Archive: Issue No. 40, December 2000

It's that time of the year again, and this time around the theme for the party is 'Toy Box'. Cape Town's annual queer celebration provides opportunity for everyone to let their hair down and blow off all the steam which has accumulated since last year's 'Heavenly Bodies' event. Partygoers come in teams of two or more, dressed to the teeth in the most outrageous festive garb. The Mother City Queer Project mentions in their flyer "titillating toys, fabulous fairy tales, gay games and naughty nursery rhymes" which is all very much open to interpretation. Whatever the case you can certainly expect toy boys, boy's toys and goodies for the girls. The party will be replete with DJs such as Krushed and Sorted and DJ Ice music spanning genres from "Lollipop Lounge" to "Wendy House".

9pm - 7am, Saturday December 16, tickets cost R100 at Ticketweb or R120 at the door.

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For the fourth time, conveniently just before Christmas, Cape Town artist Brett Murray and Conrad Botes of Bittercomix fame have teamed up to produce a series of wall lamps. Murray's familiar stained glass-like lamps combine with Botes' seemingly endless repertoire of angels, devils and various family members to create unique and affordable art for the walls. Remember, as they say, "Kontant is koning".

The opening party takes place at 7pm on Friday December 15, and the show closes on December 23.

Under the rather general title of 'Container' a number of well known artists including Lien Botha, Lyn Smuts and C.J. Morkel are showing a selection of current work. Veronique Malherbe's contribution is a new image in her 'bandshoots' series, in which she directs photographs of imaginary bands, using this as a vehicle to explore shifts in cultural fashion. This one moves right up to date and is entitled Trance-fusion, satirizing, says the artist, the way in which spiritual symbols have been appropriated as fashion symbols.

The show runs from December 8 until December 21

The Holland South Africa Line Project is an exchange programme between seven Dutch and seven South African artists. The first part of the programme took place Amsterdam in July and August this year when the South Africans stayed there and produced work which was shown together with that produced by the Dutch group during the same period. Currently, the Dutch artists are in Pretoria, Johannesburg and Cape Town producing work for the show which will take place here in Cape Town. The South African artists are Bridget Baker, Kevin Brand, Nadja Daehnke, Abrie Fourie, Isaac Nkosinathi Khanyile, Dorcas Mamabolo and Stephen Maqashela. Their Dutch counterparts are Tiong Ang, Paul Bogaers, Clea Daiber, Femke van Heerikhuizen, Judith Krebbekx, Jurgen Meekel and Sandra de Wolf.

December 20 - January 31

Being one of the country's top art schools, it is always worth a look at the annual student show to see just who the up-and-coming young stars are. Fourth-year, post-graduate and Masters' students will be exhibiting their work, and, for the first time this year, there is an accompanying catalogue which sells for a mere R30.

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'Cast' is a slightly unconventional exhibition of work in bronze by a group of young artists. The exhibition serves to launch a new exhibition space in the old manor house adjacent to the Bronze Age Foundry in Simonstown. Most of the artists on the show do not normally work in this traditional material and the exhibition intends to showcase a fresh engagement with the medium. The group includes both well-established artists and others who are widely regarded as up-and-coming. Kevin Brand, Julia Clark, Brendhan Dickerson, Paul Edmunds, Justine Mahoney, Brett Murray and Doreen Southwood from Cape Town will be joined by Ilse Pahl from Gauteng for the show.

December 16 - January 31

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João Ferreira is showing a collection of work by a variety of artists. Although some has been seen before, there is fresh work which will receive a first showing. Dorothee Kreutzfeldt has sent down some new paintings from Johannesburg, which will hang alongside work by William Kentridge, Stephen Inggs and Justin Anschütz.

The show opens on December 6 and will run until the end of February.

Blignaut began her art education in Pretoria but completed both her undergraduate and Master's degrees at Stellenbosch, where she has since lectured in History of Art. Her exhibition is entitled 'Life Bound' and consists of an installation piece and a set of prints presented in book form. She explores the universal themes of love and life, but negotiates their seriousness with humour. She has exhibited in various group shows around the country, but this will be her first one-person outing.

