Archive: Issue No. 55, March 2002

20.03.02 'Interface' Symposium at Wits University
20.03.02 Exhibition of student art in Bellevue East
20.03.02 Maitisong multidisciplinary event in Yeoville
20.03.02 Karl Kugel at MuseumAfrica
20.03.02 'Erotic Exhibition' at Merely Mortal
20.03.02 Arabella Caccia at Spark!
13.03.02 Tracey Rose at the Goodman
13.03.02 Erika Hibbert at Art on Paper
13.03.02 'The Six Senses' at the Little Louvre
13.03.02 Robert Hodgins retrospective at the Gertrude Posel
13.03.02 L'Atelier regional exhibition at the Absa Gallery
13.03.02 Children's Art and Strijdom van der Merwe at RAU
06.03.02 Hannes Harrs at Gallery on the Square
06.03.02 Ubermorgen at The | Premises
06.03.02 'Arcadia' at Carfax
06.03.02 'Inside Out' at Bamboo
28.02.02 Bonita Alice at Millennium II
28.02.02 Jürgen Schadeberg at the Goethe Institut and Alliance Française
20.02.02 The Meneghelli Collection at Standard Bank Gallery
06.02.02 Graeme Williams at Photo ZA
23.01.02 'Surviving the Lens' at Johannesburg Art Gallery

27.03.02 'Transmigrations' at Pretoria Art Museum
27.03.02 'Jabulisa 2000' at Pretoria Art Museum
20.03.02 Events at the Millennium Gallery
13.03.02 'Coaster Project' at the Open Window
28.02.02 'Revisiting the Painted Surface' at the Unisa Gallery

As part of an ongoing exchange relationship with Umea University in Sweden, the New School of Arts at Wits University presents an international symposium on art and culture dealing with issues of cultural translation between contexts defined as "local" and "global". Guaranteed to be somewhat controversial, the symposium has attracted major international academics and critics to contribute to the debate. There is a planned publication in the pipeline, which will include all keynote papers and transcriptions of the panel discussion to be chaired by Professor Jane Taylor.

The conference brief reads as follows: "Much has been made of the energetic traffic between local and global cultures. The mobility of artists, artworks, the interlinking of institutions and communities across once entrenched boundaries are all now part of culture. Our cross-border encounters and exchanges compel us to 'translate' ourselves and our dislocated artworks. We do not always appreciate the generative power of this 'translation', but too often remain locked in paralysing talk in which translation entails the loss of something 'original'. This hamstrings our creative and intellectual interactions with each other.

"The compulsion to 'translate' has the power to produce new forms of making, of exchange, of mobility. This symposium focuses - openly and critically - on the generative power of 'translation' within contemporary culture. The symposium will given us a provocative interface where we can engage in acts of 'translation' as well as taking 'translation' as our subject."

March 22 and 23. Click here for the full programme

WISER (Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research), 6th floor, Richard Ward Building (East Campus)

Students of Suzette Munnik's studio (Clay+) and Reshada Crouse (Studio 59) will be exhibiting their work at the Ceramic Underground gallery and an annex of the Arts Cool Café in Yeoville. Despite Yeoville's reputation having taken a slide in recent years, the area is buzzing with the creativity of as-yet-undiscovered hip young things. And you can do a bit of celebrity-spotting over a cappucino at the Times Square café.

Opening: March 24 at 6.30pm Closing: March 31

59 Rockey Street, Bellevue East (between Bezuidenhout and De la Rey streets) Tel: (011) 487 2009

Maitisong Concepts, a multidisciplinary organisation based in Yeoville's Kopanong Centre, is launching a new subsidiary, Maitisong Textile & Papermaking Project, with an exhibition titled 'Afrikan Fashion: Picturesque Poetry in Motion Inculcating a Human Rights Culture', aimed at celebrating Human Rights Day. It will feature a combination of both visual and literary exhibitions of fine art, T-shirts printed by members of the textile unit, and poetry and short stories handwritten and printed on a paper produced for the exhibition.

