Archive: Issue No. 56, April 2002

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WEBSITES

Joshua Davies

Joshua Davies
rice paper, KAMAKURA
On www.praystation.com

WEBSITE OF THE MONTH

PrayStation
www.praystation.com

by Lauren Shantall

At the fifth international Design Indaba in Cape Town recently, creator Joshua Davies pronounced the works served up on his site www.praystation.com to be "totally useless". This immediately prompted an exchange between German designer Erik Spiekerman and Getty Images writer Lewis Blackwell as to the nature of design versus art; the need for function and an opposite need, the quest for pure expression.

But Davies was being glib. There is no need to deride virtual artworks, such as designgrafik.II.c, that show an endlessly generated variety of sharp, 3D crystalline forms rotating supremely, unashamedly and beautifully through imagined space. Unless he was trying to be humble.

New York-based Davies is an inquisitive developer and programmer who applies design concepts to computer technology - often just to see what will happen. As he puts it, there are "successes, failures, and accidents". Mostly, however, the results collected for perusal via the praystation.com interface constitute some of this planet's most advanced experiments in the narrow but expanding field of new media/computerised art.

In plainspeak, Davies writes computer programmes that will originate unique artworks each time they are executed. Look at rice paper, KAMAKURA for instance. Inspired by the repetitive, stylised patterns of hand-inked rice paper, Davies got his computer to ink up an infinite range of its own designs. Considering practical applications and the potential commercial spin-offs, what is so "useless" about that?

For feats such as this, the cyberarts competition Prix Ars Electronica 2001 handed out praise. You'll probably want to add your own once you have navigated your way, via the neat side tool bar, through Davies' moody Poems to the Sea.

As for the philosophical defence of such works, that will depend on whether or not you wish them to be other than random cybernetic ephemera, albeit gorgeously clad in Davies' visual style and occasional sound effects, that stretch us beyond what was previously possible on our computer screens. In my view, that means they have already done more than enough.

SUBMIT Website


NEW LISTINGS

www.kknk.co.za

A melting potjie of art, language, politics and the best koeksisters this side of the Swartberg, the annual Easter festival offers its highlights online.

www.theantsnest.com

A resource for designers and artists, you need to become a soldier ant in order to submit work for exhibition and receive invitations to ant art events.

www.onair.co.za

Use this page to access websites for The | Premises gallery at the Johannesburg Civic Centre and arts consultancy group The Trinity Session.

www.ctheory.net

Thin on current theory? Then dial-up, update and join the intellectual fray with the help of this regular e-journal edited by Arthur and Marilouise Kroker.

www.greyworld.org

Human-oriented public artists and audiophiles par excellence, the members of Greyworld colour those empty, interstitial spaces with interesting sonic effects.

www.bigtorino.net/english

Visit the gorgeous website of the International Biennial of Young Art, held from April 19 to May 19 2002.

www.guardian.co.uk/gall/0,8542,669680,00.html

London's Guardian newspaper presents selected exhibits from 'Body Worlds', the anatomical exhibition of real human bodies that has been seen by over eight million people worldwide.


GALLERIES, MUSEUMS AND INSTITUTIONS

http://hanelgallery.com

Home page of the Hänel Gallery in Shortmarket Street, Cape Town.

www.ava.co.za

One of the oldest galleries in Cape Town, the AVA provides space for a continuous round of exhibitions decided upon by a committee.

www.bangthegallery.co.za

An energetic Cape Town gallery run by artist Alex Hamilton, exhibiting paintings, sculpture, ceramics, jewellery and photography.

www.batcentre.co.za

Durban's Bartel Arts Trust acts as a community cultural centre on the harbour, with exhibitions, art shops and music, theatre and dance venues.

home.mweb.co.za/ch/chelsart/gallery

Small, functional site of a gallery located in Cape Town's picturesque Wynberg. Current exhibitions are listed and work by gallery artists can be referenced.

www.districtsix.co.za

Website commemorating the area of District Six and honouring the people who fought against the forced removals and Group Areas Act.

www.goodman-gallery.com

Home of South Africa's top art dealer, Linda Givon, whose artists include Kendell Geers, William Kentridge, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Sue Williamson and Moshekwa Langa.

www.artjoao.co.za

Cape Town dealer João Ferreira's gallery in Hout Street showcases work by top South African artists.

www.kgg.gov.za

Home of the Port Elizabeth gallery, with news of current exhibitions and activities and a virtual tour of some highlights.

www.mtnartinst.com

Information about MTN's corporate art collection, gallery and educational institute.

www.museums.org.za

A portal offering access to most of South Africa's national and regional museums.

www.museums.org.za/sang

Comprehensive site with info about the permanent collection, temporary exhibitions, library and newsletters.

www.nsagallery.co.za

The website of Durban's top gallery, run by the Natal Society of Arts.

www.owlhouse.co.za

Helen Martins' home and sculpture garden in Nieu-Bethesda are beautifully documented, alongside info about the Owl House Foundation's conservation efforts.

www.pelmama.org

This site brings together the former collection of Fernand F Haenggi, comprising mainly 1970s and 1980s works by South African artists including Norman Catherine, Lucas Sithole, Judith Mason and Lucas Seage.

www.photocentre.org.za

The Cape Town based centre co-ordinates activities aimed at fostering the development of the practice, teaching, scholarship and criticism of photography.

www.ruthprowse.co.za

One of Cape Town's more enduring art institutions, housed in a historic farmhouse once owned by artist Ruth Prowse.

www.vgallery.co.za

This online gallery promotes visual artists in South Africa with the aim of selling work, and includes articles, news and profiles.


