Soil Conversations presents nine artistic propositions from South Africa and Germany, looking at the granularity of soil as material, our relationship to the ground on which we build life on and soil as a bearer of memory, identity and speculative futures.

The exhibition connects two geographical points - the Galerie im Körnerpark in Berlin and the Johannesburg Art Gallery in South Africa. Soil Conversations unfolds itself rhizomatically through the sharing of curatorial and artistic processes on our project website, the two physical exhibitions and through textual engagements of writers from both cities.

Soil Conversations is an exhibition that explores the relationship between humans and the environment, both in the digital and analogue spheres. The exhibition presents soil as a space of meaning, identity, and history, and questions the concept of linearity in favour of interstitial spaces. It looks at soil as a planetary boundary, a resource that has been
exploited, a territory that forms geography, and a mixture of nurture, trauma, and cycles of life.

The exhibition also explores the relationship between the analogue and digital, considering the digital as a space of pixelated dialectics where one can exist beyond the boundaries and borders defined by history and politics, but still not completely free from them. But the body remembers — even in the transition between particles and pixels, we carry the histories
inscribed into our corporealities into this digital terra nullius. Topics such as land, history, spirituality, and the body are integral to the artworks in Soil Conversations. The exhibition aims to engage with the speculative and to explore the plurality of the past and future scenarios, as a relationship between humans and the world, and as a defining position of the present moment.

Funded by the TURN2 Fund of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation). Funded by the Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media).

Curated by Yolanda Kaddu-Mulindwa & Nisha Merit in Kooperation/cooperation mit/with Bubblegum Club

Participating artists

• Lungiswa Gqunta

• MADEYOULOOK

• Io Makandal

• Silvia Noronha

• Nnenna Onuoha

• Natalie Paneng

• Theresa Schubert

• Gemma Shepherd & Rochelle Nembhard

• Mia Thom

Visual arts curator Liza Grobler combines works from visual artists across South Africa, for an exhibition titled Music Sounds Better With You. The artworks are centred around music and sounds in our everyday environment. Artists include Barbara Wildenboer, Hermann Niebuhr, Norman O’Flynn, Mia Thom, Ashley B. Walters, Liza Grobler, Cameron Platter, Madikotsi Khumalo, Garth Erasmus and Lisl Barry. Art is exhibited in Liplekker, where it is also on sale.

https://kknk.co.za/eng/klein-karoo-klassique-om-die-draai/

NIGHT SWIM | 28th August - 11th September 2021

Plunging participants into a monochromatic, blue environment, this experimental installation comprises of three large scale sculptures which function as speakers to lie on. Composed and coded by Lucy Strauss, these forms emit a soundscape of strings, room tone and voice, transformed by geophyscial data from the South Atlantic ocean. 

An exhibition by Mia Thom

in collaboration with

Lucy Strauss (coding and composition)

and Clare Patrick (installation design)

Attune explores possibilities of an unlikely duet as it speaks to complexities within dyadic relations. Comprising of an empty double bass and harp case emitting the voices of their lost instruments, these cases behave as both, imprint and shell, cast and cavity, their multiplicities revealed in an unpredictable tune. Modified as functional speakers, these two found objects broadcast an original score by composer Mikhaila Alyssa Smith.

Created as a response to the objects and their specific resonant frequencies, this work is a psychoacoustic exploration of attunement, as as “performance of behaviours that express the quality of feeling of a shared affect state,” without a sense of imitation, nor the desire to fuse. This is highlighted sonically through the intersections and dissonances of the two voices interpreting an aleatoric score, in two keys set apart by a single semitone. This work aims to create an environment which articulates an experience of proximity and the unfolding of self with other.

Positioned between the cases, the listener is engages with the instability of visible and invisible objects,“focusing on the ephemeral exactly.”

https://biennaledakar.org/direction-artistique/

“Barnard is pleased to present ‘Homework’ the second in an ongoing series of online exhibitions. During this time of extended national lockdown in South Africa as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many or most artists have been unable to access their regular studio environments and have had to come up with creative solutions to allow them to continue working.

