The Midnight Kitchen

Remaining Jars

2010-08-06T14:53:00.000+02:00

Detachment

Reprieve

Remains

Redundant

Reconnaissance

Presence

Dead Media, National Arts Festival, Grahamstown 2010

2010-08-02T13:29:00.000+02:00

20 June - 4 July

Rat Western’s exhibition, Dead Media, is a site specific intervention unusually located in the Dr Hewitt Gallery on the upper floor of the Albany Natural Science Museum. The space, no white gallery cube, is home to a collection of stuffed animals, specimens in jars, wall mounted heads, mineral samples and cultural artifacts.

Here the artist combines technology with elements of the existing museological display in order to comment on a number of complex issues relating to museum curation and presumed ideas about the nature of the digital archive. The relationship between death and life becomes confounded as the still, taxidermied animals seem to speak of death or life no longer lived, but have, as mummified bodies, far ‘outlived’ the norm in the natural world.

The moving digital image through its animation and light seems to speak of life, but is no more real or comparable to the everyday experience than the dead stuffed specimen and is - because it can be erased in an instant or with a scratch of a disk – so much more fragile.

More Work...

2009-10-30T14:14:00.000+02:00

ere are some more jars in the series I posted previously. The previous images got quite a nice review in the Cape Times. See Here.

Exhibition Opening: UCA Gallery

2009-08-26T14:40:00.000+02:00

I have some work on an exhibition opening in Cape Town tonight. Wish I could be there.
I haven't actually seen the work in person which is a very sureal experience. I made the images in Photoshop and sent them to be printed in CT.

Apparently they look great according to other people who have seen them. They will be a whole new experience for me.

More info at the gallery site: www.ucagallery.com

Greetings from Eastern Cape

2009-08-22T13:25:00.000+02:00

Neh, Long absence due to well…. a thousand things some of which I hope I will get a chance to illustrate in some ways here. But mainly because I have relocated myself to Beatrix Potter’s Heart of Darkness, or if you prefer the kind of stories that keep the kiddies happy, the sleepy hollow of Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape.

Now I find myself pretty much 1000km from anywhere someone truly cosmopolitan would feel comfortable to call home. It’s taken a while to settle in, not that I think I’m really properly settled, but seeing as I’ve been banging on at my students (I am now lecturing at Rhodes University, setting up a new discourse in Digital Arts but that’s another series of stories) about the power of the internet especially in the middle of effing nowhere, my lack of presence online is seriously hypocritical.

So before anymore time elapses - each day increasing the embarrassment - I’m just diving in and will catch up as I go. My personal website is also in a serious shambles but I’ll get there too. Personal websites are to me what the Friday night dinner alone is to the chef – couldn’t be bothered, so busy elsewhere.

Here’s hoping I can stick to my new internet diet and fitness regime.

Some of my videos

2008-12-02T19:36:00.002+02:00

Making video on a PC is a real pain in the butt, especially when it comes to compressing videos for web or making a DVD. At some point when I am rich and famous, well maybe just rich, I will buy a Mac and making videos will be easier - thats the plan anyway.

Here are some videos of mine that are online though they are strangely squashed.

First, Untitled (Nightwatch) which I was told the other day was too 'creepy' for the vision a certain curator had for their exhibition. One would think that an exhibition that has marginalisation in the urban landscape as its curatorial angle would not expect the content of such work to be sweetness and light. I can think of pleanty of reasons my work may be unsuitable but 'too creepy'. Hell, on a scale of creepy I don't think this rates at all.

I was however, interested to see some of my words said in conversation with said curator, quoted verbatim in the exhibition's press release. I'm not on the show, but my words are.

Next is 'The Critic' an old animation from 2004. Perhaps I have too little reverence for the hierarchical structures of the art worlds to be included on certain kinds of exhibitions. No matter I write a damn fine press release by remote control.;)

Doll Face by Andrew Huang

2008-12-02T19:16:00.002+02:00

3D Animation by Andrew Huang

Johannesburg Art Fair Special Project - Art for Online Spaces

2008-11-12T09:51:00.002+02:00

Public call to artist with a digital and new media practice.

Three organisations, Digital Arts Division of the Wits School of Arts , the Upgrade International Network of digital media artists and organisers and the online arts publication Artthrob are getting together for a special project at the 2009 Johannesburg Art Fair that focuses on artwork made for online platforms.

This special project will include a selection of online artworks, a good deal of press coverage and an in-depth talk and discussion on artwork made for online platforms and the extension of creative practice into the online world.

Online spaces are public spaces and since the mid-1980’s artists across the globe had been using the internet as an online platform to make artworks, perform, radically subvert and represent ideas. Internet art has been largely ignored by the South African scene because of infrastructural difficulties. Yet as this is rapidly changing and more of our community is using the Internet - there is a growing interest in the Internet as a place for public engagement and artworks – to the extent that commissions are being made for online interventions as public artworks.

There is a theme. The 2009 Johannesburg Art Fair is making its focus the “Global South”. This special project is doing the same by showing works that address the politics of increasingly stable emerging markets and developing contexts.

The selection will be put together in two ways:

Firstly curators and organisers who are members of Upgrade! International network have been asked to put forward works for this selection – thus far we have submissions from across South and Central America, Korea, Canada and Johannesburg - this list is still growing.

Secondly we are making a call to Southern African artists that have a history of new media and digital media practice to put forward work for this selection. We will also give you all the technical support that we can.

Proposal to be submitted via email by 30 November 2008 to Tegan.Bristow@wits.ac.za

Two positions available at Graham's Fine Art

2008-10-01T10:16:00.003+02:00

Applicants are invited to apply for the following positions at:

GRAHAM’S FINE ART GALLERY
BROADACRES LIFESTYLE CENTRE, BROADACRES, FOURWAYS

POSITION: JUNIOR GRAPHIC AND WEB DESIGNER

and

POSITION: GALLERY ADMINISTRATOR

JUNIOR GRAPHIC AND WEB DESIGNER
Qualification:

BA (Fine Arts) Degree, preferable Honors or Masters in Fine Arts / Art History
Or
Qualification in Creative Communications (Graphic and Web Design)

Experience:

No experience required. A portfolio of work done would be required during the interview process.

Key Responsibilities:

o Photographing of paintings and editing colour correction thereof
o Management of stock images for database and website
o Website administration
o Management of images and articles on the website
o Preparing of images and data collection for valuation portfolios
o Creating presentations for sales and marketing purposes
o Assisting in planning and setting up of the exhibitions
o Creative designing of various media elements

Skills required:

1. Strong interest and knowledge in art
2. Attention to detail
3. Computer literate (MS Office and Adobe creative software)
4. Creative approach

Salary: Negotiable

Please e-mail CV to hannie@grahamsgallery.co.za and Sarah@grahamsgallery.co.za

Enquiries: Laurelle Baard - 011 465 9192

Closing Date: 3 October 2008 (ASAP)

GALLERY ADMINISTRATOR

Qualification:

BA (Fine Arts) Degree, preferable Honors or Masters in Fine Arts / Art History

Experience:

One year appropriate experience would be a recommendation

Key Responsibilities:

o Management of the art database
o Research on artworks
o Stock Control
o Management of framing & restoration of artwork
o Management of valuation portfolio
o Selling of artwork
o Drawing contemporary artists to the gallery
o Administrative functions

Skills required:

1. Strong interest and knowledge in art
2. Attention to detail
3. Computer literate (MS Office)
4. Strong organisational skills

Salary: Negotiable

Please e-mail CV to hannie@grahamsgallery.co.za and Sarah@grahamsgallery.co.za

Enquiries: Laurelle Baard - 011 465 9192

Closing Date: 3 October 2008 (ASAP)

CALL FOR PROPOSALS FOR CAPE 09

2008-10-01T09:52:00.002+02:00

The CAPE AFRICA PLATFORM (CAPE) is a groundbreaking cultural project located in Cape Town, South Africa. CAPE aims to culturally connect Cape Town, South Africa, Africa and the Diaspora by creating a contemporary African art event - rooted in the local but global in impact.

CAPE is seeking multiple proposals from artists for CAPE 09, its second biennale exhibition of contemporary African Culture, to take place from 2 May till 19 June 2009. Please download our 1-minute video if you are interested.

CAPE 09 is about life today: the people, the connections and networks they make up - from creatively understanding new media, to analyzing how questions of colonialism have been deeply transformed by networked society.

CAPE 09 seeks to explore networks that accentuate the contemporary characteristics of Africa and provide a stage for communications between communities and citizens activities.

The narrative of the event is initiated from the city of Cape Town itself. The city as a network requires a re-imagining of how we move and engage with each other. Artists are therefore asked to propose public interactions rather than exhibitions, and to intervene or present their works in a series of pre-selected networked spaces that represent the every day that is our common ground: venues and sites, both public and private, along the axis Church Square (CAPE’s office/gallery space) - Metrorail Station, through Parliament and Plein Street. Potential satellite exhibition sites are Lookout Hill, Khayelitsha and the CAPE’s Arts Awareness Programme areas Nyanga, Manenberg and Klapmuts.

For its second biennale CAPE has been working with a team of five young curators. In addition to their proposals CAPE is currently seeking proposals for small and medium-sized interactions through this call.

CAPE aims at a local audience, particularly addressing Cape Town’s youth.

Proposals for CAPE 09 may pre-empt (larger or follow-up) events for CAPE 2010 (May – July 2010).

Proposals must include artists’ biographies, venue/site description (in case this forms part of the proposal) and detailed logistic and budgetary information.

Deadline for proposals: 30 October 2008

Proposals may be posted to PO Box 15806, Vlaeberg 8018 or be hand-delivered to 8 Spin Street, Cape Town 8000.

For more information call 27-21-461 2325 or write to info@capeafrica.org

CAPE reserves the right to select or refuse any submission, even not to select any.

Art Extra presents a solo exhibition by Lawrence Lemaoana

2008-09-21T14:27:00.005+02:00

Last Line of Defence, 2008, Pigment inks on cotton paper, 110 x 52 cm, Edition of 10

Fortune Telling in Black, Red and White
A solo exhibition by Lawrence Lemaoana

25 September – 29 October 2008

Please join us for the opening on Thursday 25th September at 6pm

Your state is no accident.

Lawrence Lemaoana’s latest body of work has, as its departure point, a fascination with the role of the mass media in present-day South Africa. In Lemaoana’s work the relationship between the ‘People’ and the media is problematised as a relationship of representation and control – who gets to control modes of representation; and who gets to represent those in control. The power of the media to act as didactic tool or propagandistic weapon, and the power of the media to reveal (and shape) the psyche, or group consciousness of the People, is taken up in Lemaoana’s work with the artist’s trademark cynical satire.

