"Chorus" Opens at Dallas Contemporary

​Gabrielle Goliath, a South African artist and a familiar collaborator with the Center for Experimental Ethnography, opened her first U.S exhibition at Dallas Contemporary in September. The multimedia installation is curated by Emily Edwards, and carries forward Goliath's larger practice that centers around "the life work of mourning". At Dallas Contemporary, this takes the form of an immersive installation of "Chorus", a 23-minute audio-visual piece honoring  victims of gender-based violence in South Africa and featuring a performance by The University of Cape Town choir. Participants are encouraged to linger in the exhibition space, where two videos are projected onto large, free-standing blocks  positioned in relation to each other.  

In its first showing, the work recalled the names of 463 victims of an epidemic of violence against women, children and LGBTIQ people in South Africa. on a commemorative roll within the exhibition space, covering the period of August 2019 to August 2021, now updated through August 2022 to bring the list to 680 named individuals for its Dallas presentation. This exhibit remembers these individuals, creating “not the spectacle of violence through which black, brown, femme, and queer bodies are routinely fixed, but rather a space for community, for relational encounter, and – hopefully – for a transformative work of mourning"---Gabrielle Goliath

In November 2020, Gabrielle Goliath screened her piece "Elegy" at the Center for Experimental Ethnography as part of a Third Thursday panel, "Memorializing Otherwise," with Ken Lum and Deborah Anzinger.

Portrait of Gabrielle Goliath by Anthea Pockroy

Still of "Chorus" by Gabrielle Goliath

Gabrielle Goliath in Conversation with Dr. Deborah Thomas, CEE Director, at the opening of "Chorus" at Dallas Contemporary

Still of "Chorus" by Gabrielle Goliath