Archive: Issue No. 56, April 2002

27.03.02 'Six Stories' by Claudette Schreuders at CP Nel Museum
27.03.02 'Once Were Painters' at Queens Hotel
27.03.02 'body II: sublimation' at Principia College
27.03.02 Colbert Mashile at Principia College
27.03.02 Peter Schütz at Victoria Memorial Hall
27.03.02 'Vyande/Enemies' by Abrie Fourie and Santu Mofokeng
27.03.02 'tydsgees' by Jacques Coetzer at Principia College
27.03.02 'Buzzard' at Principia College and in the streets
27.03.02 '8760' - Mobile art gallery in the streets
27.03.02 'Self 3' at the Drill Hall
27.03.02 'The Red Carpet' by Jan van der Merwe at Nissan building
27.03.02 'Au79: 1899-1902' by Johan Scott at CP Nel Museum
27.03.02 'R2 Klub' by Jaco Sieberhagen at the Drill Hall
27.03.02 'Slightly Soiled' by Christian Nerf at Principia College
27.03.02 Maquettes for Sasol public sculpture commission

The Klein Karoo National Arts Festival kicks off on March 30 from 10am and all the exhibitions on this year's programme, both main and fringe, are open to the public from this point. Sasol's official opening shindig takes place on the evening of March 30 at the Queen's Hotel. The festival winds down on April 5. See the listings below for all venues and exhibition details but note that these are only the exhibitions on the main festival. And when you're down there, be sure to pick up a copy of the catalogue. Designed by Bell-Roberts, it's a full colour 72-pager with extensive commentary by curators, artists and guest writers. Maps are available from the festival office on Voortrekker Street or at various information stations.

Claudette Schreuders has received local and international attention for her carved and painted wooden sculptures. Her work is based in childhood memories, autobiography and figurative traditions in African art. Her "stories" are situations and events that will be familiar to many viewers, in this case titled 'The Writer', 'The Critic', 'The Narrow Bed', 'The Lover', 'The Tourist' and 'The Graveposts'. Embedded in these stories are the seeds of taboos and social strictures that haunt us as adults.

Venue: CP Nel Museum, Baron van Reede Street

Each year Sasol, the sponsor of visual arts at the festival, curates its own exhibition. This year, visual arts co-ordinator and director Clive van den Berg has commissioned five artists - Penny Siopis, Anton Karstel, Sandile Zulu, Joni Brenner and Marco Cianfanelli - who are loosely understood to be "painters". These artists have focused on painting in their work in the past and have started exploring other media, but always come back to painting, or the principles of painting, to challenge our perceptions and assumptions about what painting means. These experienced and senior artists have each been given a large wall to display a major work that explores the relevance and power of "painting". Viewers will see "painting" in all its contemporary guises including oil paint. Catalogue introduction by Clive van den Berg.

Venue: Queens Hotel Conference Hall, Baron van Reede Street

Curated by Kathryn Smith, this is the second and final exhibition in a two-part series dealing with contemporary discourses around the "body". It features both local and internationally based artists - Candice Breitz, Paul Edmunds, Brad Hammond, Moshekwa Langa, Jo Ractliffe, Colin Richards, William Scarbrough and Usha Seejarim. In science, sublimation refers to a process of transforming a substance from one state to another (solid to vapour, for example) by heat. In psychology, it refers to processes of acculturation and refinement. In this exhibition, these ideas are taken up as a metaphor for bodies involved in a process of constitutional change, as well as experience that is at once personal and intimate, but somehow refers to fundamental "truths" about the human condition. 'sublimation' includes installation, sculpture, video and digital projection, digital prints and drawing and is as much about aesthetics and beauty as it is about critical and challenging contemporary practice.

Venue: First Floor, Principia College, corner Baron van Reede and Kerk Streets (above Mr Price)

Colbert Mashile first showed at the festival two years ago. This young, award-winning artist now presents a solo exhibition of moving and provocative drawings exploring the subject of male initiation. He says: "My work is a continuous search of who I am. I'm not campaigning for the demise of the practice, but just to find myself, amidst cultural norms and the encroaching modern way of life."

Venue: First Floor, Principia College, corner Baron van Reede and Kerk Streets (above Mr Price)

Peter Schütz, one of South Africa's most important sculptors, turns 60 this year and this large exhibition of new work is a tribute to a great career and work that is increasingly inventive. Working in carved and painted wood to produce contemporary Madonnas, mythological goddesses and Saint figures, Schutz strives to imbue a freshness of vision into so-called 'religious' imagery that refer to tensions between the religious and the political, spirituality and nature and how these impact on the human condition. Catalogues texts have been written by Jane Taylor, Penny Siopis and Kathryn Smith.

