As we visually explore the shift and transient nature of our time, The Long Table plays host to a group exhibition and a presentation of objects you might not ordinarily expect to see in a gallery. This move towards the blurry line that connects art with décor is designed to do precisely that – merge and blend the experience at your own discretion.Feelings of motion are embodied by a selection of Gregor Jenkin’s tables. These parallel lines combine with vertical fixtures to contort in ways surfaces are often told not to. Gregor Jenkin’s, a self-proclaimed ‘maker of things’, is one of South Africa’s most respected designers. His functional objects are each a feat in themselves. The outcome of the physical act of creation and manufacture. 

His focus on the importance of the design process and his preoccupation with finding new solutions for old problems results in simple, stream-lined pieces that are a perfect union of engineering and sculpture.You might find yourself walking through the space wondering what art is or how we go about classifying design. There’s certainly enough literature to back up most arguments for either cause – and in multiple directions too – but for a moment, let’s pause. Suspend reality and consider the notion that sometimes things are more than one thing at once. Being dynamic and undefined is a definition too. Allow yourself to be open to the possibility that this space is created to free objects from limitations we might ordinarily place on them.

 A combination of pieces from extraordinarily talented and diversely skilled artists awaits. Perhaps not in a way you might have anticipated or where you’d have pictured them to be – but they’re there – busy being. Made of bronze, paying homage to pop-culture and celebrating contemporary African art all at once – together. An embodiment of collaboration and a visual expression of the silent thread that keeps us all connected.Text by Celeste Jacobs