GALLERIES, MUSEUMS AND INSTITUTIONS

www.axisgallery.com

The New York-based Axis Gallery, runs by South Africans Lisa Brittan and Gray van Wyk, hosts accompanying online exhibitions and will soon feature African artists.

www.locusplus.org.uk

Download essays and read about the site specific projects commissioned by Locus+, a non-profit arts organisation based in England.

www.gasworksgallery.org

The London counterpart of Jo'burg's Bag Factory and Cape Town's Greatmore Studios, with an international residency programme.

www.palaisdetokyo.com

This beautifully executed website is worth navigating just for its crisp design and excellent animations. It also happens to be the online mouthpiece for the Palais de Tokyo, an innovative contemporary art space in Paris. The book page is especially pleasing - hunt for the quote from Kendell Geers.

www.stroom.nl

Dutch organisation with its own gallery, which also sponsors public art projects by such artists as Vito Acconci.

www.thami-mnyele.nl

The Thami Mnyele Studio in Amsterdam offers residencies for two visiting artists a year.


ARTISTS' SITES

www.alanalborough.co.za

Alan Alborough was Standard Bank Young Artist for 2000 and his website documents the touring show as well as past bodies of work.

www.art.co.za

This site offers visual artists a home on the web, without the costs of registering domains or employing web designers. Artists include Wilma Cruise, Willem Boshoff and Diane Victor.

www.kendellgeers.net

"Kendell Geers - the black hole in the rainbow nation in a fucked up world." This site consists of articles and reviews of Geers' works and writings by the artist.

www.sithole.com

A website in memory of South African artist Lucas Sithole (1931-1994), showing many important sculptures from 1966-1991, as well as biographical notes, pictorial references and stories about the works.

www.signsoflife.co.za/domestic

Photographer Rob Mills reflects on domesticity and the personal realm, using a very simple site as his exhibition space

geocities.com/sknartstudio

The personal website of Cape Town portrait artist and graphic designer Selvin November.

www.southafricanartists.com

This independently funded directory lists over a thousand South African artists and is geared specifically towards online sales.

www.artslink.co.za/stevencohen

Performance artist Steven Cohen's wicked attires and writings can be scrutinised at leisure on his site.


ARTISTS' SITES

www.kenotaphion.org

What can you hear during a Minute of Silence? Artist Jonty Semper's audio works ask disquieting questions about ritual and commemoration.

www.africaserver.nl/kheto/index.html

A virtual exhibition of the works of Mozambican painter Kheto Lualuali, who has lived and worked in Amsterdam since 1998.

www.bosweb.nl/rm

Rob Moonen is a Dutch conceptual artist known to many South Africans after he participated in a Cape Town workshop in 1996.

www.nomemory.org

Valery Grancher has an interesting splash page that plays with binary oppositions like love/hate. The rest is less exciting.


EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS

www.capetownfestival.co.za

Cape Town is hotting up indeed, with public art, performance, dance, music and you-name-it on the bill.

www.designindaba.com

Showcase for the fifth International De5ign Indaba, taking place in Cape Town from February 27 to March 1 2002, with transcripts from previous events and bios of the speakers who include Lewis Blackwell from Getty Images UK, Tom Roope of Tomato UK and our very own Garth Walker, head of Orange Juice Design.

www.cell.nl/homeport/capetown

The December 2001 Cape Town leg of the six-city 'Homeport' exhibition is documented with maps, pictures, information on contributing artists, and essays by Sue Williamson, Vincent Kolbe and Natasha Becker.

www.redeyeart.co.za

Information on the monthly Red Eye art-for-all event founded by Suzy Bell at Durban Art Gallery.

library.thinkquest.org/18799/index.html

Artists' response to apartheid is explored through the work of Jane Alexander, Willie Bester, Jonathan Comerford and Helen Sebidi.


EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS

www.biennale.net

Introduce yourself to this "meeting of minds", organised by Miltos Manetas and the Electronic Orphanage.

universes-in-universe.de/car/yokohama/trien1/english.htm

Take a virtual tour, featuring photgraphs and commentary, of the First International Triennale of Contemporary Art in Yokohama.

universes-in-universe.de/car/venezia/bien49/english.htm

This virtual tour from Universes in Universe concentrates on participants from Africa, Asia/Pacific and Latin America.

universes-in-universe.de/africa/short-cent/english.htm

Universes in Universe takes a virtual tour of Okwui Enwezor's ambitious exhibition that "redefines Africa's place in the annals of 20th century history".

www.akka.nl/hsal/docs/index_artists.html

The HSAL Project was designed specifically to have dialogue and communication between seven Dutch and seven South African artists as its primary objective.

www.liberatedvoices.org

This site shows a number of works by each of the artists on New York's Museum for African Art show of work created between 1994 and 1999.


