Art in Isolation: BA Fine Arts 2020 Group Exhibition

This year has been a particularly challenging year for the fourth year Fine Art students of the University of Pretoria. For these students this online exhibition is the exhilarating moment of celebration as they publicly announce themselves as graduates, as artists and indeed as a veritable part of our society as working individuals. This online exhibition is a near miracle, not least of all because our students were tough and determined enough to continue making work, but because they felt the urgent need to do so and to graduate despite the quiet chaos that enveloped them. Through no fault of our own our society was broken this year.

The invisible menace of a global pandemic swept through our streets, our homes, places of work and our studios leaving in its wake a great many walking wounded. All of us were touched in one way or another by the pandemic - whether through the loss of income, being socially isolated to the detriment of our mental health and well-being, actually getting physically sick from the Covid virus and, most deeply, of the actual loss of loved ones to this modern day scourge. During the pandemic we partially suffered loss of the ability to communicate with each other in an embodied way. Studios were closed and we could no longer see art objects in person, glimpse intentions from a quick look or fleeting gesture, share in the actual experience of touching and of shaping art materials collectively, as part of group demonstrations or even just because it felt both right and good to do so. Suddenly we were working all alone. We quickly adapted our teaching and learning methods and started using online communication forms such as video conferencing, cellphones and various other technological tools that were but a pipe dream before the advent of the internet. How lucky we are that these technological tools exist today and that the world itself could continue in such a modified way!

We will still ruminate on the toll this form of art education exacts on our individual practice as artists, on teaching and on learning, in the process perhaps finding that it manifested in positive and unexpected outcomes along the way. To name but one example, through the experience of creating this online exhibition our students are now more prepared than ever to communicate their artistic vision of the world clearly and professionally to a global audience. One must always remain hopeful and ready to learn. Without it there exists only despair and decay.

I cannot congratulate each and every graduate of the class of Fine Art in 2020 at the University of Pretoria enough. You have accomplished more than what one may reasonably expect of you. I would also like to extend these congratulations to your coordinator Dr Avi Sooful and curator of this exhibition Mr Teboho Lebakeng for their diligence, long hours of work and most of all, their love and care for the students and their artworks. Finally we at the University of Pretoria are aware of how hard our Fine Art students have all worked to keep the impossible dream of art alive during the pandemic and resultant lockdown. We are very proud of you. Now go into the world and make it new.