JOHANNESBURG

Review by Brenda Atkinson

Initially conceived by the Wits History Workshop and the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation as an international conference on the TRC and its impact, the 'Truth Veils' project has been realised as an ambitious one that left me both moved and unsettled.

The project began with the conference - an occult academic affair publicised to a highly select audience - attended by the opening of 'Truth Veils', an exhibition at the University's Gertrude Posel Gallery.

Put together by the project's curatorial team of Rayda Becker, Penny Siopis, Fiona Rankin-Smith, Deborah Posel, and Jo Ractliffe, 'Truth Veils' combines a number of languages to provide a visual exploration of the conference concerns. Through dense juxtaposition of archival material, commissioned contemporary art works, and selected works from the GPG permanent collection, the show forces viewers to examine the multiple and contradictory truths that haunt the physical and metaphorical landscapes of the TRC. The sheer volume and intensity of the material are overwhelming, as is the ragged journey between documentary footage of nauseating violence, and the more mediated conceptual surfaces of some of the works. I wanted all South Africans to see it.

Despite its density, what was lacking was a thorough contextualisation, through information, of all elements on the show. Orientated as it was towards foreign visitors, 'Truth Veils' could have provided a lot more historical substance in relation to every poster, document, or work exhibited. Although this information was there to a degree, its cursory form assumed the knowledge-base of viewers - South Africans included - who would have found themselves struggling with a string of half-truths, and a series of images perhaps intuitively grasped but not entirely known.

The third part of the project - an exhibition at the Rembrandt Gallery in Newtown, was structurally linked to the other two via a bus tour of Johannesburg for invited guests, and conducted by Rembrandt curator and director Stephen Hobbs.

Hobbs developed the idea for 'Tour Guides of the Inner City' well over a year ago as part of his own artistic work on Johannesburg's socio-spatial complexities. The tour was at the time not remotely connected to the TRC, and its incarnation as a link between 'Truth Veils' and the Rembrandt exhibition not only failed to ignite the desired connections, but through insufficient research, and a delivery that misjudged its audience, gave a considerable amount of offence. This time the assumption - or perhaps more accurately the oversight - was that international guests would unprobematically accept the very white and middle-class perspective of their guide.

The pity here is that Hobbs's 'Tour Guides' concept is in principle not only worthy but valuable. It will, fortunately, live on in other forms, but its harnessing to material as loaded and painful as the TRC should have been effected with a lot more sensitivity and work.

The 'Inner City' exhibition at the Rembrandt does provide a solid and specific counterpoint to the more general concerns of the 'Truth Veils' show. Although there are one or two works that are too-glib takes on suburban paranoia and urban violence, many are compelling, clever, and often beautiful commentaries on Johannesburg's contested inner cityscape. Poignancy trips up harsh reality, and the fall is into something you hadn't considered before.

'Truth Veils' is the visual front of the recent conference on the TRC: 'Commissioning the Past' (June 11 to 14, Wits University). Therein lies its first shortcoming. The increasing tendency to incorporate exhibitions as part of academic conference proceedings seems to me a case of bad art politics. It risks reducing exhibitions to a largely illustrative or, worse, decorative role, and threatens to consign their contents to elements in a backdrop for the cheese-and-wine mingling of networking delegates.

This, of course, is not necessarily the case. Indeed, the prospects of linking the abilities of the visual arts with those of academic practice makes, in theory at least, for a powerful rapprochement. And, to be sure, the show is at its most effective in those works (principally perhaps Merryn Singer's Void and Colin Richards' TRC Commodity) which best articulate this co-operation of aesthetic and intellectual capacities. By the same token however, the most evident failing of the show is to bridge precisely these functions (of the aesthetic and intellectual) in a more sustained manner.

The weakness of the motivation for the grouping of the works is a case in point. The rationale of "an exhibition of visual interpretations of the TRC" simply reiterates the illustrative role of the show. The exhibition is hence a useful way of elevating the cultural standing of the conference, but a limited means of contributing to its more authoritive or critical commentaries. Further extending this "sidekick" status is the problem that much of this work (including pieces by Ken Oosterbroek, David Goldblatt, Johannes Segogela, Paul Stopforth and [the migrant labour bed person]) has simply been recuperated from a similar TRC conference ('From Truth to Reconciliation') held a year ago, in a nearby Braamfontein venue. The presumption can only be that the Wits collection is once again straining to find enough "TRC relevant" material.

