Archive: Issue No. 25, September 1999

Isaac Makeleni indicates a street sign of the kind planned for Guguletu

In an independent pre-festival initiative last weekend, Tarryn Healy co-ordinated a subway project under the title "Stink"

Stills from the unfilmed Afrikaans movie, Skerp Draaie

Stills from the unfilmed Afrikaans movie, Skerp Draaie

Across and Down
by Francine Scialom-Greenblatt
showing at Joäo Ferreira Fine Art

Zweletu Mthethwa
vanity at frank's
as part of Staking Claims exhib
on show at the Granary

Visit 41 different Art venues from 7pm to midnight
Free shuttle buses all night
For Enquiries : Association of Visual Arts Tel 424 7436
or Bang the Gallery Tel 422 1477

Most of the city's galleries have exhibitions opening on this night to coordinate with the One City Many Cultures Festival. Many tie up with October's Month of Photography initiative too. Here is a selection of the events.

"Skerp Draaie"
Skerp Draaie is to be an exhibition of static cinema in which about 500 photographs will be presented as stills from a silent Afrikaans movie as yet unfilmed. It is a 90's fairytale set in contemporary Cape Town, and tells the story of a meter maid who lives on Voortrekker Road and falls in love with the Green Point lighthouse keeper. The project is a Squeaky Wheel Production of a Johnny Foreigner Random Art project.

Skerp Draaie will open on September 23 and will run until September 30, at 136 Buitengracht Street, Cape Town (next to the Lipschitz Gallery)

A preview of the work in progress will be held on Friday 17 from 4.30 to 7pm, at the same venue.

Joäo Ferreira Fine Art
An existing show of paintings called "Across and Down" by Francine Scialom-Greenblatt will be complemented by a still film projection by Brett Baker.

Beezy Bailey's Art Factory
Bailey has curated a group show of cartoonist's work including that of Zapiro, Tony Grogan and Gus Ferguson.

The Granary
The Granary, "Staking Claims", curated by Emma Bedford of the South African National Gallery, examines various experiences of living in Cape Town as interpreted by a wide range of artists. The unique and famous natural beauty of the city combined with it's history of slavery and dispossession have resulted in a society which is deeply divided in many aspects. Bedford has chosen artists whose identities and experience span the diversity of the cultures which inhabit Cape Town, and whose work reflects this complexity. The show includes work by Jane Alexander, Willie Bester, Lueen Conning Ndlovu, Randy Hartzenberg, Dorothee Kreutzfeldt, Mustafa Maluka, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Peet Pienaar, Berni Searle, Gregg Smith as well as a collective of women from the Philani Centre.

A craft exhibition, a cultural tourism expo and a poster competition are also to be hosted by this large venue. The Granary is also host to "Shuttle 99", a photographic project initiated by the Finnish Institute of Photography and a number of young South African photographers.

DC Art
A four day event starts on this evening and includes the exhibition "Uncover" which reveals aspects of the truth about African subjects in Riebeeck Square's colonial history. Documentary films on Saartjie Baartman and Robert Sobukwe will be screened as well.

The Design Museum
"Rising Suns" is an exhibition of the top 26 entrants in a Japanese competition held to commemorate World Heritage Day.

Dave Southwood
Shrapnel 9 1999
hand colour prints
1m X 1m

Pam Warne
from her exhib "mum"
on at the Granary

Dale Yudelman
Shangani Women JHB 1987
black and white photograph
at Jo'burg this month

To coincide with the Cape Town Festival, the Month of Photography opens on The night of September 23rd with more than 100 events on display throughout the city. Some of what you can expect to see are listed below, and click here for a full list.

Cape Town Castle
"Cache" takes place in the grain cellars and features black and white photographs from Tracey Derrick, Svea Josephy, Clive Hardwick, Jenny Altschuler and Jenny Gordon.

Area
The gallery will be hosting a body of new work" by commercial and fashion photographer Merwelene van der Merwe. The photographs explore aspects of "women and eroticism".

Association For Visual Arts
The AVA is holding three photographic exhibitions. Jac de Villiers is exhibiting, in his first one person show, a series called "Portrayals". American Ed West, who took a lot of pictures in South Africa, is bringing out a large collection of colour photographs. Various photographers from the iAfrika press agency show will also be exhibiting in the gallery, along with pictures from the Cape Picture Library.