Venue: Victoria Memorial Hall, Baron van Reede Street

This exhibition by two contemporary artists/photographers explores the notion of enemies and how they are created. Focusing on landscape, phenomena and situations of human interaction, Mofokeng and Fourie explore physical and mental boundaries in their images, which in term are informed by their own subject positions. Clive Kellner writes the catalogue text.

Venue: First Floor, Principia College, corner Baron van Reede and Kerk Streets (above Mr Price)

Jacques Coetzer describes his solo exhibition 'tydsgees' ('zeitgeist') as "the art of everyday life, inspired by money, God, the highway, TV news, family, adventure and hairstyle". Coetzer is a contemporary multimedia artist whose work gently scrutinizes South African life, particularly the experience of the Afrikaner.

Venue: First Floor, Principia College, corner Baron van Reede and Kerk Streets (above Mr Price)

Featuring Bridget Baker, Marie Ange Bordas, Marlaine Tosoni and Mara Verna, 'Buzzard' is an exhibition about "art on the move". The central motif of the show is a caravan which will travel around the town to various public sites, maintaining a continuous point of intersection between the "public realm" and work exhibited in a traditional gallery space.

Venue: Principia College, corner Baron van Reede and Kerk Streets (above Mr Price) and in the streets

Bell-Roberts Contemporary art gallery, based in Cape Town, has designed a mobile "art gallery", constructed entirely of glass. This 2mx2m art space will travel South Africa for a year, hence the title of '8760' hours. This is a unique way to experience contemporary art in places that would not normally be able to see it. '8760' makes its debut in Oudtshoorn, featuring an installation by Cape Town-based artist Jo O'Connor.

Venue: In the streets

For the past three years, Clive van den Berg has asked 10 artists each year to produce lifesize linocuts on the theme of "self". This year, all 30 works will be shown together for the first time. Some of South Africa's most respected artists have risen to the challenge of producing astonishing works in a medium that was once stereotypically clichéd, but has now been resurrected and redefined. Artists include William Kentridge, Robert Hodgins, Walter Oltmann, Brett Murray, Deborah Bell, Diane Victor and many others. Catalogue introduction by Clive van den Berg.

Venue: Drill Hall

The installation 'Red Carpet' ('Rooi Tapyt') by this award-winning artist places focus on the vulnerability of ordinary people and children who become victims of political events and social realities. The red carpet is a metaphor for power as well as human frailty, suggesting ceremony and the flowing of blood. The remnants of people, represented by rusted clothing and other objects, are presented within the context of the structures that impact on their lives.

Venue: Nissan building, Voortrekker Street (opposite the KKNK office)

Fifteen paintings executed during the commemoration of the Anglo-Boer War and containing representations of actual battlefields. Together the paintings form a text which addresses our historical landscape in context to the war.

Venue: NA Smit Hall in the CP Nel Museum, Baron van Reede Street

'R2 Klub' challenges one to look into the tragic reality of child molesting. Sieberhagen, a self-trained artist who is an ordained NG Kerk minister, works with life-size paper dolls, rag dolls and other elements, including shadows and odours, to create an experiential environment. The news coverage of certain reported cases might leave one with the impression that child molesting is a present-day problem predominating in certain communities. The artist wishes to stress through this exhibition that "it is a yesterday problem and a tomorrow problem in all our communities".

Venue: Drill Hall

"The use of gunpowder for the propelling of missiles in trajectories," wrote Marshall McLuhan, "waited for the coming of perspective in the arts." What is your perspective? What happened to the 30 220 firearms lost or stolen in 1998? What the fuck is going on? These are questions asked by artist Christian Nerf, who shows the results of taking artists to shooting ranges and carrying out "target practice" on various fashion items.

Venue: First Floor, Principia College, corner Baron van Reede and Kerk Streets (above Mr Price)

Sasol is launching its first public sculpture commission at the Fees. Five artists - Brett Murray, Claudette Schreuders, Kevin Brand, Wim Botha and Peter Schutz - have been invited to make submissions for a sculpture that will be placed outside Sasol headquarters in Rosebank as part of Sasol's plan to make its collection accessible to the public.

Venue: Foyer of the Queens Hotel, Baron van Reede Street