The Sermon on the Train was the collaborative work of Prof Anitra Nettleton, Nare Mokghoto and Molemo Moiloa. The work was a public lecture, The WSOA DIVA talk, and took place on the train to Dube. Prof Nettleton gave a presentation on the nature and complexities of an African Avant Guarde.
The work sought to explore issues around access to information and the actualities of 'public' lectures. The train was chosen as the ideal vessel as a crosser of boundries, historically associated with the arrival of new people and industries; and the distances-between of apartheid era town planning and symbolically representative of the crossing of boundries and negotiation of liminalities.
The lecture being about the African Avant Guarde was a self critical look at the nature of intellectual and particularly public debate, whether of an art historical, fine art or socio-political nature. This was parralleled with the practice of preaching in trains and the kinds of discourses available to the public on a daily basis.
Though the work started off with a few complications, once on the Train, Prof Nettleton's lecture was thoroughly thought provoking, detailing artists from Mohl to the Amadlozi group to Nicholas Hlobo and their negotiations of tradition, Africa and what may or may not be regarded Avant Guarde. Debate and discussion afterward were equally engaging with some tough questions and interesting comments on both the lecture and the artwork as a whole.
The work sought to explore issues around access to information and the actualities of 'public' lectures. The train was chosen as the ideal vessel as a crosser of boundries, historically associated with the arrival of new people and industries; and the distances-between of apartheid era town planning and symbolically representative of the crossing of boundries and negotiation of liminalities.
The lecture being about the African Avant Guarde was a self critical look at the nature of intellectual and particularly public debate, whether of an art historical, fine art or socio-political nature. This was parralleled with the practice of preaching in trains and the kinds of discourses available to the public on a daily basis.
Though the work started off with a few complications, once on the Train, Prof Nettleton's lecture was thoroughly thought provoking, detailing artists from Mohl to the Amadlozi group to Nicholas Hlobo and their negotiations of tradition, Africa and what may or may not be regarded Avant Guarde. Debate and discussion afterward were equally engaging with some tough questions and interesting comments on both the lecture and the artwork as a whole.