Stephen Mokoena, the business manager of Maitisong Textile & Papermaking Project, said of the initiative: "The project aims to establish and manage various unisex fashion labels under the Maitisong umbrella. It will showcase African artistic creations, labels and logos designed by mainly black artists attached in one way or another to Maitisong Art Gallery.�

Further aims of the initiative include empowerment, job creation, skills development and a leader in the marketing and promotion of exclusively African product both locally and internationally. Participating artists include David Tshabalala, Selemogo Maleho, Phindile Molefe, Thabang Taukobong, Smanje Nene, Thamsanqa Mbanga and Tshepo Sibeko, as well as graduates of Maitisong's training programme and high school students.

Opening: March 21

Maitisong Concepts, Kopanong Centre, Rockey Street, Yeoville

As part of the Journée de la Francophonie (Day of the French Speaking World) celebrations, photographer Karl Kugel exhibits images of fight dance scenes shot on the continent and the Indian Ocean region. Kugel initially came to South Africa in 2001 to conduct a workshop on exhibition design at Museum Africa. A hundred black and white photographs will be exhibited, the result of years of travelling and documenting fight dances. This exhibition, already displayed in Mozambique, will travel to France after South Africa.

Kugel states: "Récits des corps is a work about the connection between the islands, the men and the women of the greater Indian Ocean. It's also a research into the photographic 'medium' and the link between its informational function and fictional dimension. For this work, I have used a method close to visual anthropology, without denying the poetic dimension or the narrative of the photography. Introduced as a fable, photography can indeed come to life in a theatrical installation. That's what I call 'photographic visual setting'."

Opening: March 20 at 5.30pm

Creole and French-speaking poet Christian Jalma, a cappella singer Nathalie Natiembe and fight dancers will perform at the opening.

Walkabouts with the artist will take place on March 22 at 1pm and March 23 at 11am.

MuseumAfrica, 121 Bree St, Newtown
Tel: (011) 833 5624
Fax: (011) 833 5636
Hours: Tues - Sun 9am - 5pm

This fabulous venue triples as design house, cocktail bar and shop that stocks unusual, locally produced objets and art works. The exhibition covers a range of subject matter and media from textile sculptures by Celia Coetzee to photography, ink drawings and paintings and pastels, all with a different view on the subject of erotica. Other participating artists and initiatives include Chris Diedriks, Celia de Villiers, Diana Hyslop, Tommy Motswai, Fatima Fernandes, Tony Nkosi, Jenny Parsons, Scott Wade, Anthony Keyworth, Kai Lossgott, Eugene Visser, The Glasshouse, Tinkertown, Ephraim Ramabya, Mukondeni African Arts, Lindafrika, William Sebidi and of course Adult World.

Opening: March 20 at 6pm
Closes: April 10

Merely Mortal, 356 Jan Smuts Ave, Craighall
Tel: (011) 326 3820 (Heather Greig)
Email: kitework@global.co.za

In association with Gallery Number 10 Hermanus, Arabella Caccia presents a multimedia exhibition entitled 'O'. A central installation of suspended wooden panels with painted glass inserts forms the main focus of the exhibition, which also includes bronze sculptures and drawings.

Opening: March 16
Closing: March 29

Spark!, 10 Louis Road, Orchards
Tel: (011) 622 8297
Pieter Vorster 082 574 2152; Glynnis Jackson 083 836 1210
Email: orchardsproject@yahoo.com
Hours: Mon - Sat 10am till café-bar closes, Sun 10am - noon

Hot from the Venice Biennale comes Tracey Rose's latest three-channel DVD projection entitled Ciao Bella. Staged as a Last Supper scenario with an incongruous, all-female cast designed to challenge gender, historical and political stereotyping, the piece parodies as much as it celebrates icons and masquerading. Accompanying Ciao Bella is a series of photographic prints that function as a kind of storyboard for the video piece. Shot by Andrew Meintjes, they are super-slick portraits of Rose in the various guises she takes on in the video.

