SURVEY is a third in a series of joint solo shows by Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi and Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum. Held at BRUNDYN+, the exhibition follows two prior shows, Before being asked by the machine (2013) and Space Station All-Stars (2013).

By having two artists presenting solo exhibitions at the same time, in the same venue, the artists dismantle the notion of autonomy and simultaneously disrupt the idea of collaboration. This investigation culminates in a fusion of ideas – while the artists explore different themes in their respective work, the viewer is led into a labyrinth of speculation as they attempt to fuse the different elements together.

In this new series of paintings and video, entitled “The End of History”, Nkosi has become chiefly preoccupied with the double meaning of the word “construction”. As buildings are constructed, so are ideologies and histories. This has seen her move beyond buildings to include nature as a subject, albeit nature of a qualified kind. These are highly constructed landscapes that are the products of landscape architects and urban planners.

Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum’s works, which include drawing, animation, and installation, reveals a fascination with vanguard theories in astrophysics and geology; and an interest in discovering parallels between contemporary science and ancient mythology. Her work alludes to mythological musings on the beginning of time, geological speculations of the earth’s structure, theories on the nature of the universe, and, most recently, 18th century European Romanticist landscape painting.

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Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi (b.1980) was born in New York and has lived in Harare and Johannesburg on and off since the early 1990s. She is a painter, video artist and filmmaker who divides her time between studio work and navigating the field of collaborative practice. Her work investigates power and its structures – political, social, architectural. Implicit in her examination of these structures is an interrogation of the invisible forces that create them, and an imagining of alternatives. Her paintings and films have been shown at the Ifa Gallery in Berlin, the South London Gallery, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Rio de Janeiro and the Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg. Reflections on the collaborative project Border Farm will be included in the forthcoming publications Wide Angle: Photography as Public Practice (Fourthwall) and What We Want is Free: Critical Exchanges in Recent Art (SUNY Press). Nkosi obtained her BA from Harvard University and her MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York.

Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum (b. 1980) was born in Mochudi, Botswana. Her studio practice includes drawing, animation, installation and performance. Her work has been shown at the Museum of Contemporary African Diaspora Artists in New York, The Kitchen in New York, Room Urban Art Space in Johannesburg, the Ithuba Arts Gallery in Johannesburg, the FRAC Gallery in Carquefou, France, and the 2012 Havana Biennale in Cuba. Her creative research interests include exploring the political possibilities of imagining and occupying what she calls “Mythologies of the Future.” She recently wrote an essay published in Paradoxa Journal (2013) on Afro Mythology and African Futurism and will present a paper titled “Imagining the Future is Radical!: Activating New African Futures in Performance and Multi-media Art” at the African Futures Conference in Bayreuth, Germany. After completing her Masters in Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, USA, Sunstrum returned to Johannesburg where she currently lives and works.