Art and documentation: how cyberspace can fill in the gaps
by Sue Williamson
South Africa is a country of paradoxes, and not least of all in the arts. It is a strange phenomenon that a nation which is producing world calibre artists like William Kentridge, Jane Alexander, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Kendell Geers and Kay Hassan, to name only a few, artists who show regularly in major museum shows all over the world, has not a single print magazine in national distribution devoted to the visual arts. There is not even one which focuses on culture in general. Print coverage of art is thus restricted to a few paragraphs or an occasional article in general interest magazines, and one or at the most two reviews per week in the very few newspapers that give any consideration to serious culture at all, like the weekly Mail & Guardian. On television, there is no regular coverage of cultural events.
It is not only the transmitters of information who treat art and artists as if of little consequence or interest. The rot starts from the top. This year, the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology sponsored a national competition to commission a special sculpture commemorating the role of women in the struggle against apartheid to be sited in the Union Buildings in Pretoria. The sculpture, a fine collaboration between artist Wilma Cruise and architect Marcus Holmes, was unveiled on Womens Day, August 9, in the presence of President Thabo Mbeki. The press release sent out by the Department of Arts and Culture on the event, focussed on the historical events commemorated by the new monument but did not even mention the names of the artists.
In this uncaring climate, it is hardly surprising that an event like the 2nd Johannesburg Biennale of 1997, under the directorship of Okwui Enwezor and attracting curatorial attention from around the globe, can be summarily closed down by the city council before its allotted timespan.
On the plus side, the artists of South Africa are used to working in this climate of neglect, and have always known that if something is going to be done to bring their work to public attention, they are probably going to have to do it themselves. Although documentation on individual artists is still very limited, the last few years have seen a greatly increased appreciation of the need for proper catalogues, and artists are badgering sponsors for the money to make catalogues. With the improvements offered by digital printing, we are seeing far more of these often modest but still extremely useful publications accompanying exhibitions. The admirable French Institute of South Africa, who were kind enough to be a sponsor of the book I co-authored with Ashraf Jamal in 1996, Art in South Africa: the Future Present, have recently embarked on a programme to publish a series of 10 catalogues on individual artists. The first of these, on Johannesburg artist Wayne Barker, was released last month. For those interested in expanding their list of publications on South African art, Clarkes Bookshop in Cape Town carries the largest selection.
Fortunately, lack of resources to go into print is no longer the barrier to disseminating information that it was in the recent past. The growth of the world wide web has radically changed the way information is received by those who have access to it. It has been said that the new technology can give Africa and other developing nations the means to leapfrog right over the inadequate structures which have traditionally controlled and provided news, and catch up with the rest of the world. The web is simultaneously local and global, in that it provides the opportunity to spread news and views and images about the smallest initiative not only to the desired constituency but to a world wide audience.
Through the web, information about art and images and video clips can be sent out as soon as they are available, and can be viewed by anyone, anywhere, sitting in an internet caf� or at their own computer. Live streaming through webcams allows real time viewing of art events anywhere on the globe. An artist making work especially for the web does not need gallery space to be viewed - simply a cyber host. And in their turn, it is no longer necessary for galleries to rely solely on potential buyers coming through the gallery doors, or having to make a series of discreet calls to clients who might be interested in a certain work. People who have never bought art before and have never set foot in the country are ordering work email from galleries' websites. The potential and impact of cyberspace technology is only just beginning to be realised by the market. 'Yes, yes, I know, I must do something about getting a website', is a remark becoming more and more commonly made by artists, the vast majority of whom, having acknowledged this truth, then turn back to their studio work with relief, mentally putting off for some future date the onerous task of gathering the necessary images and information and finding a website designer.