Mark Coetzee Fine Art Cabinet
Showing separately in the Cabinet's two spaces are Terry Kurgan and Dave Southwood. Kurgan continues her exploration of family in "Family Matters", while Southwood presents a body of work exploring aspects of gun culture in South Africa entitled "Case". Jo o'Connor will be projecting photographic images onto the exterior walls of the building on the evening too.

The Granary
The Granary, aswell as several other shows, is to host "Shuttle 99", a photographic project initiated by the Finnish Institute of Photography and a number of young South African photographers. Work by Lance Slabbert, Dave Southwood and Adam Welz and others will be on the show.

Michaelis Gallery
Paul Weinberg's well known and highly acclaimed photographs of the traditional lifestyles and the challenges which face the people of Kosi Bay are to be shown.

Long Street Baths
Julia Tiffin is exhibiting a body of black and white photographs entitled "Noah's Ark" at this unconventional venue.

Picto-Ifas
Photographer Hugh Fontaines will be holding a show entitled "Portvaires" which is a photographic exploration of harbour cities around the world.

Jean Brundit
Does Your Lifestyle Depress Your Mother? 1998
Photograph from a series of 12
10.5 x 15cm each

Julia Clark
"[Chart 1] Pale Blue Romance Cycle" (detail) 1999
Enamel paint and mixed media on board,

"Does Your Lifestyle Depress Your Mother?" is the witty, insightful title of Jean Brundrit's series of photographs of lesbian couples caught in cheerful, affectionate, ordinary moments of their lives - and the "Dyke Career Series" shows large format portraits of women working in different careers - a series Brundrit hopes will become a calendar for the year 2000.

See review

In the Long Gallery are disparate pieces by 14 different artists - each artist chosen by one of the members of the current AVA committee. Artists include Bruce Arnott, Julia Clark, David Koloane, Kevin Brand and Luke Younge.

On the Artstrip, Andrew Hollis, a relative newcomer to Cape Town, shows "Elevation to Human" - a show of painted portraits.

All shows close September 18.

Tracy Gander
Julia (1999)
colour photograph

Tracy Gander focuses her camera on her friends - and in a series of intensely coloured images, presents them in moments of playful eroticism.
Closes October 9.

See review

Veronique Malherbe
Photograph of Chantine Veldsman
collaged onto view of Malherbe's installation "Gangbang"

Veronique Malherbe's powerful installation on the subject of the gang rape of Chantine Veldsman has moved from the exhibition "From Pisces to Aquarius" to a church in Mitchells Plain at the invitation of Father Matt Esau, whose church it is, where it was on a view at a memorial service for children who have died violently. Until September 14.

See review.

"Mami Wata Legba"
Agbali Kossi
Togo; wood, paint;
1973

From the Rotterdam Museum of Ethnology - a splendid collection of objects from Africa, dating from the previous century up to the present. Masks include one with an attached cloak of feathers which took a full year to restore.

See review

Jodi Bieber
The Fast Guns Hangout, Westbury, Johannesburg
Silver print

In a series of seven related shows, curators present a portrait of South Africa through the years as seen though the lenses of a widely diverse group of photographers.

A detail of a Nigel Mullins painting, on "Superhuman" at the Hanel

Until October 30

Sharon Peers
The Alpha and the Omega

Sandra Kriel
Why are you afraid?

Dave Southwood
Stefan Bremer's workshop

Joakim Eskildsen

Georgie Papageorge
Magnetic Fields through the rift between Kibo and Mawenzi 1999
mixed media on canvas

'Kilimanjaro Through the Rifting Barrier' is the title of South African-born Georgie Papageorge's tenth solo show, and her fifth in this country. She has exhibited extensively in England and the USA with two of her works now in the Smithsonian Museum's permanent collection.

