MICHAELIS GALLERIES

24 September 2011 – 22 October 2011

Threshold implies an upper limit to tolerance levels as climate change shifts the balance long established in ecosystems. The exhibition, as its title suggests, engages the premise that not only are the climatic conditions of the planet at a tipping point, but that we need to enter into closer relationship with the earth, this place we call home.” Curator: Virginia MacKenny, 2011.

Younge visited the area around Cuito cuanavale, the site of intensive struggle during the 1987-88 offensive by the SADF (supporting UNITA) against FAPLA and Cuban soldiers. As a form of witnessing, Younge painted indigenous birds decimated by the conflict on the underside of vellum stretched over the detritus of war… His project was, as he puts it, a way of “reactivating the airwaves”. Recreating images of birds not seen in the area for years his act of recovery was recognised by locals who identified, in the vernacular, birds’ names such as ‘Mutoko’, Tshihundjo, and Ondia Makunde’.” Virginia MacKenny, 2011