Archive: Issue No. 36, August 2000

The AVA has three shows opening on September 4. Trudi Dicks, who is exhibiting in the main gallery, was born in Graaff-Reinet in 1940, but has been living in Namibia since 1967. Since the mid-1980s she has exhibited widely both in South Africa and Namibia and has also taken part in some group shows in Europe. Her work was also featured on the 1995 Johannesburg Biennale. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and scholarships. 'Dusty Diary' is the name she has given to her latest show, a mixture of her graphic and sculptural works which include natural and handmade objects.

Strijdom van der Merwe, who is in the long gallery, was born in 1965. He studied and has lectured at the University of Stellenbosch. In 1990 he was awarded a bursary from the Dutch Government to study printmaking at the Hooge School voor de Kunste in Utrecht, Holland and has subsequently also studied and practiced in New York, the Czech Republic and England. He began exhibiting in 1992 in Worcester and, since then, has shown his work widely across South Africa and internationally, both on one-person and group shows. Van der Merwe is well known for his land art which usually consists of an intervention in the landscape which he documents with photographs. This show consists of photographs, silkscreens and drawings.

On the ArtsStrip, Marc Shoul will hold a photographic exhibition entitled 'Beyond Walmer' which results from his "ongoing photographic project that aims to document the �poor white' in post-apartheid South Africa". The project aims to demystify the �poor white' by contextualising its subjects within universal norms and processes of social existence which transcend socio-economic status. By photographing the subjects within environments that are both familiar and comfortable to them, the photographs allow the viewer to depart on a visual adventure with this community." Shoul was born in 1975, studied in Port Elizabeth and has worked extensively as a freelance photographer for a variety of people and publications. He has won wide acclaim for his photojournalism.

September 4 - 23

AVA, 35 Church Street, Cape Town

Artscape's daily programme kicked off on August 4 with its first business breakfast aimed particularly at the arts and culture community within the city. This will become an important monthly event where a speaker of note will address a current topic of interest, and a space will be created for networking and an exchange of ideas.

The speaker on September 1 will be Nicola Danby, CEO of Business & Arts South Africa (BASA). She will deliver an address entitled "An Overview of Arts Funding in SA: Real and Potential". BASA is responsible for establishing and implementing grant-making mechanisms to attract funding of the arts by the business sector. They advise individuals and organisations on potentially beneficial partnerships between business and the arts and on developing relationships with arts business organisations internationally.

Friday September 1, 7.30 a.m. - 9 a.m., cost R35.

Nino's Al Teatro, Nico Theatre Complex, Foreshore, Cape Town

Parking will be made available in the staff car park at the rear of the Nico.

Respected printmaker Stephen Inggs, head of the printmaking department at Michaelis, shows a new body of work under the title 'Continuum' at the Joao Ferreira Gallery.

Opening on 6 September 2000. Until 30 September 2000.

'Symbols of the Self' is the title of this exhibition by Kate Gottgens. The paintings portray a dialogue between the ego and deeper layers of the unconscious, acknowledging universal, archetypal forces within us.

September 5 - 23

UCT Irma Stern Museum, Cecil Rd., Rosebank, Cape Town

The Handspring Puppet Company was formed in 1981 by four Michaelis graduates, and two of them, Adrian Kohler and Basil Jones, will deliver this Wednesday's lecture. The company spent five years touring children's shows throughout southern Africa before mounting their first production for adults. Entitled Episodes of an Easter Rising, this play toured to France after a very successful run in South Africa. This was the beginning of a career in adult theatre, which saw them collaborating with some of South Africa's leading directors including Esther van Ryswyk, Mark Fleishman, Malcolm Purkey, Barney Simon and, notably, artist William Kentridge. From the time of Barney Simon's Starbrites, Handspring's work has become well known both here and abroad and their collaboration with Kentridge has produced plays that have been invited to many festivals and theatres in Europe and North America.

Kohler and Jones will be talking about the development of their work and in particular about their latest production The Chimp Project: - a play about a chimpanzee who has been taught to communicate with sign language and thinks she's human. The production premiered in Germany in June and will have a short run in Cape Town at the Nico Malan Theatre Complex from September 27 - October 7.

