Archive: Issue No. 101, January 2006

13.1.05 Lisa Brice at the Goodman Gallery
13.1.05 Norman Catherine at JAG

9.12.05 Abrie Fourie at JAG
9.12.05 Peter McKenzie at JAG
9.12.05 'Oppitafel IV': Miniatures at Artspace
 

Lisa Brice, now living and working in London and Trinidad, is one of South Africa's best known young artists. 'Night Vision', a new series of paintings and drawings, is her first show at the Goodman Gallery since 2000.

Brice's work has been featured on biennales, art fairs and museum shows across the world, and is to be found in public and corporate collections across the country.

Brice, known for her investigation of criminal violence and the disruption of domestic life, is now turning to a more personal examination of her past. From early childhood, film provided an escape for her. As an artist working in Trinidad, she became a regular at the weekly gatherings of the Studiofilmclub (SFC) run by artists Peter Doig and Che Lovelace. Night vision photographs taken by Brice during the screenings were used to illustrate the SFC nights in a catalogue for an exhibition of Doig's painted SFC posters.

Whilst drawing on her usual accumulation of imagery from media sources, this new work is also informed by the thousands of night vision photographs that Brice has taken over the last few years. The eerie, almost monochromatic greenish palette of the night vision mode on video cameras suggests a sense of intrigue and an invasion of privacy.

Brice's investigation reveals the variety of forms fear takes on, like a shapeshifter. Such forms are often found in folklore, religion, film, children's stories, politics as well as in our personal mythologies. At the same time the work suggests a struggle in which hope and magic have the possibility of prevailing.

Opens: 12pm, January 21
Closes: February 11

Norman Catherine was born in East London in 1949. His considerable repertoire of images of fantasy, humour, horror, satire and pain is brought to the public in this exhibition entitled 'Now and Then' which covers approximately 35 years of his productive output.

Catherine first achieved success in the early 1970's with his use of airbrush, a technique generally employed by commercial artists. During this period, Walter Battiss was an important influence on his work.

By 1976 the whimsical airbrush work had evolved from light-hearted fantasy into surrealistic and bizarre images of mutilation and torture: bandaged severed heads, pierced bodies and dissected animals. Catherine's lithographs of the early 80's broke through the ambivalence of the surrealistic works of the mid to late 70's to capture the hopelessness, frustration and absurdity of upholding an unjust social order. These works lead the way to an outpouring of aggression in nightmarish and apocalyptic works.

'Now and Then' demonstrates how the artist continues to engage with social issues, taking inspiration from the world filled with contradictions. Catherine says, 'I try to capture those moments where things aren't quite what they seem.'

Opens: January 29
Closes: March 31

End of the World

Abrie Fourie is a Pretoria-born and based artist. His photographic images of urban South Africa highlight both the immediate context and overlooked beauties of the urban environment. In whatever format they are presented they exude a meditative effect on the viewer. Fleeting moments become timeless impressions of the imagination, doubling up as spiritual metaphors of sorts. The flapping of plastic bags in the wind lures the viewer away from the hustle and bustle of city life and into a space where quiet reflection is a key to survival. Gazing upon the horizon at Cape Point where the earth meets heaven, elicits a similar response. This is heightened by the halo-like glow of fluorescents that illuminate his photographs which are presented in lightboxes.

Fourie's new show, 'End of the World', presents images which draw a viewer into a place of stillness where judgement is suspended and one is asked merely to witness traces of the sublime in a timeless sphere of pondering on the ordinary being extraordinary. Though the images in no way dictate an interpretation, they tend to guide the spectator down paths that lead to still waters amidst the hustle, bustle and distraction of physical existence. Akin to the spirituality evoked by the work of the modernists like Rothko, Fourie's abstractions of everyday observations appear to question our preoccupation with accumulating philosophies that are intended to enrich our inner being, when all around us, our environment is whispering its secrets to those who are attentive.

Fourie has shown in solo and group exhibitions in places as diverse as New York, Columbia, Brussels, Antwerp and Tokyo. He currently lectures at the University of Tshwane and is curator of Outlet which is housed on that campus.

Opened: November 8
Closes: February 27

Wentworth is a township 20 km south of Durban. With a population of 35 000 residents, it is one of the smallest in Durban yet also one of the most overcrowded. Like many similar areas, crime, gangsterism, drugs, and poverty born out of unemployment as well as lack of recreational facilities plague Wentworth. Wentworth is also located in the heart of Durban's industrial basin and residents suffer from all of its attendant health problems. In light of all this it is easy to lose sight of the area's indomitable sense of community, its history of anti-Apartheid activism and continuing resistance in the face of incredible odds.

'Vying Posie (Going Home)', the title of a photographic exhibition by Peter McKenzie, is an expression that encapsulates Peter McKenzie's personal and photographic journey back to the streets of Wentworth where he grew, and is a common expression amongst the working class people of Wentworth, many of whom have to work long shifts in the nearby petroleum refineries.

McKenzie has worked as a photographer for the Sunday Tribune, Afrapix Collective (which he co-founded) and Drum Magazine where he was chief photographer. In recent years he was facilitator and co-ordinator of the photojournalism department of the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism. McKenzie has been published and shown his work in France and Guyana and also curated a photography exhibition at the Photography Biennale in Bamako, Mali.

Opened: November 8
Closes: February 27

'Oppitafel IV' is a group exhibition of miniature works that is now in its third annual incarnation. The exhibition consists of works no larger than A4 and includes such artists as Guy du Toit, Diana Hyslop, Lionel Smit, Gordon Froud, Cobus van Bosch, Wilma Cruise, Antoinette Murdoch, Reney Warrington, Cheryl Gage, Chris Diedericks, Nina Romm and Johann du Plessis.

The gallery is closed from December 16 - January 15.

Opened: November 27
Closes: end February 2006