Archive: Issue No. 37, September 2000

Described as one of the "rare moments of boisterous energy in an otherwise tranquil exhibition" by Christopher Phillips, of Art in America, Candice Breitz's installation, the 'Babel Series' was exhibited for the first time at the 6th Istanbul Biennale, in September, 1999. In June the installation was exhibited at the Centre d'Art Contemporain, Geneva, Switzerland and on September 6 will open as part of a group show at the Fotogalerie Vien, Vienna.

The series consists of seven constantly stuttering video-tapes. Each steals a fragment of footage from the history of music video. The content of each video is relentlessly simple and literally monosyllabic: the seven different moments are appropriated from various pop performances (the line up ranges from Madonna, Wham and Grace Jones to Queen, Prince, Abba and the Police). Each of the seven moments is then trapped in repetition as it is looped endlessly and noisily before the viewer on a series of television monitors.

The seven tapes play simultaneously in the space of the installation, creating a cacophonous babble that allegorically echoes the biblical story from which the work takes its title. What the seven videos have in common - beyond their reflection on narcissism and their deliberate choice of ambiguously - gendered stars - is that each evokes the primary building blocks of language. Together, the videos bang a millennial baby talk out of a series of dissonant beats, a baby talk that approaches sheer pandemonium. A small fragment appropriated from Madonna's song Papa Don't Preach, has her moaning "Pa - Pa - Pa - Pa - Pa - Pa...." Another video has Freddie Mercury gabbling "Ma - Ma - Ma - Ma - Ma - Ma...." Elsewhere, George Michael whimpers "Me - Me - Me - Me - Me - Me..," while Grace Jones insists "No - No - No - No - No - No...." The bodies of the performers are frozen in language on each flickering screen - constantly emerging and disintegrating as they articulate - both automaton-like in their circular trances and at the same time peculiarly organic in their twitches and jerks. Each contraction of a muscle, gesticulation of a hand, raising of a lip, blinking of an eyelid, is repeated hypnotically over and over again as the loops run.

The piece was mentioned by David Hunt in an interview with Breitz published in Flash Art, March/April, 2000. Hunt commented that "an interest in the tyranny of language seems to resonate in many of [her] works, none of which seem to vest faith in language as a means of communication. Rather, language often appears mangled, contorted, violent - giving [her] work a dark edge".

In a generous, insightful and unpatronising attempt to increase the artistic and cultural contact between South African and Dutch artists, a South African living in the Netherlands, Andrea Rolfes and a Dutch art project manager, Arend-Jan Weysters of Stichting AKKA, designed the Holland South Africa Line project (HSAL). The following artists from the Netherlands are participating: Tiong Ang, Paul Bogaers, Clea Daiber, Femke Van Heerikhuizen, Judith Krebbekx, Jurgen Meekel and Sandra de Wolf. Their South African counterparts are: Kevin Brand, Bridget Baker, Nadja Daehnke, Abrie Fourie, Isaac Nkosinathi Khanyile, Dorcas Mamabolo and Stephen Maqashela. Phase one of the project is currently underway in Amsterdam, where the South Africans have been working with the Dutch artists in their studios. "Dialogue" and "communication" between the artists is the project's primary basis and objective.

The resulting artworks will be exhibited in Amsterdam on September 3rd in a massive dockside exhibition centre called, "De Bagagehal" (The Baggage Hall) and will be opened by the acting ambassador and cultural attach� to the South African embassy, Andrew le Roux, and will reflect the interpersonal and intercultural dialogue between the artists, as well as their individual creative input.

Opening: September 3

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