Published on the occasion of Only Sun in the Sky Knows How I Feel -- (A Lucid Dream), a solo exhibition by Johannes Phokela, 28 October - 8 January 2023 at Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) in Cape Town, South Africa.
Summary:
"Only the Sun in the Sky Knows How I Feel -- (A Lucid Dream) marks a turn for Johannes Phokela: his first institutional solo exhibition in almost a decade. This turn relates to an attempt, curatorially at least, to provide other frameworks for the reading and contextualising of his practice -- against the grain, so to speak, of previous framings that positioned him primarily as a black artist painting in a European style. Whilst both the issue of race (or racism) and the spectre of empire and colonialism are central to his work, the artist has seemingly, and ironically, been trapped in a discourse that the works set out to subvert and upend. As for another turn, the aspiration of this exhibition -- and our institutional efforts -- is to reinsert Phokela into a narrative of his peers, both internationally and in relation to a South African art history." -- Introduction, page 13
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.