In Lemaoana’s new series of textile constructions, ‘hard press’ becomes soft sculpture –sculpture that shifts between the bluntness of the text, and the seemingly genteel quaintness of the fabric; text becomes object; and narrative is revealed as fiction, authored by particular interests.
In works such as ‘A Tale of Three Zumas’, and ‘Power to the People’, headlines have been reinterpreted, inverted or distorted. “Power to the people” was once a rallying cry of liberation; but in Lemaoana’s work it is no longer a catch phrase of idealistic empowerment. The call is now far more chilling – it is the call of The People who, dissatisfied with the status quo, use the threat of violence in their support of corrupt leaders. Using edited and reconstructed newspaper headlines from daily South African newspapers as their source material, re-imaged as textile hangings, these words and these typographies become markers of a contemporary political crisis.
The fabrics used by Lemaoana are as loaded as the texts themselves.

Lemaoana says the following about his choice of fabrics: “Kanga fabrics (made infamous during the Zuma rape trial) are used extensively in my work. Designed in the Netherlands, manufactured in the East, and brought to South Africa to be sold in markets and bazaars, the journey of the fabrics speaks of the idiosyncrasies and trade imbalances of globalisation. The textiles themselves though have a wholly different life in South Africa – they are regarded as significant markers of spiritual healing, imbued with great religious and spiritual power, used by divinators and fortune-tellers. Each has a metaphoric symbol which renders it worthy of the African ancestors, the most common being the sun. Others, with some kind of animal print represent the animal that stands in for Inyanga or Sangoma. Never intended as metaphoric or spiritual patterns, many are made up of foreign plants, their color remains significant, particularly the “Njeti”.

373 jan smuts avenue
craighall
johannesburg

gallery hours:
tuesday to friday 1030 - 1730
saturday 930 - 1500

t011.326.0034
f011.326.0041
info@artextra.co.za
www.artextra.co.za

Gif - AVANT CAR GUARD - open lecture

2008-09-21T09:11:00.004+02:00

You are invited to the following open lecture.
This open guest lecture forms part of the course on Internet Art and Online Culture offered at Digital Arts Division of the Wits School of Arts.
Each year local artists are invited to present and discuss works made for online and networked platforms.

This year AVANT CAR GUARD will be discussing (along with other things) the animated gifs found in their recent Artthrob (www.artthrob.co.za) diary entries.

Gif
A presentation by AVANT CAR GUARD

13:15 Wednesday 23rd September 2008

Seminar Room, Digital Arts Building
WITS School of the Arts

www.avantcarguard.com
www.avantcarguard.blogspot.com

Full Time Long Term Gallery Assistant Required

2008-08-01T10:00:00.002+02:00

I presume from the name and phone number at the bottom of this ad that this job is Johannesburg based and that the gallery in question is Warren Siebrits
you'd think they'd put that kind of information on the ad? But anyway it looks like a fantastic opportunity.

We have a full time, long term position opening at the beginning of September which we are currently interviewing for.

● The position involves a great deal of administrative work such as updating inventories, stock lists, sales lists etc.

● You would be required to format images and texts for our publications.

● You would be required to assist with all the daily gallery routines as well as with the tasks involved in preparing for, and hanging, an exhibition. required The position requires that you be the primary voice answering the telephone.

● You would be expected to have a good understanding of each artist and works on each exhibition. You would need to be able to convey this to our clients and any enquiries. You are not required to make sales, nor do we work on a commission basis.

● The position also requires that you maintain and update our website (for which training will be provided).

● Should all parties be happy with your progress and capabilities after a 3month trial period, you will be allocated a portion of the gallery artists for which you will be responsible for.

● Commitment, efficiency and focus are the key qualities required for this position.

If you feel that this position would be of interest to you please contact Carmen on 011 327 5999

BAK, Utrecht, NL, seeks new Curator

2008-07-13T14:37:00.002+02:00

BAK, basis voor actuele kunst is currently seeking a committed, visionary curator to fill a newly created position on its team and contribute to its activities. BAK, located in Utrecht, the Netherlands, is an internationally recognized space dedicated to thinking from, about, and through art, and is invested in the exploration and empowerment of two vital relationships: the link between art and the public sphere, and the alliance between artistic practice and theory.

BAK initiates research on diverse subjects of urgency that are key to the pursuit of these crucial relationships in art, and together with artists and other cultural practitioners realizes projects such as exhibitions, lectures, education, publications, and significant productions of new work. BAK places equal emphasis on these diverse activities. Exemplified by practices of participation, discursivity, production, flexibility, fluidity, and criticality, BAK's approach constitutes a way of thinking and acting, a process of development, and a continuous activation of the possibility of art. BAK understands art in the expanded sense as a uniquely open field of possibilities inside society in which various discourses (aesthetic, cultural, political, social, economic, and others) intersect and exchange.

The ideal curator would feel a strong affinity with BAK's philosophy and working methods and be ready to contribute her/his energy, intellectual capacities, creativity, vision, and ethical commitment to the diverse tasks at hand. This individual's interests should be broad, but grounded in a vision of contemporary art as practice in active dialogue with the contemporary world and its concerns. She/he would demonstrate a strong inclination towards the activities of exhibition making and the conception and development of theory and discourse-oriented programs. The curator will have the intellectual independence and confidence to collaborate closely with the artistic director and orient her/himself within a small team and the conceptual framework of BAK, bringing new ideas and possibilities for collaboration to the fore. As continuity is an underlying principle of all BAK's activities, the curator would readily express a serious, long-term commitment to the position.

Interested individuals are encouraged to contact BAK (info@bak-utrecht.nl) for application materials. Completed applications are accepted from the date of this announcement until 8 September 2008. We regret that we are unable to accommodate phone inquiries.

Call for applications: Sylt Quelle Cultural Award for Southern Africa

2008-07-12T18:52:00.002+02:00

How do Southern African writers, artists, choreographers, musicians and theatre-makers see their art in the context of the society they live in? What are the fundamental issues of their countries, and what ideas do they have for solving them?

In 2008, the foundation kunst:raum sylt quelle, in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Johannesburg is launching the “sylt quelle cultural award for Southern Africa”. This competition is open to artists of all disciplines from Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Swaziland.

Artists may apply with a project that will link culture and society, creating a context in which culture will have an impact on social structures and attitudes. The winner/winners will receive an award of 10,000 Euros, which must be used to finance the proposed project.

Selections will be made by an independent jury in a two-stage process.

The realized project/projects will be presented at the Goethe-Institut Johannesburg , the kunst:raum sylt quelle in Germany and other venues. The authors rights of the selected projects are not touched through this call of proposals.

Applications may be sent to the Goethe-Institut in Johannesburg and must include the following:
- a Curriculum Vitae and description of your career as an artist
- a detailed description of your project and a binding budget plan
- samples of your work

To simplify the selection process, we ask that all applications be by email or CD. Other forms of documentation will not be considered. Application material will not be returned. All decisions of the jury are final, reasons for rejections will not be disclosed.

Applications should be sent to:

Goethe-Institut Johannesburg
kunstpreis@johannesburg.goethe.org

Further information:
www.goethe.de/Johannesburg
www.kunstraum-syltquelle.de

Deadline: 15th September 2008

Call for Papers: ULI: Journal of Visual Arts and Culture Nigeria

2008-07-12T18:46:00.001+02:00

ULI: Journal of Visual Arts and Culture is a referred academic bi-annual publication of the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Nigeria, Nsukka (visit nsukkaartschool.info). It is to be published in June and December each year electronically and, occasionally, in hard copies.

The publication aims to critique and document contemporary developments in the visual arts and culture of Nigeria, Africa and the world. It shall open up and sustain debate on issues in Nigerian and international art as a way of contributing to art scholarship and professionalism in the so-called Third World.

Well-researched papers are invited for the first issue to be published in December 2008.

Historical, critical, art educational, and other scholarly articles on modern and postmodern tendencies in the art and visual culture of Africa are welcome, as well as reviews, interviews and portfolios.

Articles should be typed and double-spaced on A4 paper and should not exceed 20 pages. Reference should conform to the Harvard style. Photographs and illustrations should be clear enough for print reproduction; poor quality photographs will not be accepted.

Submissions can be sent in hard copy by post or in soft copy via e-mail. Although materials are accepted all year round, the deadline for submission for the maiden issue is 31st November, 2008.

All correspondences to:
Dr. Ozioma Onuzulike
Department of Fine and Applied Arts,
University of Nigeria,
Nsukka.
E-mail: oozioma@nsukkaartschool.info
Uli-journal@nsukkaartschool.info

Wits Student Architecture Film Festival

2008-07-07T21:49:00.004+02:00

A celebration of professional and student film and architecture, will be held at the Wits Great Hall on the evenings of the 16th and 17th of July.

Line up includes films and talks by Eduardo Cachucho, Angie Mullins, Johan Thom, Nadine Hutton, Kasia Kwiecinska, Guy Ailion, Dana Fayman, Susan Vogel, Ismail Farouk and Murray Turpin

The WITS Student Architecture Film Festival's goal is to inform practising architects and most importantly the greater public, about architecture and urbanism through the highly accessible format of film. The world of architecture and urban design offer many solutions to a growing country like South Africa yet many people do not understand the power they have in shaping their own spaces.

The festival is not geared towards architecture alone and acknowledges any form of media that educates or stimulates an interest in the built environment, public and urban space.

New Stuff!

2008-04-27T18:45:00.005+02:00

I’ve taken a bit of time to update my site, which is still in progress, but will be finished by the 16th of May. There. I’ve made a deadline so it has to happen. I’ve added some performance stuff and removed older work. Have a look. In the meantime I have also made some new Tarot of Johannesburg cards which I presented at the Johannesburg and Megacity Phenomena video evening at Intermission Gallery at the beginning of the month. Four more cards to go and then I will need to start looking for a place to exhibited the whole set. I’m thinking A3 prints of the cards in the space and limited edition full sets of 12cm x 20cm cards in a nicely designed box. Financially this could take a while.

Trains, Planes and Art Mobiles

2008-04-16T18:33:00.003+02:00

So for those of you who have noticed my absence from this blog, let me take a moment to explain the last few months before attempting to launch back in to it.

I’ve never been good at keeping a diary, even the kind where you write down things you ought to do in the near future. I was constantly in trouble at school for not writing down my homework although I was infrequently in trouble for not doing the said homework which was not written down. I could never get my head around this.

