On occasion of this year’s edition of LISTE, she is presenting Revolution, Situation, Procession and Triumph, drawings cut in copper created as part of her performance To Be Announced.
Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Maison Rouge, (Paris) the New Museum, (New York) the Lyon Biennale, (Lyon) the New Museum Triennial, or the Sao Paulo Biennale. She was also one of the artists chosen to represent South Africa at the Venice Biennale in 2013.
H A P P E N I N G spoke to the artist on occasion of LISTE.
Donna Kukama, Situation, 2017 Drawing from the performance To Be Announced cut in copper, nails; 360 x 350 x 6 mm Edition 1/3. Images courtesy of the artist and blank projects.
Could you briefly present your project for LISTE?
I am presenting a piece of work developed from my most recent (and ongoing) series of performances, which constitute a proposal for a “history book.” The book does not take on the physical form of bound paper with written text — it’s rather a series of staged public encounters that collect, mimic, and reinvent history from a subjective point of view.
Sitting somewhere between performance, drawing, sculpture, video, text, sound, and storytelling, each chapter of the book revisits sites of violence (both physical and discursive) directed at and experienced by marginalized bodies. The copper texts were primarily developed from a performance in the series, however they also speak to the current political climate of Europe — especially with regards to what has been referred to as the "refugee crisis."
Donna Kukama, Procession, 2017 Drawing from the performance To Be Announced cut in copper, nails; 720 x 180 x 6 mm Edition 1/3. Images courtesy of the artist and blank projects.
Fairs have increasingly included performance pieces in their programming. Yet within the fair landscape, performance art seems somewhat underrepresented. Has this influenced your work? What is the most suitable platform for performance art?
You are right about the under-representation of live performances at Art Fairs. I think it's mainly because Art Fairs are spaces that target the commercial market, and performance art, by nature, is not commercial. So even if an Art Fair had the good intention of including as many live performances as possible, the majority of that work would remain out of place, and secondary to the main purpose of that space, which is to serve a commercial market.
I'm rather interested in how performance artists find strategies for "performing the Art Fair" without ending up as a side show. At this year’s Cape Town Art Fair, I gave a lecture (which was a performance) as part of the public talks, and also sold a work that was created out of a time-based meditative process of counting and writing, using my own blood, sweat, and soil. Although this was an object within a booth, it was produced from a performance piece. The same principle or strategy applies for the work I am presenting at LISTE this year.
TO BE ANNOUNCED... NgBK, Berlin 2015 Courtesy of the artist and blank projects Photograph by Abrie Fourie
Your performance work explores narrative systems and the ways value systems” are constructed. Does the open-endedness of performance as a medium suits the exploration of these themes?
Yes indeed. I can invent responses to these systems in real-time, but can also introduce systems of my own. Performance, I guess, allows the creation of gaps for "comebacks" in the present through a language that speaks in past-present-future tense.
In one of your interviews, you mentioned that you are influenced by poetry. How does this operate in your work?
In the interview I say that I'm interested in, not influenced by poetry. This interest is not limited to poetry as spoken word, but to every single moment that I experience and express in my work. I guess the idea here lies somewhere between balancing aesthetic beauty with the presence of everyday life experiences that may not always be considered beautiful. Sometimes it is in presenting weighty stories with a bit of light humour.
