Current Review(s)
Hail to the Thief
Brett Murray at Goodman Gallery CapeMurray’s latest solo offering at the Goodman Gallery is everything one would expect from an artist who has spent over two decades bouncing three-dimensional tirades against authoritarianism and corruption off gallery walls. Falling neatly within this established line of attack, 'Hail to the Thief' is directed at the capriciousness of South Africa’s current political elite. The irony of Murray’s chosen subject, namely the coincidence of pseudo-socialist sloganeering and the spoils of privatized capital all exiting and entering the same set of mouths, has become a common butt of certain brands of South African humour and is difficult to miss.
The show follows on formally and thematically from Murray’s previous Goodman offering, 'Crocodile Tears' (2007; 2009). But while the list of ingredients is similar the palette has soured considerably – corporate maroons and deep soviet reds have replaced pastel blues while anger has replaced bemused astonishment. Populated by satire, sarcasm, and a major dose of disillusionment, the show is made up of a series of mocking screen prints, wall-mounted sheet-metal cutouts of populist insignia, badge-styled resin and aluminum reliefs, perspex cutouts and wooden collages, a take-away lithographed poster (featuring the ANC logo with the words, 'FOR SALE') and two freestanding bronzes. The bronzes, one party state (a seated, smoothly polished and chubby ape with both hands gripping and proffering his penis) and the party vs. the people (a larger ape mounting another from behind) are the subtlest of the works. Tellingly, one party state is an adaptation of a similar work Murray made in the 80s titled voortrekker.
20 November 2010 - 08 January 2011
Listings(s)
'Hail to the Thief II'
Brett Murray at Goodman GalleryThe now-infamous Brett Murray exhibition 'Hail to the Thief II' continues at the Goodman Gallery until 16 June 2012.
Much more than a one-trick pony, the show takes a broad swipe at the new dispensation in which tenderpreneurs and conspicuous spending have replaced the more ascetic values of the struggle.
The least-frequently acknowledged aspect of Murray's approach is also the most eloquent: his welding of resistance-era self-righteousness onto images and materials that speak of excess, with the flux of Soviet-style text.
10 May 2012 - 16 June 2012
'Hail to the Thief'
Brett Murray at Goodman Gallery CapeBrett Murray returns with a new body of satirical work that continues his acerbic attacks on abuses of power, corruption and political dumbness. Whereas his last show, 'Crocodile Tears', sought to parody Mbeki’s still-born African Renaissance, 'Hail to the Thief' uses the populist imagery and language currently in vogue with the present powers that be to mock and goad. Murray’s bronzes, etchings, paintings and silkscreens form part of a vitriolic and succinct censure of bad governance and are an attempt to expose humorously the paucity of morals and greed within the ruling elite.
20 November 2010 - 08 January 2011
