Dreams and other Oddities

So I theme for this term was "The Unconscious Mind: Dreams and Other Oddities". I had quite a lot of fun with this one (though of course not as much fun as last term), and learnt a few new tricks in Photoshop.

I'll be heading off tomorrow to traipse some thrift stores in search of appropriate frames, but for now, here are the pictures as is. 

They were inspired by a dream I had once where I woke up one morning and my family had spontaneously turned into animals. I guess, though, that they also represent peoples' unconscious animal instincts, as civil as we consider ourselves to be.

A) KZNSA Gallery

This gallery was established 108 years ago, and is now the premier contemporary art gallery in Durban, and the province. However, a lot of young people don't pay it much attention.

Recently, an exhibition was held by local Durban artist, alias "Skullboy", called You&Me: A Series of First Times (formerly called Cherry Poppin'). Last year, Skullboy collected people's accounts of how they lost their virginity by placing forms and drop boxes in bathrooms and clubs, targeting the alternative crowd most likely to frequent them. Then he made art about it. I thought it was pretty dang awesome.

Its purpose is described as such: "The aim of this exercise is two-fold. Firstly, to capture a glimpse into the reality of the state and practice of sex in our modern day society. Secondly, to create a healthy dialogue about sex in reality without the baggage of religion, media, television and moral decorum. Through the accounts of others and the re-telling of our own stories, we realise the similarities between us and our peers. Through this communal discussion, we destroy the unrealistic expectations of sex set by society and ourselves and strip such a significant event of any shame, pressure or sense of failure and accept the event for what it was, whether good or bad."

Here are some pictures from the opening (courtesy of KZNSA)

A closer look (click to enlarge)

 
               

Check out You&Me's tumblr page:  http://youandmeproject.tumblr.com/
And Skullboy's blog: http://houseofskullboy.tumblr.com

The Secret Guide to Alternative Durban

For a lot of young people in Durban, their scope of Durban mainly includes what advertisers want people to think Durban is like - sun, sea and surf, I guess. And recently I've gotten tired of people telling me "There's nothing cool to do in Durban anymore". 

So the purpose of these next few posts is to document a few of the more alternative places and things you can do in Durban - and hopefully expose an alternative underbelly of Durban that some people might never have known about before. I will attempt to (with help from some friends) document my favorite second-hand shops, book stores, flea markets, coffee shops, cafes, art galleries and music halls. 

N.B: the name of this post was stolen from something Zoetica Ebb is doing at Zoetica's Biorequiem