On July 7, Nel presented the collaborative exhibition “Current Affairs: Conversations Around the Body 2.0” by the M I L K Collective. The reputable art gallery in Cape Town once again became the platform for fostering and promoting socially relevant and progressive art. Four distinctly unique artists — Gillian Rosselli, Tosca Marthinus, Martina Gruber, and Neena Borrill — combined the visceral power of their bodies and photography to reflect on what they witnessed, in person or from a distance, in the past and the present. The exhibition is on view through July 29, 2022.
Gender identity and sexuality are the main leitmotifs of the exhibition that aims to bring around the conversation about what it means and how it feels to be a queer person/couple in the initially traditional setting and conservative society. The M I L K Collective effectively uses mixed media art, combining photography, video, and sound to create an image that tugs at viewers’ heartstrings and instigates thoughts. However, the main medium of “Current Affairs: Conversations Around the Body 2.0” is the human body.
Many shots that you can see at the exhibition are black and white, with none of them edited at the post-production stage. The artists used manual in-shot techniques to manipulate people’s perceptions and bend the rules of aesthetic conventions to portray vital themes of social conditioning and psychology. Every artwork featured in “Current Affairs” does a great job of matching human emotions and mental states to visuals. If you look at those pieces closely, you might feel speechless because they disarm you and allow you to engage in self-reflection and have a deeper look within.
Throughout the exhibition, the M I L K Collective asks fundamental questions that society, meaning every person individually and collectively, will need to answer to continue its existence. Among them, the most pertinent one is the question of where one individual ends and the other begins. At the end of the day, these margins and boundaries define our natural and social rights to be who we are.
M I L K is a creative collective formed in February 2022. Four artists use the power of aesthetics and their bodies as artistic mediums to articulate self-expression and convey individual messages that bring changes to people’s minds and hearts. “Current Affairs: Conversations Around the Body 2.0” is a must-visit exhibition for everyone who likes thought-provoking queer art and wants to make a difference.
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