If the show practises bad art politics by lacking a stronger self-motivating purpose, then this situation is only compounded by those works which appear to inject the element of artifice into the exhibition's primary subject matter. There can be little doubt that we are located at a unique historical moment; one where the testimonies and various tellings of apartheid's victim/survivors deserve the greatest and most solemn of respects. If this is the case, then where is the purpose behind works which, like Sue Williamson's, aestheticise and, worse yet, like Jo Ractliffe's Vlakplaas, 2 June 1999, drive by shooting, sentimentalise these histories?

There is a banality to these appropriations; colourfully displaying multi-framed images of a passbook do not add to its profoundness as an indicative object of oppression. Likewise, stark, black and white letterboxed photographs that locate Vlakplaas at the intersection of fact and contrived horror do not add to the reality of its history. The oppression and horror that these images refer to does not exist at the level of aesthetic form. To try and recreate or revisit them at this level as an artist is to lie, pure and simple. It is to indulge in the theatrical, to risk trivialising history.

The TRC has become something of an artistic and academic bandwagon, a shortcut to relevance and political importance for work that would seek to substantiate itself with unnecessary and unasked for commentary. Perhaps it is the case that we don't at the moment need new, aesthetically modulated contributions here, as way of understanding these events. If the greatest respect one can pay is the silence of attentive listening, then perhaps the greatest failing of the exhibition (and of South Africa's response to the TRC more generally) has been to not demonstrate a greater ethics of respect (and silence) in properly listening to what has been told us by apartheid's victim/survivors.

With the exception of the archival material present within the exhibition (Eighties resistance posters, assorted apartheid state documents), the show played out precisely the unwillingness to listen which has seemingly hallmarked the general public's reaction to the disclosures of the Truth Commission. In this respect the "haunted" objects of old apartheid documents (pass laws and books, papers of Jeremy Cronin's arrest, estimated costs of the forced removal of Alexandra township) are both so much more silent, and yet so much more powerfully vocal, precisely because of their lack of any artistic voice or precociousness.

There is a disturbing element of profit in much of the intellectual and artistic engagement with South Africa's newly recovered apartheid history. This profit emerges in both the appropriations of authorial voice (that is, the taking on, by artists and academics, of the speaking voice of apartheid's victims), and along with it, the appropriation of historical legitimacy (the ability to comment with authority on what the past was).

In all fairness, however, certain works within the exhibition have been able to play out exactly these issues. Colin Richards' TRC Commodity, for example, while evoking a traumatic obsession with repetition in the duplicated "veils" of evidential truth (repeated sheets of paper and cloth pinned over one another, bearing prints of the same or similar images) also boasts a postcard stand. The identical series of postcards contains a detail, an image of yet another veil, titled The True Image, that, quite appropriately, you can take away with you as a souvenir of what you've seen.

This self-parody of truth's appropriation is not the exhibition's only example of auto-critique. In Merryn Singer's Void, a series of five transparent perspex boxes contain samples of earth taken from the general sites of the Soweto uprising, the Webster assassination, Pretoria Central Prison, Johannesburg Central Police Station (John Vorster Square) and Vlakplaas. In its near-minimalist form and indexical content, the work seems to exemplify exactly the inability of the works on show to contain or express history, to speak of past horrors and oppressions, in any other than an arbitrary manner. Interestingly, this work lists shadows among its media (the shadows cast by the suspension of samples of real skin, bone, flesh, blood and hair in front of the boxes of earth); a wry comment about the projected nature of historical fact. These, of course, are not the only shadows cast on the work; there are also the shadows of the work's viewers, who, standing between the gallery lights and the work itself, have the prerogative to take from it whatever they project upon it.

Closes July 9. Gertrude Posel Gallery. University of the Witwatersrand, Braamfontein. Gallery hours: Tuesday to Friday, 10a, to 4pm. Phone (011) 716-3632; e-mail gallery@atlas.wits.ac.za.

Derek Hook is a recently appointed lecturer in the Department of Psychology, University of the Witwatersrand. He convenes the South African Annual Qualitative Methods Conference and administers Histories of the Present Press.