Papageorge, born Jennifer Jane van der Merwe in Simonstown, Cape Province, changed her name to George when she was 10. This heralded the beginning of what can only be described as an extraordinary life, marked by tragedy and an incredible ability to rise above it all. She graduated with a BA(FA) from UNISA at the age of 40 and embarked on an international art career. Her work has never been without intense personal, spiritual and social investment with the notion of 'barriers' (political in her earlier work and transcendental in later work), constituting her major thematic. Having worked extensively in environmental and 'land art' (most of her projects have been collaborative events with local people), the installations, photographic work and monumental drawings seen on 'Kilimanjaro Through the Rifting Barrier' are stages in a continual voyage of her experience of the mountain that she has climbed three times. The 'Rift' which she describes as "the centring of one's being through a line" is conveyed through four major recurring symbols: a circle, a ladder, a chevron barrier and a 6m high red rod. This is an invaluable opportunity to 'rediscover' a South African artist lesser known in her country of birth than she is abroad.

Ends 16 October

The African Window Museum hosts the largest student art exhibition Pretoria has ever seen. Mounted by the Arts Faculty of Technikon Pretoria. Covering a total of 2200m2, viewers can get acquainted with everything from the more earnest 'fine arts' disciplines to all manner of applied arts, including glass technology, jewellery design and extending to fashion, interior, textile and entertainment design and technology. Textile Design. A true manifestation of the term 'multimedia', it's a pity we couldn't have heard about it sooner.

The museum is open seven days a week and the entrance fee is R5 for adults and R2 for children and students with a valid student card. For more information, please contact Irene at (012) 318 6175 or Valerie at (012) 318 6132.

Ends 22 September

A large scale painting by Pat Mautloa on his show of new work at the Goodman

Taking its impetus from the fraught spaces of the city, both inhabited and deserted, this show looks like a perfect companion to David Koloane's show at the Goodman earlier this year. Movement and trace inform Mautloa's body of work, which explores a variety of different media from photography and painting to drawing and installation.
Opens September 11, closes October 2.

See review

Peter Magubane
First sight of the sea
Drum 1960

Johannesburg Station, these children were leaving for the seaside to see the sea for the first time

Alf Khumalo
She cures with bath and a prayer
St John's Apostolic Faith Mission

Both images © Bailey's African History Archives
PO Box 37
Lanseria 1748 Johannesburg
(011) 659-2615

Gerard Sekoto
Cape Town Women 1944
Pencil

Not much of an introduction is needed for this powerful series of exhibitions presented by the Standard Bank Gallery. 'Gerard Sekoto Repatriated' presents a selection of works from over 2000 returned from France in 1997, following the resolution of many logistical, legal and tax issues and much negotiation between the Sekoto Foundation and the French and South African governments. Sekoto, who died in Paris in 1993 after almost 5 decades of self-imposed exile, bequeathed his work to the South African public. On the annual Gerard Sekoto Day for Children, galleries around the country carry out his wishes that the work be used for the upliftment of historically disadvantaged children through the arts.

'Waste into Beauty' is the title of Richman Buthelezi's exhibition which also serves to introduce him as the gallery's artist-in-residence from September 14-30, 9h00 - 16h00 daily. Buthelezi recently received the Mail and Guardian Greening the Future Award for his social conscience and creativity. His work is created (after researching and consulting with the Plastic Federation for safety reasons) predominantly from the reconstitution of waste plastics found in the dumping sites behind his house in Dobsonville, near supermarkets and on streets and pavements. The artist melts these onto stretched roofing plastic with a heat gun, then shapes and controls with a wet cloth. The result is ingenious: visually stunning, complexly textured figurative and abstract studies that are directly informed by his environment, both technically and conceptually.

Sam Nhlengethwa Staircase (1998)
Collage and oil on canvas

The Johannesburg Art Foundation is super-colonial splendour at its slightly decaying best. Home to the recently-inaugurated Bill Ainslie Gallery, its wooden floors reverberate and it is impossible, no matter how lightly you tread, to walk quietly. Which is a fair metaphor for the vanguard figure that was Bill Ainslie and the group of artists showing here in his honour.

Willem Boshoff's Privatised Diaries and Gaea 1 always succeed in seducing, as does Sam Nhlengethwa's work, especially the minimal mixed media interiors of Untitled and The Black Bowl. Kay Hassan's Untitled (installation) in the recessed arch in the main space is compelling for its equal measures of complexity and accessibility. In what probably once was a fireplace, Hassan dumps trashy, hot-pink women's stilettos in amongst a pile of old bread loaves and rolls. From government issue to dainty knotted dinner buns, these are indicators of basic requirements and luxury items; of necessity and surplus - bread, dough, money. A gigantic collaged arm on the adjacent wall holds a plate and reaches out towards the heap. It is stunning in its deceptive simplicity.