But I do think that one shouldn’t be to proud to think one can remember things and at some point when my mind begins to fail it will be good if I have gotten into the habit of writing things down. I am bad at this. Remembering to write things down seems to be the one thing I forget to do though I don’t forget to do the things. If I don’t do them its because I ran out of time.

So to try get myself to write to do lists I bought one of those moleskine diaries that are oh-so-popular at the mo. But mostly I doodle in it so I may as well continue to write stuff on little scraps of paper that get lost in my seemingly bottomless handbag. Though this practice does not afford me the opportunity to participate in the comedy of errors that happens at every meeting I attend where one person’s little black dork book gets confused with someone else’s.

Why are these things so popular? I think it is because they appear so profound from the outside before one has even gotten started. Indeed the information leaflet that comes with the book states: ‘the legendary notebook used by…Picasso and Hemingway’ as if it were the notebook rather than the contents that were legendary. A transferred epithet (see I do remember my English homework even if I did not write it down.) Picasso also used to draw on napkins, I wonder if there is a marketing strategy in that?

But I digress. Where have I been? Many Miles. I started this year in Dublin, Sienna and Rotterdam. And what did I do there? Got lost, a lot. Arrived late. Dragged a suitcase full of increasingly heavy art around. Walked. Spent too much money. Got rained on. Slept on benches. Hoarded free buffet breakfasts for later squashed and unfortunate discoveries in my over large handbag.

I went to Sienna to see ‘.za giovannie arte dal Sud Africa’ To Rotterdam to exhibit as part of Project(or) and to Dublin as it was the cheapest flight in to Europe and because I could visit my sister and Nathaniel Stern. Oh and I forgot to mention the 9 hour stop over in Madrid airport where I wrote all day but none of it was for me.

It was a kind of a pilgrimage of a sorts only pilgrimages usually have a sacred site as a final goal. Instead I was hoping to figure out how to balance being involved in promoting other artists and making art myself. I don’t think I have figured this out yet but I had a really nice idea for a long term project involving masks.

I saw a lot of insular, self indulgent art (is this redundant?) and realised that few people know the difference between ‘I don’t like it’ and ‘Its not any good.’ Also we are all, no matter what high ideals we hope to celebrate, spoilt little picture makers. Or maybe to be more correct, spoilt little object/installation/concept makers. And too often we take ourselves far too seriously. Am I okay with this? Yes, as long as I can pride myself as an entertainer because this is what so many artists lose sight of, we are meant to be entertainers. This does not mean we need to make happy art, entertainment is also about provoking thought or contemplation. Do I entertain? I don’t know yet, but I will keep trying.

PUSHPLAY>> Exhibition of Emerging Video Art @ The Bag Factory

2008-03-10T13:19:00.002+02:00

The Bag Factory and SAartsEmerging.org present

PUSHPLAY>>

Opens: 12 March 2008 @ 6 for 6:30
Closes: 14 March

10 Mahlathini St, Fordsburg, Johannesburg

a selection of video art by up-and-coming South African artists. The exhibition, to be opened on 12 March 2008, runs in conjunction with the Johannesburg Art Fair to be launched on the 13March 2008.

SAartsEmerging.org is a collaborative web platform which promotes the work of South African artists though feature reviews, exhibition advertisements and other news links following the career paths of its associated artists. SAartsEmerging.org has an open call for applications to join the website.

The Bag Factory welcomes 'Push Play' as part of its exhibition programme which aims to further the needs of the local Johannesburg art scene.

'Push Play' is SAartsEmerging.org's fourth physical manifestation having exhibited previously in Johannesburg, Cape Town and most recently in February as part of the fringe of the Rotterdam Art Fair.

Line up includes: Lester Adams, Nina Barnett, Shane de Lange, Anthea Moys, Anthea Pokroy, Rat Western, Dean Henning and Rike Sitas and a live performance by MTKIDU and Ismail Farouk.

Enquiries:
Rat Western
rat@bagfactoryart.org.za
+27 72 802 9447
www.bagfactoryart.org.za
www.saartsemerging.org

10 Mahlathini St Fordsburg: Map

ArtExtra Presents 'Perfect Lovers'

2008-02-27T12:20:00.003+02:00

Zanele Muholi
Katlego Mashiloane and Nosipho Lavuta, Ext. 2, Lakeside, Johannesburg 2007
Lambda print, 76.5 x 76.5cm
edition of 8
Courtesy of Michael Stevenson

'Perfect Lovers ': 28th Feb 2008 – 29th March 2008

Opens: Thursday 28th of February at 6pm
373 Jan Smuts Avenue, Craighall, Johannesburg
www.artextra.co.za

‘Perfect Lovers’ takes its name from the renowned Felix Gonzales Torres piece Untitled (Perfect Lovers), 1991 – which, on the one hand, is a powerful comment on the mortal limits of love and the ever-present proximity of death to life; whilst on the other hand offers a wry comment on the impossibility of the ‘authentic’ object.

The collection of work on the exhibition explores the dualities embodied in Gonzales-Torres’ seminal piece: self and other, destruction and creation, death and desire – the mythical figures of Eros and Thanatos loom large in all the seeming oppositions. Libido and Mortido, the seemingly antagonistic and dialectical life instinct and the death instinct, are revealed to be locked in an intimate and dynamic embrace.

Artists: Lester Adams, Carlos Aires, Reshma Chhiba, Simon Gush, Bronwyn Millar, Zanele Muholi, Youssef Nabil, Clive van den Berg

Volunteer at the Joburg Art Fair!

2008-02-27T12:03:00.003+02:00

Get the chance to be part of the team and inner workings of the fair!

If you are interested in volunteering to work at the Joburg Art Fair from 13th until 16th March, please send an email to Anthea Pokroy expressing interest including your telephone number.

Join the Joburg Artfair Facebook group.
www.joburgartfair.co.za

Johannesburg Art Fair

The first African contemporary art fair will be held in Johannesburg from the 13th to the 16th of March 2008. On sale will be the largest collection of African and South African contemporary art the world has ever seen - 5000 square metres of the Sandton Convention Centre have been booked for the event.

The main sponsor for The Joburg Art Fair is First National Bank. Artlogic, the producers of the event, has galleries from three continents that focus on African contemporary art to participate in the first Joburg Art Fair.

Opens: Friday, March 14, 2008 at 11:00am
Closes: Sunday, March 16, 2008 at 4:00pm

Sandton Convention Centre
Maude Street
Sandton

'The Trickster ' @ artextra

2008-01-22T08:44:00.000+02:00

Carlos Aires, Untitled (from series happily ever after)
street mime mexico city, 2007,
174 x 142 cm, ed. of 6, lambda print on photo paper

'The Trickster ' : 24th Jan 2008 – 23rd Feb 2008

Opening 24 Jan 2008 at 6pm

Art Extra presents a curated exhibition that explores contemporary manifestations of the Trickster – a character who exists in various shapes and forms across all cultures – as one that traverses boundaries and breaks the rules of nature, using wit, mischief, language and ‘ serious play’ to invert power relationships, or reveal the flaws of a particular system.

Characteristics ascribed to the Trickster figure include gender variability and shape-shifting, the use of masks and role-play, costume and disguise, and the use of language to invert meaning.

The Trickster’s actions are often perceived to be malicious, but usually have positive results. It is through the sharp wit and loaded humour of the Trickster that constructed values are revealed as exactly that – constructed. The underlying logic of the Trickster is provocation - to question the status quo, to challenge the dominant logic.

This exhibition brings together established and emerging artists in order to explore contemporary versions of the Trickster figure, and seeks to acknowledge the significance of the Trickster in much of today’s art practice.

Artists exhibiting: Carlos Aires, Alan Alborough, RotimiFani-Kayodé,
Nandipha Mntambo, Samson Mudzunga, Michael MacGarry,
Anthea Moys, Athi-Patra Ruga, Kathryn Smith

A limited edition poster will be available.

www.artextra.co.za

KEARNEY and STAINER @ The Goodman Gallery

2008-01-13T10:06:00.000+02:00

Alison Kearney | 2007

From the 19th January to 9th of February 2008 The Goodman Gallery will host a new body of work by two young South African artists - Alison Kearney and Emily Stainer. Opening: noon on Saturday 19th January, on this day the gallery will have extended hours from 09h30 to 17h00.

Alison Kearney is a South African artist interested in issues to do with the contexts of art production and display, as well as issues to do with how value is determined in culture. Within Kearney’s current art production, she explores the role of the audience in making meaning and contributing to the creative process when engaging with conceptual artworks, using a combination of mixed media, installation, and photography.

In her most recent exhibition titled About Context, An exploration of Value in Four Parts [November 2006], Kearney asked audience members to participate in a performance work by bringing objects to exchange with her ad other participating audience members. The purpose of this public exchange was so that she would ultimately have a collection of objects to work with that she did not choose. The starting point for this exhibition is an engagement with, and documentation of the objects Kearney received.

Kearney’s current interest is informed by her early works, which interrogate the institutions of art as institutions that to a large extent determine cultural value and influence cultural production, through parody of some museum practices. Included in this interrogation is an engagement with theories around public art through the construction of monuments which challenge the conventions around monuments through their subject matter, and also through the scale and the materials used.

Emily Stainer
'Cautionary Tales: Chicken Feet I' | 2007
Gouche on paper

Emily Stainer is a South African artist and art historian, working in watercolour, mixed media and installation. Stainer was educated at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. The body of work that Stainer has created for this exhibition entitled Cautionary Tales, alludes to those popular nineteenth century children’s tales that sought to warn children about the perils inherent in life.

In 'Struwwelpeter' (1845) by H. Hoffman there is a contradiction between the comic verses and the abhorrent punishments meted out to the characters. There is something paradoxical about the rhymes’ delight in cruelty and in their concern for the welfare of the child. The fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm include many stories of young people abandoned, kidnapped and sometimes even murdered. The perpetuation of this abuse is apparent in current newspaper articles, and this is why a book such as 'Struwwelpeter' still resonates with us today.

Stainer’s latest work is structured to display these elements of contradictions and ambiguous shifts: the world of childhood games and fantasy play versus the domain of adult knowledge and sexual corruption. The mechanical cages suggest the security of the Victorian nursery disturbed by shadows and taboos.

Stainer’s watercolours depicting meat / eyes / dolls’ limbs on platters play on the tension between predator and prey, eating and being eaten. The consumption of food and the taboos associated with that consumption have always been a topic of popular stories. In the original Charles Perrault’s 'Little Red Ridding Hood' the wolf really does gobble up the little girl. And the infamous London barber, Sweeney Todd actually turns his human victims into meat pies in popular mythology.