Opening: March 16 at noon
Closing: April 6

Goodman Gallery, 163 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood
Tel: (011) 788 1113
Fax: (011) 788 9887
Email: goodman@iafrica.com
Hours: Tues - Fri 9.30am - 5.30pm, Sat 9.30am - 4pm

Erika Hibbert's last exhibition in Johannesburg - called 'Show at Home' (and it was just that) - was a sell-out, proving you can have successful exhibitions in spaces that are not established galleries. Hibbert's earlier work was characterised by large figurative works painstakingly executed in oil and beeswax on canvas. Now, having made a shift from oil painting to works on paper in charcoal and pastel, she has gone from relying on detail and narrative to carry meaning to letting often singular objects carry her conceptual mettle. Hibbert's work is lyrical, technically accomplished and often biographical and her upcoming show reflects a striving for balance between formal aesthetic considerations and the artist's intellectual response to relationships and events in her life.

There will be a musical performance by Gito Baloi and Carlo Mombelli at the opening. Walkabouts are scheduled for Saturday March 23 and Saturday April 6 at 3pm.

Opening: March 16 at 3pm
Closing: April 11

Art on Paper, 8 Main Road, Melville (next to Outer Limits bookshop)
Tel: (011) 726 2234
Email: mwartonp@mweb.co.za
Hours: Tues - Sat 10am - 5pm

Alice van Jaarsveld, Bev Watson, Elaine Cowley, Louise Goudemond, Joan Sainsbury and Mari Weber-Jankelowicz show a selection of new works, predominantly paintings, that explore emotional and physical experience of the everyday.

Opening: March 16 at 11.30am with guest speaker Rae Baur Closing: April 6

The Little Louvre, 69 11th Street, Parkhurst
Tel: (011) 327 1384 Email: llouvre@mweb.co.za Hours: Mon - Fri 9am - 4pm, Sat 9am - 1pm

Having taken this retrospective show to Potchefstroom and Stellenbosch and recently completed a knock-out exhibition of new work at the Goodman, Robert Hodgins is the man of the moment. Hell, he should have been nominated for the FNB Vita Award again. This exhibition tracks the 50-year painting career of Hodgins, who proves again and again that age ain't nuttin' but a number. One of the most inventive painters around, his retrospective includes work from his student days at Goldsmiths, through early paintings to later paintings, experimental works and ceramics, all with his characteristic wit, charm and masterful sense of colour. A comprehensive and rather lush-sounding publication was in the pipeline to accompany this moment in Hodgins' career. Hopefully it will materialise soon.

Opening: March 14 at 5.30pm with guest speaker Professor Gerrit Olivier (Dean: Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences and Education)
Closing: April 18

Gertrude Posel Gallery, University of the Witwatersrand, Braamfontein
Tel: (011) 717 1363
Email: gallery@atlas.wits.ac.za
Hours: Tues - Fri 10am - 4pm

It's Absa Atelier (now L'Atelier) time again, with young artists around the country competing for the R70 000 cash prize (an increase of R10 000 from previous years) and a six-month sabbatical at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. Regional judging is underway, and the overall winner will be announced at in Johannesburg on July 24. This year four runner-ups will each receive R15 000 in cash (an increase of R5 000 per winner from previous years).

Opening: March 14
Closing: March 28

Absa Gallery, Absa Towers North, 161 Main Street, Johannesburg
Tel: (011) 350 4588
Email: juliemc@absa.co.za
Hours: Mon - Fri 9.30am - 3.30pm

The Pretoria regional show is at the Association of Arts, Pretoria, opening on March 17 and closing March 26.

Association of Arts, 173 Mackie Street, Nieuw Muckleneuk, Pretoria
Tel: (012) 346 3100
Fax: (012) 346 3125
Email: artspta@mweb.co.za
Website: www.art.co.za/artspta
Hours: Tues - Fri 10am - 4.30pm, Sat 10am - 12pm

At the RAU Gallery until March 16 is 'I Dream Of ...', an annual exhibition of children's art sponsored by Sanlam.

Across the road from the gallery is a new shopping and student meeting spot called Campus Corner, where land artist Strijdom van der Merwe has been commissioned to produce a public piece. He is currently installing the work, and the site is open to visitors during the installation process, which should take another week or so.