And this, perhaps, is where www.artthrob.co.za comes in. ArtThrob is a website hosted through the country's largest service provider, MWeb, and devoted to the contemporary art and artists of South Africa, both within and without the country. It has been on line for three years now, and has reached the point where it is updated weekly, often by up to 15 new stories and items. We have a Gauteng - that's the Johannesburg/Pretoria area - and a KwaZuluNatal editor, and correspondents who send news and reviews from around the world. Pages include selected listings of exhibitions and art events, both local and overseas, reviews, news, a feature called Artbio, which is a focus in words and images on one artist currently in the public eye, an art project, links with related websites, an Exchange page where news of interest can be posted, a Feedback section and an extremely efficient search engine. Often the images appear nowhere else, and are being downloaded by students across the country. The exchange page is being used increasingly often by overseas curators wishing to attract the attention of South African artists, and we are getting back enthusiastic reports of the response they are receiving. A letter from the Chinese embassy last month thanked us for an unprecedented number of entries for an outdoor sculpture competition in the city of Changchun- and noted that they had had a number of entries from Holland where they had not advertised the event at all - a phenomenon which might well be traced back to Dutch fans of ArtThrob. An important feature of the site is that each month's offerings are fully archived - statistics show that these archives are perused extensively. As a working artist myself, one of the most gratifying aspects of ArtThrob is the sense of ownership my fellow artists feel towards it.
ArtThrob also provides a space for debate around controversial issues. For example, in Cape Town last month, a proposal by white artist Peet Pienaar to have a circumcision performed by a black women doctor in a gallery as a performance piece on a show called 'Men and Masculinity', and subsequently to auction his severed foreskin on the web, met a barrage of questions from black artists questioning his skewing of a traditional practice. ArtThrob was able to provide the space to present both sides of the question, and commissioned an article from Thembinkosi Goniwe to explain his oppositional viewpoint.
Recently, all the old issues have been downloaded onto CD Roms, and the intention is to use these to catalogue, re-arrange and edit the material to make it more accessible. It might then be offered it to schools and institutions which may have computer equipment but offer little or no internet access to students. Another idea we are currently investigating is whether it might be possible to make a monthly print version of ArtThrob which would be made viable through the sale of advertising space and could then be distributed free to reach a wider audience.
For this is the downside of the internet. Miraculously speedy and simple it may be to send out information, but if a large part of the potential audience has no easy access to a computer connected to the internet, its effect is limited. Computers are finding their way into black schools, but are usually fully utilised by staff in day to day work. And phone time in South Africa is relatively expensive. At one of the oldest community art centres in the country, for example, Cape Town's Community Arts Project, there is one computer available to students for internet use. It's in the staff room, and a student must negotiate use with a staff member, but since most students lack even basic computer skills, such a request does not come up often. Building up these skills and providing more computers is a problem which CAP is aware must be addressed - as soon as resources allow.
I believe an important task which lies ahead of us in developing art in Africa is investigating not just how computers with internet access can be placed in schools and art institutions in underprivileged areas, but also how we can support such an initiative. Special trainers must be made available through programmes to help artists and students and writers familiarise themselves with the internet to the point where they can benefit from what it has to offer. Without this training, the money putting in hardware will have been wasted. This would be one way for this conference to assist art in Africa at grassroots level in a very important way.
For having access to the internet is not just about the receiving of information. It is very much about sharing and interaction and putting one's own ideas into the world. Through newsletters like the one started in late 1998 by Gerhard Haupt through the House of World Cultures in Berlin, entitled Cultural Exchange via Internet - Opportunities and Strategies, artists and curators and writers everywhere have the opportunity to enter into vigorous debate and share experiences, and so discourse is pushed forward. Haupt's Forum finished earlier this year, and as co-founder Pat Binder put it in a closing letter, "The forum became a living organism, and developed a soul, thanks to all your input and commitment. I am sure we will all keep a fibre of its soul, nurtured in the conviction, that there is a whole bunch of people out there, struggling hard for making this world a place of dialogue and peace.' The directness and freshness of interchange on the web, often written straight from the heart, has an immediacy often lacking in debate conducted through printed journals.
As a proposal to this conference, I suggest the setting up of just such a newsletter, which would focus and expand on the issues which have been brought up during these sessions, and which could continue the important debates which we have started here. If it were considered appropriate, a suitable moderator could be found, and I could offer ArtThrob as a host for this new Visual Arts in Africa and the African Diaspora newsletter. It would be an honour.