The works making up Cautionary Tales display curious items, including found and composed objects, which present contradictory ideas of the playful and sinister. Both the ceramic legs in the cages and the strange objects on the plates introduce strong aspects of the uncanny. And it is this aspect of the uncanny, which most defines Stainer’s work.

This exhibit closes on the 9th February 2008.

What to do with my day...

2008-01-04T10:10:00.000+02:00

This is why I don’t have time to finish all I would like to in a day:

Everyday at least ten spam mails promise me all sorts and when they include pics like these I wonder who has the time to be sending me this ridiculousness because I don’t imagine they would be able to supply me the products they are offering.

Maybe I should give it a try so I can ‘please yourself and your loved girl with the most excellent largess ever!’ because 'You've got to try it, too, if you want wish to become really proud, that you are a Man!'

Lerato Shadi @ JAG

2007-11-14T09:08:00.000+02:00

Two video works by

Lerato Shadi
Aboleleng and Hema

The Project Room
at The Johannesburg Art Gallery
Opens 15 November 2007
6:30 pm

In Aboleleng we see a figure against a green background wearing an odd costume in a tone close to the woman's skin, suggesting full nudity. The figure in the video is Shadi herself. Shadi starts to pull a knitted string, hidden in the costume, from between her legs. An image of vulnerability and strength, Aboleleng considers the moment where our innermost ideas are set up for public scrutiny, like an artist first exhibiting new work. The woollen string itself is displayed on a plinth across from the video projection. The bright green background of the video soaks the room in an eerie glow; for those familiar with television production it is recognisable as the green screen used for adding images in postproduction. It suggests a space for projection of ideas onto the work, moving it from a deeply personal realm into a more public place.

Hema (or Six hours of out-breath captured in 792 balloons) takes a public space as its starting point. The work is based on footage of a performance staged by Shadi at the offices of the advertising agency Ogilvy in Cape Town. She relates the choice of context to the nature of the modern working environment, where our primary needs of proper breathing and physical posture are too easily forgotten. For the performance, the artist spent exactly six hours seated on the staircase in the centre of the building, exhaling every single breath into balloons. This feat was possible because of her experience with meditation and breathing techniques, but it left her physically and mentally exhausted. On top of this, her fingers developed bloody blisters from tying the balloons. By the end of the performance, a colourful collection of nearly 800 balloons had formed on and around the staircase, physically encapsulating six hours of Shadi's breath. For the video, Shadi has played with the editing process to capture the essence of the performance, rather than document it in its entirety. Like the green screen in Aboleleng, Hema's method of production indicates an awareness of and concern with the medium of video.

Night of a 1000 Drawings

2007-11-14T00:03:00.000+02:00

Thursday night is going to be a busy one in Johannesburg. First, is the opening of Lerato Shadi in the project room at Johannesburg Art Gallery which starts at 6:30pm and then the Night of a 1000 drawings will be opening at Private Practice (Lister Building, Bree Street, Between Kruis and Von Weilligh Str) at 7pm.

I'm quite excited about this exhibition as it is a charity event which has brought together many from both art and design circles as well as other interested amateurs who have donated A5 drawings which will be on sale for the one night exhibition.

All proceeds will go to Paballo, an innercity initiative, to provide skills development for the homeless: www.paballo.org.za

The exhibition and sales will be followed by performances by several South African Bands.

Thursday 15 November @ 19:00 Donations at the door.
Private Practice
Bree Street, Between Kruis and Von Weilligh Str Click here to view map

Schedule
19:00 - doors open and purchasing of stickers
20:00 - everybuddy may start reserving their drawing/s
21:00 - a volunteer will assist you to take your reserved drawing/s

More info @: www.1000drawings.co.za
http://1000drawings.blogspot.com
Enquiries @: info@1000drawings.co.za

Line-up (in no particular order)

Richard the 3rd
Miss Buttons
Sophisticats
Kid Fonque
Casette
Fuzigish
Desmond & the Tutu's

Ruminate

2007-11-04T00:19:00.000+02:00

Chewing the cud.

A one afternoon exhibition of three talented final year Arts students. Showing combinations of art works from experimental video to sculpture.

Bongani Khoza: Experimental video artist and animator
Gina de Oliveira: Animator, painter, sketch artist and print maker.
Adriano Giovanelli: Sculptor, animator and experimental video artist.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

4:00pm - 7:00pm

Wolmarans Building

9 Wolmarans Street,

Braamfontein

Contact:

078.182.9955

udderprod@gmail.com

bjtem@yahoo.com

CONTEMPORARY VISIONS OF SOUTHERN AFRICA

2007-11-02T02:10:00.000+02:00

Opening tonight at the Pretoria Art Museum
Cnr Schoeman and Wessels Str
Arcadia Park
Arcadia
Pretoria
www.pretoriaartmuseum.co.za

18:00

I think it is a sign of how busy I have been lately that I nearly forgot about this exhibition on which I am exhibiting. If you will be in Pretoria this evening please pop by.

I will post some images of the show this weekend and say whether it is worth the effort of going to see the whole show. A list (complete or selective) of the exhibiting artist hasn't been sent out so I'm not even sure whose work I'm going to see. (other than mine and Ismail Farouk's which I took staight from the printers to the museum so it will be almost a new experience seeing it again.)

'This exhibition is hosted under the auspices of the South African Association for the Visual Arts (SANAVA), with sponsorship from, among others, the Development Bank of Southern Africa and Business Arts South Africa. The exhibition, of which the overall aim is to create opportunities that are conducive to the development of the visual arts, provides a platform for visual artists from Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean islands to show their work. All members of SANAVA and people who are involved with the visual arts were invited to participate. Artists from various countries will be exhibiting, for instance Botswana, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Reunion, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Visitors can look forward to viewing an interesting variety of artistic expressions.'

From 3 November - 21 December 2007

Freedom to Dream: Culture and Urban Transformation in Africa

2007-10-31T00:04:00.000+02:00

Douala, Cameroon /// Joubert Park, Johannesburg

A presentation by Zayd Minty on the cultural centre Doula'art in Cameroon, and the impact it makes on the city of Doualla through its urban transformation agenda.

Ismail Farouk and Alan Mabin will respond connecting this experience with the urban context of Johannesburg and South Africa

The presentation will be preceded by a walk between Joubert Park and Drill Hall led by Ismail Farouk. (Meet at 17h15 in the JAG parking lot front entrance)

Including an introduction to "Citizen – What are Your Concerns?"
A collaborative cultural partnership project by Johannesburg Art Gallery and Bildmuseet (Sweden) addressing human concerns in public space.

Date: Wednesday 31 October 2007
Time: 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm
Venue: Johannesburg Art Gallery
Ampitheatre (downstairs)

Marcus Neustetter and David Andrew at the Sandton Civic Gallery

2007-10-24T03:31:00.000+02:00

C30: P.J.Simelane Secondary School project by

David Andrew and Marcus Neustetter

at the Sandton Civic Gallery

on the 24 October 2007, 18:00

as part of Art Bank Joburg's annual exhibition: Paper cut

From March to October David Andrew and Marcus Neustetter have been experimenting with creative interventions in collaboration with learners from the PJ Simelane Secondary School in Dobsonville (Soweto) addressing different sites in the school. The result: temporary and permanent traces of their activities at the school culminating in an Open Day event (5th October) and resulting documentation in the form of installations, photographs and drawings of their activities and a reinterpretation of the experience for the Paper Cut exhibition hosted by Art Bank Joburg at the Sandton Civic Gallery (24 October).

http://www.onair.co.za/pdf/c30.pdf
http://www.onair.co.za/pdf/c30slides.wmv

(school activites: slideshow movie)

artextra: New Contemporary Art Gallery Opening 7 November 6pm

2007-10-23T07:53:00.000+02:00

Art Extra is a contemporary art gallery opening in Johannesburg South Africa on 7 November 2007 at 6 pm with a curated group show Impossible Monsters.

Location - 373 Jan Smuts Ave, Craighall, Johannesburg.

Map/Directions - go to www.artextra.co.za OR email info@artextra.co.z a and we will send you a map.

For any other queries please call David Brodie +27 (0)82 552 3143

The Secret presents: Horror Cafe bites the dust

2007-10-19T03:15:00.000+02:00

The official Horror Cafe closing down party

	Saturday, October 27, 2007 at 9:00pm Till
	Sunday, October 28, 2007 at 8:00am
	The Horror Café
	15 Miriam Makeba Str, Newtown
	Johannesburg,

PS. Fittingly for Horror Café’s last night, Halloween is just around the corner. So get dressed up and shave a smidgeon off your entry fee.

Cost: R50 without costume, R40 with costume
Time: 9PM till the last speaker cone is blown

DJS:
Easy Tiger
Sassquatch vs. Data Takashi
King of Town
Mankazam
Tenrapid vs. Disc-Ho
Young Smuts
Destrukto
Brothers Grimm
Hammerkop
Etc. etc. etc.

Contact: +27 82 557 3912
Email: secret@further.co.za

Night of a 1000 Drawings

2007-10-15T08:42:00.000+02:00

Night of a 1000 Drawings is a one night charity exhibition where A5 drawings are donated by everybuddy and are sold to the public for charity. Paballo Ya Batho, a Jozi inner homeless care organisation and "Love to Africa" a Cape Town bred social initiative that works to empower change to the issues plaguing africa including hunger, orphans, poverty and education.

To drop off your drawings in Joburg:

Any Lulu's coffee shop

• Melrose Arch (click here to view map)

• Greenstone mall (click here to view map)

• Sunninghilll (click here to view map)

• Parktown North (click here to view map)

To drop off your drawings in Cape Town:
• Biblioteq on Kloof Street (map to follow)
• Exposure Gallery in the Old Biscuit Mill (map to follow)

For those outside of Cape Town or Joburg please post your drawings to:
Po.Box 414055 Craighall, 2024

More info @: www.1000drawings.co.za

http://1000drawings.blogspot.com
Enquiries @: info@1000drawings.co.za

Your contributions is greatly appreciated!
www.paballo.org.za

www.love2africa.org
www.g-mo.co.za

www.intdev.co.za
www.legioncollective.co.za

Ponte City: In case you're life needs more adrenaline.

2007-10-05T11:38:00.000+02:00

The public will have a once-in-a lifetime opportunity to abseil or rap jump down the side of Ponte City- the tallest residential building in the southern Hemisphere.

