INDEX|The Orchid and The Wasp: Thin Lines of Becoming

In its second year as a platform, INDEX, an exhibition of independent artists, continues to push towards subversion. Defying the common rules that require artists to be presented by a gallery at a fair, INDEX strives towards the breaking of those barriers to entry, which exclude independent artists from art fair participation. ⁠

With this particular exhibition, entitled The Orchid and The Wasp: Thin Lines of Becoming, the curatorial curiosity is in the meaning-laden words that build up worlds around us. This platform relishes in the contrast between the idealism of words, and the realism of practice. Independent artists – often positioned as existing on the periphery of the otherwise streamlined commercial art world – exhibit in a large-scale fair. Independent artists, almost connotatively boxed into an isolationism, exhibit in this group platform, negotiating together one space. 

“In grappling with the disconnect between ideas and practices, collage becomes both a material and conceptual method through which to understand. In its unique practice of context extrapolation, it positions unrelated elements together, and beautifully forges new meaning in this juxtaposition. From this resolve-of-tensions, The Orchid and The Wasp: Thin Lines of Becoming, broadens an understanding of collage to include our family, our memories and our culture.” - INDEX curator, Denzo Nyathi