Hugh Upsher
Best Pussy Shot on the Web ,
Watercolour,
Migi Linders
untitled ,
Drawing,
Collaboration is one of the watch words of contemporary art. The meshing of different personalities, styles and philosophies often produces something very compelling. The Internet is also making collaborations easier to work. People are easily contacted, ideas are easily exchanged. It is also a natural progression: with people more and more networked, the power of many brains seems more efficient. Wikipedia is a fine example, where many people are collaborating on the recording and production of knowledge (it can also be very skewed, there are more entries for He-Man than there are for South African art!). In the world of art the concept of the artist genius is breaking down, slowly but noticeably.
Recently Linda Stupart has started to do a series of two-person collaborations with friends and acquaintances. The works started off when she thought she was leaving the country and wanted to see everyone before she was gone. But as plans change, and she got a job and decided to remain in Cape Town, so did the project. The physical collaborations are ongoing, with no plans for exhibition yet. The visible spin-off is a blog called Mixtape where participants in the collaborations are able to post some of their thoughts, works, writing or whatever strikes their fancy. Subtitled Collaboration, Culture, Chaos this is one of those projects that could easily fall flat from lack of enthusiasm or lack of visible reward, but so far close to fifty people are on board, with a group of 10 core contributors, and the scope is relatively broad: not just artists and not just Capetonians. Not having any specific goal in mind can sometimes work.
Similar in concept to Aryan Kaganof's Kagablog, the blog seems to be attaining a similar level of density, albeit with a different bent. Contributions seem to be appearing daily. Of course these things can seem more exciting if you are part of the group, sharing and exchanging, but it still makes for good and varied reading and looking.
Personally, I look forward to seeing it grow.
Disclaimer: I am involved in the project, so I might be a little biased.
