Archive: Issue No. 136, December 2008

EUROPE

09.12.08 Nicholas Hlobo at the Tate Modern
23.11.08 Urban Reflections, Santu Mofokeng in Edinburgh
27.11.08 Ângela Ferreira at La Criée, France

24.09.08 'Short Stories in Contemporary Photography', Tillim in Zürich
25.10.08 'A Look Away' South African Photography in Berlin
30.10.08 Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin launches with Candice Breitz solo
28.11.08 'Rich Terrain', Roz Cryer and Lara Mellon in Berlin

7.10.08 Robin Rhode at The Hayward

THE AMERICAS

01.11.08 Breitz, Kentridge, Mthethwa, and Rhode at Prospect.1 New Orleans
05.11.08 'Cancelled Without Prejudice', Ismail Farouk in Los Angeles
22.11.08 Liquid Identities Video Art and Architecture in Brooklyn

20.09.08 'Beyond the Familiar' photography in Massachusetts
14.11.08 'Transnational Convergences in African Digital Art'

7.09.08 Mikhael Subotzky at The Museum of Modern Art

AFRICA

18.11.08 Sindika Dokolo Collection at National Museum of Natural History, Luanda

Nicholas Hlobo at the Tate Modern

Nicholas Hlobo's 'Uhambo' marks the Joburg-based young artist's debut solo in the UK, at the Tate Modern no less.

In this exhibition Hlobo intricately stitches together a massive organic form that appears to have invaded the gallery. This new commission, together with a series of works on paper, is layered with bodily references, sexual innuendo and Xhosa fable.

Opens: December 9
Closes: March 1

 

Urban Reflections, Santu Mofokeng in Edinburgh

'Urban Reflections', an exhibition curated by Kirsten Lloyd and Christine Nippe, presents five different artistic positions which reveal a range of contemporary responses to the idea of the city.

The development of industrialised modernity in the 18th and 19th centuries brought a fascination with new technologies, speed and progress. Population explosions resulted in new types of urban environments while advances in optics and chemistry gave birth to photography and film. Since then the lens and the city have been bound together in artists' imaginations as they attempt to represent, comment upon and re-imagine their everyday environments through documentary, avant-garde experimental approaches, photomontage and film.

Drawing references from pop culture, urban studies, literature, and the documentary genre, each of the five exhibiting artists seeks to explore a different facet of contemporary urban realities. A concern with the fragmentation of perception runs through the works: images are overlaid, spaces and emotions are distorted. In these places there are no fixed horizons; boundaries between imagination and reality are blurred, everything reflects and nothing is truly transparent.

Exhibiting artists are Nina Fischer & Maroan el Sani, Germany; Dan Graham, USA; Sabine Hornig, Germany; Santu Mofokeng, South Africa; and Rhona Warwick, Scotland.

Opens: November 23
Closes: March 22, 2009

 

Ângela Ferreira, 'Hard Rain Show' at La Criée, France

'Hard Rain Show' is Mozambican born Ângela Ferreira's first solo exhibition in France. On show at La Criée is Maison Tropicale, created in 2007 for the Portuguese Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. This work is inspired by the history of a failed modernist housing project by the French designer Jean Prouvé, designed in the late 1940s for the then French colonies of Niger and Congo.

Two other works are presented at the Ecole des Beaux-arts in Rennes. In For Mozambique (Model No.2 of a Screen-Orator-Kiosk celebrating a post-independence Utopia), 2008, Ferreira focuses on the historical momentum of the recently independent Mozambique in 1975, linking it to the history of the modernist utopia of Russian constructivism.

Ferreira's third major installation in Rennes, entitled Zip Zap Circus School, opens up a discursive space between what is considered typically European and African architecture by connecting two never built projects: a Mies van der Rohe 1913 bourgeois villa in Holland and a project, designed in the 1990s, by the Mozambican architect Pancho Guedes for a Circus School in Cape Town.

The exhibition is curated Jürgen Bock.

Opens: November 27
Closes: February 1

 

Short Stories in Contemporary Photography, Guy Tillim in Zürich

'Short Stories in Contemporary Photography' presents various approaches by international artists to the strategy of contemporary photographic storytelling, and thus becomes a space of very distinct narratives.

In literature, the short story is a concise fictional narrative often perceived as an ideal form for modern storytelling. One can see parallels between the short story and contemporary photography in which distinct narrative possibilities emerge: documentary photography, in which a story is condensed visually; staged photography, in which a plot is developed as in the theatre; video stills that condense a complex story in a single image; and photography mixed with different media that distorts or transforms into a new storytelling form.

Contributors to this exhibition include Harry Gruyaert, Bertien van Manen, Aernout Mik, Erwin Olaf, Eric Stitzel, Guy Tillim and Erwin Wurm

Opens: September 24
Closes: April 1, 2009

 

A Look Away, South African Photography in Berlin

'A Look Away' is the first of two exhibitions of contemporary South African art at Gallery Kuckei + Kuckei in Berlin. While the first show will focus on the latest developments in photography, the second part, entitled 'Why not?' will present artists working in various media such as sculpture, installation, video and performance.