By Kathryn Smith

The entrance to the Johannesburg Civic Gallery is wide open and welcoming, allowing you to survey the space before entering. Even though familiar with Fiona Couldridge's work, I hesitated. The mostly dark, glistening relief panels hang in somewhat subdued lighting. True to their abject nature, there is a tangible sense of attraction and repulsion in these works. Intensely affective for reasons beyond their formal qualities, they play on common fears which preoccupy both body and mind.

Couldridge's insect, reptile and crustacean-infested works embody a contemporary version of the Pandora's Box allegory. A vengeful act by the Greek gods played on the fallibility of the first mortal woman (Pandora) and resulted in all manner of parasites and pests being released onto the Earth, with hope remaining as the only comfort. You'd be forgiven for thinking this tale bears close resemblance to the misfortunes of the biblical Eve, for which we apparently all suffer. But this patriarchal fallacy doesn't remain the property of mythology, biblical, pagan or otherwise. The tale of Pandora has also been taken up as a metaphor for the fear of female sexuality, the "box" being a motif for female genitals. The link to menstruation doesn't need spelling out. It is in this realm of psychoanalysis, compounded by Couldridge's recurring thematic of interior vs exterior, that her works are most compelling.

This is not to say that her works are only meaningful on a conceptual level. In the translation from concept to material form, these works could have easily slipped into the domain of the trite and predictable, but Couldridge has contained them with meticulous attention to detail and formal beauty.

There are three main aspects to the body of work: the earlier self-portraits, the lacquered stickiness of the insect works, and the high-relief, sculptural interpretations of scaly hides and exoskeletons. Couldridge's desire to destabilise the painterly surface and elide her own identity is apparent from these earlier portraits: ghostly facial forms peer from varying depths while insects worm their way across the surface. Her teeming masses of insect colonies find their formal equivalent in her obsessive, highly worked surfaces of the more minimalist canvases, and it is here where small boxes appear as protruding from and invading the surface. The "all over" effect of these works provokes a thought that this is what Pollock's abstract expressionist canvases might look like under a full moon at Halloween. A wry critique of Greenbergian modernism if there ever was one. The work becomes most sculptural in the high relief pieces: geological cross-sections, electron microscope images and high-gloss National Geographic photography all bring their languages to bear on these small, swollen pieces.

Their powers to engage are forced upon the spectator when you realise some of her boxes can be opened. Ironically, your curiosity forces you to handle the work, which puts you in a nicely awkward position in terms of the "preciousness" of these works, and gallery politics in general. However, the interiors of the boxes left me unsatisfied and I can't put my finger on why. I know that to "activate" them, ie to have something jump out, would overstate the issue, and be trite. Their jewel-like interiors, executed through glass, beads, netting and other fragile (and feminine) materials, beg more inquiry on the part of the artist, if only to resolve them formally. The affective aspect of Couldridge's work is crucial to its strength, and enticing us to reach out and touch these creepy crawlies puts her in a position of power. She should use this to a greater advantage.

Nevertheless, Couldridge's work offers visual pleasure and food for thought for both art lovers and non-art lovers alike. Her works are anachronistic - petrified primordial ooze, home to unknown quantities of alien DNA that would make even Steven Spielberg salivate.

Until July 20. Johannesburg Civic Gallery, Loveday Street, Braamfontein. Gallery hours: Monday to Saturday, 10am to 8pm. Phone (011) 403-3408; e-mail civic@theatrekom.co.za.

By Kathryn Smith

Congratulations to Brad Hammond for emerging victorious (and R10 000 richer) at this year's Kempton Park/Tembisa Fine Arts Awards for his etched wax pieces De-tuned Channel #9 and De-Tuned Channel #17. Having received a Special Mention at last year's Sasol New Signatures, it's high time we saw a solo exhibition from Hammond, who works with issues of technology and spirituality.

In this diptych, large boards are painted black and covered with a layer of white wax, which he then etches to varying depths to allude to de-tuned televisions caught between channels, semi-tuned or beyond repair. He is most interested in these spaces between information, between signals. These works are visually stunning, apparently making abstract digital language tangible through an astonishingly labour-intensive process, which is nicely ironic considering technology's "labour-saving" advantages.

