JUNE 1 - 30
Tuesday, June 1
Ever since Resistance Art in South Africa, a survey of South African art and popular visual culture in the late eighties, went out of print about five years ago, there has been a stream of requests for copies. Now the book is to be re-published by Double Storey Books in Cape Town. What to change and what to leave? Working with editors Russell Martin and Bridget Impey, we have decided on a new cover, punchier than the old one, and I will write a new preface, but apart from correcting some badly reproduced images, the book will stay unchanged. The deadline for the material is the end of this week.
Wednesday, June 2
Also rushing towards deadline is the book being published by Bell Roberts Publishing in conjunction with Struik, under the editorship of Sophie Perryer: 10 Years 100 Artists. I have seven artists to write on for that, and am beginning to feel that I have been chained to the computer for months. I'm sure I'm not the only person getting thoroughly exhausted of having to think about the changes the last ten years have brought to the South African art world. The last year I can remember being quite so busy was 1994 - election year. Roll on, 2005.
Friday, June 4
Have accepted an assignment to do a series of photographs for a book about children at risk from the law, and the different ways justice systems throughout Africa deal with transgressors under 18 years old. Another tight deadline looms, but I am excited about the project.
Monday, June 7
All the new material for Resistance Art is complete. Designer Jenny Young has done the new cover. Hand it all over to Russell Martin.
Wednesday, June 9
Cape Town's 3rd i Gallery keeps up a steady programme of cultural events like book and poetry readings and workshops of various kinds. Tonight television actresses Nikki Jackman and Lucille Greeff, perform a selection of Urban Beat Poetry, bringing to live the precarious existence of the homeless children of the city. Apparently Nikki and Lucille work with a group of street children doing mime and performance twice a week in a project run under the auspices of the Caledon Square Police Station. How times have changed. My own memories of that police station include trying to get back the university books of a friend who had her car confiscated by the police because she had Free Nelson Mandela petition sheets alomg with the books on the back seat, and attempting to get food in to another friend held without charge in the holding cells for six months.
Sunday, June 13
A young German student studying performance art and photography emails me to say she wants to come and intern for me for a while, and will be available from the 14th. Her name is Sonja Kersholt. Brilliant! There is so much to do right now.
Tuesday, June 15
Sonja comes in for the first time, and we pay a visit to Nikki and Lucille's Project Childhood group at the police station. I am thinking that the group could provide a starting point for the 'children at risk' photo essay. The street children meet in a large brightly coloured room with exercise mats on the floor, and today they are practising juggling. Texie's fish and chip shop provides supper for them twice a week, at the police station, and then they go back to sleeping on the street. Some of the kids look a bit out of it, from sniffing glue, but overall the level of engagement is high.
I'm still not sure how I am going to handle the assignment, but we make a tentative arrangement to come back next week to photograph.
Wednesday, June 16
Freedom Day. Off to the University of Western Cape to meet a group of young marimba players, some of whom have had minor brushes with the law. We hope to photograph them for the Children at Risk series.
Saturday, June 19
The barriers between art and other forms of popular culture are constantly shifting. Tonight Waddy Jones, ex of music group Max Normal, is showing his videos at the Bell Roberts, where he is also exhibiting his range of small stuffed animals, designed and made by himself. The videos, made in collaboration with his friend Anri are really funny. Delivered in a na�ve, wide-eyed style, Anri tells the story of her family's picnic on a highway laybye, and her mother's anxiety over her brother's activities.
Tuesday, June 22
Annually, I get an invitation to attend the debate on Arts and Culture in the Houses of Parliament. It's an invitation I've never taken up before - but with a new minister at the helm, Pallo Jordan, I have high hopes of an improvement in the performance of the Department of Arts and Culture towards the visual arts. Well, it couldn't be more lacklustre, could it. This year, the invitation to send artists to the Sao Paulo Biennale lay ignored on some departmental desk, so there will be no South African representation.
Taking the floor in the vast semicircular chamber, the Minister says the Directorate's "most important function is to address issues of inclusion and integration so as to end resource inequalities in the sector. Inclusion of vulnerable groups such as the disabled, youth, women and children is one of its strategic imperatives". Yes, of course, we all agree with grassroots support, but � one wishes so much for some recognition that excellence in the visual arts is also important. The support of a new international event like the defunct Johannesburg Biennale makes sound economic sense, and should be part of the business of the department as well.
Emma Bedford and I introduce ourselves to Jordan at the lunch which follows the debate, and try to persuade him to come and view the Decade of Democracy exhibition at the National Gallery.
Dash from parliament to a hectic afternoon at the Caledon Square police station, working against the light to photograph the kids before the early winter evening sets in.
Thursday, June 24
More blurring of art world barriers. Artist Matt Hindley has collaborated with young fashion designer Richard de Jager for a label called Ha-ii to produce a range of jackets and pants in crazy patterns. Loud diamond checks and cartoon faces decorated the outfits. The fashion show, at Studio 1, also features wonderfully soft clothes from Kirsty Bannerman, partner with artist Doreen Southwood in their tiny shop Mememe on upper Long Street.
Tuesday, June 30
A tall red haired woman comes into my part of the open plan space that is All Star Studio and tells me there are geopathic stress lines crossing my space. Oh, really? Carrying two slender rods in front of her, she announces the lines are entering my space just below the window. Can she please attach some amethysts to the wall. These she will "programme" to cleanse the space, and then they will have to be reprogrammed by washing under the full moon every three months (not by me). Her presence is at the request of someone else in the studio. Well, my life could hardly be more chaotic than it has been this year. Will report back if stress levels diminish.
Meet Tracy Murinik at the Conservation Department of Parliament to examine the linen covered portfolios we have commissioned for the Editions for ArtThrob programme. There is nothing more beautiful than a perfectly made portfolio, and these really are. We're both delighted.
