The Five Artists/Five Directions exhibition was opened at the KZNSA exhibition by Professor Rodney Harber of the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Architecture Department on June 6.

On exhibit on the mezzanine level is a short film called Fool King’s Crown shown on a wide-screen LCD screen and 15 framed free-hand-drawn digital stills by Michelle Stewart from the film (sizes ranging from large A1 stills to a series of more intimate A4 stills).

Fool King’s Crown is a hand-drawn digital animation (using Wacom pen and tablet attached to a computer) consisting of approximately 4,000 frames (individual drawings) and represents 18 months work for Michelle Stewart.

In the film an elderly man with visions of past glory dresses behind a screen with the aid of a chacma baboon. This culminates in the baboon preparing a newspaper hat for the man. Echoing the coronation of Napoleon, the man seizes the hat and places it on his own head.

Michelle Stewart’s work forms part of the Five Artists/Five Directions exhibition. The artists - Terrence King, Juliet Armstrong, Michelle Stewart, Ian Calder and Vulindela Nyoni - are all employed at the Centre for Visual Arts at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.

The exhibition runs until June 25. More information from Michelle Stewart on 031 765 3536.