Wednesday August 23, 1 - 2pm

'Wrap', showcases the diverse work of three postgraduate students from the University of Stellenbosch. Liza Grobler is exhibiting photographic collages that she has enlarged, plasticised and fashioned into padded cushions. The collages include diary notes, newspaper clippings and personal snapshots. The works are all entitled Pirate Copying...the meaning of life and each is framed by a frill of white plastic. Grobler's name is signed in a similarly upholstered rosette suspended above each work. Passing thoughts, images from the media and existential questions are all given this treatment, frozen and preserved in this kitsch but somehow appealing manner. Saar Maritz is showing a series of silver and enamel rings as well as a few large brooch-like objects made from wood, chocolate wrappers and aluminium leaf amongst other materials. These she describes as "autobiographical", and take the form of such images as a rose attached to a cartoon-like wall plug. As artworks these are more successful than the more conventional jewelery which is nonetheless quite beautiful. Marlise Keith is showing a series of works she has made by stretching dressmaking patterns over mirrors, and working into the resulting surfaces. These have a nice well-constructed feel to them although they seem at times self-consciously na�ve. Their obscurity and illegibility plays off against the clear instructions borne out by the clothing patterns and the normally clear reflection of a mirror.

Seemingly disparate, the show has been put together to provide an intimate and sincere glimpse into the worlds of these three artists. It certainly does its work in questioning one's accepted notions of what comprises an artwork both in form and content.

On the pavement outside the gallery Hubi Thipe is making and selling an odd assortment of wire and papier mach� animals. These are quite striking creations and he is clearly gifted with an unusual sense of form. DC Art is one of the few galleries that manages to straddle the line between art and craft with great aplomb and show a representative collection of work. They often host events which deal sincerely and thoroughly with pertinent issues. An example would be the show last year around Heritage Day which explored the history of the very Square on which they are situated.

August 10 - September 9

This exhibition of prints, entitled 'How the Land Lies', features the work of three very accomplished artists and printmakers. Stellenbosch-based Lyn Smuts is a sculptor and printmaker of seriousness and sensitivity. Sophie Peters, who works from Cape Town's Greatmore Studios, is well known and has exhibited extensively. Lien Botha is best known for her photography and was the recipient of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award two years ago.

August 15 - September 2

     See Reviews

Wayne Barker, Claire de Jong, Barend de Wet and Elmi Badenhorst are producing a show of combined and individual pieces in a variety of media. They are currently creating the work in the gallery where they claim to be "questioning authorship of art in the new media". By embracing their individual freedom they liken this process to that of the dadaists, surrealists and the beat poets.

Tuesday August 8 - September 16

     See Reviews

Stanley Pinker was born in Namibia and has lived in South Africa, France and the UK. He has taught both at the Cape Town Art Centre and at the Michaelis School of Fine Art. He has participated in numerous group exhibitions in South Africa and abroad and has held several one-person shows at the AVA over the years. His work is in many private and public collections across the country. Pinker's works, mostly oil paintings, explore the human condition with wit, satire and visual pun. He is distinguished by his vibrant colours and unusual compositions which often include text. This exhibition, in the Main gallery and on the ArtsStrip, showcases his recent work.

Silke Berens is a newcomer whose first one-person show will take place in the Long Galllery. She was also born in Namibia and graduated from the Foundation School of Art in Cape Town in 1997. Since then she has been practising as a full-time artist. She has been living in Namibia for the last year, focusing on her painting and undertaking community mural projects in L�deritz, as well as work on commission. She makes use of the extreme light and shadow of the desert where she has been living as metaphors of "metaphysical tensions".

August 14 - September 2

     See Reviews

Andrew Verster's latest body of work, entitled 'Indus', was once more inspired by a trip to India. The highly prolific Verster delights as much in the rich and sensuous textures of India as in the colours and qualities of his painting. Verster maintains that his visits to India have profoundly changed the way he sees.

Wednesday August 2 - August 26

     See Reviews

This Sanlam Art Collection was begun in the late 1960s and has subsequently become one of the largest corporate collections in South Africa. From the outset, a policy of acquiring works to build a representative collection of South African art was adopted, and it consequently showcases works by acclaimed South African artists, both contemporary and from the past. This exhibition provides a unique opportunity to see the most recent acquisitions in the collection.

