The Michaelis Graduate Exhibitiona
by Paul Edmunds
I found myself spurting an endless string of 'If only's' and 'How the hell's?'. Perhaps both of these reflect my age, which results in an intolerance of students and an unfamiliarity with modern technology. Nevertheless, let me soldier on unapologetically. Firstly, the students have once again produced a comprehensive catalogue, which comprises a 32 page booklet and a CD ROM (which, incidentally provokes both of the above responses - How the hell did they manage that? And, if only it didn't crash my computer I wouldn't have had to leave home).
Unlike in previous years, the students have curated this exhibition without help from staff and I can't honestly say that they are lacking in this regard. Just like previous years, the show is spread all over Hiddingh Campus, and following the map and orange vinyl arrows was not always that easy. I encountered a few locked doors, some non-functioning technology and odd opening hours. But I did, in my travails, come across a number of gems, particularly on my second visit.
The freedom to move between media is clearly evident in a number of students' works. Fourth year Photography student Mark Antonello, along with a number of digitally altered film posters, has produced a collection of video pieces in which he inserts his own image and/or voice in famous pieces of cinema and even newscasts. In one, he plays the role of de Niro in The Deer Hunter. His acting is not bad, and his subversion of the male stereotype both humorous and penetrating. Antonello was unable to reproduce some of the film quality of some of his sources and I felt more comfortable when he made something of the imprecise nature of his gesture. His tacked-on face in place of the whiny Leo di Caprio in The Beach opening scene is fantastic.
Similarly crossing media is Nic Louw, a fourth year Sculpture student. His contribution is a CD ROM on which he has created a series of virtual sculptures. The viewer is able to navigate around the pieces and read his explanation of the architectonic structures. The commentary made me feel a little like an examiner, and I preferred the giddy voyage around and through the works by itself, as well as the tripped logic of interior and exterior that the exploration initiates.
Giselle Morrison, a Printmedia student, produced a series of works whose overblown scale perfectly matched their inflated sense of importance. Waist high glitter-covered letters stand in a disorderly row spelling 'ART'. On the wall an illuminated panel contains regular, upside-down or back-to-front letters spelling 'original' over and over again. Opposite, a large ovoid perspex panel holds the word 'art', written as if extruded from a gigantic icing tube. On closer inspection it is seen to be made from bound sweatsocks and beneath is a smaller panel upon which the word 'craft' appears.
The influence of staff and students past and present is evident (and so it should be) in a number of students' works. Photography student Tracy Periera's digital collages commenting on Zimbabwe recall Jane Alexander's work, as do Samantha Becker's. Marie-Louise Topping's work comprising objects like trays, suitcases and crockery onto which images have been photographically transferred, reminded me of Julia Clark's undegraduate work. Master's student Thembeka Quangule is clearly indebted to Mngcineni Pro Sobopha.
Sculpture student Rory Till produced a colourful body of work, comprised largely of found objects, whose novelty justabout makes up for its simplistic take on globalisation. An inflatable stealth bomber droops its nose tumescently over the edge of a sculpture pedestal. Ronald MacDonald and Pooh Bear are juxtapositioned each atop a pile of dice, and a Spiderman figurine waltzes with a doll in traditional Spanish dress. Printmedia student Stephen Conor Ralphs made a series of works animated by white LEDs. The most successful of these comprises a series of diminutive wire objects - a bicycle and a paper jet amongst others - whose shadows are thrown onto the wall by a series of sequenced LEDs in such a way as to suggest movement from right to left. It has all the charm and innovation of Calder's 'Circus'.
Far more sincere and quiet is the work by Sculpture student Lorraine Khoury and another from the Printmedia department, Cara van der Westhuizen. Khoury's Out of Place presents a series of old, elegant tools and implements submerged in plaster and held in wooden frames. Plaster's humble history as a repository or material for preservation and reproduction is elegantly examined. Van der Westhuizen's The Reading Room comprises a whitened four poster bed, rocking chair, bedside tables and two stools. All the objects, and a band describing the 'room's' periphery hold plaster panels with foliage and inscriptions, all relating the portrayal of women in art and literature and the historical analogy of the feminine with nature. The plaster casts are pristine and the lettering quite exquisite. Accompanying this is a series of books with plaster and wax covers and niches, panels, embroideries and illustrations elucidating the artist's thesis. I found these, and the written key to the work, unnecessary and a little too didactic.
Students working in digital technology were all given space in the same room where viewers found themselves seated at a row of pristine white Macs. Printmedia student Nalisha Gulab produced a Monopoly-like game entitled Monotheism. As an interesting and fresh way of examining her cultural heritage I found it interesting, but it seemed to require a suspension of belief I wasn't able to achieve. I doubt I could play the game, I could only ever pretend I was playing the game. New Media student Shelley Hajek's Carcinogen City is a kind of interface through which one is able to access information and websites. A shaky white-on-black drawing of a cityscape allows a viewer to zoom in on certain areas. Faced then with an interior, a viewer (interactor?) could click on various items. Selecting a running tap, one was immediately sent to a website about solar water heaters. The jump from carefully composed illustration to crudely arranged website was quite jarring. However, the idea of a pictorial navigational interface is seriously satisfying.
Unfortunately, when I visited prizewinner Amy Cornfield's work the video monitors were without power and some items were missing from the installation, so I will refrain from commenting, except to say that it looked like an enormous and thorough undertaking.
My own response of 'If only' and 'How the hell?' is, I guess, the flipside to what it's like being a student at art school - Anything's possible, but sometimes you just can't get things together.
December 3 - 23