Rand Afrikaans University, cnr Kingsway and University Road, Auckland Park
Tel: (011) 489 2099
Hours: Mon - Fri 9am - 6pm, Sat 9am - 1pm

'My Africa' is the title of an exhibition of recent work by the German-born Hannes Harrs at Gallery on the Square. Harrs first came to Africa in the Fifties and has travelled extensively on the continent - showing a passion for its people, artefacts, colours and textures in his work.

Opening: March 9
Closing: March 30

Gallery on the Square, Sandton Square, corner Fifth and Maude Streets, Sandown
Tel: (011) 784 2847
Fax: (011) 784 2849
Email: gots@mweb.co.za
Hours: Mon - Thurs 10am - 6pm, Fri - Sat 9am - 5pm, Sun 10am - 2pm

One of the international stars of the Design Indaba in Cape Town last week, the "artist | company" ubermorgen (www.ubermorgen.com) will be showing "[f]original legal documents and products from various and ongoing digital legal activities" at The | Premises in a show curated by Marcus Neustetter.

According to the press release: "The approach that ubermorgen:: : artist | company has taken is far removed from the traditional understanding of art practice, resembling acts of social net terrorism or radical corporate marketing strategy. Operating largely within the web environment, but not obeying normative approaches to performative public interventions or structured net art activity, ubermorgen applies the professional approaches of a corporation in marketing approaches and brand building, backed by the understanding of online communities and radical thinking to a range of projects that make an impact on large audiences (whether directly or indirectly) around the world. The byproducts of their digital legal art projects often exist in the form of printed documents as well as photocopies, thus making the distinction between originals and fakes very difficult. The exhibition [f]originals (fake - originals) evolves out of this process and focuses on the legal documentation resulting from www.vote-auction.net (initially www.vote-auction.com), where they offered United States voters the opportunity of selling their votes online during the last general election, which saw George W Bush elected as president."

For more information, contact Marcus Neustetter on 082 9291569 or mn@onair.co.za.

Opening: March 8 at 6pm
Closing: March 23

The | Premises, Johannesburg Civic Theatre, Braamfontein
Tel: (011) 403 3408 ext 184 (Boy Bangala)
Email: thepremises@onair.co.za
Hours: Tues - Sat 12pm - 8pm

Taking the collective consciousness (or mania) of a video game arcade experience as a starting metaphor, 'Arcadia' is a one-night event featuring an endless, quantified list of who and what you will get for your R50 at the door. With a list this long (30+ exhibiting artists, five electronic musicians, 12 DJs, four dancefloors etc, etc), the event promises a "cerebral, stimulating, cutting-edge recreation experience specifically designed for pomo kids". Visitors can expect a labyrinthine array of installation, video, graphics, fashion, sculpture and photography - and my favourite two descriptors: "sensation boxes" and "autonomous art machines". It's organised under the auspices of the Virus Corporation, among others, who you can visit online at www.counterculture.co.za.

March 9 from 8pm

Carfax, Newtown

Carol Lee has put together an exhibition of paintings and sculpture on the theme of interior and exterior spaces - both physical and emotional/metaphysical - featuring Kagiso Pat Mautloa, Judith Mason, Carl Becker, Olaf Bisschof and Sarah Ballam, among others.

Opening: March 7 at 6.30pm with guest speaker Ruda Landman
Closing: March 17

'Giving and Not Giving' debuted in Cape Town last year at the Bell-Roberts Art Gallery (see Review), featuring painting, sculpture and some documented public interventions. The show now comes to Millennium II and interrogates the idea of home and nationhood, not from a "roots" perspective but more from the notion that identity is derived from, not defined by, place or context. Says Alice: "'Giving and Not Giving' reflects a sense of 'something missing' that is associated with a lack of the essential connectedness on which is based the myth of our allegiance to folk and place."

