Collective vs Individual

Exhibition Design, Art Direction 

CCA Curatorship Exhibition with Iziko Museums

A group exhibition by The University of Cape Town Centre for Curating the Archive, in partnership with Iziko Museums of South Africa. The 2024 Fellows explored the nature of engaging with and acknowledging artefacts held within the Iziko Collections

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Collective versus Individual: Construction of Identities in Museum Spaces is a curated exploration of the fragility of social structures and how that influences the interior and exterior experience of the self.

This exhibition seeks to unpack a deeper understanding of identity by voyaging into how a person’s private perception of themselves is translated into the public sphere. Through a careful selection of objects, the audience is invited to partake on a journey that examines the boundaries of society’s status quo and how we utilise meaning-making to either reaffirm or disrupt these boundaries.

These featured objects include a mirror, an archived letter and three ceramic plates from different origins. Also featured are three artworks: Daphne Taylor’s The Brazen Serpent, Jane Alexander’s Integration Programme: man with TV and a ceramic sculpture titled Girl At Her Dressing Table by Isolde Krams. By featuring these varying and diverse objects, the concept of “meaning-making” is dissected as one considers the tension between collecting as a form of practising this process and display as a form of reaffirming the said meaning.