Kemang Wa Lehulere: "In All My Wildest Dreams" - Art Institute of Chicago

In the Neck of Time

Suit Case, Earth, Grass, and Ceramic Dogs

2016

Kemang Wa Lehulere: In All My Wildest Dreams is currently on display at The Art Institute of Chicago. I went to the exhibition on November 22nd, 2016. Wa Lehulere is 32 he was born in Cape Town, South Africa, and still lives there. He received a bachelors of Fine Arts degree from the University of the Witwatersrand in 2011. Wa Lehulere was a co-founder of the Gugulective in 2006, a collective based in Cape Town, he is also a founding member of the Center for Historical Reenactments in Johannesburg. Wa Lehulere, known for his masterful fusion of multiculturalism of personal storytelling, Reenactments of what he called “deleted scenes from South African history". The focus  of the exhibition In All My Wildest Dreams is the first American museum show devoted to him.

Wa Lehulere's exhibition was quite interesting to be able to see in person. The pieces were all very different from on another. The first piece I saw when I walked into the exhibition was his "In the Neck of Time". The use of the smashed Ceramic Dogs and open suit cases were confusing. I almost feel as if the way the display was laid out, couldn't walk in front or behind the piece to get closer, restricted me from getting the full experience. The first few pieces I saw definitely give off a cultured feel that I haven't really ever experienced before. The material and layout helped me recognize a story being told by the use of progression of "quality" between each piece.

Gladiolus
Wall Carving
2016

The one piece that really caught my eye was "Gladiolus". Luckily I was at the exhibition with my sister who knows sign language, it came out as "eleven august". I have absolutely no idea what it is referencing or if it isn't actually in English, but what I do know is that it was very eye catching. What I really noticed about the piece was that the medium was wall carving and I didn't even notice until I got closer but the detail and the grey scale really stuck with me. I noticed the dust and debris salvaged underneath the carving to really show the labor he put into this piece.

X, Y, Z

Salvaged School Desks, Steel

2016

Another interesting piece was Wa Lehulere's "X,Y, Z". The first thing I thought of when I saw these triangles was paper air planes.  The three paper-plane sculptures, rising and dipping triangles of salvaged wood and metal. Another piece "A, B, C", sculptures constructed from tires and crutches were designed as wheelbarrows in which the wheels themselves were containers for the sand. The letters in the titles of each of these represent the disposable and loose units that establish any word. These two related sculptures correspond real and physical movement with grammatical ones.

A, B, C
Rubber Tires, Wooden Crutches, and Sand
2013-14

If you haven't been to the Art Institute of Chicago in awhile I highly recommend you go see Kemang Wa Lehulere's exhibition. Wa Lehulere's puts on a show using videos, sculptures, drawings and audio to get his theme of travel, displacement, and transition out. His mastery of fusion of multiculturalism and personal storytelling really shows in the wide variety of mediums available to see. He does an amazing job of presenting juxtaposed imagery. I fully recognize his attempt at deconstructing history of South Africa.