Opening: March 6
Closing: March 28

Millennium II, 19 Jellicoe Avenue, Rosebank
Tel: (011) 880 5270
Email: mgallery@mweb.co.za
Hours: Tues - Fri 11am - 6pm, Sat 12pm - 5pm

'Voices from the Past' - a festival of "moving stills" comprising 70 works spanning Jürgen Schadeberg's 52-year career - is currently on view at the Goethe Institut (119 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood) until the end of March, after which the show travels to Berlin. The documentary film Ernest Cole, by Schadeberg and his wife Claudia, can also be viewed.

The prolific photographer also exhibits a new body of colour work, titled 'Soweto Today', at the Alliance Française.

Opening: March 12
Closing: March 28

Alliance Française, 17 Lower Park Drive, Parkview
Tel: (011) 646 1169
Fax: (011) 646 4521

The Meneghelli Collection is the largest collection of historical African art in southern Africa, and includes some of the oldest sculptures from sub-Saharan Africa as well as objects of more recent origin. The pieces on this exhibition represent a selection of the Nigerian artworks in the collection, and it is probably the first time that such a collection has been exhibited in Africa outside Nigeria.

The antique pieces are considered by the Nigerian government to be inalienable. As part of the exhibition process, these pieces have been ratified by the Nigerian government through the director general for museums of Nigeria, Dr Omotoso Eluyemi. The collection has also agreed to "repatriate" 16 pieces to Nigeria.

This is an exhibition of great historical and contemporary importance in terms of the broader cultural production of Africa and should not be missed. There are a number of walkabouts scheduled, so call the gallery for details.

Opening: February 27
Closing: April 13

Standard Bank Gallery, corner Simmonds and Fredericks streets, Johannesburg
Tel: (011) 636 4231
Website: www.sbgallery.co.za
Hours: Mon - Fri 8am - 4.30pm, Sat 9am - 1pm

Graeme Williams shows a selection of images at this small space dedicated to quality contemporary South African photography. Williams started working on his first documentary project, 'Life on Long Street', in 1986 and this genre of work remains his dominant focus. After working in London during the late 1980s Williams based himself in Johannesburg, working for Reuters News Agency covering sociopolitical changes in the region. More recently his work has seen a shift towards a personal and often quite quirky eye. Williams is well-known for his recent publication The Inner City, and he is a founding member of the photographic agency, South Photographs.

Opening: February 10 at 6.30pm
Closing: March 30

PhotoZA, The Mews, Rosebank
Cell: 082 533 7143 (Michelle Rock)

Arriving in Johannesburg after a run at the South African National Gallery, 'Surviving the Lens: Photographic Studies of South and East African People, 1870-1920' is a selection of 50 photographic portraits from the collections of art dealers Michael Graham-Stewart and Michael Stevenson.

The show is intended to offer contemporary South Africans the opportunity to re-evaluate colonial photography of this time and region. At a time when Europeans were busy "discovering" the exotic nature of foreign lands, both amateurs and professional photographers, in the form of tourists, scientists and commercial photographers, were subjecting indigenous people to their exploitative lenses.

As the exhibition publicity states, these images can be seen as art, ethnography, anthropology, amateur snapshots or visual souvenirs, and perhaps even pornography, but the underlying issue in collecting these images for an exhibition - and a lush, coffee-table publication - seems to be about subjectivity. Instead of wondering who took the pictures, we begin to ask questions about why certain images were made, as well as the attitudes of the subjects to their being photographed. The exhibition tracks images of slavery, tribal traditions and the black "middle class" in studio and field images.

Opening: January 27 at 11am
Closing: March 31

Johannesburg Art Gallery, corner Klein and King George Streets, Joubert Park
Tel: (011) 725 3130
Fax: (011) 720 6000
Hours: Tues - Sun 10am - 5pm

Artists' collective Dasart, headed by Ashley Johnson, initiated 'Transmigrations' as an exhibition that is concerned with story-telling "in the belief that the many levels within myth and enchantment are vital to our well-being. Western ways of seeing accept the culturally familiar and reject as superstitious that which is culturally 'divergent'." Thirteen South African artists, among them Rookeya Gardee, Nhlanhla Mbatha, Diane Victor and Wim Botha, are joined by one Canadian artist and one American artist, picked up on the show's journey from here to Los Angeles and Tijuana.