ART SITES AND PUBLICATIONS

www.artslink.co.za

This site becomes more and more useful, with its e-mailing of arts-related press releases available to anyone through its Acemail programme.

www.capearts.co.za

Cape-based artists are invited to exhibit work in the cyber gallery, join the database or list upcoming events.

www.coartnews.co.za

Online version of Clive Kellner and Fernando Alvim's occasional print publication on southern African arts.

www.redmenace.za.net/redzine

Devin Purvis runs this Durban based e-zine devoted to experiments in design, art, music, photography and the internet.


ART SITES AND PUBLICATIONS

www.africaserver.com

Dutch-based site with a particular emphasis on the arts and culture of this continent.

www.africultures.com

This French site features articles on local art, including an interview with Stephen Hobbs and a piece on Tracey Rose. Unfortunately for non-francophiles, most of it is not in our lingua franca.

www.artbyte.com

An excellent e-zine looking at digital arts and culture which accompanies the print magazine Artbyte.

www.artforum.com

This slick site is a natural translation of the print look and feel, offering art world news, critics' picks and selected articles from the magazine.

www.artnet.com

A New York-based website, this is one of the best and biggest, offering excellent reviews and magazine coverage.

www.artsymag.com

Flying the flag for women artists, Artsymag features interviews with Nancy Spero, Guerilla Girls, Judy Chicago and hiphop stars De La Soul. You can also submit your own work for display.

www.britart.com

With a name like Britart.com, you'd expect a few Damien Hirst aquaria floating around, but this email-order art shop focuses on promoting and selling new UK talent.

www.brigataitalia.com

Based in New York and Milan, Brigata Italia presents itself as a centre of digital gravity for people interested in design and communication, where the industrial world meets the digital forum.

www.creativebase.com

From the publishers of ZOO, the renowned arts quarterly, this UK site is a gold mine of information and inspiration, encompassing art, architecture, advertising, design, new media, moving image, photography and publishing.

www.designboom.com

This independent e-zine takes in all forms of the contemporary creative scene - graphic design, music, jewellery, fine art, industrial design, decor, architecture, fashion, furniture ... and the catch is plentiful!

www.e-flux.com

E-flux distributes info on contemporary institutions like the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Tate Modern. The site also features special projects and a free listings service.

trace.ntu.ac.uk/frame/index.htm

UK e-zine looking at "critical thought around the whole subject of how culture and technology are interweaving at the end of this century".

www.Gallerie.net

The gorgeous online version of a biannual global ideas magazine published in India and addressing issues that are of universal concern.

www.newsgrist.com

New York artist and critic Joy Garnett's site with images and prose and poetry and articles of interest to artists.

www.nyartsmagazine.com

NY Arts the print magazine may not be as luscious as Artforum or Frieze but it's packed with interesting articles, many of which make their way onto the relatively new website.

www.temaceleste.com

Tema Celeste art magazine celebrates its first anniversary with a revamp that includes new content and daily updates.

www.turbulence.org

Commissioning and supporting "net art", Turbulence is a pioneering venture. Check out the fascinating The Shape of Song.


PROJECT SITES

www.dplanet.org

Interesting project site that operates at the intersection of design, activism and digital art. Info about the New Media Underground Foundation can be accessed here.

www.lard.za.org

This new website from Lard animation (comprising local artists Melissa Visser and Chris Higgo) shows "lip-smacking" clips from forthcoming releases.

www.sensorium.org

Sensorium is a site of truly wondrous projects involving, for example, the number of earthquakes that have happened worldwide in the past 14 days, and the sounds of the web itself.

www.plexus.org

Plexus is one of the best - great artist projects, articles, news.


RESOURCES

www.africancolours.com

The newly updated African Colours portal aims to inform as well as promote contacts between visual artists within Africa and the rest of the world.

www.cultproduct.co.za

Zayd Minty, organiser of Cape Town's One City, Many Cultures Festival, flights this website for One, his production/curation company.

www.blac.co.za

Home of a loose network of artists, academics, journalists and cultural workers, with updates on activities and events happening in Cape Town.

www.capeinfo.com

The relaunched (and hopefully hacker-proof) Cape Info site is inviting contributions to its events calendar.

www.globalartinfo.com

Ambitious Cape Town-based venture pitched as the artist's "International Internet Career Tool".


RESOURCES

www.artbook.com

The extensive Distributed Art Publishers catalogue of over 2 500 books on contemporary art and culture is now available online. Hide the credit card!

www.bookstorming.com

Anyone with wads of cash to spare - and some spare space on their coffee table - will be storming over to Bookstorming to splurge on this e-commerce site's extensive library of contemporary art publications, catalogues and 150 art magazines. It's retail art therapy.

www.ballistic.co.za/dv8

Refusing to limit style, creativity and genre, DV8 provides a platform and a resource for developing digital filmmakers of all inclinations.

www.queer-arts.org

A not-for-profit educational forum for the display and discussion of queer art and culture.

WEBSITE RESOURCES


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