Archive: Issue No. 75, November 2003

15.11.03 Minette Vari at Bell-Roberts
15.11.03 Weird about Wire at Guga S'thebe
15.11.03 Louis Jansen van Vuuren at the AVA
15.11.03 Annual Michaelis student exhibition
15.11.03 AidsArt/ South Africa at the SANG
15.11.03 Long Life at the SANG
01.11.03 'Picnic' at Bell-Roberts
01.11.03 New Boschoff work on show at SANG
01.11.03 Wim Botha at Michael Stevenson Contemporary
01.11.03 JP Meyer, Stefan Karstens and Anton Karstel at the AVA
01.11.03 Paul Edmunds at João Ferreira
01.11.03 William Lamson at Bell-Roberts Photographic
01.11.03 Absolut Magic at the AVA
01.11.03 Esther Mahlangu at the Irma Stern Museum
01.11.03 Wood engraving exhibition at the Irma Stern Museum
01.11.03 Ruth Prowse Student exhibition
15.10.03 Otto Dix at the SANG
15.09.03 Co-existence: contemporary cultural production in SA at the SANG

STELLENBOSCH

15.11.03 Alan Alborough at the Sasol Art Museum extended again
15.11.03 Section 53 at the Sasol Art Museum and the US Gallery

Minette Vari returns from New York to show a recent video work entitled The Calling. The two-channel projection will be accompanied by a series of stills. The work premiered this year at the Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels. The work presents a broken metropolis, created from personal and found historic footage mainly of Johannesburg, but also of New York, Brussels and other places. It looks at what lies behind the human creation of, and search for Utopia, and plays these myths off against the harsh realities of survival in cities such as Johannesburg.

Vari obtained her Masters Degree in Fine Arts from the University of Pretoria in1997 and lives and works in Johannesburg. She has held one-person exhibitions in SA, Switzerland and the US and has participated in numerous group exhibitions. Last year Capetonians were fortunate enough to see her multi-projection installation 'Chimera' at the Michaelis Galleries.

Opens: December 3, at 6pm
Closes: December 20

'Weird about Wire' first took place at the US Gallery and comprised work by Dutch artist Karin Kortenhorst. During the course of that exhibition, Kortenhurst conducted workshops with local students and craftspeople, many of who were already involved with wire crafting projects.

Kortenhorst's own work comprises wire jewellery and head garments, and participants in her workshop were encouraged to experiment with wire in a free and playful way. The enjoyment and inspiration experienced in the workshops is clearly visible in the creative and experimental objects which will be shown alongside Kortenhorst's own work this time around.

Kortenhorst received both an art- and craft-oriented education and has shown her work all over the world. This project has received generous support from the Royal Netherlands Embassy and the Mondriaan Stichting.

For more information contact Project Co-ordinator Dorian Maarse:
Tel: (021) 975-5872 or 072 348-4272
Email: obiha000@mweb.co.za

Opens: November 16
Closes: December 5

Former Capetonian Louis Jansen van Vuuren, who now lives in the Limousin region of France, holds his annual show in all three spaces at the AVA. Jansen van Vuuren is known for his evocative pastel work, often highlighting exotic destinations that he has visited. Since his move to France several years ago, his work has changed in tone, atmosphere and colour, focusing more on the hues of the French countryside and less on the bold blues of the Cape. This annual show is always popular and guarantees the gallery ample commission.

Opens: December3
Closes: January 24, 2003

The annual Michaelis School of Fine Art graduate exhibition showcases selected works by the graduating fourth year and Master's students of 2003. This year, breaking with tradition, the students have opted to curate the exhibition themselves, under the supervision of Gavin Younge. Other art-related events organised for the evening will be announced closer to the time. A CD Rom catalogue of the work will be for sale on opening night and at the Michaelis office thereafter.

Opens 6pm, December 3
Closes December 23

Coinciding with the 2002 conference at Wellesley College, Boston, USA - 'Aids and South Africa', 'AidsArt/ South Africa' is a joint venture between that institution and Iziko Museums. The exhibition comprises a collection of artistic statements highlighting the tragedy that afflicts so many lives. It displays a gamut of artistic ideas and utilises a multitude of media, including photography, painting, collage and installation. Kyle Kauffman from Wellesley has co-curated the exhibition with SANG's Marilyn Martin and the work ranges from hard-hitting and powerful to poignant, personal, intimate and even enigmatic. The exhibition comes at a time when the Aids pandemic has reached epic proportions, and constitutes, says Martin, 'the most serious social problem facing the African continent'. Participants include Clive van den Berg, David Goldblatt, Karel Nel, Neo Matome and Lien Botha. A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition.

