Archive: Issue No. 77, January 2004

16.01.04 Aryan Kaganof's 'SMS' at the Illuseum in Amsterdam
16.01.04 Santu Mofokeng's 'Rethiking Landscape' in France
16.01.04 David Goldblatt at the Photographers gallery in London
15.11.03 Mthethwa and Kentridge in Athens, Greece
15.11.03 Siopis and Kentridge at Kappatos Gallery, in Greece
15.10.03 Williamson and van der Merwe in Cologne

AMERICAS

16.01.04 Sipho Hlati, Velile Soha and Ernestine White in Chicago
16.01.04 'A Decade of Democracy: Witnessing South Africa', in Boston
20.12.03 'Looking Both Ways: Art of the Contemporary Diaspora' in New York
20.12.03 'Body Maps' in New York
15.11.03 Conrad Botes in New York
01.11.03 Geers and Langa at Museum for African Art

Aryan Kaganof's collaborative exhibition with Dick Tuinder SMS (Sanctuary Mental Space) gets an extended Amsterdam run after having opened at the end of December 2003.

Kaganof forms his own identity in a composition consisting of work by the artists Nicola Deane (South Africa), Alexandra Kallos (Greece), Philipp Virus (Germany), Catherine Henegan (South Africa), Milijana Babic (Croatia/South Africa) and the Illuseum (Netherlands). Dick Tuinder meanwhile composes himself using six alter egos' he has invented for himself, including the mascot of the show, the irrepressible Sally De Winter.

Henk Oosterling, Professor of Philosophy at Erasmus University, Rotterdam has this to say: "Kaganof weaves as a common theme throughout 'SMS', the political issue of the moment. What role do identities play in a world, which in spite of its self-confessed humanism, is still bursting with violence? Can the irrepressible need for identity regulate excessive violence? How much identity can we tolerate in a globalised world? He [Kaganof] recognises that� identity has become merely a surface effect� that the secret of identity does not lie in the inner self of individuals, nor even in the shared territory of History, but in the mediatisation (sic) itself. If we try through the media to catch a glimpse of the inner Self lurking underneath, we miss this superficial insight: Identity is as flat as a digital code on an interface".

Kaganof's multi-part identities are further fragmented when Catherine Henegan chooses in her representation to also co-opt other artists to collaborate with her in her 5x7 meter space. She herself will show a video projection of The Island, shot on an island between two lanes of traffic on Jan Smuts Ave in Rosebank, and depicting a child playing on the sand in a sea of traffic. In addition Henegan has invited Jimmy Wordsworth Rage (a visual artist/poet/ performer), Sagi Groner (video and sound artist), Valentijn Kortekaas (sound artist), Frederico Bonelli and TeZ (of Sub Multimedia Re_Search Laboratory) and Aryan Kaganof (himself) to collaborate with her over the duration of the 'SMS' exhibition.

For Henegan this work will no longer be a search for identity but rather the manifestation of one through a collective photosynthesis of the energies combined. These artists have all been previous collaborators whose artistic practice and diversity have all made a large impact and had an influence on the form and content of her own work.

If you want to get a further glimpse of the exhibition you can check out the photos on the web catalogue of the exhibition at www.illuseum.com/ill17/SMS.htm and www.illuseum.com/ill17/agenda.htm

Opens: December 19, 2003
Closes: March 15

Santu Mofokeng's work is largely unconcerned with expectations as to what 'black' art ought to be. Rather, the Johannesburg-based photographer has set about interrogating the politics of identity and the representation of history in his own highly idiomatic style.

Mofokeng's photographs gain their impetus from animating the ordinary drama of black life. At times sparse and austere, yet again vibrant with an understated energy, his works are clearly absorbed in their own quietude. Whether it is a lyrical snapshot taken from a moving car, as with one of his Documenta XI pieces, or a documentary study of black churchgoers travelling to Johannesburg by train, Mofokeng's photographs often manage to capture the nothingness of time in between - the ordinary moments that shape black identities.

For some time now he has been taking peculiar photographs that are notionally concerned with the landscape. As with his other work, there is a distinctive poetic at play in his beautiful images of (often) arid environments.

Opens: January 16
Closes: March 21

David Goldblatt, along with fellow photographers Robert Adams (USA), Peter Fraser (UK) and Joel Sternfeld (USA), has been shortlisted for the prestigious 2004 Citigroup Photography Prize.