Daniel Mosako's work Windows of Hope was judged second, and third prize was shared between Hanneke Benade and Berco Wilsenach for their works A Song My Mother Taught Me and In Flesh and Blood respectively. For the fist time in the 11 years of this award, a development prize was awarded - to Lucas Bambo for his lino print At the Zoo.

Given that the competition, which is open to trained and untrained artists from Southern Africa and abroad, has grown from a small, locally focused event to include work from as far afield as England, there are some choices which remain something of a mystery. Over 200 entries were received, out of which 100 works were selected for the exhibition by the adjudication panel comprising Nhlanhla Xaba, Marc Edwards, Muffin Stevens, Wim Botha, Richard Baholo and Sizakele Fakude.

It might be a stronger show had fewer works been selected, but the aim, given that the work is installed in a community centre, is to include, provide exposure and to educate. The cross-section of work exhibited is truly representative of the broader definitions of the term "art".

Until July 18 at the Coen Scholtz Recreation Centre, Mooifontein Road, Birchleigh North, Kempton Park. For more information, please contact Micha Birch on (011) 391-4007.

By Kathryn Smith

Hooray for 'The Paper Show'. It's cheerful, innovative and damn impressive, and curator Peter Schutz's desire to showcase "paper as a sculptural medium" has been truly realised. Some works are a bit of a puzzle (Wilma Cruise's piece doesn't benefit at all from its environment), as is the lack of titling next to the works (some require titles to be fully appreciated). But on the whole, this show does a lot to restore one's faith in formal possibilities.

The works that make the greatest impression are those that use paper "three-dimensionally". Wim Botha never fails to impress, this time with "gargoyles" carved out of official documents. Antoinette Murdoch's wedding-dress-pattern "wedding dress" presents itself as a fragile skin waiting to be wounded. Frances Goodman's papier mâché fabric of body-fragments-as-bed is quiet and strangely erotic, and Walter Oltmann's huge Still Life complete with insect infestation is a feast of hot orange, spindly flowers. A travelling exhibition which has previously gone under the title of 'Nearer than Bronze', 'The Paper Show' needs to be seen now. You have until August 7.

Goodman Gallery, 163 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood. Gallery hours: Tuesday to Friday, 9.30am to 5.30pm; Saturday, 9.30am to 4pm. Phone (011) 788-1113; fax: 788-9887; e-mail goodman@iafrica.com. Website: www.goodman-gallery.com.

By Kathryn Smith

In yet another exhibition accompanying a conference, curators Gael Neke and Gail Morkel have put together a fine collection of both younger and more experienced women artists' work around the theme of women and violence. Unlike most other conference exhibitions, this one is very directed and contained, and subsequently more successful.

Artists include Gael Neke, Gail Morkel, Penny Siopis, Susie Copperthwaite, Goodness Nhlengethwa, Melissa Goba, Leora Farber and Kathryn Smith, as well as screenprinted Mozambican "landmine" cloths on loan from the Gertrude Posel Gallery at Wits University. The conference hosts an open day on Tuesday July 20 (from 7.30am) and the exhibition opening/cocktail party is at 6.30pm. The show closes on Thursday July 22 at 5pm.

Linder Auditorium, Johannesburg College of Education, St Andrew’s Road, Parktown. Website: www.wits.ac.za/aftermath.

By Kathryn Smith

In the run-up to the FNB Vita Art Prize exhibition, the Sandton Civic is showing works form their permanent collection. And quite impressive it is too. New temporary curator Michelle Kriek has assembled a group of works from artists including Steven Cohen, Penny Siopis, Mark Edwards, Robert Hodgins, Bonny Ntshalintshali, Gordon Froud and Stephen Hobbs.

Although this exhibition has previously been shown in Gauteng at the African Window Gallery in Pretoria, this is a chance for Johannesburg residents to catch it at the Civic. With the support of the Human Rights Institute of South Africa and the Lava Foundation (Netherlands), Dutch film-maker Lieke Grob's insightful installation about the real lives of several South African women goes a long way to refute the stereotypical idea that South African women are simply victims of circumstance.

