Award-nominated ‘Diepe Grond’ exhibition treks to Cape Town
Against the backdrop of the rugged Karoo, with its dusty plains and sun-scorched expanses, curator Liza Grobler has excavated a visual conversation that now journeys from Oudtshoorn's Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (KKNK) to Cape Town. Opening on 5 May, 'Diepe Grond - an extract’ transforms HUB Gallery into a terrain where art challenges the physical and psychological boundaries we construct between ourselves, nature and others.
Drawing its title from Reza de Wet's controversial play of the same name that shook the Afrikaans theatre world in the 1980s, this exhibition investigates the underlying tensions of the narrative: the delicate balance between fact and intuition, the complexity of South African interpersonal relationships, and the fascinating interplay between everyday existence and extraordinary revelation. ‘Soil’ or ‘earth' is one of the four natural elements, but it is also ‘ground’ in which we are anchored on this small blue planet in an unfathomably deep universe.
Grobler, who was recently appointed the KKNK's Visual Arts Curator for the next three years, explains that the Karoo landscape becomes the protagonist around which the visual dialogue revolves. Her curation echoes the physical geography surrounding Oudtshoorn, from the winding road from Calitzdorp to the angora goats of Prince Albert, capturing the subtle textures and vibrant colours that define the Klein Karoo's visual vocabulary. The exhibition presents not as a map or region-specific body of work, but rather as an exploration where ecological and sociopolitical landscapes converge, challenging viewers to reconsider the boundaries we construct between ourselves and our environment.
Known for creating works that exist in physical space while manifesting imagined landscapes, Grobler’s practice puts materiality and ephemerality in productive tension. Her approach to 'Diepe Grond - an extract' invites viewers to become accomplices who can step through portals and move unhindered between fact and fabrication, much like the shifting grounds of the Karoo itself.
The exhibition, which enjoyed critical acclaim during its run at the KKNK and has been nominated for a KKNK Kanna Award, finds new context within the urban setting of Cape Town's CBD. Under the auspices of Spier Arts Trust, HUB Gallery continues its commitment to showcasing South African contemporary art that challenges perspectives and creates meaningful dialogue across geographical and conceptual boundaries.
For Spier Arts Trust, whose mission centres on facilitating successful art careers and enabling freedom of creative expression with potential for social transformation, 'Diepe Grond - an extract' represents an important continuation to connect artists with new audiences and contexts, and supports Grobler’s vision for the show at KKNK: to celebrate the artists, their creative processes and their personal insights, and to create a deeper understanding of how these individual components contribute to a bigger, integrated experience.
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