The NSA Gallery proudly presents the first instalment in a new initiative, the Young Artists' Project (YAP), which annually allows four young artists the opportunity to present a first solo-project with professional assistance. The project will culminate in the publication of a small-format catalogue and a public seminar and conference. Focusing on work that is installation and new-media based and not commercially driven, YAP aims to create a space for experimentation and contemporary work in the city, and through transparent processes to become informative and educative.

The project has funding from Pro-Helvetia (the Arts Council of Switzerland) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

Milijana Babic is the first Young Artist to present a project which comprises nonsense and an installation. Living, working and studying in Durban for the past five years, Milijana is Croatian by birth and passport but considers herself at home when here. Currently completing her BTech degree at the Durban Institute of Technology, she has participated in various public projects in the past year, notably during the recent Durban Designers' Emporium events at the BAT Centre with a knock-out installation titled Not-for-Sale.

Utilising a pared-down aesthetic and recurring symbols of childhood and home, Babic continues to search in her work for an elusive place of refuge for a little girl.

“In my work, the search for perfection is also a search for the child that I used to know,” she explains. “The idea of imaginative as real is seen as a base for a conceptual home, as expressed through the use of a childhood vocabulary. The story of Wonderland offers some of the many possible answers to questions of 'who' and 'where'. However, it was Alice's statement, 'I can't help it, I am growing' that made me strongly want to make it 'real'.

“I have appropriated both a previously used image of a girl and the NSA Multimedia room to 'fit' the story. Or, is it the other way round?”

Running concurrently with three other exhibitions, the YAP will be opened at the NSA Gallery on September 17 at 18h00 and will run until October 6.