'Daily Life in a Suitcase' began 10 years ago with Grob giving two small wooden suitcases containing a camera, an empty notebook, colouring pencils and the story of Grob's own life complete with photographs to Pretoria-based Rev Nico Smith, with the request that these be passed on to local women. The results are installed in multi-dimensional, interactive cabin trunks, each complete with a film made by Grob as a guest in the homes of these women. Justifiably, the exhibition coincides with National Women's Day on August 9.

Opens July 27 and closes August 24. Johannesburg Civic Gallery, Loveday Street, Braamfontein. Gallery hours: Monday to Saturday, 10am to 8pm. Phone (011) 403-3408; e-mail civic@theatrekom.co.za.

B(l)ack by Popular Demand

By Kathryn Smith

The Open Window Art Academy is synonymous with Pretoria bourgeoisie. Openings are sumptuous and well-attended, more than can be said for most Johannesburg events. According to recently appointed curator Henk Serfontein, this show brings together the work of four "previously marginalised" artists who are immensely popular in the Jacaranda City. And so they should be. Suppressing ever-cynical (and probably misguided suspicions) of bad art politics, I attempted to view the show through the eyes for whom it was ostensibly curated.

All four artists are more or less familiar names to gallery-goers, especially Vita-nominee Isaac Khanyile, and Daniel Mosako. Peter Sibanda is an Open Window graduate who is represented in major local private and corporate collections, and Zondi Skosana holds a degree in fine art from the Pretoria Technikon. True to Open Window criteria, the work is fairly traditional in form: Skosana, Mosako and Sibanda paint (oil on canvas/board) and Khanyile is more experimental, working in recycled paper, clay, wood and rubber. Nonetheless, the work is well-suited to museum, private and corporate collections alike and is suitably priced.

Although the gallery space itself is not the quintessential "white cube", the work ultimately triumphed. Zondi Skosana's work provided the initial challenge: surrealistic rural landscapes depict people going about their daily business, whether work or play. Dali-esque details do not detract from the tongue-in-cheek scenarios Skosana presents to us in bleached, discomfiting colour schemes. The "magic realism" of Peter Sibanda provokes thoughts of Henri Rousseau in style (which any self-respecting, truly "glocalised" cultural worker immediately tries to squash), and Gabriel Garcia Marquez in content. A keen awareness of Western art historical canons and sufficient doses of poetics and cynicism executed in hot, fantastic colours ensure that urban moral allegories are his forte. Hooker's Green is a favourite.

Khanyile's powerful take on the crisis of identity and tradition in a contemporary and increasingly global culture is fuelled by dreams and possibilities of healing through communicating and interacting. Totemic sculptural relief forms combine elements of 'craft' with symbols of divination. It will be interesting to see how he fares at the Vita.

Daniel Mosako was one of the winners at the Kempton Park/Tembisa Awards this year and similar work is shown here. However, he also presents two compelling portraits of Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki respectively, apparently special commissions. His expressive technique, generally depicting urban decay and renewal, translates well in these larger than life figurative studies.

The Open Window is a commercial gallery - one that is successful despite the general lack of support for emerging artists, and dedicated to showing work that is challenging as well as providing an "investment" for those wanting to purchase art. With a thriving career-oriented art academy that focuses on all aspects of creative production, the Open Window, despite an image that some might consider to be desperately sincere, can only succeed.

Until July 14 1999. Open Window, 410 Rigel Avenue, Erasmusrand. Phone (012) 347-1740. Gallery hours: Monday to Friday, 9am-4pm; Saturday 10am-1pm.

By Kathryn Smith

Despite the strength of winner Ryan Arenson's pop-portrait of Diana, To Die For, and a couple of the merit prize prize winners (Brad Hammond's Channel #7), this show is a disappointment. As in the Unisa student show held here recently, installation is shabby. There is too much overtly angst-ridden "politicalia" and an over-supply of impala skin. The art community of Bellville supplied many of the entries, and well-known names like Anton Karstel, Berni Searle, Jean Brundrit and Langa Magwa provided welcome relief from what is, at worst, under-realised, predictable and immature work, and at best, art that provokes few useful questions. On exiting the space, one is faced with a work called Rear Danger by Wits student Helen Neocleous. Although aesthetically unresolved, her rearview mirrors on board reflected the show back at us. Rear danger indeed.

