Kendell Geers: The Michaelis Report
by Kim Gurney
It is difficult to write about Kendell Geers, the influential South African artist currently in self-imposed exile, without resorting to stereotype. Epithets abound - mostly recurring and highly opinionated. So how would Geers describe himself and his art-making? That was the topic of his presentation at a recent Michaelis School of Fine Art lunchtime lecture series. Unsurprisingly, his answer was not straight-forward.
Visually, Geers has described himself in Self Portrait as a broken Heineken bottle-neck. Besides the more obvious personal reference between the foreign beer and his European ancestry and current home, Geers said Self Portrait was made in response to the insidious idea that anything imported was superior to local fare.
Geers said Self Portrait also functions in relation to the society that consumes it - as an object of extreme pleasure but also pain. As a discarded object, he said the bottle connotes effluence. But as a gallery piece, it highlights the impotence of being assimilated. He said: "As an artist, you will be erased if you are avant-garde. If you want to destroy something, make it a fashion."
This fear of being assimilated is something Geers repeatedly seems to kick against in his art, which aims to collapse any power constructs it meets. Decoding Geers is not all that simple though. If it were, his work would have received far fewer column inches. Instead, he continues to leave a substantial wake in the international art scene.
His lecture showed why. The overview in itself reflected much of his art: packed with meaning, peppered with references, intense, fast-paced, lively, funny, hard-hitting. And never shy of pushing the boundaries. Geers has notoriously twice shattered gallery windows in the name of art. Small Change, a pocketful of coins thrown onto a gallery floor, also created much controversy when all R8,69 was stolen - and subsequently recouped from the R3,000 insurance payout.
But the publicity generated from such provocative acts is a double-edged sword. While it brings the artist and his issues to attention, it also detracts from a broader body of work that is immensely rich. For instance, Geers' installation of inscribed dog tags [Title Withheld] has an obvious military resonance. But it also conveys a multiplicity of deeper meanings that include identity, reclamation of personal agency, historical significance and subjective resonance.
Some of his newer work continues in this vein. He played tracks from a video collaboration, created under the alias Red Sniper, which has just been exhibited at the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg, as well as France's Georges Pompidou Centre. The tracks were highly effective and menacing visual and aural assaults. But do not expect more in this medium. Geers said video had become "too easy" and his next work would return to objects.
Despite a promise to himself never to exhibit again in South Africa, Geers has capitulated - owing to certain "unrelenting" individuals. On May 10 the artist opened his much anticipated solo show at the Goodman Gallery, under the title 'Prodigal Son'.
May 5
For further details of the next lecture, check our listing page or contact Lisa Essex at Michaelis on Tel: 021. 480-7111 or Email:
