Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi: Landings

12 February - 19 March 2022

Stevenson is pleased to present Landings by Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi, her second solo exhibition with the gallery and her first in Cape Town.

With her pared-down shapes and blocked colour zones, Nkosi seeks the power of stories told with the minimum information necessary. In these works - paintings, prints and a sound installation - conceived during the accelerated crises of the past year, the artist zooms alternately in and out to examine multiple meanings of safety and ground.
Nkosi has produced a series of stark geometric paintings that continue her exploration of the arena’s interior, but zoom out to allow for more elemental studies of the charged, stage-like architecture. In these works the artist also tends more closely to classic abstraction than she has previously. The shapes may add up to the description of real spaces - communicating about and with the absent human form - or may just as easily be read as studies in geometrical and colour relationships.

Nkosi sees these opposing movements - zooming in and out - as complementary. ‘From close in,’ she writes, ‘one gets a feeling for how these figures’ relationships function. Sometimes as solace, sometimes as protection, sometimes maybe even as distraction. And when one moves away from the figures, to take a broader view of the context, one stands to gain a deeper understanding of one’s own and others’ place within it.’
The figurative works in the show are predominantly studies of human connection. Working within the aesthetic territory mapped out in her previous exhibition Gymnasium, Nkosi here moves away from a concern with the individual’s experience to focus on the shared encounter: pairs or small groups hold (and hold on to) one another, or converse at close quarters. Rendered in characteristically muted tones, the quietness of these moments stands in contrast to the ambiguous potency such interactions have assumed in the pandemic era.
Landings also features an edition of prints, titled An Account, situated at the meeting point between narrative and the human. In this imaginary record of a few days in her studio, Nkosi employs the system of shorthand notations used by gymnastics judges.
'On a given day I may attempt many manoeuvres. Sometimes a manoeuvre is made up of one or two moves. Perhaps this sort of purely descriptive account can be read as a non-judgmental gaze on my day, allowing me to see my own actions and work without unnecessary self-criticism or analysis. In that space, the difference between chaos and order, success and failure becomes indistinct.'

— Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi
Chorus, 2021
Sound installation
5 min 14 sec
Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi in collaboration with Dion Monti
Chorus - which intermixes television commentary, behind-the-scenes conversations and the ambient sounds of the gymnasium - examines the mechanisms by which physical endeavour becomes elite competition and mass entertainment. This encompassing work is a counterpoint to the paintings of human connection, the crucial, but often overlooked, centre around which such constructs are built.
'Since the architecture of the arena draws its meaning from its function - as a stage for competition and ideology - the flat geometric shapes form a language that communicates constantly about and with the absent human form.

My paintings have always tended towards abstraction. By paring down shapes and blocking colour zones, I have sought the power that resides in a story told with the minimum amount of information possible. In these abstracted works, the shapes may add up to the description of real or imagined spaces or may as easily be read as studies in geometrical and colour relationships.'

— Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi
'I see these opposing movements - in and out - as complementary. From closer in one can understand more about the relationships that are forged in the arena, often as a defense or protection against its attendant pressures. From further away, when one can see more of a structure or landscape, one is often better able to understand one’s own and others’ place within it.'

— Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi
Nkosi points out that in a gymnast’s routine, the landing holds more weight than any other moment. Doing it right is a matter of precise angles and bend: if you are only a few degrees off, point deductions, or serious injury, awaits. A successful landing - elegant, stable, safe - is possible only through balance: physical, mental, emotional. One has to be in the right frame of mind to land well. But where does that frame of mind come from? Is it something we can generate ourselves? Or is it something that arises in relation with others?

In Landings, Nkosi asks what we can be for each other when the ground is breaking apart beneath our feet. How do we find each other? How do we hold on to one another? Where can we land?
Prices exclude shipping and taxes