Welcome to the Periphery: Three New Gallery Spaces
by Linda Stupart
Dangerous as it may seem, departing from the well worn trail of Cape Town's city galleries may well prove worth the effort. Three new small exhibition spaces, The Bin, what if the world ... and blank projects, are definiing their own particular spaces around the East City and the Bo Kaap.
The main themes of these galleries are affordability, youth and, in the case of The Bin and what if the world ... accessibility. The Bin's upcoming R100 show requires that all artworks sell for R100 or less, and allows the purchaser to take the work off the wall as she pays for it. The gallery also has a general policy for each artist who exhibits, including the curator, Warren Lewis, which states that while one submitted work from each artist in a particular show may sell for a reasonable price (up to a few thousand) all others must come in under R300. Almost all of their shows have sold out.
Similarly, what if the world's ... recent Drawing Room Collective exhibition had meticulous and beautiful framed prints selling for under R300, and gallery walls almost covered in red dots. Consequently young Capetonians who want South African art on their walls can now afford to buy it. These galleries may not be for the serious collector but they provide a great opportunity for young artists to spread their work around, and a good alternative to the unlimited edition Brett Murray and Julia Clark lights that adorn young trendy households.
While blank does not, as a policy feature only affordable artworks, with most of their work falling outside of the pretty-picture-on-walls oeuvre, co-curator Jonathan Garnham stresses the importance of blank projects as a space in which artists can afford to exhibit. And not only artists either: Garnham stresses that blank is a project space, as opposed to a traditional gallery, and thus happily shows work in progress and single pieces. He is also keen to show architecture or design projects - anything that will fit in his and co-curator Liza Grobler's windowed space (and almost anything under about a meter squared will).
The Bin belongs to those hip street art kids, Circus Ninja, the clothing etc. collective founded by Blaise Janichom, and is situated inside their shop which sells clothes, graffiti books, trendy toys and superior spraypaint. In spite of the living room-sized gallery space, The Bin focuses on group shows. To date their most impressive show has been 'No Warm Ash/Geen Warm As', which included paintings from Cape Town up-and-comer Julia Clark as well as ephemeral images from talented painter Andrzej Nowicki. These were interspersed with work by the renowned graffiti artist Faith 47 and young street artists like Senyol and Keti.
The shows, its artists and throngs of hip attendees exude a very specific Cape Town spirit, one that is also evident in the local music, clothes and publications sold at The Bin's store. Their other exhibitions have included a solo show by illustrator Brian Devlin and the ambitious 'Art in Cities' - 2500 photographs of street art around the world that were originally submitted to www.artincities.com.
In the same way that CircusNinja and The Bin see the art in their gallery as just one of their linking ventures, Cameron Munro and Justin Rhodes of what if the world ... have expanded their practice to include 'Neighbour Goods', a monthly design market, practical workshops and, most significantly, organised the East City Guild. The latter is a community initiative which aims to bring local small business owners, entrepreneurs and crafstmen together in the fast developing East City District of Cape Town. Their exhibitions tend to be of playful, elegant and focus on work which will look good on the wall.
The proprietors of The Bin and what if the world ... clearly share a healthy respect for each other, and a shared vision of fun, youth and the desire to create an alternative cultural space in the East City. The gallerists' carelessness, however, and their notable disregard for a lot that goes on in the highbrow Cape Town artworld creates a danger that these spaces might become just as in-house as the art-for-artists that they openly reject. After all, there are only so many exhibitions one can have featuring 20-something white boys with spraycans. Both, however, emphasize that they are open to any artists or collectives who approach them for a show, and it is difficult to be critical of enthusiastic young gallery owners, without a single art degree between them, for merely starting with what they know.
blank projects seems to have a different and, in some ways, more varied approach to both their exhibitions and the public. While Munro, Rhodes, Lewis and Janichom all scorned the idea of a gallery that is only open for three hours a week, their galleries aim particularly to sell and interact with the public, while blank projects is quite literally, a white cube space which aims more to make work visible than to disperse it. When questioned on the gallery's apparently bizarre hours (blank is open 6pm - 9pm on Wednesdays only), Garnham pointed out that most Capetonians only ever see work at openings anyway, and that if anyone really wanted to view the exhibition on show, they could look through its glass front wall, come through on a Wednesday afternoon or make an appointment with the gallerists.
blank's exhibitions thus far include Tamlyn Blake's beading project Blood Sweat and Tears, Lynette Bester's Heart, Dimensions Variable and a three part multimedia installation by visiting Swiss artists Anna Deering and Jo Dunkel. Their upcoming show is of the slick, satirical paintings by Christopher Slack. Garnham expressed a hope that future exhibitors might want to construct an installation that used the whole of the gallery space as opposed to merely hanging work inside it. While his and Grobler's attitudes and exhibitions seem to gel more easily with those of their central Cape Town contemporaries, I fear it might be more difficult to exist on the periphery of the gallery circuit without working to be part of a new or even singular, different kind of social and artistic space, such as the one The Bin and what if the world ... are creating for themselves.
The Bin
105 Harrington Street, Gardens
Tel: (021) 555 2048
Fax: (021) 462 6605
Email: blaise@circuslabs.co.za
www.circuslabs.co.za
what if the world
11 Hope Street, Cape Town
Tel: (021) 461 2573
Email: info@whatiftheworld.com
www.whatiftheworld.com
Hours: Tues - Fri 10am - 6pm, Sat 10am - 2pm
blank projects
Cnr Buiten and Buitengracht streets, Bo-Kaap, Cape Town
Tel: 072 198 9221
Email: blankprojects@telkomsa.net
Hours: Wed 6pm - 9pm
