Southern Guild Los Angeles presents ‘signifying the impossible song,’ a group exhibition curated by Lindsey Raymond and Jana Terblanche, on display until November 14th.

‘Signifying the impossible song’ features 17 artists, focusing on the intersections of material culture and hidden knowledge within objects.

These are the featured artists: Sanford Biggers (USA), Kamyar Bineshtarigh (Iran/South Africa), Patrick Bongoy (DRC), Ange Dakouo (Mali), Bonolo Kavula (South Africa), Nthabiseng Kekana (South Africa), Roméo Mivekannin (Ivory Coast/France), Turiya Magadlela (South Africa), Nandipha Mntambo (Eswatini/South Africa), Zanele Muholi (South Africa), Oluseye (Nigeria/Canada), Zohra Opoku (Germany/Ghana), Zizipho Poswa (South Africa), Usha Seejarim (South Africa), Inga Somdyala (South Africa), Moffat Takadiwa (Zimbabwe), and Lulama Wolf (South Africa).

The show explores themes of integration, disintegration, defiance, and displacement, presenting the human experience as a continuous cycle of creation and re-creation. Artists like Sanford Biggers disrupt historical narratives by juxtaposing cultural symbols, while Bonolo Kavula focuses on shweshwe cloth, meditating on care, preservation, and ancestral history.

This group exhibition also highlights the human impulse to collect items of spiritual and cultural significance, transforming everyday materials into powerful commentaries on post-colonial economies, ecological degradation, and identity complexities.

The experience concludes with a reflection on the ongoing nature of consensus-building and representation, echoing Adamshick’s poem, where the ideal of a unified symbol fades, leaving behind the eloquence of the process itself.

Founded in 2008, Southern Guild represents contemporary African artists, focusing on cultural preservation and ecology. Expanding to Los Angeles in 2024, the gallery fosters education, collaboration, and a culture of exchange.

Source: Southern Guild