On Saturday October 13, the people of Jozi will be able to scale down the 173 metre tall building- face first or feet first, in a unique awareness-raising event and fundraiser. The jumps will cost R500 each and proceeds will go to the Creative Inner City Initiative- a not-for-profit organization in Hillbrow that trains and develops local artists.

The event, sponsored by the JDA, and Investagain (Ponte developers), is to raise awareness of the many projects underway in the inner-city. Projects include the complete renovation of Ponte City into upmarket residential units, the Ellis Park precinct development (JDA), as well as the newly approved JDA-led Hillbrow, Berea and Yeoville Public Environment Upgrade.

The event will also allow members of the media a sneak preview of the refurbishment of the legendary Ponte City.

The fundraiser will run from 10h00-17h00 at Ponte City- 1 Lily Avenue, Berea. Refreshments, music and kiddies entertainment will be on offer for friends and family who wish to support the brave ones in their descent down the building.

For more information, phone

Ngaire Blankenberg
011-339-6131
083-580-6329
Ngaire@spacemarketi ng.co.za.

2007-10-03T03:00:00.000+02:00

New works by:
International collaborative, Eva and Franco Mattes
Bronwyn Miller and
Pippa Stalker

Opening 11 Oct at 6pm
David Krut Projects, 142 Jan Smuts Avenue, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Digital Surrogates brings together four artists from across the globe who blur the line between digital interactive media and the fine arts. The show will feature five large digital portraits from a series entitled “13 Most Beautiful Avatars” by Eva and Franco Mattes alongside paintings by Bronwyn Miller and photographs by Pippa Stalker. Together this work translates persuasively into an analysis of self, public perception and possibility.

Eva and Franco Mattes, also known in techie circles as 0100101110101101.org are internationally recognised as supreme interventionists. Most of their projects involve different forms of media hacking and bogus culture trafficking. In one instance the duo temporarily hijacked the Nike logo for a public installation in Vienna. In another, they created an entirely fictional artist, only to murder him once he was sufficiently famous.

Here, they have made a series of dramatic portraits of avatars created on Second Life with New York printmaker, Jean-Yves Noblet. Second Life is a 3-D virtual world wherein one can build an alter-ego or avatar to meet with others, be entertained, buy land even trade real-life products. Bronwyn Miller will be showing paintings of a new avatar, created in preparation for the show with a photographic, animated portrait of her ideal self. Through her examination of the subversive nature of art games, Stalker has created a photographic body of work documenting the hundreds of characters she has killed online.

Image from Pippa Stalker's (Tshabalala) exhibition Simulation at the Parking Gallery.

FRIDAY SESSION #33 by Alex Opper : THINK POSITIVE: MAKING THE ABSENT PRESENT

2007-09-25T09:25:00.000+02:00

The Physical Relocation of Cultural Memory and the Political Dislocation of History
through Architecture.

Using deconstruction as an investigative tool, this talk will illustrate the importance of Architecture as a means of re-addressing history and memory, on a given site having undergone a process of political dislocation of history.

One project (case study) in each of the following cities will be examined to illustrate how the deconstruction of a site and its structures could create either continuity or discontinuity of culture and history:

1. In Berlin – The Matter of the Castle (Original Title in German: Schloss als Materie). The project is an M.Arch thesis which was concluded by Alexander Opper at the University of the Arts in Berlin in 2001.

2. In Johannesburg - New Heritage Square Project - part of the broader Kopanong Precinct, proposed in 2004 by the architect Fanuel Motsepe of Motsepe Architects. In the final analysis, this talk will attempt to demonstrate that interventions can have the effect of individuals engaging more consciously with the spaces and everyday situations that make up their cities.

Venus In Furs: Johannesburg screening

2007-09-25T09:12:00.000+02:00

Critical Mass: Johannesburg PHOTOS

2007-09-24T02:06:00.000+02:00

Nelson Mandela Bridge

I didn't manage to make it to this event but it seems there will be one every month so maybe I'll be able to catch it some other time. Here is the route of the first Critical Mass and some images from one of the participants, Loic Bellet, who has very kindly let me post his images here.

About his relationship to critical mass he says: Interest in critical mass: revival of the city & pure thrill of doing something generally considered taboo (not to mention the look on people's face when you tell them you were cycling through the city on a friday night).

Old China Town

I stand to be corrected, but I think this is Rob Peers
on Roller Blades attached to someone's bike.

2007-09-19T00:30:00.000+02:00

An interactive seminar facilitated by Andre Croucamp. Join us on Wednesday the 19th of September at 7:00PM at Further (1 Olifants Rd., cnr. 5th Ave, Emmarentia).

Andre's theme for this event is 'POWER GAMES – deconstructing culture'; during the course of the evening participants will collaborate to conceptualize and and map out power as it exists within, and creates, culture.

Starts at 7pm at Further - www.further.co.za, food and drink will be available from earth2.

Here is an encapsulation of what is in store, in Andre's words:

*Culture does not exist.*

*Culture does not exist as an objective entity outside of your head.*

*Culture only exists in the heads of those who participate in it. Culture is a kind of ‘consensual delusion’. It is only real in so far as it is a real delusion. As a delusion it constructs value, identity and the way you perceive reality. Hidden in it are relationships of power that frame, filter and determine most of your experience.* *You are both a victim and a perpetrator … that much is real.* *How can we learn to hack culture? How can we see through the delusion?* *How can we break free and perceive reality as it really is? … or … Can we only ever exchange one consensual delusion for another?*

*Is the best we can do the replacement of a consensual delusion with the personal delusion of individuality and inevitable alienation?*

- Note that although entrance is free, donations will be graciously accepted :-)
- Vegan food will be available from Earth2 throughout the evening.
- Booking is not crucial, but is recommended; we can seat roughly 30 people for this event.
- Contact aragorn@further.co.za if you need more info.

Amy Watson: SUBSTRATE

2007-09-18T02:59:00.000+02:00

Image: Swimming pool (deep end), 2007, Digital Print on Cotton Rag, 804 x 804 cm, ed.3

Amy Watson

SUBSTRATE

In fulfillment of Master's in Fine Art,

Please join us for a drink

Friday 28 September 2007

Exhibition opens 6.00 for 6.30 pm

to be opened by Prof. Penny Siopis,

The Substation Wits University Campus, opposite Wits Theatre,

cnr Station and Jorissen Streets,

Braamfontein, Johannesburg

Hours: Mon-Frid 11am –2 pm

Contact: amykathrynwatson@gmail.com

RE/Action: An Evening of Performance Art | VIDEO ONLINE

2007-09-17T09:57:00.000+02:00

Johan Thom has posted a short video of performances made as part of RE/ACTION - The closing event for his solo show at the Bag Factory. The artists who took part were Shane De Lange, Candice Hirson, Bronwyn Lace, Malvin Mokhonya, Anthea Moys, Rob Peers, Anthea Pokroy, Mishkaar Roberts, Debbie Rogers, Lerato Shadi and Rat Western.

LIST OF ARTISTS AND WORKS IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE:
1. "Justifiable Detachment"
Artist: Bronwyn Lace
Medium: Performative Installation, Fishing line, Perspex bowl and gold fish

2. "Good Girl"
Artist: Debbie Rogers
Medium: Performative installation -- live feed of performance on television

3. "Departement of Bureaucracy"
Artist: Rat Western
Medium: Performative installation

4. "Untitled"
Artist: Candice Hirson
Medium: Performance (laughing & crying)

5. "Untitled"
Artist: Malvern Makhonya
Medium: Performance

6. "Untitled"
Artist: Mishkaah Roberts
Medium: Interactive Performance (dancing+cellphone)

7. "Exposed Pupa"
Artist: Lerato Shadi
Medium: Performance

8. "4'33 (Silent Prayer for Darfur)"
Artist: Shane De Lange
Medium: Sound Performance -- Digital remix of John Cage's 4'33

9) "Self Portrait"
Artist: Rob Peers
Medium: Interactive performance

NOT INCLUDED ON VIDEO:
10. Aerobics at the Bag Factory
Artist: Anthea Moys
Medium: Group performance

11. Skype Conversations
Artist: Anthea Pokroy
Medium: Digital Interactive Installation

Work in Progress

2007-09-15T09:02:00.000+02:00

WORK IN PROGRESS

A one night only exhibition showcasing the works of emerging artists

Please join us for a drink
18:00 for 18:30
105a Heather Rd (off Ilkley Rd) Athol, Sandton

The exhibition will be opened by performance artist Johan Thom.

As the end of our university careers are approaching, we are beginning to understand the implications of being emerging artists independent from an institution. Hence, we have decided to hold an exhibition in which we will showcase the work of young and aspiring artists from all around the city. The exhibition, which is to be held on 24th September 2007, is entitled “Work in Progress”. This multi-layered title, of course, does not refer to the artworks which will be on show (in fact, we are expecting an extremely high calibre of work to be included), but rather it plays on the site at which the exhibition will take place.

The location for the exhibition is a residential construction site in Athol, Sandton. The foundation and fundaments of the building will be in place, yet it is this very rawness and unrefined quality which makes it a unique and unconventional ‘gallery’. The title also refers to the emerging artists who will be participating in the show, as we are essentially ‘works in progress’.

More info: antheapokroy@gmail.com or hirsonc@gmail.com

Zunelle Cairns: Wishing Well 2.0 Web-developer/HTML genius

2007-09-14T03:46:00.000+02:00

Johannesburg based artist Zunelle Cairns is looking for a web-developer/HTML genius to collaborate with her on her project Wishing Well 2.0.

What's it all about?

Phase one: The idea is to set up a website where users can upload voice-recordings of their own wishes, and where they can also access all the other existing sound files for download. Once downloaded, each user would be required to make a single mash-up of the various wishes, and post it back to the website.

Phase two: Each day, the final versions of the day before will be transferred to a portable playback device, which will then be installed at various public drinking fountains/bathrooms/swimming pools. It would therefore be a travelling installation that could occupy any number of sites around Joburg (and hopefully around the world!) at any given point in time.

So, first things first! For phase one, I need a web-designer/HTML wizard to collaborate with me on designing and setting up the website. Please note: This is a collaborative project as opposed to a paid gig. You and/or your company will be credited on the website, as well as at each site of the installation. You will be playing a crucial part in the conceptualisation and development of the project, so it would be best if you were based in Johannesburg. Please contact me at mezusa1@yahoo.com to set up a meeting.

Phase two will be open for public intervention, as described above. However, if you'd like to get started while the website is still under construction, you can email me your sound clips at mezusa1@yahoo.com (WAV or Mp3 format, please).

