Mountain & Maritime Mythologies
Mountain & maritime mythologies explores visual representations of folklore relating to South Africa’s diverse mountain & maritime environments with a focus on Cape Muslim, amaXhosa, San, amaZulu & European knowledge systems.
Cyril Coetzee’s T’kama Adamastor connects a constellation of mythologies surrounding the Cape. A series of prints by Cecil Skotnes thread through the exhibition, telling stories of sea voyages, the geographies of the Cape & the life of Shaka kaSenzangakhona, King of the Zulus. San rock paintings of European ships & wagons reflect on how indigenous people understood the arrival of the settlers.
Maps are positioned as mythologies due to the ways in which Europeans projected their desires & biases on to these early depictions of the African continent.
African Birds
Artists showcased in this exhibition:
Graeme Arnott
Thomas Baines
Phillip Clancey
William T Cooper
Gail Darroll
C G Finch-Davis
John & Elizabeth Gould
David Ord Kerr
Geoffrey Lockwood
Harold M Millar
Kenneth Newman
Auguste Pelletier
The 1922 Rand Rebellion
& events leading up to the strike
In January 1922, during a period of severe economic depression in South Africa, a white miners’ strike broke out across the Witwatersrand mines to protest plans to reduce labour costs by employing cheaper black labour.
Past Exhibitions
CHARLES HAMILTON SMITH
African hoofed animals
ZULU WARS
ELLAPHIE WARD-HILHORST
Botanical artist
THOMAS BOWLER
Artist at the Cape
THE FOUNDING OF JOHANNESBURG
CONSTANCE STUART LARRABEE
1914–2000
MAJOR A B CREE
British Regiments in South Africa 1795–1902
THE BINDERY AT THE BRENTHURST LIBRARY
Taking care of the collection
FREDERICK TIMPSON I’ONS
1802–1887