Opens November 29
Closes February 4

'The body is a map, depicting a personal journey, showing layers of disclosure and understanding, representing feelings and recording events'. This is the theme with which artists - all untrained and HIV positive - were tasked, and the result is an exhibition entitled 'Long Life'. Viewers can expect 14 life-size body maps created during art and photography workshops held in Khayelitsha, outside Cape Town. Complementing these is a series of photographs, which include self-portaits, family portraits and images of township life. Thanks to access to treatment, all participants are part of a pilot anti-retroviral programme run by the Western Cape Province Heath Department and Médecins sans Frontiéres.

'Long Life' - a book combining narrative, graphics and photographs - will also be launched at the exhibition, which will be accompanied by slide shows and public tours during its course.

Opens November 29
Closes December 1

A significant addition to Iziko-SA National Gallery's permanent collection has been donated by Sanlam, in the form of a portfolio of visual poetry. 12 silkscreeens prints republished from Willem Boshoff's original KYKAFRIKAANS anthology of 1980 will be on show at the Gallery.

Willem Boshoff is a prolific, innovative and dynamic artist, a multifaceted craftsman and champion of the original, with a particular passion for languages under siege. On these, he bestows a new dimension and added impact by elevating words into an art form. His works have been exhibited at the Venice and Havana Biennale, in Belgium, Sweden, Germany and New York, and are also to be found in collections in Europe and USA.

A concrete or visual poem resembles a painting in that it is "in your face" - concerned not only with its literary content, but primarily with its visual or perceivable form. Interestingly, this art form dates back to the 16th century. Boshoff's "poems" have been made with an ancient typewriter, in the same manner that a brush functions in painting. Today KYKAFRIKAANS, states Marilyn Martin, Director of Iziko Art Collections, has gained almost mythical status and "occupies a respected place in the history of art and literature, both in SA and internationally."

The original KYKAFRIKAANS manuscript forms part of the Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry in Miami and was exhibited at the local Museum of Art during the 'Global Conceptualism: Points of Origin' exhibition. The new edition of Boshoff's visual poems was commissioned by Sanlam and printed by Hardground Printmakers.

The exhibition is on view daily from 10:00 - 17:00 (except Monday).

Wim Botha holds his first one-person exhibition in Cape Town with a body of work entitled 'Speculum'. The title refers to a medical instrument "for dilating the opening of a body cavity in order to examine the interior". This serves well to describe the scrutiny Botha typically applies in his examination of the individual's absorption into the hierarchical structures of statehood and society.

By visually interfering with venerated forms of art, artefact and decoration, he offers comment on the distorted and ephemeral nature of grandeur and tradition. In several of his installations this subversion of symbolic imagery alludes to the slow but inevitable decay that edifices of authority and self-importance are bound to undergo. Although his installations incorporate paintings, sculptures and prints, it is for the powerful carved paper works that he is best known. In one series of works, large trophy-like heads of hyenas were carved from amassed layers of state documents, and in another, a life-size crucifix was carved from skewered bibles.

Botha is careful to point out, that despite the gravity of the issues with which he deals and the media he employs, his work is not devoid of humour, and he acknowledges the room for personal interpretations of his work.

Since graduating from the University of Pretoria in 1996, Botha's work has been widely acclaimed and he was selected as Festival Artist at the 2003 Klein Karoo National Arts Festival in Oudtshoorn. His works are to be found in the Johannesburg Art Gallery, BHP Billiton, SASOL, ABSA and other public collections.

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Opens: November 4
Closes: November 25

In the main gallery, well-known Cape Town-based artist Anton Karstel presents 'Trail-blaze', a series of canvasses that depict busy American city streets from the latter part of the 19th century until about 1940. Karstel creates the work in a dialogue with the black and white surfaces of archive photographs. He pays particular attention to the transportation technology of the day, which includes horse-drawn wagons, trams and vintage automobiles. This body of work clearly bears some relation to his last show at the Jo�o Ferreira Gallery, where he took as his source archival photographs of Cape Town. He rendered these in thick, heavily worked paint. Karstel has held several one-person shows and participated in numerous group shows both locally and internationally.

