Archive for the ‘Non-fiction’ Category
by DKP on Mar 15th, 2012
In a video interview featured in the Telegraph‘s The Culture Minute series, Nicholas Hlobo reflects on what he’s learned under the mentorship of British artist Anish Kapoor when he studied with him as a Rolex Visual Art Protégé.
Hlobo reveals his considered and non-accidental approach to his artworks, and the unique way he stitches together heterogeneous material. Kapoor says that during the mentorship they avoided the “outcomes-based” method:
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Photo courtesy Vogue
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by DKP on Mar 6th, 2012
Towards the end of February, David Krut Projects Arts on Main hosted the launch of the new monograph on William Kentridge written by Kate McCrickard and published by David Krut Publishers in conjunction with Tate Galleries.
David Krut Projects Cape Town has shared some photographs from the launch:
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by DKP on Feb 29th, 2012
Viaduto do Chá – Guy Tillim
Part two of Guy Tillim’s Second Nature exhibition opened today, 29 February, at the Stevenson in Cape Town. Second Nature II displays a collection of photographs taken by Tillim in São Paulo in 2011, and is presented as something of an antithesis to the lush Polynesian landscapes that dominated Second Nature I. The exhibition continues until Friday, 30 March 2012, and is without an opening event.
The second half of Tillim’s Second Nature was taken in São Paulo in 2011. In many respects, these images of the contested urban terrain of a megalopolis appear to be the antithesis of the Polynesian landscapes of the first half of the series, with their reverence for nature and awareness of the elements of water, wind and light. Yet, on closer looking, it becomes clear that Tillim is seeing and perceiving the landscape of these two strongly contrasting places in the same way. In all these images he does not offer the conventional point of focus or easily identifiable subject that is the standard premise for photography; instead, he gives equal treatment to the many elements that comprise an image. A person walking is not more important than a signpost, or a sculptural tree, or a zebra crossing, or a strange building; the eye roves across the image and is entertained by these identifiable aspects but never halts and concludes that this element is the reason for the image. As a result, one is never sure what is actually being photographed, yet one’s eye remains engaged and active within the frame of the image. The paradox that Tillim is photographing nothing yet everything, and that he conflates the notions of subject and object, reminds us that the premise for the Second Nature series is not the qualities of the landscapes of Polynesia or São Paulo, but the way we perceive them.
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Image courtesy Stevenson
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by DKP on Feb 22nd, 2012
Art critic Barry Schwabsky, author of Vitamin P2, a catalogue of “115 artists who have made a fresh, unique or innovative contribution to recent painting”, was recently interviewed by Paco Barragán for Art Pulse, where he spoke about art criticism and the problem of innovation in art:
Paco Barragán -You started writing about art already back in 1984, initially with Arts Magazine in New York, then with Artscribe in London and Flash Art in Milan. What do you remember of those days in terms of art writing?
Barry Schwabsky -I was educating myself in public. Luckily it was probably a small public. Personally I would be afraid to reread the things I wrote during my first couple of years as an art critic. But those were the years dominated first by Neo-Expressionism, then by Neo-Geo, neither of which I was very sympathetic too, so at least I got a quick training in independence.
P.B. -But what are the important differences? Possibilities to publish, pressure in terms of time… I mean that many young curators and art critics today find it very normal to take the plane and go to London, Basel, Venice, and so on, which before was practically impossible and really expensive. Also, I remember I had to send the articles three weeks before over the post and get those big photographs. So, I would like to hear what has changed in your opinion.
B.S. -In that sense, nearly everything. When I was editing Arts Magazine, between 1988 and 1992, we still had to paste up the pages by hand… The whole way of working with a magazine is totally different and of course much quicker now. But I think you are wrong to bracket curators and critics. Most critics are local, they travel very little because they are not paid enough. I don’t know who pays for the curators! But even if they travel more widely, the results are not necessarily to the benefit of the curators. The curators all know more or less the same things, while the critics may have deeper local knowledge (and the limitations that come with it). Take Jerry Saltz for example. Not that he doesn’t travel, of course, but the way he’s taken on a role that he’s created for himself as a voice of the New York art community-most curators don’t aspire to root themselves in a specific metropolitan situation in that way.
Take a look inside Vitamin P2 in this demonstrative video:
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by DKP on Feb 17th, 2012
Kate McCrickard’s William Kentridge is the latest edition to the Tate Modern Artist Series:
It’s not a mistake to see a shape in the cloud. That’s what it is to be alive with your eyes open; to be constantly, promiscuously, putting things together. – William Kentridge.
William Kentridge is one of the world’s leading contemporary artists. His work spans many genres – film, printmaking, books, tapestry, sculpture, and opera and theatre design – but all of these are linked back to the discipline of drawing, which for Kentridge is ‘thinking aloud’, that he finds the most direct way to address ‘an art (and politics) in which optimism is kept in check and nihilism at bay’. With over a hundred illustrations, this survey by author and artist Kate McCrickard is an ideal introduction to his diverse achievements.
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by DKP on Feb 16th, 2012
The New Age features an interview with controversial South African artist Zanele Muholi, whose latest works include images of genitalia created out of menstrual blood.
Muholi’s art is a form of social commentary on the way in which sexuality is dealt with in South African society, particularly the prevalence of homophobia and – at its extreme – corrective rape. Muholi is also involved in several collaborative projects, all with the focus on educating and encouraging an open dialogue on sexual identity:
She’s worked in as many social projects supporting her cause as she’s held exhibitions and despite some stumbling shows no signs of slowing down. Instead (a sharp and out-spoken lesbian herself), she welcomes all controversy as an access point for dialogue.
