World-renowned multi-disciplinary South African artist Athi-Patra Ruga has unveiled his new solo exhibition, Interior/Exterior / Dramatis Personae. Billed as a “Saga in Two Parts”, Part One opens with an evocative stained-glass series; the entry to Ruga’s “Fantasia”. Ruga employs the medium theological story-telling to interrogate the inherent violence of colonialism and Christianity.

“Deep ambers, crimson, emerald green, and cobalt blue glow from refracted light, touching the skins of those standing before them. The poetry in this gesture, of light travelling through space and settling on skin, is Ruga’s offering of healing to his community. He undertakes an ongoing expansion of his Metaverse, highlighting his own black, queer, femme imaginaries often unrecorded, misrepresented, and forgotten,” asserts the exhibition’s write-up by Lindsey Raymond in collaboration with the artist.

Interior/Exterior / Dramatis Personae also features a tapestry series in which the artist invites the audiences to get to know characters from The Lunar Songbook Cycle, a trans-media work informed by Southern African astronomy and a more ecological way of recounting time. According to the gallery’s write-up: “…this way of interacting with geography and seasonal change is through Iinyanga Zonyaka, a vernacular alternative to the Gregorian calendar. In The Lunar Songbook Cycle, Ruga represents the beauty and integrity of the rural Eastern Cape, and considers how he navigates between this landscape and urban Cape Town”.

Athi-Patra Ruga’s Interior/Exterior / Dramatis Personae exhibition is on display at the WHATIFTHEWORLD gallery until 5 September 2020.