Faculty of Arts and Design’s French Lecturer and Visual Artist, Dr Delphine Colin, opened her seven day exhibition: The Poetry of Bodies/Poésie des Corps at the KZNSA Gallery, this week (7 June 2015).

The exhibition consists of a series of photographs by Dr Colin, titled: Vaguement corps (indefinite body) as well as works by 13 other artists from France and Francophone countries like Switzerland, Reunion Island and Lebanon.

Dr Colin’s series of digital photographs can be found in the Park Gallery space. She has investigated the possibilities of digital art in video and photography in order to create a new picture for herself.

Her series of digital photographs question the limits of the body. “It is work of emergence, a work in progress where a movement flows through the whole body, a deformed and deforming movement,” she said.

All the artists develop their own filmic language and manipulate digital images to create a new reality. In all their videos, the artists question the body – the female body, stereotypes of beauty, public persona, individual and collective identity in today’s society.

The exhibition’s unique collection of videos introduces two screens, each composed of a set of videos with a particular focus. The first part entitled: Women concentrates on the portraits of women, in which the female or male artists approaches the woman’s dimensions – her physical appearance, intimacy, memory and psychology. This passage is further explored from one emotional state to another; from reality to a dream state or nightmare. Ultimately, a new and more complicated vision of the woman is created. The second screen entitled: Society, deals with society, that being men, women, children as well as people in the street.

The videos represent the process of construction and deconstruction of an identity and an environment. As individuals disappear into the collective of a public space, human attitudes are questioned through poetry, humour or critique.

• Andile Dube

Pictured: Faculty of Arts and Design’s French Lecturer and Visual Artist, Dr Delphine Colin.