According to co-ordinator Anna Varney, the gallery marks the beginning of a new era for the Johannesburg Art Foundation and for the art-going public. Artists can submit exhibition proposals and portfolios to Anna for consideration. A flexible programme in place until the end of 2000 will provide opportunities to see work by staff and students of the Foundation.

Anna Varney can be contacted on 083 269 6917.

Nuno da Cruz
Work on paper

Emil Nolde (1867-1956)
Prophet
Woodcut.

Isaac Khanyile
African Woman (detail)
bisque fired terracotta, imiyeko beads

The Civic Gallery Johannesburg is mounting a show of work by 10 senior students from the Department of Fine Arts, Technikon Natal. The department is an impressive 115 years old and has produced artists with international reputations. Staff members are all practising artists of clout and include Andries Botha, Jeremy Wafer, John Roome, Lola Frost, Hennie Stroebel and Jan Jordaan. Graduate student Isaac Khanyile was Vita nominee this year and is off to Australia on a Commonwealth Scholarship. In the knowledge that only a few students will pursue a career as professional 'gallery' artists, the four-year degree is structured to each student's individual area of interest. All disciplines, from the more traditional to the conceptual are represented, underpinned by the relationship between "form and content, craft and concept".

In the spirit of exchange, the NSA Gallery in Durban is presenting recent work by the staff of the Wedge, a.k.a. the Department of Fine Arts, Wits University. The show features work by David Andrew, Joni Brenner, Natasha Christopher, Alan Crump, Karel Nel, Walter Oltmann, Jo Ractliffe, Colin Richards, Tracey Rose, Penny Siopis, Peter Schutz and Clive van den Berg.

The ties that bind these two institutions are close, with a number of Durban expatriates now occupying the Wedge. These exhibitions showcase the extreme importance of being trained by, and having, staff members that are active in the contemporary art scene.

The Civic show opens Tuesday 31 August 1999 at 6pm and runs until 28 September 1999.

See review

Mark Coetzee
Offering III (1988-96)
black and white photograph bonded with aluminium
1,2m X 1,8m

Cape Town artist Mark Coetzee is presenting an overview of his work from the last 10 years - a show that has come to Johannesburg via Cape Town and Worcester. The work includes large-scale photographs, paintings and reworked found objects, and Coetzee has reconfigured his show for the new space. The artist's concern is with "the way edifice, monument, decoration and public space is used to the advantage of representations of power in Western civilization in South Africa". In his photographs, Coetzee presents the body of the hero, accompanied by the objects that sustain his power: the rifle, the crown of laurels, wings, instruments of Work and Civilisation.

September 5-25.

See review

Abrie Fourie
System faith
1999
photograph

Konrad Schoeman
Spirituality (1999)
computer printout

Kathryn Smith
Regard
Colour laser print
Detail of video installation

The annual competion for young artists was won by Kathryn Smith from a record 279 submissions, 32 of which are on show. The "People's Choice" prixe, voted for the people and by the people, will be announced by William Kentridge at a lecture he is giving on the competition on Wednesday 1 September at 18h00. The presentation takes place at the Pretoria Art Museum.

The show closes September 8.

"Wedge" invite

Malcolm Payne
Colour Test 1974
Screenprint

Conrad Botes

Kay Hassan
Egoli (The City of Gold) 1998
Installation detail

Jean Brundrit 1998
Does Your Lifestyle Depress your Mother? Series
Black and white photograph

"Democracy's Images, Photography and Visual Art After Apartheid"

This is the show curated by the team of Katarina Pierre, Rory Bester and Jan-Erik Lundstrom (note to Tracy: two dots over the o)which opened at the BildMuseet in Umea (note to Tracy: the a has a little circle above it) in the European autumn last year. "The curatorial intention," says Lundstrom in a catalogue essay, "was exactly to examine the visual arts as they took shape during these years (1994-8) of rapid and dramatic changes". The artists on the show are Jodi Bieber, Jean Brundrit, Kay Hassan, Senzeni Marasela, Santu Mofokeng, Ruth Motau, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Cedric Nunn, Tracey Rose, Joachim Schönfeldt, Penny Siopis and Minnette Vari, and the exhibition is an excellent balance of artistic approaches and sensibilities. The show is currently to be seen at the City Museum of Sundsvalls. The well designed and substantial catalogue, with essayists which include Okwui Enwezor, is most desirable.