For some this may be a kitchen table or a simple portable plywood surface while for others any available wall or floor surface will suffice. By whichever means, what is common to all artists is the need and desire to keep on working, to keep on creating. Like breathing it is instinctual, an ‘essential’.

‘Homework’ in its simplest sense considers that work made or carried out at home. Obviously the latter differs widely from one person to another based on a number of contributing factors, but the common denominator is that it is work undertaken in an individual’s private domain whether that be a spacious environment or a one-roomed flat or container space.

As such these are works that are of a more intimate or perhaps experimental nature and are most likely smaller in scale. They could be painting ‘miniatures’ on paper, wood or canvas or alternatively water colors, drawings or collages; perhaps even more portable in the form of an artist’s book or a photographers working test proofs.

Presenting the work of the gallery’s roster of artists along side invited creatives, ‘Homework’ presents a variety of mediums and methods. Working within constraints and made in confinement this selection of work explores the ‘pulse’ and ‘essence’ of the selected artists’ work. For some this is pensive, for others more playful, but in each instance a celebration of the power and intrigue of the creative process against all odds.”

https://barnardgallery.com/viewing-room/2-homework-online-exhibition/

Wednesday 6 November
Helicotrema – Recorded Audio Festival
Palazzo Grassi and Teatrino di Palazzo Grassi

On the occasion of its eighth year, Helicotrema is back at Palazzo Grassi and at the Teatrino with new listening sessions inspired by the main themes of Luc Tuymans’ exhibition “La Pelle”.

Ouverture – Playlist
Atrium di Palazzo Grassi
from 5 pm to 7 pm

Helicotrema curates a playlist conceived to accompany the work Schwarzheide. 

Free admission to the museum from 5 pm.
Last entry at 6.30 pm

The sound of violence – Guided listening session
Entrance of the Teatrino di Palazzo Grassi
from 8.30 pm to 9.30 pm

The first session is influenced by the way in which Luc Tuymans looks at violence.

Free entry until capacity is reached.

Natura Morta / Still Life – Guided listening session
Entrance of the Teatrino di Palazzo Grassi
from 9.45 pm to 10.45 pm

The second session is inspired by how, in Luc Tuymans’ work, images found in magazines and online are represented through a unfamiliar light, an “authentic falsification” of reality.

Free entry until capacity is reached.

After the Palazzo Grassi opening event, Helicotrema will continue in December, with a series of listening sessions in Milan, in collaboration with Standards.

With sound works by:

Michael Baers
Enrico Boccioletti
Isabella Bordoni
Clarice Calvo-Pinsolle
Budhaditya Chattopadhyay
Department of Ultimology
Sylvia Eckermann and Gerald Nestler
Donato Epiro
Zuriñe F Gerenabarrena
Anton Kats
Gli impresari
Islands Songs

Marcos Lutyens
Lorena Mal
Marzia Migliora
Nana April Jun
Roberto Memoli
Flavio Scutti
Atau Tanaka
Mia Thom
Diego Tonus
Julie Vacher
Mark Peter Wright

This year sees the launch of the Art Licks Weekend radio station, run in partnership with TACO! and RTM. Commissioned artworks will be broadcast daily, alongside scheduled content from arts practitioners nationwide. The radio will act as a forum for further conversation around the festival’s theme of Interdependence and the questions it prompts.

The broadcasts will be online here:

https://rtm.fm/shows/art-licks-weekend-radio

Tune is to hear Mia Thom’s audio piece, “Here! Your Golden Scarab” on Sunday, 20th October 2019, at 13:42 :

An audio compilation of an archive, collated over a month, of 30 artists contributing vocal accounts on synchronicity, manifested dreams, visions and other inexplicable happenings.  

