TAXI HAND SIGNS: Symbolic Landscapes of Public Culture

If you're twiddling your thumbs and not quite sure what to do this weekend, head on down to the Wits Art Museum in Braamfontein to see their latest exhibition: artist Susan Woolf's "Taxi Hand Signs: Symbolic Landscapes of Public Culture."

 

Nine years ago, Woolf began a body of work that involved the documentation and exploration of the system of informal hand signals that commuters use to access the mini-bus taxi transport in Gauteng.  Since then, her works have increasingly engaged with the socio-economic and political landscapes that are a part of these signals.

Wits Art Museum will be exhibiting her most recent artistic reflection on this subject. Through mediums such as books, painted artworks, graphics, stamps and short films Woolf has demonstrated that taxi hand signs are not only a successful way of communicating a destination to taxi drivers but they are easily learned by anyone speaking any language. In addition the hand signs are unique to South Africa and may also have narratives associated with them. Individual signs often describe the place they are indicating to and have become a part of the visual landscape of the city, which Woolf expresses in her eight meter wide conceptual painted artwork.

DATES: 12 June to 14 July 2013

Wits Art Museum Website http://www.wits.ac.za/wam

Wits Art Museum Opening Hours: Wed to Sun 10h00 to 16h00

Views: 244

Add a Comment

You need to be a member of neofundi to add comments!

Join neofundi


Follow us on twitter  

 

© 2024   Created by neofundi.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service