A properly curated group show is a rare animal in our current art world. I mean properly as in curated with an intent to communicate something (narrative or polemic or political) as opposed to a show-and-tell of who is on the gallery’s books.
Gabi Ngcobo and Mwenya Kabwe have formed a curatorial team called manje-manje projects that works in this interstice, and works there independently, another rare animal. Their firstexcursion as a team was titled Scratching the Surface Vol. 1. It’s a clichéd title, dull in it’s familiarity, but it reveals the content of the show nicely without being too didactic and indicates the potential for further instalment. The title partly takes its cue from a loose interpretation of the words: investigation, violence, damage, revelation. It also partly comes from music, specifically hip-hop where scratching vinyl is one the fundamental tools, breaking the constant narrative of a song and then remixing the parts…READ FULL REVIEW IN PRINT EDITION