“I don’t know what the big hullabaloo is all about,” she says, referring to the frequent storm surrounding her work. “If anything, I wish I could just sit down and have a one-on-one with individuals who are against what I do and make them understand where I’m coming from. I don’t ask for people to tolerate me or my work – they are all entitled to their own opinions and that’s enough for me.”
It’s no secret that in 2009 the then Minister of Arts and Culture, Lulu Xingwana, chose to walk out on an exhibition featuring Muholi’s photography, saying it was “immoral, offensive and going against nation-building”. Muholi delves very little into the 2009 incident and rather asks that the minister be respected for her opinion.
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by DKP on Feb 10th, 2012
The first lecture in GIPCA‘s Great Texts/Big Questions series of 2012 will be presented by Adrian Kohler and Basil Jones of the Handspring Puppet Company.
Kohler and Jones will speak about their productions, including the award-winning War Horse which was recently made into a movie by Steven Spielberg, and the “significance of animal characters in a theatrical context”.
The lecture will be preceeded by a short performance, entitled “I love you when you are breathing”, in which Kohler and Jones will demonstrate how breathing is central to the art of bringing puppets to life. Don’t miss it!
Event details
- Date: Thursday, 23 February 2012
- Time: 5:00 PM for 5.30 PM
- Venue: Hiddingh Hall,
University of Cape Town
Hiddingh Campus, Orange Street,
Cape Town | Map
- Queries: 021 480 7156; fin-gipca@uct.ac.za
www.gipca.uct.ac.za
Adrian Kohler and Basil Jones of the Handspring Puppet Company present GIPCA’s first Great Texts/Big Questions lecture for 2012.
With reference to Temple Grandin’s Animals in Translation, these awardwinning puppeteers will divulge details of the influences on their work, and the influence that they have had, in turn.
Grandin is a high-functioning autistic who has written with great insight into the way animals and autistic people think. She explains how the malfunctioning fore-brain present in animals and autistics can in fact be an advantage, leading to a kind of ‘extreme perception’. Kohler and Jones will talk about the influence Grandin’s book has had on their work, explaining why
they enrole their audiences as ‘autistics’ and what the implications of this way of regarding an audience are for their philosophy of the theatre.
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by DKP on Feb 9th, 2012
Mary Corrigal recently reviewed Diane Victor’s haunting exhibition Ashes to Ashes and Smoke to Dust, which combines the impermanence of smoke with the mutability of wax to signify, what Corrigall calls, “the loss and traceability of human life”.
Read her review of Victor’s work:
When Diane Victor first started making smoke drawings, it was to direct attention to victims of violent crime. The medium was ideal for this purpose; the transparent brown residue the smoke imprinted on the paper articulated the spectral presence of the disembodied heads of deceased victims. The burning candles which she used to scorch the paper’s surface evoked rituals to remember the dead.
More pragmatic concerns may have also informed her use of this unconventional medium. In 2006 she was a finalist for the now-defunct Sasol Wax Art Awards, which demanded that artists use wax in creating art for the competition exhibition. Working with wax may have been a crippling limitation for most of the artists, but it seems to have set Victor’s aesthetic on a new path.
Book details
- Diane Victor – Burning the Candle at Both Ends by Karen von Veh
Book homepage
EAN: 9780958497534
- TAXI-013: Diane Victor by Karen von Veh
Book homepage
EAN: 9780958497589
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by DKP on Feb 2nd, 2012
A selection of Diane Victor’s more recent wost will be on display throughout the month of February at David Krut Projects on Jan Smuts Avenue and at Arts on Main in Joburg’s Maboneng precinct.
The exhibition showcases a selection of Victor’s prints, created at the David Krut Prints Workshop as well as some of her work featured at the recent UJ exhibition, Ashes to Ashes and Smoke to Dust.
The exhibition will be on show from the 4th of February 2012.
Book details
- Diane Victor – Burning the Candle at Both Ends by Karen von Veh
Book homepage
EAN: 9780958497534
- TAXI-013: Diane Victor by Karen von Veh
Book homepage
EAN: 9780958497589
Image courtesy David Krut Projects
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by DKP on Feb 1st, 2012
The team at David Krut Print Workshop is currently printing and editioning a new series of linocuts by William Kentridge which will form part of the artist’s upcoming exhibition in Australia. There are almost 60 prints to be created, with many of the images iterating recurring themes in Kentridge’s work:
David Krut Print Workshop at Arts on Main has launched into 2012 full speed ahead with printing and editioning the latest series of linocuts by William Kentridge. Many of the prints will become part of an upcoming exhibition in Australia this year. With almost 60 linocut prints to create, the DKW team and Kentridge’s assistants have pulled out all the stops to get this series done.
Many of the images are recurring themes in Kentridge’s art and stage productions, such as the cat, trees, coffee pots and the nude. The focus on the linocuts seems to be experimentation with how little visual information one can give and the viewer, but still construct form or meaning from the marks. While some images are more obvious, others disolve into Japanbese Ukiyo-e brushstroke-inspired suggestions.
Book details
- William Kentridge Prints by Susan Stewart, William Kentridge
Book homepage
EAN: 9780958486040
- William Kentridge Flute by Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Book homepage
EAN: 9780958497541
Scribd.com book preview:
William Kentridge Flute
Photo courtesy David Krut Projects
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