- Zunelle Cairns

Fourth Africa Remix Discussion Panel

2007-09-14T03:29:00.000+02:00

Date: Saturday 15^th September 2007

Time: 16:15 – 18:00

Venue: Johannesburg Art Gallery

The fourth Africa Remix panel discussion held in collaboration with the 23^rd Conference of the South African Association of Visual Art Historians, will be chaired by Clive Kellner and Consist of David Bunn, Anitra Nettleton, Colin Richards and Penny Siopis.

18:20 – 20:00: Viewing of Africa Remix.

A finger Supper will be served.

Enquiries: Khwezi Gule khwezig@joburg.org.za or Tel: 011 725 3180/81
www.africaremixjoburg.com

HAVE CITY WILL PLAY

2007-09-11T10:36:00.000+02:00

HAVE CITY WILL PLAY
invites you to a day of playing games in your CITY!

"Have City Will Play" in conjunction with CIT:Y Festival and Arts Alive invites you to come and play in the streets of Newtown! On Saturday the 29th of September "Have City Will Play" will begin at 10am at Museum Africa with a discussion series on playing, gaming and performance art within public space given by the organisers- Anthea Moys and Tegan Bristow (see below for more info). After this, attendees will be invited to play one (or both) of two games on offer: "Shoot me if you can" or "The Nonsensical Obstacle Course Race".

So! The games will begin at 13:00 and continue throughout the afternoon, but come early as there are limited prizes and limited number of spaces available for each game. As prizes we are giving away full meals at Moyo, theatre tickets for any show at the Market Theatre, tickets to the Arts Alive concert on Saturday night featuring the likes of Giles Peterson, plus lots of fun stuff from the CIT:Y festival. Dress comfortably- no dresses or skirts please as tree climbing and ball dodging is involved! Its free so put on a hat and some sun cream, bring friends and come play!

SEE MAP attached for more info

WHATS THIS ALL ABOUT?

Johannesburg is one of the most dangerous cities in the world, making Johannesburg people 'car people'. When last did you just go for a walk in the city? Have City Will Play is about negotiating this chaos and perceived danger of Jozi through negotiating the city space in an engaging manner through the playing of a game. Have City Will Play is taking advantage of the safe and car free zone in central Newtown created by the Arts Alive Festival to engage in play in this public space. Newtown is seen as a practicing grounds as I hope to extend this project into other areas of town over the years to come.

Have City Will Play is part of an ongoing project, which I began as an investigation into the notion of play within various kinds of performance within public space. This project is kindly sponsored by the NAC (National Arts Council) and will be included in a solo exhibition to take place in November this year.

More Info: anthea.moys@gmail.com

Pretoria Photomarathon

2007-09-10T09:37:00.000+02:00

Twin Peaks by Karel Buitendag submission Pretoria Photomarathon

Saturday was the sequel to the very successful Johannesburg Photomarathon which took place in February this year. This time the event started at Abrie Fourie's Outlet Gallery on the campus of Tswane University of Technology in Pretoria. 12 hours/ 12 themes - the results can be viewed at PhotographySA.com.

Judging will take place later this week and the final exhibition and prize giving will take place at Outlet on 28 September 2007.

Sasol Waning

2007-09-10T07:25:00.000+02:00

Security Guard has a stretch in front of Andrew Verster's work.

When I first received the invitation to the public opening of the Sasol Wax Awards at JAG I couldn’t help cringing a little at the slogans: ‘who will be the next to shine?’ and ‘polish up your knowledge of south African art.’ Emerging artists are use to this kind of branding association and, in a sense, I think that a corporate that is ‘taking a chance’ on a little known artist has the right to at least get some marketing out of a situation where they have laid out funding. When it comes to mid-career artists, artists who are making R20 000 – R40 000 on an average sale of their work, this kind of cheese-ball, high-school English class punning is embarrassing. It’s embarrassing for the artists and it is embarrassing for the corporate.

Surely the work should speak for itself? If the exhibition is prestigious and the nominated artists of a high caliber, there is no need to entice an audience with anything other than the name of the award and the names of the artists with an added logo for good luck.

The exhibiting artists seem to have gotten a little of their own back. The works in general have a rather tenuous link with the idea of wax. In fact wax as a curatorial link between the various artists work is forced before the final work is even submitted. Wouldn’t it be enough for the link simply to be the selected artists’ status as mid-career artists? The brief is to use wax either as concept or medium but a choice between the two leaves the final products as disparate as if there had been no brief. For some, in last year’s submissions as well as this, wax was very obviously an afterthought.

Perhaps because I would put concept before medium, I enjoyed Sue Williamson’s submission the most, which was a video interview with a group of women in a beauty parlour discussing their experiences of body waxing. I’m not sure that I would have found it particularly strong outside of the competition, but it was a good answer to the brief and Williamson took it and twisted it in to something which followed the nature of the rest of her work.

Walter Oltmann’s work which was the overall winner, was for me a little disappointing because it did not live up to the nature of his work thus far – obsessive in craftsmanship and mammoth in scale. Wayne Barker’s submission was extensive and it felt like he submitted both his preliminary work and his final product for exhibition. He might have done better to limit his conclusion.

Andrew Verster’s use of wax seemed very much an after thought and Usha Seejarim’s installation was out of place in a group show and was ill defined by her artist’s statement which Sasol saw fit to plaster in enormous scale on expensively printed banners.

Wayne Barker and Walter Oltmann have a chat.

All five of the finalists have managed to establish themselves as well recognised names in the South African art community yet the award does not celebrate their achievements it confines their creativity.

Some of the submissions for the Jewellery Award

Bizarrely, the event also included a rather tact on award ceremony for the Jewellery Outreach Initiative. I didn’t listen to the speeches that justified this connection and instead chose to wander around getting a better sense of the exhibition whilst the other guests were politely standing around. I stopped in front of a mannequin that was labeled neckpiece. The figure was quite obviously not wearing anything. Had the artwork been stolen? Was this a rather serious case of the Emperor’s New Clothes? Was the artist being ironic? (are jewellery makers ironic?) Unfortunately, it was not as interesting as that and there was in fact a model wandering around wearing the piece. I would have liked to have seen someone wear this:

Someone needs to draw up a set of marketing rules for corporates that explains the difference between sponsoring and pimping the artist. Interestingly enough, should the product of the evening been latex rather than wax, some members of the audience were endeavoring to continue the theme of pimping as the whole evening turned into something of a meat market and after rescuing a few of my female friends, we beat a hasty retreat.

Critical Mass: Johannesburg

2007-09-06T04:27:00.000+02:00

Date: Friday, September 14, 2007

Time: 7:00pm - 10:00pm

Location: Johannesburg CBD

Street: To be confirmed

City/Town: Johannesburg

Further Info

Email: jozicriticalmass@gmail.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Mass

Uranium Road - Documentary Screening

2007-09-06T04:17:00.000+02:00

Date: 14 Sept 2007
Time: 12h00
Venue: Atlas Studios
Cnr. Frost and Owl Streets
Discussion to follow after screening

For more information contact
Jenny Hunter
Tel: 011 648 0367
Email: tscreens@iafrica.com

A 53 minute documentary, based on the book by Dr David Fig, is directed by Theo Antoniou and produced by Teaching Screens Productions

Uranium Road rips away the veil of secrecy from both the past and present South African

nuclear programmes, showing how the nuclear industry creates closed cliques of the powerful and fundamentally undermines the democratic principles of our young democracy. Lifting the lid on the closed world of nuclear in South Africa revealing secrets and greed.

Under the auspices of The People to People International Documentary Conference
Designer: Sam Gontse Mmutle — 083 495 6910

Sasol Wax Art Awards

2007-09-05T02:20:00.000+02:00

The Public Opening of the Sasol Wax Art Awards is tomorrow night, 6 September 2007, at Johannesburg Art Gallery.

This Year's Finalists are:
Wayne Barker
Usha Seejarim
Walter Oltmann
Andrew Verster
Sue Williamson

A public opening at least means I won't have to gate-crash in order to be present at the announcement of the winners. It probably also means that the snacks will be less fancy. Ah well, there are only so many choclate spring-rolls one can eat.

making waves: a selection from the SABC art collection in Cape Town

2007-08-28T03:53:00.000+02:00

A version of this exhibition, previously shown at the Johannesburg Art Gallery in 2004- 5 and at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown in 2006, is to be shown at the Iziko Good Hope Gallery at the Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town from September 6 th to October 28th 2007.

The exhibition which will feature approximately 100 works attempts what no South African collection, either public or corporate, has previously done, to provide both an interpretation of the development of South African art through the 20 th century and a selection of the best contemporary South African work.

The historical coverage traces the emergence of a local tradition distinguishable from the earlier indigenous and Europe-derived traditions. The latter is illustrated in the work of Kay, Laubser, Preller and Stern among others.

The local tradition is seen as originating in the township painters from Sekoto among others in the 30s to Motjuoadi, Ngatane and Sihlali in the 60s and 70s and also in the very different hybrid products of the Rorke's Drift and Polly Street art schools in the third quarter of the century. Of pivotal importance in this process is the unique work produced in the context of political struggle after Sharpville 1960 and Soweto 1976, seminally in the drawings of Dumile and Motau in the 60s, followed in the 70s and the 80s by the work of Kumalo, Legae, Alexander, Ractliffe and others in a range of media.

In addition distributed through the exhibition spaces are some of the finest examples of contemporary South African work in a range of media, including the sculptures of Hlungwane, Mabasa and Schütz, the drawings of Kentridge and Victor, the photographs of Mofokeng and Tillim, the prints of Rakgoathe and Shilakoe, the mixed media of Nhlengethwa and Rose and the paintings of Hodgins and Siopis. The work of several younger artists including Gush, Hlobo, Hugo and Madikida is also featured.

The works are hung in a series of numbered and labelled spaces forming a suite of themes from Struggle and Identity through Street to that which informs much of the exhibition - Predicament. The exhibition includes a number of exceptionally fine recently acquired works, both historical and contemporary. An illustrated catalogue with text and alphabetical list of artists will be available to viewers.

The exhibition, which received a BASA award in 2006, has been widely acclaimed in art journals and in the press.

Among these, Art South Africa commented: "When it comes to corporate and public art collections, the SABC collection is one of the most potent assemblies of work this country has to offer." And the Sunday Times wrote: "Making Waves shows a consistent sensitivity to artistic quality and social relevance…In quantity and quality [it] has the critical mass needed to give an illuminating overview of our troubled history,"

The exhibition which has been curated by Koulla Xinisteris, Collection curator, and Graham Neame, Collection art advisor, will be opened on 6 th September 2007 at 6.00pm by the Chief Financial Officer of the SABC, Robin Nicholson.