Bongi Dhlomo
Flashes 1999
Mixed media
Installation view at the Van Reekum

[[Rewind]]Fast Forward.ZA: New work from South Africa

Occupying the same territory as the other shows listed on this page - recent work from a spectrum of South African artists - [[Rewind]] opened at the Van Reekum Museum in June this year, and good attendances have lengthened the life of the exhibition until October 5. Independent curator Bozzie Rabie worked with museum director Frits Bless to put together a show which while for the most part vibrant and powerful, is somewhat diluted by too great a variety of work in a not overly large space. It is a pleasure to see Bongi Dhlomo working again - her installation at the entrance of the exhibition contrasting Johannesburg's crowded township Alexandra with its rich neighbour Sandton is a fine introduction to the show. Other artists include Kevin Brand, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Esther Mahlangu and Robert Hodgins, and Willie Bester. ArtThrob viewers who are interested in overviews of the South African art scene might try to obtain this catalogue as well, with another provocative essay by Okwui Enwezor entitled "The Crisis of Relevance".

Gavin Jantjes
Untitled (from the series Zulu) 1989
Ink on paper

"Claiming Art/Reclaiming Space: Post-Apartheid Art from South Africa"

"Claiming Art/Reclaiming Space: Post-Apartheid Art from South Africa" opened last month at the National Museum of African Art in Washington, one of the Smithsonian group of institutions. The title is derived from a 1995 quote by David Koloane: "Apartheid was a politics of space more than anything ... much of the apartheid legislation was denying people the right to move. It's all about space."

Check review by Siemon Allen

The Museum for African Art
Broadway, New York City

Brett Murray
Guilt and Innocence 1960-90 1999
Photographs, frames
Installation detail

The first major group show of South African contemporary art to open in New York City received an unexpected setback when Hurricane Floyd decided to hit Manhattan on opening night, and following Mayor Giuliani's injunction to all businesses to close early and workers to get out of town, the opening festivities had to be postponed for six days.

"Liberated Voices - Contemporary Art from South Africa", curated by the Museum for African Art's director of exhibitions, Frank Herremans is also a first for the museum - until now, the exhibitions policy has been to show traditional rather than contemporary art. The Museum is situated on Broadway, and extremely well located in terms of attracting visitors - a stone's throw from the downtown Guggenheim and the New Museum of Contemporary Art in trendy Soho. Herremans curated the "Liberated Voices" by paying two visits to South Africa, and on each visit asking the artists he met to suggest other names the artists felt important - and in this way, slowly building up the framework of the exhibition.

Visitors to the exhibition are greeted with Paul Stopforth's The Interrogators, a triptych of the three police officials involved with the death of Steve Biko. This is the only piece made before 1994. From there, reflective works by David Koloane, Sue Williamson and Willie Bester lead on to installations by Brett Murray and Penny Siopis, photographs by Zwelethu Mthethwa, and mixed media pieces by Richman Buthelezi, Samson Mnisi, and Thabiso Phokompe. In the lower gallery, Bridget Baker, Sandile Zulu and Claudette Schreduders represent the younger generation of South African artists.

Willie Bester
Toxic 1999
Oil on paper

"Conflux" at the Tendances Mikado, Luxembourg

Curated by Louis Jansen van Vuuren and co-ordinated in Luxembourg by Sally Arnold, "Conflux", a group show by 21 South African artists opened at the Tendances Mikado Gallery under the gallery directorship of Nathalie Reuter on September 9.

The concept of the show was "flexible, nomadic", with artists working in a wide variety of contemporary media, and Reuter reports that response from gallery goers, the French and German language press and on Luxembourg Television (RTL) has been most positive. Participating artists are Arlene Amaler-Raviv, Val Archer, Sally Arnold, Bongi Bengu, Willie Bester, Lien Botha, Kevin Brand, Mark Coetzee, Claire Gavronsky, Eunice Geustyn, Francine Scialom Greenblatt, Lize Hugo, Komo, Dorothee Kreutzveldt, Fritha Langerman, Mustafa Maluka, Xolile Mtakatya, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Sam Nhlengethwa, Jill Trappler,and Louis Jansen van Vuuren.