Between Light and Shadow: Rites of Passage

Rites of passage are experiences that mark the transition from one phase of life to another, we are wanderers constantly travelling between passageways of light and darkness.

These unfolding linear progressions bound to time, or fluid journeys from a past to future-nows, can be understood through Arnold van Gennep’s tripartite pattern of human transitions; ‘detachment’ (movement away from a previous state of being), ‘liminality’ (journeying through a state of ambiguity or darkness) and ‘re-aggregation’ (realigning oneself with the shifts and reintegrating into society, the light). These fleeting moments become the markers of living; birth rites, religious or cultural initiation rites, mortuary rites and everything in between, first words, birthdays, educational milestones, adolescence to adulthood.

In contemporary society some of these ceremonial devises, once shared through communal ritualistic practices, have been abandoned, and others transformed to reflect contemporary conditions. Artists extend these rituals into modern life, articulating rites of passage through their practice. They bring our awareness back to these moments of release, transgression and transformation, by documenting, reenacting or translating rites of passage in various mediums.

Like the chapters of our stories, these junctures in life are momentous ceremonies that are performed and remembered, or the intimate shifts that silently go unnoticed. We become the product of these experiences. These attuning practices that we design and ascribe meaning to, rights that are scripted and imposed upon us or granted to us, shape our sense of identity.

With: Christine Dixie, David Lurie, Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude, Nú Barreto, Neill Wright, Othello De’Souza-Hartley, Paul Emmanuel, Ralph Ziman, Vivien Kohler and Wycliffe Mundopa.

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Simultaneous Exhibition – London and Cape Town

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Between Light and Shadow: Rites of Passage (London) 13 June – 7 August , 2016

A group exhibition featuring, in London: Nú Barreto, Othello De’Souza-Hartley, Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude, Wycliffe Mundopa, Neill Wright

Private views and Artist walkabouts Monday 13 June – Saturday 18 June 12h00-21h00

Opening Reception 17 June 18h00

Please pass by on your way to the opening of The Tate Modern extension
Unit 2 La Gare, 51 Surrey Row, London SE1 0BZ

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Between Light and Shadow: Rites of Passage (Cape Town)11 – 18 June + 30 June – 31 July

A group exhibition featuring in Cape Town: Nú Barreto, Christine Dixie, Paul Emmanuel, David Lurie, Wycliffe Mundopa, Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude, Neill Wright, Vivien Kohler, Ralph Ziman

11 – 18 June @ Irma Stern Museum, Cape Town, South Africa
Opening Reception 11 July 11h00

To be continued… 30 June – 31 July
Private view gallery: 15 van Zyl Street, Riebeek West, Swartland Winelands, South Africa

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