Contributing artists : 

Cathy Abraham 

Katherine Bull

Mira Calix

Hanien Conradie

Vanessa Cowling

Jessica Meyer

Nicola du Toit

Coila-Leah Enderstein

Lance Herman

Georgia Kruger

Michaela Limberis

Io Makandal 

Nomusa Makhubu

Khanya Mashabela

Virginia McKenny

Sukuma Mkhize

Nobukho Nqaba

Sean O’Toole 

Carolyn Parton 

Gabrielle Raaf 

Chloë Reid

Amy Rusch

Matt Slater

Katherine Spindler 

Cara Stacey

Anna Stielau

Sitaara Stodel

Mia Thom

Jasmin Valcarcel 

James Webb

Michaela Younge

Piano extracts:

1) Chopin Nocturne no 19. in E minor, op. 72 no.1 

Pianist: Estelle Roux

2) Ligeti Étude No. 10 'Der Zauberlehrling’

Artist and Pianist: Coila-Leah Enderstein 

Studio recordings conducted by Sound Engineer, Dave Langemann and artist Mia Thom

“Echo” voices: Denise Onen, Mia Thom, Katherine Spindler 

//

Thamesmead Arts and Culture Office (TACO!) is an artist-led space for research, production, and exchange located in Thamesmead, SE London. TACO! is engaged with its local context whilst simultaneously supporting dialogue with artists and contemporary art.

Launched on October 19th 2018, RTM is a new community radio station for Thamesmead that hosts a diverse and eclectic programme of local talent, music, artists, interviews and more. The station has been developed and initiated by TACO!, as part of a commissioned project by artist Sam Skinner.

Iconic Silent films are reimagined with newly composed scores that will be performed live during the screenings.
Bring a cushion and a drink/snacks

Artist Mia Thom will also be exhibiting a new body of work titled “Mind the Gap”, so come a little earlier to have a look. Artworks will be for sale.

Date: 29 May 2019
Time: 19:30
Place: Untitled Studio - 143 Harrington street
Tickets: R120 / R80 at the door

Featuring:
Matthijs van Dijk (Violin and Composition)
Lucy Strauss (Violia and Composition)
Louisa Theart (Flutes)
Brydon Bolton (Double Bass)

Showing:
A trip to the Moon
The Motorist
Ballet Mechanique
Mary Jane's Mishap
and more...

- nano 1.3

28 May - 25 June 2019
Join us for the opening reception on Tuesday 28 May from 6:30 pm onwards
  
 

A concept of relative simplicity, - nano 1.3 invites artists to zoom in, scale down, shrink, condense, encapsulate and compact; submitting works with an exact height of 20cm and a maximum width of 30cm. The exhibition is an opportunity to play with scale, to explore what effects it has for both artist and viewer, and what new parameters it may set for the curator and the gallery space.
 
Smaller works immediately require and create a greater intimacy with the viewer, compelling us to come closer, look closer, stay longer.  While large, expansive works keep us at a distance, smaller works activate interiority and introspection. They require a sharper focus, a keener gaze, a lingering attention. Playing into our fascination with the miniature, small works conjure whimsy, a sense of the magical, a playfulness. But profundity need not be reserved only for the grandiose, and by requiring an economy of expression from the artist, smaller works are also often surprisingly affecting and impactful.

LISTENING ROOM

Curated by Nkule Mabaso, Luvuyo Equiano Nyawose & Chloë Reid. 

An exhibition of sound-based work featuring Jenna Burchell, Mira Calix, FAKA, Mitchell Gilbert, Quaid Heneke, Dani Kyengo, Jabu Nadia Newman, Sean O’Toole, Mia Thom, Kemang Wa Lehulere with Mandla Mlangeni, and James Webb.

Listening Room invites artists to contribute to an exhibition that reflects on the position and scope of audio in contemporary art. The responses present a miscellany of practices.

Michaelis Galleries Upper
Opens Thursday 5pm
28 March – 18 April 2019

Mia Thom | Invisible Motifs

Solo Exhibition | 31.01.19 to 18.02.19

PRESS RELEASE

 A voice calls out from the darkness, only it isn’t a human voice, it’s the song of a string quivering against a wooden soundboard on the shoulder of a violin player. A deeper note responds from bow on cello, elsewhere. I can sense the space opening up in my consciousness. The sounds from the two performers probe the darkness, describing the corners of the room with an aural sight.

