OCTOBER 22 - 30
Wednesday, October 22
Meeting with Joe Dolby at the National Gallery. It's about the large lithograph I made collaboratively with Eileen Foti at the Center for Innovative Printmaking at Rutgers in New Jersey a few years, on the subject of one of the TRC cases, the assassination of Dr Abubaker Asvat. The print is a last minute choice for the 'Coexistence' exhibition which is about to open, but I am not happy with the frame I had made. Too heavy. Overwhelms the image. Is there any possibility of getting a re-frame? Joe says diplomatically that he will see what he can do but it is extremely unlikely, which really means, no. Not enough time.
Thursday, October 23
Call in at a show of politically motivated cartoons and posters from Britain sponsored by the British Council at the Annexe at the National Gallery. All the images have been printed out on rolls of paper which have been pinned on to the walls. An easy way to move a show around, and background notes on each one set context. Maggie Thatcher appears in many hilarious guises - as Queen Victoria, a Spitting Image butcher, morphed with Tony Blair. One of my all time favourites is here - Steve Bell's image of John Major with his Superman droopy underpants over his suit. There are some objects too - T-shirts, and the green, red and black union jack designed by Chris Ofili for the British pavilion at this year's Venice Biennale.
Tuesday, October 28
An email from art dealer Michael Stevenson inviting me to a brunch on Saturday at which the Tollman family, they of hotel fame, will present the first of what I assume is to be an annual award of R100 000 to Churchill Madikida and Wim Botha, as promising young artists. I spoke to Churchill at the Goodman Gallery in August, when he was on the shortlist. The money is apparently being given without strings, and Churchill told me then he will use it for computer equipment. It will be interesting to watch what the two artists do in the year to come.
Many years ago Francine Scialom Greenblatt and I were part of the same studio, The Graphic Workshop, a printmaking studio on the third floor of a building in Loop Street which burnt down one night, destroying everything � anyway, I had to miss Francine's opening at the AVA last week, so I go today, I am not taken by the miniature paintings of figures and body details in elaborate frames in the front gallery. To my eye, they look fussy. I prefer the overblown, overripe images which border on parody of the genre of erotic painting like Sensory in the Main Gallery. Roses, bodies, closed eyes, parted lips, lush colour ...
Wednesday, October 29
Meeting with Emma Bedford and Berni Searle to look once again at the project for South Africa House in London. Things do seem to be moving forwards. Berni is leaving for the UK today, she is one of ten finalists in Artes Mundi, the Wales International Visual Art Prize, shortlisted along such artists as Kara Walker, Janine Antoni and the brilliant Chinese artist, Xu Bing. A real honour for Berni. The Artes Mundi exhibition will be held in Cardiff, and Berni is on her way to look at the spaces where she will be showing. Anyway, going through London will give her the opportunity to have another look at the history paintings on the mezzanine floor of South Africa House. There are six, shielded now by the glass screens which have been erected in front of them. On these screens, Berni, Senzeni Marasela and myself will produce new images which will critically comment on the work behind them.
Thursday, October 30
Tonight the Treatment Action Campaign people are giving a dinner at the Lindbergh Foundation, located in an old house overlooking Sunset Beach in Muizenberg. I am with Emma Bedford and Andrew Lamprecht, who hadn't read their emails properly, and had gone to Sea Point to look for the dinner, by mistake. Suzy Bell arrives looking glam as ever, and ticks me off for wearing a Diesel shirt, instead of one by a local designer.
The idea of the dinner is for art world people to work in some way (artists donating work for an auction, for instance) to support TAC in their drive to make drugs available for AIDS patients. Little pamphlets have been set out on the tables for all to fill in, indicating the ways in which people are prepared to help. An organiser tells us half jokingly that we can't open the bottle of champagne on the table until we've filled in the form. We complete the forms, but the champagne is not really chilled anyway, so we don't open it, and it's soon whisked away "for the next function". But the food is excellent.
Down to business. The ubiquitous Mike van Graan opens the evening, and the most visible person in the TAC, Zackie Achmat, tells us some interesting facts: that drugs necessary to treat one person for one month that would have cost R4 500 will now cost R81 through the Clinton Foundation working with the government; that although 500 000 people in South Africa need drugs, the government will only be able to help one fifth of that number. He tells us that mining giant Anglo American, (recently taken to task through his work by photographer David Goldblatt over Anglo's shocking neglect of the workers in their asbestos mines) will pay for treatment for their workers - but not for the workers' wives. Also that a recent survey by the mining house showed only one out of 700 affected workers have told their wives that they have tested positive.
The situation is dire and shocking, but I am too exhausted at the moment to commit to any definite plan of action, though this cause is very close to my heart. I'll probably regain some energy in the new year. I do wonder though why it always seems to be the artists who are asked to give work for almost every cause - there was the big AIDS auction Beezy Bailey organised this time last year, and recently I received another email from him asking for work for an AIDS website. Red Cross Childrens Hospital is having an art auction, and work is being requested for an auction in London supporting NICRO, the organisation which helps rehabilitate prisoners.
I suppose the thinking goes something like: "Oh those artists, they have lots of work lying around they can't sell, I'm sure they won't mind giving us something."
Still, as ArtThrob itself is supported by the deeply valued generosity of artists who create a print especially for the Editions for ArtThrob programme, I'm not really complaining.
