Life@NMMU: Our art students ... what were they thinking?

What are they thinking ... check out the art in K Block's studios

I find art fascinating. I might not know too much about it, but I find the result – the completed pieces of artwork – hugely interesting. I find some art beautiful, some blatantly ugly. Other pieces still, deathly dull.

But I am always intrigued.

What were they thinking?

I asked myself this question all over again – as I do every year – when I visited the Fine Art Graduate Exhibition in K block, North Campus, by our final year art students.

What were they thinking when they conceived their paintings, drawing, ceramics, glasswork and sculptures?

Both sculptures by Phiwokwakhe Tshona

What drove them to throw a myriad of three-dimensional shapes together to form giant kites? What caused a student to choose to merge man with frog, fox and elephant? What triggered an onslaught against diet cooldrink and media messaging; what pushed a student to delve in new techniques; what evoked the collection of thumb print …

Yes, it’s the thinking behind the art that intrigues me.

But let’s see what you think of the work by:

Robyn Munnick, Chelsea Bell, Kent Cairncross, Erica Fu, Gabriel Chaponda, Suzette Crafford, Sipho Makhanda, Namhla Mbalane, Neil de Lange, Sarah King, Justin Lucas, Pieter-Jan Kilian, Maqhawe Mkwanazi, Kyle Hamann, Nadia van der Merwe, Thabiso Patsi, Anja Roestorf, Ilse Volver, Dané Strydom, Phiwokwakhe Tshona, Sukesh Moodaley, Nadine Moolman, Midian Thackwray, Karen Yew-Sioung and Mandy Ndesi.

Their work can viewed until 4pm on 27 November.

The Fine Art work of the BTech students can also be viewed at the Athenaeum, Corner of Belmont Terrace and Military Road, Central, from 9am to 4pm daily, also until 27 November.