition of some of these works in answer to the question, “Are we still the rainbow nation of hope that celebrated a free South Africa in 1994?”. Over the Rainbow explores the notion of democracy and whether the ideals set out 20 years ago are in fact a reality today.

This challenging exhibition, which includes world renowned artists Zanele Muholi, Pieter Hugo, Penny Siopis and William Kentridge, to name a few, opened on the 25th May 2014 and will close at the end of August.

For more information on the show go to the Johannesburg Art Gallery’s Facebook page.