Excerpt from catalogue essay by Natasha Norman

Press Release:

“A concept of relative simplicity, nano- 1.2 invited artists to zoom in, scale down, shrink, condense, encapsulate and compact; submitting works no larger than 20 x 20 cm. The exhibition is an opportunity to play with scale, to explore what effects it has for both artist and viewer, and what new parameters it may set for the curator and the gallery space.

Smaller works immediately require and create a greater intimacy with the viewer, compelling us to come closer, look closer, stay longer. While large, expansive works keep us at a distance, smaller works activate interiority and introspection. They require a sharper focus, a keener gaze, a lingering attention.  Playing into our fascination with the miniature, small works conjure whimsy, a sense of the magical, a playfulness. But profundity need not be reserved only for the grandiose, and by requiring an economy of expression from the artist, smaller works are also often surprisingly affecting and impactful.”

Eclectica Contemporary is very excited to present a group exhibition that focuses on photographic arts. 

The exhibition (Stop, Stop, Click) also includes a sound art performance by Mia Thom and will be performed with Estelle Roux, Jessica Scott and Lucy Strauss. The performances will take place four times during the exhibition and will have limited seating.

________________________________________________________________________________________

The room like a large instrument;

its walls, permeable,

sounds seeping through

interior and exterior lives 

porous, inseparable

(yours and mine)

Nocturne for a Camera Obscura by Mia Thom

Violin, Viola, Cello and Broken Piano with sampled photographic sounds played through multi-channel speaker system.

Time: +-15min

Score written by Lucy Strauss

Performed by Mia Thom, Lucy Strauss, Estelle Roux and Jessica Scott.

Press Release:

“A key question hitting the art world and specifically contemporary photographers is the question of the future of the image. To stop, to pause, to click manifests in everyday life across so many platforms and interactions. To take seriously the art of photography, does this mean a forfeiting of chance? Of the momentary and immediate? Or does it simply mean a reconsidering of interaction and a reframing of approach to image-making?

The danger within all of this is to not move so far beyond what is accessible – to make work that pushes limits and challenges the viewer without alienating them. The artists featured in this group exhibition each pause on the idea of making and taking and present work that offers a fresh new realm of possibility within their medium.

Kyu Sang Lee, whose mysterious black and white imagery test our boundaries of understanding, assumption and trust in photography beguiles the viewer with his subtle and impactful images. Playing with scale and perspective – both in the images themselves and in their presentation, Lee’s work offers a playful and somewhat sinister example of photography as an experimental art form. Mia Thom, a recent Michaelis graduate has pushed the boundaries of photography beyond and around the darkroom – using space as a springboard into sonic possibilities and performance. Thom’s visual work illuminates the liminal space of analog processes, toying with use of instrument or mechanism in two-dimensional space.

Justin Dingwall, known to many as a prolific and skilled image maker and portrait taker, offers up his hyperreal surreal images that toy with gravity, light and colour. His work captures symbolism and discourse in the present, activating the magic of photographic media and combining his narrative to form new and evolving eventualities. Morgan Kundhardt’s twin existence between herself and her twin sister has informed much of her process. By cutting and splicing images and photographs, Kundhardt explores in images what her twin sister offers in writing, overlapping and blurring between creative processes. The sculptural imagery of Biance Bell flips perspective and shifts our understanding of imagery. Bell extends what was previously confined to two dimensional surfaces, pulling our eye forwards and back along focal planes and cleverly expanding perspectives in Perspex.

The participating artists exhibit an ability to curiously interrogate the myth of photography, this modern alchemy of creation that often polarizes and exposes. The exhibition hopes to open up new possibilities and actions – a space for thinking, viewing and feeling art created within the photographic medium.” Clare Patrick, Curator