From a list of over 80 nominations, the Jury has selected four finalists whose work, they say, has made a significant contribution to the medium of photography in the past year. One can only wonder at this wording given that in Goldblatt's case, the juror's elected to highlight his late 1980s study of the transported of KwaNdebele. To their credit, the jurors did acknowledge that, "over the last 30 years Robert Adams, Peter Fraser, David Goldblatt and Joel Sternfeld have made important bodies of work that have been a major influence on generations of photographers who came to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s.

Now in its eighth year, the Prize has become one of the most prestigious international arts awards. Past winners of this �20,000 Prize include Richard Billingham, Andreas Gursky, Boris Mikhailov and Rineke Dijkstra. Roger Ballen, another South African-based photographer, was shortlisted two years ago.

This exhibition profiles the work of all four finalists and presages the announcement of the overall winner in late March.

Opens: January 29
Closes: March 28

Zwelethu Mthethwa and William Kentridge are participating on 'OUTLOOK'. This international art exhibition "aims to break new ground within the established context of contemporary art, revealing the contradictions inherent in our consciousness and the latent concerns of our time".

The exhibition also develops a sense of continuity by taking a new look at some key artistic figures from previous generations. The exhibition is inextricably linked to the city of Athens. Venues include: Technopolis, a former Athenian gasworks dating back to the mid-19th century (www.athens-technopolis.gr); the Benaki Museum one of Athens' most impressive and innovative exhibition spaces (www.benaki.gr); and The Factory, Athens's biggest exhibition space.

Also participating is 2001 Bag Factory resident Gustavo Artigas, of Mexico. Amongst the numerous art world heavies in attendance: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Gregory Crewdson, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Damien Hirst, Mike Kelley, Martin Kippenberger, Sarah Lucas, Raymond Pettibon, Wolfgang Tillmans, Luc, Tuymans, Jeff Wall and Gillian Wearing.

Opens: October 24
Closes: January 25, 2004

Penny Siopis presents her new, miniature paintings, from her 'Shame' series. Shame usually is associated with disgrace or loss of dignity. In South Africa, however, this word often takes on a different context. Siopis states: "Shame is also colloquially an expression of sympathy and identification with the hurt of others. If you fall in the street people might exclaim "shame", or cry out "sorry", even though they are not to blame for the incident."

This series makes visual a word that previously didn't have a physical form through the use of different media such as oil, stamps and found objects presented in her installation of found objects.

Learning the Flute is the title of William Kentridge's new film, which is accompanied by new etchings of the same name.

Opens: November 12
Closes: January 31, 2004

   SEE REVIEW of Siopis' 'Shame' series recently on show at Wits

36 million people are infected with HIV worldwide, 70% of whom live in Africa. All groups and sections of the population are affected: government ministers and workers, employees and farmers, parents and orphans, police officers and nurses, doctors and soldiers, homosexuals, teachers, taxi drivers, prostitutes and street vendors.

'Sexuality and Death: Aids in contemporary African art' presents Aids as it is seen from the perspective of the African artist. At the beginning of the 1980s when the first AIDS cases were made public, art offered one of the few legitimate possibilities in Africa to express personal and social experiences with this illness. The starting point of the artists' works is as multifaceted as the illness itself.

On the one hand, artists such as Sue Williamson use their works as a means of communication in Aids prevention. On the other hand, myths, traditions, and resistance are reflected in their works, which all too often hinder the fight against Aids. 'Sexuality and Death' is the title and the didactic and structural leitmotif of the exhibition. The causes and consequences of HIV infection and Aids illness will form the core of discussion.

The show is curated by Dr. Kay Schaefer, a specialist in tropical diseases in Africa and "an expert in contemporary African art". Schaefer has selected 20 African artists from 11 countries. Amongst the 20 are Pascale Marthine Tayou, Hentie van der Merwe, Ingrid Mwangi and Sue Williamson.

Opens: October 19, 2003
Closes: January 25, 2004

'Memorias de un Mexicano: Homage to Francisco Mora' is an exhibition that unifies the contemporary print works of African-American, Chicano, Mexican and South African print makers. The exhibition serves as a tribute to the late Mexican printmaker and painter, Francisco Mora (1922-2002) who was a member of the famed Taller Grafica Popular, a printmakers collaborative based in Mexico City.

The exhibit title, 'Memorias de un Mexicano' (which means memories of the Mexican), was the title of a series of prints produced by Francisco Mora. This series of prints pays homage to the Mexican labourer. South Africa is represented by Sipho Hlati, Velile Soha and Ernestine White. The latter artist has a BFA degree from State University of New York (Albany New York) and is attending Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town for her MFA degree in printmaking. White concentrates on aluminium plate lithography and participated in Tamarind's Master Printer program where White was certified as a Tamarind Master Printer.