The show runs from August 16 to September 30.

The South African National Gallery Library will be holding a sale of books, exhibition catalogues, journals and slides on South African art and other subjects. Proceeds from the sale will be used to maintain the library and its invaluable services to the public. There are normally lots of bargains to be had and some real treasures to be found.

10am - 2pm, Wednesday August 9

The Lipschitz Gallery will be open on National Women's Day, August 9, when they will host an exhibition of the work of women artists from all over the country. Featured on this show is work by Tanya Bonello. Bonello was born in Durban and graduated from Michaelis in 1994, with a major in painting. She currently works in a variety of media, including sand and plaster. She recently completed a commission for the Cango Caves Interpretive Centre. This massive multi-media work was done in collaboration with Stephen Croeser and depicts various aspects of earth history, focussing particularly on the Cango cave system.

The show runs from the 9 to 31 August.

Sue Williamson is a well established practising artist, known for her multi-media works that probe South African political history. She has exhibited extensively in South Africa and abroad. Williamson is also well known for her two books, 'Resistance Art in South Africa' published in 1989, and, 'Art in South Africa: The Future Present' which she co wrote with Ashraf Jamal in 1997. Alongside producing her art work, Williamson writes and edits this website, which she established, and which is widely regarded as the most comprehensive contemporary art jounal currently produced in South Africa. She will deliver a lecture entitled 'The International Art World and How it Operates'.

Wednesday August 2, 1-2pm

This week's lecture takes place on Tuesday because of the public holiday on Wednesday. Zwelethu Mthethwa, who is best known for his photography but who also works in other media, most recently video, will host this lecture. Mthethwa is a Michaelis graduate with a Master of Fine Arts degree from Rochester Institute of Technology, USA. He lectured in drawing and photography at Michaelis from 1994 until recently when he left to pursue his increasingly successful international career. Mthethwa has exhibited extensively locally and internationally, this year alone having shown work in Korea, Barcelona, Switzerland and New York amongst other places.

Tuesday August 8, 1-2pm

Well known Capetonian artist Alice Goldin will be showing both a selection of her most recent work as well as work dating back several years. Her main inspiration remains the landscape, primarily that of the Cape Peninsula. Goldin works in oils and tempera emulsion as well as various other media. She will also be showing some graphic works here. Goldin has held more than 40 one-person shows and has participated in many group shows both here and overseas. She will be conducting walkabouts of the show on Wednesday, August 16 at 1 p.m. and Saturday, August 26 at 10.30 a.m.

August 3 - 31

In what is touted as "The First Multimedia Serial Shop Window Soap Opera" these two tricksters are putting the soap back into opera. Simple South African icons- a breeze block, institutional crockery and, um, Sunlight Soap- are presented in a fresh, witty way with weekly changes made at the sound of Friday's Noon Gun. Last week simply saw a slowly revolving suspended bar of Sunlight Soap onto the back of which was carved the new South African Flag. That "episode" was called Hope on a Rope. This week's installation, "episode" 6, is entitled Read Between the Lines. The show is being hosted by João Ferreira in the shop window which he rents on Greenmarket Square.

A retrospective of work by Hyme Rabinowitz takes place here. One of South Africa's best-known potters, Hyme Rabinowitz, the South African Cultural History Museum, together with the Association of Potters of Southern Africa (Western Cape Region), will be hosting a temporary retrospective exhibition of pottery by him.

Rabinowitz qualified as a chartered accountant but decided that this was not really the career for him and he turned instead to the making of pots. He started doing part-time pottery in the early 1950s, but in 1962 he set up his own full-time pottery workshop at Eagle's Nest farm which is situated on the slopes of the Constantiaberg. The Rabinowitz Pottery has since become well known in Cape Town and beyond, with many people owning pots made there. During the recent fires that raged in the area, the pottery was nearly burnt down. Rabinowitz's basic credo has always been "to make solid good pots that can give pleasure in the viewing as well as in the using". He still takes a daily walk through the forest to the workshop where he throws a variety of pots for exactly this reason. Judge Albie Sachs will open the exhibition.

July 4 - September 30