With a name inspired by a fascinating and potently layered history/culture book, “Guns & Rain, Guerillas and Spirit Mediums in Zimbabwe” by David Lan, this just-as-potent little gallery, now ten years old, has grown steadily under the directorship of founder Julie Taylor.
British anthropologist and playwright, David Lan, born in South Africa, wrote about guerrillas and spirit mediums, culture, identity, land, struggle, change….themes that are echoed in the strong curatorial focus of the gallery…..

In Oxford UK, a group exhibition ENTANGLED: Southern African Artists reflect on Colonialism, Monuments & Memory, will run until early 2025.

Guns & Rain will exhibit at 1-54 London in 2024.

At FNB art fair 2024, Julie Taylor showed Raymond Fuyana- a talented young deaf artist from Zimbabwe- see my previous blog for his engaging and surreal artwork …https://wineandwilddogs.art/2024/09/07/art-and-inspiration-jozi-juxtapositions/

Running concurrently with the FNB art fair, as part of the Open City programme, “Soft Power Too” was on show at the delightfully situated Guns & Rain Gallery in Parkhurst.

Guns are hard; rain is soft…what can not be achieved by the barrel of a gun is often more lastingly achieved by soft subtleties…the steel fist in the velvet glove…

“Soft Power, Too” was an exceptional line-up of South African artists—Hedwig Barry, Bev Butkow, Aneesah Girie, Hannah Macfarlane, and Princia Matungulu—all of whom work with materials that challenge the conventional boundaries between painting, weaving, sculpture, and textile art.

“Soft Power, Too” celebrates Women’s Month in South Africa, and also marks a decade of Guns & Rain’s commitment to supporting women artists.

While in Jozi, after attending the FNB art fair, Kelli and I relished the chance to visit Guns & Rain gallery and we spent a few hours with Julie, immersed in Soft Power on every level !!!!

Princia Matungulu weaves soft traditional fabrics, legacies and layers, and hardens them into intricately determined statements…

Then comes the soft power of Hannah Macfarlane who painstakingly beats fibre into soft felt creations…

Such mood these felt flowers have – resonating with the stunning red Amaryllis flowers blooming with Kelli, in my sister in law Clare’s Harare garden …

Close to my heart, loving textiles and fine craft as I do, the elevation of traditional crafts into modern art making, into fine art, is so empowering.

Fibre art, textile art, soft sculpture, deceptively soft power by Hannah.

Well, I am posting yet another of Hannah’s creations, I just can not resist touching them…. This one appeals to my love of ecosystems, the natural world, in its echoing of a gorgeous sea slug, a felt mollusk- but it could just as easily reflect something more ominous, more visceral, with a rasping radulla and casting spiky shadows on the gallery wall!

Yet, when you do dare to touch it, it’s all about seductive softness …

I stand in awe…with Julie in front of Bev Butkows work…

The celebration of depths of texture and unexpected layers in this creation by Bev Butkow is mesmerising…

The work keeps revealing more of itself as one stands and stares…tiny beads nestled in a pink coral bed…

I feel like a deep sea diver…..

All these layers and textures are a feast for the senses….diving for pearls….

I am drawn to the abstract paintings inspiring the soft sculptures…,

Or vice versa….?!

Julie herself is an embodiment of ‘soft power’, a gently spoken yet strong woman of vision, a powerhouse!

Hedwig Barry whose work always resonates with me, delights with potent small ‘squashed earth’ sculptures – enamel on pewter, they are truly life celebrations and a reminder to #rememberwhoyouare …

(NB Do look up that beautiful song by Zolani Muhola, and Remember who you are…)

Here is a detail up close of the hills and valleys, Hedwig’s geography of life….

Aneesah Girie layers soft fabric into firm stories ..almost toffee like and edible!

Here is a delicious detail…yum

Collages and layers, stories and art, satisfying landscapes hard and soft, at Guns & Rain…

Soft Power Too – a satisfying celebration of women!