In the Long Gallery JP Meyer presents a new body of work. Meyer's work was recently seen on the Brett Kebble Awards exhibition. He concerns himself with mark making and appears engrossed by the patterns and cycles that characterise the natural world. His large, grid-like canvases and painstakingly applied lines and brush marks are dynamic and shifting, yet evoke a reflective response in a viewer.

The Upstairs gallery is host to an exhibition of mixed media sculptures by newcomer Stefan Karstens.

Opens: November 10
Closes: November 29

Paul Edmunds presents a new body of work entitled 'Cloud'. Working in a broad range of materials and media, including plastic mesh and wire, Edmunds once again explores pattern, process and design. The accumulation of material and gesture that typically characterises his work engages the viewer's senses in an evocative experience. Like a cloud, as the exhibition's title implies, the work might suggest an interpretation, but at the same time may obscure a clear view.

Edmunds is a full-time artist whose work is to be found in numerous public, corporate and private collections in South Africa. He has recently completed a major commission at the new Arabella-Sheraton Hotel on Cape Town's foreshore.

Opens: November 3, at 6pm
Closes: November 29

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William Lamson is an American photographer based in Brooklyn. His show '20 Photographs' takes as its premise photography's most basic definition - "the visual and temporal act of separating what is inside the viewfinder from the rest of the world at a specific moment. In this act, a photographer points to a subject and tells the viewer: 'Pay attention to this, this is important'."

Each picture on the show points to ordinary subjects and events that occur at a moment when the subject seems totally unaware of the camera and unnoticed by other people. In this moment of inattention, the viewer is separated from the subject and made to feel the absence of his unreturned gaze. Lamson has exhibited extensively in New York and most recently participated in the prestigious Armory Show there.

Opens: October 25
Closes: November 29

It's that time of the year again, and the AVA is once again host to the Absolut Vodka-sponsored Absolut Secret exhibition. Artists are invited to create a small work, normally incorporating the sponsor's logo or merchandise, along a particular theme - 'Absolut Magic' in this case - and these works are then auctioned anonymously. Funds generated go to the AVA's Artreach programme, which awards a young artist with money and means in order to further their career or studies. If you apply yourself you can easily walk away with a valuable piece of work for an absolute song.

Opens: November 3
Closes: November 8

Esther Mahlangu, the Ndebele artist who earned global fame for decorating a BMW car with a chicken feather, is having her first South African solo exhibition. She is probably the leading exponent of the Ndebele decorative arts.

"The Ndzundza Ndebele are best known for their art. Similar motifs, designs and colours are used in mural decorations (done by the women) and beadwork. Patterns embrace a variety of forms and symbols: elaborate use is made of geometric shapes, and natural objects such as flowers, snakes, birds and small animals. In modern times, letters, alphabet, numerals, representations of urban buildings, windmills and aeroplanes are used." (Quoted from Peter Magubane's Vanishing Cultures of South Africa (Struik, 1998), which includes visual examples of Mahlangu's work.)

For more information, visit: www.esthermahlangu.co.za or email: andries@vgallery.co.za

Opens: November 4, at 6.30pm

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'Picnic' is a group show that will present a diverse array of work by a wide range of artists. The theme is one that is generally upbeat, fun and the show herald the start of summer. It has been appropriately "lightly curated" by artist and theorist Andrew Lamprecht.

The title, 'Picnic', plays on the original idea of the picnic where a number of people contribute a modest snack to a larger general feast. In keeping with this, artists have been selected to show new or old work that is light, not overbearing, and for the most part jolly good fun.

The curator will conduct a walkabout at 11am on Saturday November 15. A catalogue will be launched on Saturday, November 22.

Opens: November 8
Closes: November 29

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The Irma Stern Gallery hosts an exhibition of wood engravings entitled 'The SWE South African Exhibition 2003'. The exhibition includes over 100 works by 50 of the world's best-known engravers.