The Iziko Good Hope Gallery at the Castle is open from Tuesday to Sunday, 9.30am to 4.00pm. Safe parking is available in the grounds of the gallery.

For further information contact: Koulla Xinisteris
Curator: SABC art collection
Email: dxarts@icon.co.za

Doodler on the roof and Doodle on the lawn

2007-08-27T08:37:00.000+02:00

Doodler on the roof.

Sunday 2 Sept 15h00, Corner house roof, 77 Commissioner St, Jozi

Bring your deckchair, bottle of wine, drawing stuff & come draw Spring in, by doodling up a storm while listening to chilled out tunes & watching the sunset from within the Jozi skyline.

Doodle on the lawn

bring your picnic stuff, drawings stuff and A5 stuff and come doodle spring in on the lawn.

"Doodler on the lawn" is a runner up event to "night of a 1000drawings" cape town which is a one night exhibition in cape town where drawings donated
by everybuddy are sold to the public to aid Love to Africa and Paballo. Love to Africa is a Cape Town bred social initiative that works to empower change
to the issues plaguing africa including hunger, orphans, poverty and education. Paballo Ya Batho is a Jozi inner city homeless care organisation

WWW.LOVETOAFRICA.ORG
www.paballo.org.za

Pretoria Photomarathon

2007-08-25T06:47:00.000+02:00

PhotographySA.com photomarathon 2007 :: Pretoria
12 hours | 12 themes | 12 photos

Saturday, September 8, 2007
Time: 8:00am - 8:00pm
Location: Tshwane University of Technology
City: Tshwane (Pretoria)

More Info: www.photographysa.com

RE/Action Performance Workshop

2007-08-06T01:02:00.000+02:00

The last two weekends I have spent doing a performance workshop with Johan Thom and 11 other artists and whilst I am now feeling completely exhausted with so much going on, it was an inspiring experience.

We will be presenting an evening of performance this Wednesday at the Bag Factory from 6pm. Apart from the final exhibition, the workshop was amazing from the perspective that all the participants were extremely productive in their criticism of each other’s work. We had a great day on Saturday at Johannesburg Art Gallery where Johan incited us all to use Africa Remix as a source of inspiration for site-specific impromptu performance. (more on this later when I receive the documentation pics)

Sunday was spent finalising and making arrangements for Wednesday’s event and once again everyone was constructive in their critique of the work which was such a breath of fresh air. No big egos, no prima donnas and helpful criticism rather than sitting around smiling banally for fear of causing offence. No slagging off either.

Come see the evening of performance:

Opening: Wednesday 8 August 2007 at 18h00 (One Night Only)
Venue: The Bag Factory (Fordsburg Artists Studios),
10 Mahlatini Street,
Fordsburg, Johannesburg
Contact: +27 11 834 9181
info@bagfactoryart.org.za

Map

2007-07-30T10:57:00.001+02:00

Night of a 1000 drawings is launching again this year. A one night exhibition held last year that was made a success by everybuddy out there donating A5 drawings and the public buying them up to help Paballo ya Batho (an inner city homeless care organisation). So, pretty pls start drawing up a storm and spread the world. Details to follow.

www.paballo.org.za

Sleep of Reason

2007-07-28T10:01:00.000+02:00

I’ve been having some very strange dreams of late. It may have something to do with a need to see some more palatable art and the fact that I have been Harry Pottering myself to death all week. Now having finish book seven, I am in the unfortunate position of having nothing decent on hand to read so my mind has intervened and been providing rather bizarre combinations for my nocturnal entertainment.

The other night, I dreamt that I was attending a walkabout of some unknown exhibition (possibly a competition) and that the curators/judges were standing in front of a rather unlikely installation whose virtues they were extolling in the usual blather of those reading far more into a work then the artist originally intended.

The work itself was a combination of curio type ‘African’ masks (ethnicity: imaginary) hanging in space and at the centre was an enormous LCD screen (40inch) on which was screened a mundane, smudgy pencil drawing of masks of a similar kind. The single image was unchanging.

The curators/judges were rumbling on about the irony of using digital media in combination with ‘traditional’ sculptures, the irony of course being double in that the masks were not in fact traditional but created for a consumerist audience and that the giant TV set was emphasising this consumerism and drawing parallels with mass media.

The speech went on much in this fashion.

I was feeling anxious as though something were about to happen.

Just as the crowd was becoming restless and muttering ‘Balls’ under their breath to their friends, a door burst open and the subject of my expectation exploded into the room sending everyone screaming for cover: Voldemort.

Now, while this certainly livened up my dream, it was unfortunate for me because it also made me nearly jump clean out of my skin. The real cause of the disturbance to my sleep was my bedroom door banging open ferociously, due, apparently only to some freak draft. Scary enough in itself. But the experience was increased in that my feline hot water bottle took exception to my disturbing his most preferred nesting place so suddenly, and sunk his teeth and claws into my middle.

In other news, I have started lecturing 4^th year Wits School of Arts students in Applied Concepts in Networked Digital Media. Which is a little complicated to explain in a few words so: webstuff (theory and practical) and their practical work will be online for viewing sometime soon so look out for a posting on that.

Winners and Losers

2007-07-20T00:07:00.000+02:00

Last night the winners of ABSA L'Atelier 2007 were announced at the opening of the gala exhibition. The Top Ten finalists were announced and introduced with rather cheesy, Top Billing style videos followed by 'topical' pop tunes as the artists arrived on stage. (Think Instrumental versions of Queen, I Want it All and Cyndi Lauper, True Colours) .

Pierre Fouché, The distance between us III

The overall winner was Pierre Fouché with his work, The distance between us III and the Gerard Sekoto Award went to Nina Barnett for her animation, Voda, voda.

Nina Barnett, Voda, voda

I was in a good mood last night (perhaps it was the sight of the genuine pride exhibited by a middle-aged, male member of Nina Barnett's supporting party - the man honestly did a little spontaneous jig) so I was not particularly critical but looking over the catalogue today I'm not particularly moved by most of the work on show - bar maybe three works. The usual jumble of identity ho-hum, Mail&Guardian politics and general teenagey emotional angst - sometimes overtly derivative of more famous artists' work.

I have to say it because this work has gotten far too much mileage for an unoriginal idea but I really don't like Monique Pelser's Roles. I would also prefer it if there was a general ban on anybody dressing up in the clothes of other people/professions in order to 'unpack their/others identity.' I would also like to ban the use of the terms 'the gaze' and 'objectify'.

I am still at a bit of a loss to how I feel about art competitions. There is no doubt that the spotlight that is placed on the artist and his work after winning such an award is enormously helpful for said artist's career not to mention an opportunity to attend a residency in another part of the world. I can't help feeling though that the awarding of certain artworks a prize above others encourages other subsequent hopefuls to emulate those artworks and when I see some of those emulations again receiving prizes (hear I speak of one or two of the Top Ten not the winners) it seems individuality and innovation is not being encouraged (not that there was much of that on show as an alternative).

Someone commented to Ismail that Max is a good indication of the quality of the show. He slept right though the whole thing.

Count Down

2007-07-18T00:47:00.000+02:00

I'm contemplating whether I'll go try get my book at midnight or be a grown up and wait till Saturday proper.

ABSA L'Atelier 2007

2007-07-10T03:24:00.000+02:00

I’m not sure why this show has not been widely advertised as it is still one of the largest awards (in terms of prizes) currently available to young and emerging artists. The awards in fact have a rather poor online presence and usually only turn up in a Google search as part of someone else’s CV.

I wouldn’t put money on me winning anything this year. I entered a colour copy of my Sasol New Signatures check, signed, framed and editioned 1/?. Coincidently it’s an ABSA check, but it’s a bit too much of a cheeky one-liner to be a winner.

So I’m glad to have made it as a finalist so I can put it on my CV and add to Google finds on the subject.

Sporting guess who it’s going to be? Mmmm, not sure who all is on the show so that’s a bit tricky. Anybody else want to guess?

Opening: Thursday 19 July 2007
Time: 18:15 for 18:45
Venue: ABSA Gallery
ABSA Towers North
161 Main Street
Johannesburg

RSVP: Thursday 12 July 2007, Fax Confirmation to 011 350 6076

Exhibition closes on 24 August 2007

Gallery Hours: Monday to Friday 09:30 – 15:30

Hobbs/Neustetter: UrbaNET - Hillbrow/Dakar/Hillbrow

2007-07-06T02:36:00.000+02:00

Goree Island by Ali – Interview at Rosebank Craft Market, April 2006

The latest manifestation of this ongoing project by Stephen Hobbs and Marcus Neustetter of The Trinity Session opens tonight at 6pm at the University of Johannesburg Art Gallery. (Auckland Park Campus)

Read more about this project and its previous manifestations on
The Trinity Session website. Or the September 2006 issue of art|south africa.

Night Out

2007-07-03T09:16:00.000+02:00

Snow in Jozi

2007-07-02T10:50:00.000+02:00

View from my balcony with Snow on the Roof.

Last week Tuesday (26 June 2007) it snowed during the night apparently for the first time in 26 years. I've never seen snow properly - not the proper kind coming down in great flurries, not the kind you can make snow men with - only a few white flakes that melt before they hit the ground.

The last time it snowed I was three months old and indoors with a cold. But I have seen the pictures of my big sister in blue coat and red hat building a snow man as large as her 3 year old self. I was always jealous of her experience but on Wednesday morning having to go out and face the world in that weather, I thought, I could go another 26 years without cold and wet in combination.
Some pictures of the event:

Snow on Ellis Park

Luka (my car) and Max.

Ponte City and snow covered veld.

A few more pics on flickr.

A Little Something About Sun City

2007-06-27T00:22:00.000+02:00

So it has been a busy two weeks with the opening of Positive at Sun City and Africa Remix at Johannesburg Art Gallery. To start with here are some images from the Positive exhibition more of which I will be posting to the Bag Factory blog and SAartEmerging.org.

The Tarot of Johannesburg with Eyes Wide Shut by Santo Mofokeng
and Doll Head by Jo Ractliffe

The Positive Art Exhibition was exhibited in the Hall of Treasures which was a difficult space to work with for the curator, Koulla Xinisteris. However, she and her team did their best to minimalise this extremely kitchy space by covering the 'Afro' print plush carpet with charcoal-grey carpet tiles and erecting white cubical walls. Despite the constraints of the space, the work was professionally presented and the show was important from the perspective of how many of South Africa’s big names made their work available for the charity auction. (50% of proceeds to Tapologo Aids Hospice.)

