Nolan Oswald Dennis

Prop. 8 (prou(k)n), 2018

Unique Artwork

Mixed media

CM H 61 W 45.7

IN H 24.02 W 17.99

Signed by artist

Available

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About the work

Prop. 8 (prou(k)n), 2018

The work prep.8 is part of the latest body of work presented during the exhibition Options. The second solo exhibition of Nolan Oswald Dennis with Goodman Gallery.

Consisting of a new series of drawings, diagrams and systems, the exhibition presents work synonymous with its title.

Dennis suggests thinking of artwork as prepositions rather than propositions. Prepositions are defined as a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations. Combining this definition with the ‘option theory of decolonisation’— summed up by the statement “the world we want is a world in which many worlds exist”— Dennis envisions his work ‘not as a catalyst for the future or reflection on the past, but as a shadow or diagram of the longness of now (or as the late keorapetse kgosistile describes it – the pastpresentfuture)’.

Options in turn works through our present political moment in which 20th century social fictions have re-emerged. Dennis considers this idea in relation to the linguistic and visual limits of (post)colonial language, attempting to map the terrain of local and global power relations through work that subverts our idea of linear time and space.
For Dennis, this approach is an intrinsic part ‘of thinking, being in, making, fixing, breaking, changing, or ending the world’. Central to Options then is a vision of a transformed world that exists, in the artist›s words, ‘somewhere beside the dream’.

About artist

Nolan Oswald Dennis

Nolan Oswald Dennis is an interdisciplinary artist from Johannesburg, South Africa. His practice explores what he calls ‘a black consciousness of space’ : the material and metaphysical conditions of decolonization.

His work questions the politics of space and time through a system-specific, rather than site-specific approach. He is concerned with the hidden structures that pre-determine the limits of our social and political imagination. Through a language of diagrams, drawings and models he explores a hidden landscape of systematic and structural conditions that organise our political sub-terrain. This sub-space is framed by systems which transverse multiple realms (technical, spiritual economic, psychological, etc) and therefore Dennis’ work can be seen as an attempt to stitch these, sometime opposed, sometimes complimentary, systems together. To read technological systems alongside spiritual systems, to combine political fictions with science fiction.

He holds a degree in Architecture from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and a Masters of Science in the Art, Culture and Technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

About Gallery

Goodman Gallery

Goodman Gallery is an international contemporary art gallery with locations in Johannesburg, Cape Town and London. The gallery represents artists whose work confronts entrenched power structures and inspires social change.

Goodman Gallery has held the reputation as a pre-eminent art gallery on the African continent since 1966. It has been pivotal in shaping contemporary South African art, bringing Lisa Brice, David Goldblatt, William Kentridge, David Koloane, Sam Nhlengethwa and Sue Williamson to the world’s attention for the first time during the apartheid era.

Since Liza Essers became owner and director in 2008, the gallery roster has grown by more than 30 international artists, with a focus on women from the African Diaspora and beyond.

Goodman Gallery has a global programme working prominent and emerging international artists whose work engages in a dialogue with African and post-colonial contexts.

Some of these artists include Ghada Amer, El Anatsui, Candice Breitz, Alfredo Jaar, Grada Kilomba, Kapwani Kiwanga, Shirin Neshat, Ernesto Neto, Tabita Rezaire, Yinka Shonibare CBE, Mikhael Subotzky and Hank Willis Thomas.

Critical to this programme has been the introduction of two ongoing curatorial initiatives: “In Context”, which explores tensions of place and belonging; and “South-South”, which considers connections between artists from the “global south”. Goodman Gallery’s expansion to London furthers this mission to confront dominant historical narratives and to contribute to contemporary art discourse and social repair. Read more

Curated by Goodman Gallery