Monday December 4 - January 13

'Cross Pollination' is a collaborative show between wife and husband Karin Dando and Günther Obojkovits. Although apparently very different, the exhibition reveals common threads in the work of these two who have produced the exhibition on their farm outside Tzaneen in the Northern Province. Obojkovits has made sculpture from found objects which he assembles and composes to produce new objects open to various interpretations. Dando has produced large black-and-white prints of farm workers. Obojkovits showed a body of work at the Hänel last year and Dando's work was last seen at the AVA, also last year.

December 10 - January 25

A visit to Cape Town by British Turner prizewinning artist Steve McQueen will provide a rare opportunity to local audiences to view McQueen's compelling video works. The programme over the three week exhibition period will include Dead Pan, Bear, Five Easy Pieces and Exodus.

In a catalogue essay, curator Tom Mulcaire writes, "Steve McQueen works primarily with flickering or moving images, which are shown in gallery or museum situations under very deliberate measured conditions. Projected to fill the walls of darkened spaces, these films are usually silent, or when they are accompanied by sound, the sound runs like a score. The floors are polished to reflection. There are no chairs.

"McQueen describes the specific perceptual conditions he imposes on the viewers of his work as an attempt to induce a 'kind of blanket effect in which you are very much involved with what is going on. You are a participant, not a passive viewer.'"

In Bear, first shown in this country on the 2nd Johannesburg Biennale, McQueen casts himself wrestling another protagonist. Both men are nude, and as the camera circles the jabbing, dancing combatants, the viewer is drawn directly into the conflict. Deadpan finds the artist standing with his back to a wooden house, one small window space on the wall behind him. The wall falls towards McQueen, the artist holds his ground. As we anticipate, the window space allows the wall to fall right over the artist, but somehow this advance knowledge does nothing to alleviate the tension. The action is repeated, filmed from a number of points of view. One finds oneself standing very still as the wall falls as if the slightest movement might endanger the artist ...

The exhibition opens on November 29 and closes December 22

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This group show includes work by a fairly large collection of artists, some better known than others. The term 'transparency' here is taken in the broadest sense to mean clearness, lucidity, simplicity, intelligibility, honesty, translucency and obviousness. Participants are Hardy Botha, Lien Botha, Arabella Caccia, Jean Campbell, Gail Catlin, Tay Dall, Natasja de Wet, Alice Goldin, Margaret Gradwell, Erica Hibbert, David Koloane, Judith Mason, Judy Moolenschot, Michele Nigrini, Diana Page, William Parkin, Amy Schoeman, Jaco Sieberhagen, Eris Silke, Hugo Slabber, Lyn Smuts, June Te Water, Nico van Rensburg, Wiebke von Bismarck and Jane Young.

Tuesday November 28 - December 22

Curated by Carol Kaufmann, this exhibition celebrates the achievements of three satellites of a major trading empire situated along the Limpopo River and the north-eastern reaches of southern Africa. Musuku is the Luvenda word for gold, which was mined, worked and traded over vast distances by the Vhavenda and their ancestors for over 1000 years. Wealthy and powerful trading communities established themselves at sites known as Mapungubwe (c. AD 850 - 1250) Great Zimbabwe (c. 1300 - 1750) and Thulamela (c. 1350 - 1750). The inhabitants built complex stone-walled settlements and traded extensively with Indian Ocean merchants. They imported luxury goods from as far afield as Egypt and China, but most significantly created exquisite prestige objects for their own use in ivory, ceramic, stone and metals including some in gold.

For the first time the South African public will be able to view a selection of these works, including a newly proclaimed National Treasure - the golden rhinoceros from Mapungubwe. The only original soapstone bird from Great Zimbabwe remaining in South Africa will also feature on the exhibition. The opportunity to present these African icons results from a long-standing collaboration involving the SANG, University of Pretoria, the Venda and Shangaan communities, and Anglogold.

From September 24