by DKP on Apr 5th, 2012
Throwing the Floor, Lisa Brice’s first solo exhibition in Cape Town since 2007, opened at the Goodman Gallery last month. The exhibition consists of a series of new paintings which stand out for their “heightened use of colour and reduced form”.
Brice is one of the artists documented in Phaidon’s recently released “anthology of painting”, Vitamin P2. The exhibition continues until 14 April 2012:
Goodman Gallery Cape is proud to present an exhibition of new paintings by Lisa Brice, produced over the course of the last two years in London and featured in Vitamin P2, Phaidon’s recently published anthology of painting. The paintings explore the possibilities and properties of vivid colour, how it is optically perceived, and the effects of the afterimage created by red-green vision in particular.
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Photo courtesy the Goodman Gallery
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by DKP on Mar 27th, 2012
On 4 April 2012, Stevenson will launch Trade Routes Over Time, the first installment in its Trade Routes Project. Trade Routes Over Time, which shows at the group’s Cape Town gallery until 12 May, features the work of Diller + Scofidio, Stan Douglas, Olafur Eliasson, Ângela Ferreira, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Pierre Huyghe, Isaac Julien, Wangechi Mutu, Odili Odita, Jo Ractliffe and Penny Siopis:
Stevenson is pleased to present Trade Routes Over Time, the first installment of the gallery’s Trade Routes Project, marking the 15th anniversary of the second – and last – Johannesburg Biennale.
The biennale organised by Okwui Enwezor in 1997 with the title Trade Routes: History and Geography was a pivotal moment in the presentation of contemporary art in South Africa. The local response was marked (and marred) by tension between the local and the international, and, in essential ways, the immensity of the achievement of the biennale team went unacknowledged. Combined with a fraught relationship to its principal funder, the City of Johannesburg, these tensions illustrated an event that was, or so it appeared, out of sync with its context.
At the time, the second Johannesburg Biennale was at the cusp of an explosion of biennales in likely and unlikely places. In a Frieze review of the exhibition, Christian Haye presaged this development: ‘The effect of having so many shows will inevitably produce a discourse of its own … The next couple of years will see Biennales in Berlin, China and a theatre near you.’ The ubiquity of biennales is now a given, and to critique it has become platitudinous, but in 1997 (and before in 1995) the notion of a biennale in Johannesburg was still a radical one.
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by DKP on Mar 23rd, 2012
A new solo exhibition by Deborah Poynton opens 4 April 2012 at the Stevenson in Johannesburg. In Land of Cockaigne, which takes its name from the medieval mythical land of plenty, Poynton examines painting as belonging to a “land of never-realised fulfillment”. The exhibition continues until 18 May 2012.
Stevenson is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Deborah Poynton, her first at the gallery’s space in Johannesburg.
The Land of Cockaigne was the medieval idea of a paradise of plenty. For Poynton, the act of painting is an attempt to enter this fantastical world – but in an unexpected way. As the artist writes:
In the Land of Cockaigne every wish was granted. I have used this title not because I wanted to illustrate paradise, but because painting itself is that land of never-realised fulfillment. Every painting I do comes from the same need to inhabit this land, to create a sense of engulfment, of complete enclosure, to blind and deafen and numb myself through the senses in order to find some peace. I persist with the image until no uncertainty remains within it, and I am thus provided with the illusion of certainty.
In an essay titled “The Faustian Pact”, released to accompany the exhibition, Poynton describes the image of “the sea in turmoil” with which Land of Cockaigne began:
I would like to talk first about how the exhibition Land of Cockaigne came into being. My initial impulse was a vision of the sea in turmoil. I wanted to do several paintings of the sea close up, without a horizon, to create the experience of being engulfed. I remembered the children’s bible I was given at the age of five, which contained a painted image spread across a double page of Moses parting the waters. Two huge masses of water reared up on either side of a tiny group of people toiling through a narrow passage that ended in darkness. I was so scared of this picture, which depicted the threat of total annihilation, that I glued the pages together so that I would never accidentally see it.
Although in the end I only did one painting of the sea, I dreamed of the Land of Cockaigne, that medieval idea of paradise where hams fly into your mouth and your every sensual wish is granted. Although I was afraid of the sea image, I longed nonetheless for places where one can drown in oblivion. Every painting I do comes from the same need to inhabit this land, to create a sense of engulfment, of complete enclosure, to blind and deafen and numb myself through the senses in order to find some peace. I persist with the image until no uncertainty remains within it, and I am thus provided daily with the illusion of certainty.
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Images courtesy Stevenson
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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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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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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!
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- Date: Thursday, 23 February 2012
- Time: 5:00 PM for 5.30 PM
- Venue: Hiddingh Hall,
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Hiddingh Campus, Orange Street,
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- 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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