Hlati meanwhile is a visual arts practitioner living and working in Cape Town. His training is diverse: in 2000-01, he studied at Michaelis, in 1998 he served a residency at Robben Island, and between 1987-89, he trained at the Community Arts Project, in Cape Town. He has exhibited in a number of group exhibitions in South Africa and abroad.

Soha studied visual art at the Rorke's Drift Art School, from 1981-83, and has also worked and lectured at the Nyanga Art Centre, in Cape Town. Of his work Soha states: "I am a realistic artist, mixing colours in order to use them as naturally as possible. I express myself mostly through township and rural scenes, like homelands. My aim is to show how my people live their lives".

Jesus Macarena-Avila, who served a residency with the Robert Blackburn's Printmaking Workshop in New York City, was recently a resident at Cape Town's Greatmore Studios. This fact explains the large number of local artists on this subterranean exhibition, and underlines the importance of grass roots exchange.

Opens: February 20
Closes: March 26

Taking their cue as the tenth year of our fledgling democracy, curators Sophia Ainslie, Thembinkosi Goniwe and Tumelo Mosaka present a show that bravely showcases the work of a diverse cluster of emerging contemporary South African artists. According to the curators, "the 20 young artists featured critically reflect on how identity used to be defined by the binary black and white opposition under apartheid. They also explore the new multidimensional identities that are possible today, and probe their limits and contradictions".

Reading through the list of participants there are a number of surprises, but whatever ones personal reservations the choice is welcome given the almost hegemonic power young(ish) artists like Candice Breitz, Kendell Geers, Moshekwa Langa and Zwelethu Mthethwa seem have abroad. Taking that favoured theme for unearthing truths about South African art practice, the show examines ways how identity has been defined through the use of more personal modes of expression.

Artists Thando Mama and Rudzani Nemasetoni, for instance, reflect differently on how the state defined identity. In Nemasetoni case, the artist uses images from his family's Pass Books, while Mama uses his own body as a site for the recovery of meaning and power associated with the black subject. On the other hand, artists such as Nkosinathi Khanyile, Mthunzi Ndimande, and Nirupa Sing explore influences of African heritage in modern culture. Through their use of natural materials and implementation of traditional skills such as grass weaving, they recover and celebrate an African heritage that is marginalized and threatened by modern society.

'A Decade of Democracy: Witnessing South Africa' articulates the variety of strategies that South African artists use to connect their living history with its past. The framework is to allow for the works to create a conversation that explores the impact of apartheid witnessing the complexities and multitude of issues that South Africa is confronting today. The exhibition will act as a catalyst to generate discussion around the progress and change that has occurred over the last decade transforming a society struggling to reconcile its past legacy. It presents a transient moment in South African history portraying how emerging artists negotiate between what was, what is, and what is to come.

The full list of participating artists is: Bongi Bengu, Pitso Chinzima, Matthew Hindley, Nicholas Hlobo, Fanie Jason, Alison Kearney, Nkosinathi Khanyile, Jeanott M. M. Laderia, Fritha Langerman, Brenton Maart, Thando Mama, Colbert Mashile, Pauline Mazibuko, Mthunzi Ndimande, Rudzani Nemasetoni, Christian Nerf, Charles Nkosi, Roderick Kevin Sauls, Nirupa Sing and Nontsikele Lolo Veleko.

Sipho Mdanda is assistant curator on the project.

Opens: April 2, at 6:30pm

Kendell Geers and Moshekwa Langa, who recently appeared together on 'Black President' at New York's New Museum of Contemporary Art, show together again on 'Looking Both Ways: Art of the Contemporary African Diaspora'. Opening two months after 'A Fiction of Authenticity', 'Looking Both Ways', curated by Laurie Ann Farrell, seems to have much in common with the curatorial impulse which brought the first into being. Here again is a line-up of artists (four of them are on both shows) originating from the African continent and now working mainly in the west. The title 'Looking Both Ways' refers to the artists' practice of looking at the psychic terrain between Africa and the West, a terrain of shifting physical contexts, aesthetic ambitions and expressions.

"Many artists from Africa are in the forefront of discussions of globalism and cultural hybridity, terms currently circulating in the international art world", writes Farrell in an online statement, (and) "are making statements that transcend politics".

The exhibition catalogue is a remarkably handsome publication, and Farrell has already lined up an impressive array of institutions to which the exhibition will travel when it closes at the Museum for African Art, including a European foray. The schedule so far reads Peabody Essex Museum. Salem, MA, March 27 - July 18 2004; Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI, September 12 - November 28; Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, January - March 2005; and the Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA, January - March 2006.

