The Black and White Poster Project
by Reneé Holleman
Produced as a catalogue to 'The Black and White Poster Project' exhibition recently held at what was formerly known Dirt Contemporary Art Space, this little book provides an interesting insight into the potential for a catalogue to extend the themes and ideas of the project it documents.
Designed by the three curators of the show (Rory Palmer, Bevan Anderson and Jan-Henri Booyens), the book reflects a distinct curatorial aesthetic in both layout and presentation. It sports a slick black cover with only the exhibition title straddling the spine. A single line of text on the back reads as a challenge to the 'wolf' from the story of the Three Little Pigs - 'We'll huff and we'll puff and we'll blow your house in'.
Inside, a neat photocopy-like quality is maintained, with all material printed in an appropriate black and white. Apparent from the outset is that the catalogue embodies the playful and provocative nature of the exhibition and of the posters themselves, which range from the purely illustrative and the subtly conceptual, to the blatantly political and the outright offensive. It is perhaps this balance between opposites: the serious and inconsequential, the public and the private, typical of poster production, which is so aptly embodied by the aesthetic of black and white.
The collection is prefaced by three delightful short essays from Robyn Sassen, Richard Kapp and Andrew Lamprecht which situate the show within both an art context and a broader socio-political discourse, while remaining sensitive to a specifically Capetonian environment. Robyn Sassen writes, 'The exhibition's philosophy is that art can be fun, rude and inane; it can pull faces at its audience and swear; it can poke fun at traditions that are otherwise sacrosanct; it can be cheap, quick, clever and conform to the principles of making a poster; it can question the boundaries of making art.'
Indeed, the 'Black and White Poster Project' played on various transgressive elements inherent to the posting of missives on public property, from the content of the works to the act of appropriation, with work by a well-known SA artist Kendell Geers reproduced and hung without the artist's consent. Perplexing to some may be the inclusion of artworks that were not exhibited on the show, a decision that marks the book itself as not only a form of documentation, but as an extension of the project beyond the boundaries of the show.
This publication is ultimately an elegant summation of a very fluid exhibition. In contrast to the standard exhibition format, the 'Black and White Poster Project' was notable for its two exhibition openings, mid-exhibition rehanging and a closing celebration at which the artwork was removed from the gallery walls and the catalogues themselves were exhibited as a limited, signed edition of 300 copies.
Limited copies of the book are available at 45b Kloof Street (formerly Dirt Contemporary) and on their website, from the 34 on Long website, at The Bin, and from jhblive.com
Reneé Holleman is an artist who lives and works in Cape Town