Until August 8. African Window, corner Visagie and Bosman streets, Pretoria central. Phone (012) 324-6082. Gallery hours: Monday to Sunday, 9am to 5pm.

Masha du Toit at Red Eye

Masha du Toit will be the featured performance artist at this month's Red Eye @rt event at the Durban Art Gallery on Friday July 2 from 6pm to 8pm. In The City My Skin the artist wears a self-made dress which incorporates a map of Durban with appropriate images embroidered and appliqued on the front and a map of Cape Town on the back. Observers become participants in the performance by listening to sounds of each city through earphones which are wired to the dress.

The main themes are home, memory and the spirit of place. Du Toit has just returned from New York where she did this performance in Central Park. The July Red Eye @rt has the theme of 'Food Fetish' and is the basis of other performance pieces. Main musical attraction is the group Boo!

Currently on view at the Durban Art Gallery is an exhibition of German Expressionist prints and 'Banners of Twilight', an Ipopeng project of banners by street children.

Durban Art Gallery, 2nd floor, City Hall, Smith Street.

One of the problems with the art scene in South Africa is that it is so parochial. Artists who will get a packed exhibition opening in their hometown show somewhere else and are virtually ignored. Thus well-known Cape Town artists Kevin Brand and Brett Murray, both with a string of international shows to their credit, found themselves with less than a dozen people at the opening of their show 'Visit' at Durban's NSA Gallery recently.

In something of a departure from his usual large-scale pieces, Brand has made 32 small bronzes - "a little retrospective, made from drawings in my sketch books over the last 10 years", says Brand. Hearth and Home, a figure of a boy reaching ever upwards, is the boy of Here XVII, a major installation first shown at the Cape Town Castle and recently seen in two Swedish museum shows. Klop Klop Klop harks back to a series of wooden constructions of the three ships which brought the first Dutch settlers to the Cape.

Delicate 18th-century landscape drawings and Brett Murray's rough-cut steel pieces would not seem to have much in common - but Murray has used these drawings as a basis for large-scale metal interpretations. His incorporation of objects such as small paintings and engraved metal question the acquisitive urge which often lay behind the making of such drawings. Set away from the wall, Murray's pieces throw soft shadows which play an important part in the reading of the work.

Until July 15. NSA Gallery, 166 Bulwer Road, Glenwood, Durban. Phone (031) 202-2293; fax 22-3744. Gallery hours: Tuesday to Friday, 10am to 5pm.

Free alcohol is promised at a performance entitled '[salt]' by James Beckett at the NSA Gallery on Sunday July 18 at 4pm. And lucky packets will be available. On the same evening, 'Protected?', a collection of works by Liesbeth Groenewald, will open. Both shows run until August 5.

NSA Gallery, 166 Bulwer Road, Glenwood, Durban. Phone (031) 202-2293; fax 22-3744. Gallery hours: Tuesday to Friday, 10am to 5pm.

'[Rewind] Fast Forward.ZA] in Holland

The show curated by Bozzie Rabie in the Van Reekum Museum of Contemporary Art in Appeldoorn, Holland, is proving so popular that the curators are asking the artists if the exhibition date may be extended to October 3. The show's unusual title reflects the looking back/looking forward theme of the show, which opened two days after South Africa's second general election. Artists include Kevin Brand, Robert Hodgins and Zwelethu Mthetwa.

A first show displaying its holdings of South African contemporary art opened at the National Museum of African Art in Washington on June 20. The museum is part of the Smithsonian Institute, and is more generally known for its exhibitions of traditional or ethnic African art. 'Claiming Art/Reclaiming Space: Post-Apartheid Art from South Africa' represents a recognition by the museum that the face of art in Africa is changing. Paintings, prints and animated films are on exhibition, and will remain on view until September 26.

The exhibition of photographs and photo-based work which first opened in the Bild Museet in Ume in Sweden last year is now at the Malm city museum until August 8. The show was curated by Katarina Pierre, and after further exhibition showings, including one in York in England, it is hoped that the exhibition will travel back to South Africa. Check the museum website at www.umu.se/bildmuseet/.

Listings continued: Grahamstown, Nieu Bethesda, Cape Town