Michael Bolton, Amore Vittone and Joost van der Westhuizen apparently showcase their views on the HIV/Aids pandemic on the Positive: Wall of Hope.

Sun International have some very strange ideas about art it seems, as demonstrated by their ‘Wall of Hope’ featuring celebrity artworks. I must say that it’s a tough blow to be upstaged by the likes of Michael Bolton, Amore Vittone and Joost van der Westhuizen who have obviously missed their calling in life and should definitely pursue a career in contemporary art.

Grannies at the Slot Machines

Further Reading:
https://www.suninternational.com/positive/gallery.aspx (not sure why Donna Kukama's Red Suitcase is blue, why some of the images lack names and titles and the interesting spelling of Jo's surname as the information was all successfully collated for the postcard pack. Another case for artists being more professional than corporates?)

ZA@play: The Art of Positive Thinking by Mathew Krouse

Lift at the Cascades Hotel: Sun City

Tarot of Johannesburg

2007-06-11T02:33:00.000+02:00

Some images from my work The Tarot of Johannesburg that will be exhibited at Posi+ive: Pulse at Sun City this weekend. The work is still in process and the version to be exhibited features only seven of the final 22 images.

POSI+IVE: Pulse @ Sun City

2007-06-11T00:47:00.000+02:00

In June 2006, Africa’s premier hotel and resorts chain, Sun International, launched POSI+IVE, the continent’s largest and most ambitious Aids fund raising initiative to date. A spectacular three-day fusion of music, fashion, food and art.

2007's POSI+IVE Art Exhibition was created to showcase work from internationally renowned South African artists, as well as some of South Africa’s emerging artists. The work has been curated by POSI+IVE Art Ambassador, Koulla Xinisteris, assisted by Bronwyn Lace. The selection of pieces will reflect an array of groundbreaking works and cultural substance.

Official opening of 2007 Posi+ive : Pulse
Venue: Hall of Treasures: Sun City
Date: 16th June 2007
Time: 16h00 - 18h00
Cash Bar available

Featuring over 50 South African artists:

Andries J Botha; Anton Kannemeyer; Athi-Patra Ruga; Babak Fakhamzadeh; Berni Searle; Brett Murray; Bronwyn Lace; Churchill Madikida; Clive van den Burg; Colbert Mashile; David Koloane; Dianne Victor; Donna Kukuma; Doung Anwar Jahangeer; Frances Goodman; Gerhard Marx; Hentie van der Merwe; Ismail Farouk; Jill Trappler; Jo Ractliffe; Joachim Schönfeldt; Johan Thom; Julia Teale; Kagiso Pat Mautloa; Kathryn Smith; Konrad Weltz; Lawrence Lemoana; Lester Adams; Luan Nel; Marco Cianfanelli; Minnette Vári; Nadine Hutton; Paul Emmanuel; Penny Siopis; Peter Schütz; Pieter Hugo; Rat Western; Robert Hodgins; Sabelo Mlangeni; Sam Nhlengethwa; Samson Mudzunga; Santu Mofekeng; Senzeni Marasela; Simon Gush; Sue Williamson; Tracey Rose; Willem Boshoff; William Kentridge; Zach Taljaard; Zanele Muholi and Zwelethu Mthethwa

Lace and Gush: Two Recent Websites

2007-06-04T10:02:00.000+02:00

Here are two sites which I have recently finished designing:
http://www.bronwynlace.net/is the personal portfolio of Bronwyn Lace, artist and fellow co-ordinator on SAarts Emerging.
http://parking-gallery.net/ is the official site for Simon Gush's project space The Parking Gallery which opened in Johannesburg. There is a link for future projects which Gush will update with new project plans as soon as he is settled in his new space at the HISK in Ghent, Belgium

Some Images from Betrams

2007-06-01T10:34:00.000+02:00

Burnt Out House

Washing Line

Teddies

Call for Applications: Vermont Studio Center Residency

2007-05-28T10:41:00.000+02:00

The Vermont Studio Center (VSC) calls for artists, from the Middle East and Africa, to participate in the 3rd Annual VSC/Triangle Residency Fellowships Programme.

Eligibility: All Middle Eastern and African artists are welcome to apply for the three (3) available awards; however, artists who have previously won one of the Ford/Triangle/VSC awards are ineligible.
Media: All
Deadline: Application materials must be received at the Studio Center by June 15, 2007.
Award: Each Fellowship includes an 8-week Residency at the Vermont Studio Center in September and October of 2007, followed by a one-week cultural trip to New York City. For the Vermont residency component, each award includes individual studio space, housing, meals, a roundtrip travel stipend, traveler’s insurance, materials and shipping allowances, and a daily living stipend.

More Info and Application forms: www.vermontstudiocenter.org/triangle.

Kathy Black
VSC Admissions

Vermont Studio Center
PO Box 613
Johnson, VT USA
05656
Tel: + 802-635-2727
Fax: +802-635-2730
triangle@vermontstudiocenter.org

Opportunity Knocks

2007-05-25T07:59:00.000+02:00

So for all of you out there who like to, or rather who only, work to a dead line:
‘tis the season to finish up those half thought out projects, get out the heater fans to dry last minute paint and submit the work in the prostitution game that we all like to scoff at but whose prize money is just about right to forget the self-righteousness and join the bun fight.

Sasol New Signatures

Eligibility: South African artists, 18 years and older, who have not yet held a solo exhibition, apart from an exhibition being held for academic purposes
Media: All
Deadline: Physical submissions will be accepted at the collection points 10am - 4pm on June 5 and 6. Online entries may be submitted from May 2 - June 6.
Prize Money: first prize of R60 000, a runner-up award of R15 000 and five merit awards of R5000 each.

More info: www.sasolsignatures.co.za
Nandi Hilliard on (012) 346 3100.

PPC Young Concrete Sculptor Awards

Eligibility: All artists 'young' in the art of sculpting. 18 years or older
Media: who wants to guess?
Deadline: Photographic entries for pre-selection are due by September 20 while chosen works for final judging need to be submitted by October 24
Prize Money: Prize money of R20 000 will be awarded to the winner of each of the two equally important categories: Best Sculptor on Exhibition; and Technical Excellence in Concrete Sculpture. R7 500 will be awarded to the runners up in each category and a R2 500 merit award will be awarded in each category

More Info: Tel: (011) 386 9095; Fax:(011)386 9108; beth.harris@ppc.co.za

Tel: (012) 346 3100; Fax: (012) 346 3125; http://www.artsassociationpta.co.za/competitionppc.html

Spier Contemporary 2007

Eligibility: Artists permanently living in South Africa over the age of 21
Media: All
Deadline: Art works and proposals must be received by 31 August 2007
Prize Money: Artists’ fee for selected work R3000. 5 to 7 awards to fund career development opportunities e.g. residencies, internships or travel.

More Info: http://www.spiercontemporary.co.za/

Something in the Water

2007-05-18T04:22:00.000+02:00

Something in the Water

Here are some random photographs I took at Wemmer Pan. I am working on a series from inland bodies of water. There is something very creepy about them and its not just the crotchety old men fighting each other over the model sail boat regattas. Its like a horror movie in broad daylight where you never quite see the monster.

Click for larger versions:

Mini Land boat and remote controlled sail boat.

Dead but still Flies

No End in Sight

2007-05-16T10:41:00.000+02:00

Facebook is the new high school. If you have not yet been peer pressurized into joining this remarkable sidetrack in life you may not realize what a distraction it is.

BUT JUST YOU WAIT!

It starts with someone you know, but maybe haven’t spoken to in a while, sending you a request to sign up. And then because you feel guilty that you haven’t spoken to this person in a while you oblige and sign up. Or maybe you don’t but sooner or later you’ll get another request from someone whom you’ve been neglecting and then you will.

And then it starts. Requests from people to add you as a friend. Comments posted. Requests to confirm how you know people. The worst of these is when someone takes the time to write something witty about how you know each other and then the pressure is on to write something equally witty, with the hint of a personal joke that the two of you share.

The amazing thing is that everyone seems to be joining up, even the kinds of people who wouldn’t be caught dead signing up for those high school reunion, friends reunited kinds of sites. It’s the same thing however this appears to be ‘cooler.’ All the trappings of ‘cooldom’ are here: Who’s got the most friends? How many pictures have you uploaded? Who’s got the ‘coolest’ looking avatar?

These are the usual issues of identity presentation online, but suddenly there is a whole new edge to it when you have a meat-space relationship with these people. The point is that some of them actually know what you look like with unintentional bed-head and morning breath.

Now the only reason I’m letting this new bid by some data collecting company to take over my world, is because I see it as a brief chance to say hey to some folks I haven’t said hey to in a long time. So, Hey!

And now I will intend to keep it up and say hey regularly. But I won’t and we’ll forget about it until there is some new trend and we’ll all rush around trying to collect each other like marbles, or Pokemon tokens or what ever it is people collect these days.

All Quiet on the Western Front

2007-04-20T11:35:00.001+02:00

April! Off to a great start as usual. Still haven’t finished all the components of my site but it will get there in the end. It is one of those unfortunate things in life that the energies one expends on a daily grind are really expended at home. Like how the architect lives in an ill designed, un-ergonomic dump or the chef makes beans on toast for supper.

I have just finished adding a blog to The Bag Factory site which I hope will keep my life in better order and make newsletter writing a tad easier.

While trying to figure out what I’d called myself on my flickr account I came across the image above by ejrfoto.

Not me. But not a bad likeness.

First Post, First Marathon.

2007-02-16T11:19:00.001+02:00

So, while I'm still fiddling with the rest of my site, let me start with one of the major things whose organisation has kept me away from finishing my site.

PhotographySA.com photomarathon 2007 :: Johannesburg
first African photomarathon in Jo'burg

Here is the main schedule of events but more details on the event can be obtained from PhotographySA.com

24 February 2007 8am - 8pm
photomarathon starting at The Bag Factory

3 March 2007 3pm - 5pm
panel discussion by professional Johannesburg photographers

15 March 2007 5:30pm for 6pm
photomarathon exhibition and announcement of winners.

The event has both digital and analogue catagories and there are iPod shuffles and Crumpler bags up for grabs. Lunch is part of the entrance fee which, if you pre-register at PhotographySA.com is R40 or is R50 if you register on the day.

The event is sponsored by the About Art programme, the Bag Factory's art education programme, which focuses on stimulating, enriching and advancing the careers of professional practicing artists within its local community as well as its wider arts network.

The Waiting

2007-02-12T12:30:00.000+02:00