Pretoria - An exciting international exhibition, Shared Sky, was opened by Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor at the Iziko South African National Gallery, earlier today.
Transcending continents, Shared Sky brings together South African and Australian artists in a collaborative exhibition celebrating humanity’s ancient cultural wisdom, alongside one of the world’s greatest scientific and engineering endeavours - the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).
This fascinating art/astronomy exhibition is hosted by Iziko Museums of South Africa in partnership with the SKA Organisation, SKA South Africa, SKA Australia and Curtin University Australia’s Institute of Radio Astronomy.
“While Shared Sky successfully reflects on the ancestral interpretations of the night sky from indigenous people from both South Africa and Australia, it also touches on South Arica’s flagship science programmes.
“South Africa has a rich fossil heritage, allowing for world class research in human origins. At the same time, we host top astronomers exploring our place in the universe,” said Minister Pandor.
Shared Sky was developed in collaboration with San - descended artists from the Bethesda Arts Centre, Nieu Bethesda, Eastern Cape and their creative counterparts, Yamaji Aboriginal artists from the Yamaji Art Centre, Geraldton, Western Australia.
The exhibition showcases spectacular tapestries depicting some of mankind’s earliest attempts to understand the enormity of the universe and humanity’s place within it.
Depicting millennia-old indigenous myths, the art quilts describe the creation of the sun, the stars, the Milky Way, the moon, the lunar cycle, and ‘death’.
The work of scientists and artists in this project reveals a common desire to appreciate the complexity and ancientness of the universe, and to share diverse explanations of it.
“Through partnerships and collaborations, the SKA radio telescope project and the attendant Shared Sky exhibition bring together individuals, programmes, institutions, national departments, countries and museums.
“Embodied in the exhibition are advanced scientific enquiry, contemporary artistic creativity and ancient indigenous wisdom from Australia and South Africa about the universe. The exhibition is appropriately sited within Iziko which has a rich legacy of knowledge creation in the fields of archaeological and natural history research, inter alia.
“Iziko’s mission of making connections and inclusivity could not be more beautifully reflected,” said Rooksana Omar, Iziko CEO.
Shared Sky presents an unprecedented opportunity for these communities, who share so much through their common colonial histories, to reflect upon the countless generations of proud custodianship of their respective homelands, and draw strength and inspiration from each other.
Over thousands of years, these communities developed rich and distinctive cultures in absolute isolation – and an entire Indian Ocean apart – yet share so many deep concerns for the preservation of their cultural heritage.
Shared Sky was curated by Chris Malcolm, Director of the John Curtin Gallery at Curtin University, Perth, Australia, as international curator in partnership with John Parkington, Emeritus Professor of Archaeology, University of Cape Town.
Shared Sky is presented in South Africa in collaboration with curator Sandra Prosalendis, exhibition designer Elsabe Gelderblom and Carol Kaufmann, Curator of African Art at the Iziko South African National Gallery.
Shared Sky is hosted by Iziko Museums of South Africa, a national flagship institution and an agency of the national Department of Arts and Culture, at the Iziko South African National Gallery.
The Shared Sky exhibition will be open to the public from 13 February until the end of May 2015. – SAnews.gov.za
