Front Gallery: Roberta rich - nie deny nie

Nie Deny Nie is a selection of new works created over the last 2 years, during my time in Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa.

‘These works utilise text and archival material as a vehicle to consider and explore notions of denial and reclamation, particularly within a southern African “Coloured” context both pre and post Apartheid. The exhibition reflects upon historical practices of Apartheid South Africa – its methodologies of classification, forced removals as a result of the Group Areas Act law, as well as my personal relationship to these histories.

Drawing often from experiences of “cross examination” as a primary source of research, I employ Afrikaans, colonial terms such as Coloured, appropriated as Coloured™ in my work as a platform for discussing the complexities of African identity. These practices for me, act as a navigation tool through a complex field of rejection and reclamation of language, to find and ascertain empowering forms of self-determination and positive representation of African identity'.

Roberta Rich's residencies and research over the past two years in South Africa was supported by the Australia Council for the Arts ArtStart program, the Sainsbury Sculpture Grant, established in memory of the late Madeline Olive Taylor through her estate and The Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship for Emerging Artists, both administered by the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA), Assemblage Studios, TwilSharp Studios and Greatmore Studios.