After Pretoria the exhibition will travel to the Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein (Sept - Nov 2002), the Ann Bryant Art Gallery, East London (Nov - Jan 2003), the Durban Art Gallery and the Tatham Art Gallery, Pietermaritzburg.

Further information on 'Transmigrations: Rituals and Items' as well as archival information on Dasart can be accessed at www.geocities.com/dasart.

Opening: April 6 at noon
Closing: July 21

Pretoria Art Museum, corner Schoeman and Wessels streets, Arcadia
Tel: (012) 344 1807/8
Fax: (012) 344 1809
Email: artmuseum@pretoriagov.za
Website: www.pretoria.gov.za/pam
Hours: Tues, Thur - Sat 10am - 5pm, Wed 10am - 8pm, Sun 12pm - 5pm

Direct from the Johannesburg Art Gallery, this is a sprawling exhibition that covers every conceivable aspect of creative production in KwaZulu-Natal from contemporary art to crafts. While it cannot be faulted for being too selective, the exhibition would have benefited from more rigorous curatorial strategy and exhibition design.

Opening: April 2
Closing: May 5

Pretoria Art Museum, corner Schoeman and Wessels streets, Arcadia
Tel: (012) 344 1807/8
Fax: (012) 344 1809
Email: artmuseum@pretoriagov.za
Website: www.pretoria.gov.za/pam
Hours: Tues, Thur - Sat 10am - 5pm, Wed 10am - 8pm, Sun 12pm - 5pm

There will be a stockroom clearance sale until March 23. Next up, Maxi Pretorius exhibits glass pieces.

Opening: March 27
Closing: April 17

Millennium Gallery, 75 George Storrar Drive, Groenkloof
Tel: (012) 460 8217
Fax: (012) 346 5552
Cell: 083 263 5842
Email: mgallery@mweb.co.za
Website: www.art.co.za/millenniumgallery
Hours: Tues - Fri 10am - 5pm, Sat 10am - 1pm

An international group of artists called TransCultural Exchange held its first project in 2000, dubbed the 'Coaster Project'. Launched at the London Biennale, the response was so successful, they followed it up with a repeat show at New York's Hudson Gallery. TransCultural Exchange member artists each produced small artworks in the form of coasters that were exhibited then distributed free to patrons of Cynthia's Cyberbar in London and the Telephone Bar in New York.

As part of the Fuller Museum of Art's public outreach programme, TransCultural Exchange has now arranged a new 'Coaster Project', featuring 99 artists in different countries. Each will produce 100 original artworks on coasters that will be redistributed so that each participating country gets a complete set, to be exhibited locally. South Africa will be represented by Wilma Cruise and the coasters will once again be distributed in bars and restaurants, as well as being shown at the Fuller Museum and the Guggenheim in Bilbão.

For more information go to transculturalexchange.com and click on coasterproject.

There will be a special themed dinner at Trattoria San Lorenzo in Rivonia on Sunday March 17 at 7pm. The set menu will cost R150 per head. To book, please call Giorgio on (011) 803-6325, Wilma Cruise on (011) 468 2054 or Debbie on (011) 802 5145 (office hours).

Opening: March 8
Closing: March 16

Open Window Art Academy, 10 Rigel Avenue, Erasmusrand
Tel: (012) 347 1740
Fax: (012) 347 1710
Email: gallery@openwindow.co.za
Website: www.openwindow.co.za
Hours: Mon - Fri 9am - 4pm, Sat 10am - 2pm

Claiming to do just what the title says, this exhibition features work from the Unisa collection from the 1930s until now and includes Titus Matiyane's latest epic drawing of New York. His views of London and Lesotho are also on view.

Opening: February 26
Closing: April 5

Unisa Gallery, Theo van Wijk Building (Gold Fields entrance), Unisa
Tel: (012) 429 6255/6823
Email: hattif@unisa.ac.za
Hours: Tues - Fri 10am - 4.30 pm or by appointment