The full list of participating artists is: Fernando Alvim, Ghada Amer, Oladélé A. Bamgboyé, Allan deSouza, Kendell Geers, Moshekwa Langa, Hassan Musa, N'Dilo Mutima, Wangechi Mutu, Ingrid Mwangi, Zineb Sedira and Yinka Shonibare.

   SEE REVIEWS

Opens: November 13
Closes: March 1, 2004

'Body Maps' is a group show and sale of artworks by South African-born artists in support of The Memory Box Project, a community outreach program of the University of Cape Town. The Memory Box Project promotes AIDS awareness and assists people living with HIV and AIDS in under-resourced communities in Southern Africa to live positively and to plan for the future.

The exhibition explores notions of how identity is formed/ informed (history, body, place) as well the power of community in the face of major challenges. The artists involved are Paul Balmer, Sandile Goje, Vivienne Koorland, Colbert Mashile, and Gary Schneider. The exhibition also includes Body Maps - life size artworks created by Memory Box participants. Facilitated by Jane Solomon, a Cape artist, the Body Maps are traced outlines of participants' bodies onto which they have painted representations of the HIV virus alongside symbols of personal power and areas of emotional significance.

The reception, a ticketed event, will feature an explanation of the Body Maps by Nondumiso Hwele, a Memory Box participant and trainer, as well as introductions by Doctors Without Borders/ M�decins Sans Fronti�res (MSF) and Treatment Action Campaign.

The Memory Box Project supports the Treatment Action Campaign and has a relationship with MSF. Some Memory Box participants receive antiretroviral treatment through an MSF pilot project in Kayelitsha, outside of Cape Town. In this way, the Memory Box Project has documented the success of antiretroviral treatment in the local community, supporting efforts to broaden access to the treatment in South Africa.

Participants in the Project make a memory box and memory book as a way of telling empowering narratives about their lives. Education about HIV and AIDS, as well as treatment possibilities is an integral part of the workshops. The Body Maps are being exhibited in Cape Town, London and New York simultaneously. A book entitled 'Long Life - positive HIV stories', which features the Body Maps and the stories of Memory Box participants, will be available.

Opens: December 9, 2003
Closes: January 28, 2004

Conrad Botes (aka Konradksi of Bitterkomix fame) will be exhibiting at the Scene Gallery in New York. The Scene Gallery was invited by Art Omi (a residency program in upstate New York) to be one of the visiting galleries who would meet and engage with the artists selected on this year's program. Botes was one of the 30 artists in this year's program, which was where The Scene Gallery first encountered his work and ideas.

According to the gallery, "Conrad's work deals with issues that are new and relevant to a New York audience. His medium of painting on glass and his somewhat cartoon like style is bold and graphic and suits the aesthetic of the gallery. His approach to image making has a somewhat collage style and this is a medium we are drawn to. We represent a number of artists who work in this 'urgent' way".

Botes himself has commented: "The paintings that I make have its roots in comic book drawing, which I have been drawing for over a decade... As with comics, I love to approach painting in a very eclectic manner, combining cartoon stereotypes with more figurative ways of representation. This eclectic approach is also prevalent in the content of my work; where one often finds a combination of humorous with disturbing subject matter".

"The narrative content of my work is usually related to race, gender and violence and their disturbing relationship to power and hierarchy. Rather than delivering future vision (sic) or a solution to problems, these narratives try to present situations around power and hierarchy in a very direct and confrontational way. I love to think of my work as a post mortem of the society and culture from which I emerged."

Opens: December 4
Closes: January 31, 2004

Kendell Geers and Moshekwa Langa, who recently appeared together on 'Black President' at New York's new Museum of Contemporary Art, are set to show together again. 'Looking Both Ways: Art of the Contemporary African Diaspora' is a group show presenting works by twelve artists from all four extremities of the African continent.

The common link shared by these disparate artists is that they all live and work in Western countries, including Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The title Looking Both Ways refers to the artists' practice of looking at the psychic terrain between Africa and the West, a terrain of shifting physical contexts, aesthetic ambitions and expressions.

The full list of participating artists is: Fernando Alvim, Ghada Amer, Olad�l� A. Bamgboy�, Allan deSouza, Kendell Geers, Moshekwa Langa, Hassan Musa, N'Dilo Mutima, Wangechi Mutu, Ingrid Mwangi, Zineb Sedira and Yinka Shonibare.

Opens: November 13
Closes: March 1, 2004