Artist as Shaman. Expired
Artist Workshop and Exhibition
With Professor Elfriede Dreyer
Workshop 31 January – 4 February 2022
Exhibition 5 - 19 February 2022
Venue: Gallery at Glen Carlou, Simondium Road, Klapmuts, Western Cape
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Why is shamanic practice becoming relevant again in contemporary art?
In a time of crisis, people look for solutions to transcend their current state of being. They try to find alternatives to and transcendence from what they are experiencing at that particular point in time. To some extent, covid has brought this condition on and induced a search for vision, for a path forward and for ways and means to reimagine the world.
The roles of the shaman and the artist have always been tied to vision and a position of existing between the physical and the non-physical worlds. The artist makes the invisible visible, and the shaman aims to transcend the visible and enter into another realm.
Shamanism has roots outside of the West, in the cultures of indigenous peoples across the world, extending through Siberia, Australia and Africa, as well as the Americas and pre-modern Europe. But shamanism itself is not a formalised system of beliefs and can be applied as a concept or a state of consciousness.
In the modern world, the artist has taken over much of the role of the shaman. For our purposes during this workshop, the artist as shaman in three roles will be considered: as endowed with special sight, insight and power; as transformer; and as healer.
The most successful of the artworks completed during the workshop will be exhibited as a fringe exhibition to the Shaman exhibition at the Gallery at Glen Carlou. Each participant will have at least one work on show.
The Workshop
Keywords for this workshop: Transformation | Healing | Earth consciousness | Ritualistic and meaningful objects | Rapture, transcendence | Liminality | Transcendental experience | Movement | Cosmogram | Bodygram | Masks | Collectivity
Advanced experimental thinking and creativity will be cultivated and developed during the workshop. It aims to rekindle creativity in thinking and doing, and present you with alternative ideas for your artmaking. You will be encouraged to move out of your comfort zone – be prepared to become a shaman!
You can work in any medium – painting, drawing, mixed media, sculpture or digital.
There will be focus on each participant’s individual art production, techniques and thought processes. Each participant will produce at least one new artwork during the workshop. There will be continuous assessment.
On the Saturday we will deal with professional practice and install work in the Gallery.
The Exhibition
Opening on 26 June 2022, until end July