Wood engraving used to be the principal tool of the 19th century printing industry, until photographic processes supplanted it. It was adopted as an artist's medium with the establishment of the Society of Wood Engravers (SWE) in the 1920s. It differs from typical woodblock printing in that it is typified by the engraved white line as opposed to the raised black line.

This will be the first major exhibition of wood engravings to be held in South Africa and although individual members of the Society of Wood Engravers have shown their work internationally, this is the society's first comprehensive venture overseas. Participants include Hilary Paynter, Simon Brett, Sarah van Niekerk as well as Paul Kershaw from the Outer Hebrides and William Fulljames from Spain.

Opens: November 11
Closes: November 25

The end of the year always brings with it numerous student exhibitions and these are often ideal opportunities to see just who the rising stars may be. The Ruth Prowse School of Art, situated in Woodstock, offers painting, printmaking, sculpture and photography courses and students in these disciplines will be showing their year's work here. The exhibition is to be opened by photographer Lance Slabbert.

Opens: November 11, at 7pm
Closes: November 15

'Otto Dix: Prints 1920-24' presents works by 20th century German expressionist, Otto Dix, in an exhibition which portrays all the horror and carnage of war and the devastation of its aftermath. The core of the exhibition is the great series of works entitled 'The War', whose harrowing portrayals earned Dix the comparison with Goya, whose own work reflected a similar abhorrence of war.

Dix was born, educated and taught in Germany, and served as a machine-gunner on the frontline of the European battlefields in World War 1. Here in the trenches, his 'inspiration' emerged. Hapless casualties, mutilated soldiers, amputees and prostitutes were all part of his repertoire. Later elected to the Prussian Academy, Dix's brutally vivid works so enraged the Nazi Regime that they vilified him, dismissing him from all his positions and labelling his work as 'degenerate'.

The exhibition is presented in association with the Goethe Institute and the Institut fur Auslandsbeziehungen and forms part of the German Cultural Weeks in October.

Opens: October 8
Closes: November 23

Set to open on Heritage Day, 'Co-existence: contemporary cultural production in SA' honours not only our internationally-acclaimed artists such as William Kentridge, but also those whose remarkable talents have come to light through needlework collectives and other self-help initiatives. As such, each artwork is a unique response to the country's complex environment, be it an eloquent statement by a celebrated artist or an item of skilled handicraft by anonymous rural craftsmen.

The exhibition is a result of a collaborative curatorial effort by Marilyn Martin, Director of Iziko Art Collections with Zola Mtshiza and Pamela Allara, Associate Professor of Art History at Brandeis University in Boston, USA. The show opened at The Rose Museum at the University earlier this year. In the catalogue accompanying the show, Martin states, "the contemporary world is not limited to makers trained at universities and versed in international concerns. It includes those with little or no formal education whose involvement in the realm of art is through projects initiated as a vehicle for providing an income".

Originally listed as opening on Wednesday September 24, the show's works have been delayed in transit. The show will open on October 5, or as soon as possible after this date.

Closes: February 16

Alan Alborough's cryptically titled show 'work[ing/ in] pro[cess/ gress] opens at the Sasol Art Museum. Extended for the second time now, Alborough's installation is set to continue evolving. The last time I visited the museum, detritus accumulated from the work and materials, potentially for later use, were taking up more space than what one initially surmised was the artwork. Of course with Alborough, and particularly in this case, it's difficult to say with certainty just where the work starts and where it ends.

Alborough has been remarkably prolific in the last few years, having produced his major Standard Bank Young Artist Award exhibition, a solo show at the US Gallery and having won the last FNB Vita Award with another major work last year. An education programme aimed specifically at young learners has been running concurrently with the exhibition and by all accounts has significantly increased traffic through the museum's doors.

Opened: May 7
Closes January 18, 2004

Section 53 has become an annual event for students of the University of Stellenbosch's Department of Fine Art. Called 'Swing' this year, it showcases the work of students from the Fine Arts, Graphic Design and Jewellery Design departments. Previously held in the department's building, the exhibition takes place this year at the Sasol Art Museum and the US Gallery. James Webb will open the event.

The parking lot behind the museum will be host to party which will include an experimental sound piece by Righard Kapp and mystery guest DJ 'Kid Calculator'. Transport will be provided between the two venues.

Opens: November 22, at 6pm
Closes January 17, 2004 (the galleries will be closed between December 24 and January 5)