The exhibition Fallen: Blaxis at Wits Art Museum explores art of landscape cinematography
By CityLife Arts Writer
There is currently a new exhibition at Wits Art Museum (WAM), which opened this week entitled Paradise Fallen: Blaxis
Zen Marie’s Paradise Fallen: Blaxis explores the art of landscape cinematography; how the camera lens allows the artist to capture the dynamic energy of landscapes as they change and evolve. This exhibition forms a third iteration of Marie’s Paradise Fallen project which spans over ten years and was started in 2010 during Marie’s multiple residencies at the RAW Material Company in Dakar, Senegal.
The first two iterations focused on footage developed in and around the islands off the peninsula of Dakar. This iteration; Paradise Fallen: Blaxis, is located across the landscapes around the Karoo’s Valley of Desolation and the Maloti-UKhahlamba–Drakensberg Mountain range.
Paradise Fallen: Blaxis is a meditation on landscapes, using a lens that not only highlights their beauty, but also acknowledges how landscapes are bookmarks or memorials to the history and forgotten narratives that have taken place within them.
The exhibition will culminate in a live sonic intervention, on the 21st of September, where two bands The Wretched and BLKJKS, will respond to the work through their music. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the live intervention will be closed to the public, but the documentation of the work will be premiered online at a later date via the Space for Creative Black Imagination at MICA in Baltimore.
The exhibition forms part of the artist’s submission towards a practice-based PhD at the Wits School of Arts.
Paradise Fallen: Blaxis opened on September 7 – and runs till October 1, 2021, and is closed on September 21.
WAM is open to the public from Tuesday to Saturday from 10:00 – 16:00. In accordance with Covid regulations there are restrictions on the number of people allowed into the museum at any one time. Booking is essential, to book click here, call 011 717 71358 or 011 717 1365, or email info.wam@wits.ac.za.
Please fill out a Covid screening form before entering the museum by dialling the code *120*8501#. You will need to obtain and present this clearance before admittance.