'A Look Away' presents five photographers from different origins in South Africa: Pieter Hugo, Sabelo Mlangeni, Mikhael Subotzky, Guy Tillim and Nontsikelelo Veleko.

In South Africa, in the years before 1994, photography was first and foremost a tool used to relentlessly visualise the political and social grievances in the fight for democracy. Examples would be the famous works by Ernest Cole, Jürgen Schadeberg and David Goldblatt.

The younger generation of South African photographers strongly draws attention to the unknown and unnoticed in a complex society. The artists selected in 'A Look Away', each aware of their photographic traditions, offer individual portraits of African realities resulting from a personal search for new forms in contemporary photography.

In a time when media and press often convey a simplified and blurred image of South Africa, contemporary artistic positions - in this case photography - can show us how to distinguish and to be skeptical of the broadcast media.

Opens: October 25
Closes: December 23

 

Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin launches with Candice Breitz

A new exhibition space for contemporary art on the Berlin's Schlossplatz, the Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin, will be officially opened with the inaugural exhibition by Candice Breitz 'Inner + Outer Space'.

Breitz's solo exhibition will take place in two distinct parts. In the first part, three existing works that were produced from her Berlin studio will be shown in Berlin for the first time. The video installations Working Class Hero (A Portrait of John Lennon), King (A Portrait of Michael Jackson) and Queen (A Portrait of Madonna) were shot in 2005 and 2006.

In making these works, the artist invited a series of fans of the above artists to each re-perform an entire album by their respective idols. In each of the final installations, the filmed performers re-sing the relevant album in synchronisation with each other, their performances merging into a kaleidoscope of voices, facial expressions and body language, to constitute a diverse collective interaction with a pop icon.

In her most recent work, Him + Her, 2008, which will debut in Berlin during the second part of the show, the artist uses found footage to examine the cult of celebrity from a different angle.

Him places 23 Jack Nicholsons (from a range of films made over 40 years) into confrontation with one another, while Her is essentially a showdown between 28 Meryl Streeps (cut from 28 films made over a period of 30 years). The actor/actress is thrown into a series of psychological encounters with him or herself as s/he is in each case multiplied across a seven-screen structure.

Opens: October 30
Closes: December 28

 

Rich Terrain: Roz Cryer and Lara Mellon at artSPACE Berlin

'Rich Terrian', an exhibition by Roz Cryer and Lara Mellon takes as its inspiration a quote by Carl Jung. In a letter to his wife Emily, the famed psychiatrist wrote, 'I do not know what Africa is really saying to me, but it speaks.'

'Rich Terrain' is an exhibition of mixed media works made especially for this exhibition in Berlin. The pressure of exhibiting in Berlin for the first time resulted in the two artists finding fresh fodder for their ideas and output, thus resulting in 'rich terrain' for their art production.

Both Cryer and Mellon explore personal issues and extrude these onto the canvas surface in similar palette and yet with diverse outcome.

Opens: November 28
Closes: January 10

 

Robin Rhode's Who Saw Who at The Hayward

The Hayward presents South African artist Robin Rhode's first UK exhibition 'Who saw Who'. A recognised talent on the international art scene, Rhode has a growing reputation for inventive performances, photographs and drawings.

Using simple materials such as chalk, spraypaint and charcoal, Rhode turns the pavements, streets and walls of the city into his paper, canvas and backdrop, creating his own reality in the heart of urban society. These two dimensional drawings are then brought to life by performance and captured on film or photograph, as the artist or a döppelganger tries to blow out a chalk candle, juggle with charcoal balls or ride a chalk bicycle.

The Hayward exhibition will give an overview of Rhode's work drawn from the last ten years as well as showing new pieces. The installation brings together photographs, animations and film projects, sculptures and wall drawings. Rhode will also create new commissions for the show in the form of outdoor site-specific works on and around Southbank Centre, turning the whole site into his working 'studio'. These works will be documented and incorporated into the exhibition. In Rhode's work, racial, social, class and geopolitical elements take a central role in the critical reworking of the nature and value of materials and in the action of making art.

Opens: October 7
Closes: December 7

 

Breitz, Kentridge, Mthethwa, and Rhode at Prospect.1 New Orlean

Prospect.1 New Orleans, the largest biennial of international contemporary art ever organised in the US, launched in New Orleans on November 1, 2008.

Produced by US Biennial, Inc., Prospect.1 is directed by curator Dan Cameron, Director of Visual Arts at the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) in New Orleans. Conceived of in the tradition of the great international biennials, such as the Venice Biennale and São Paolo Biennial, Prospect.1 showcases new artistic practices, as well as an array of programmes which will benefit the local community. Over the course of its 11-week run, the biennial will draw attention, creative energy, and economic activity to the City of New Orleans, an historic regional artistic centre, and the struggling Gulf Region.

Prospect.1 New Orleans was conceptualised to reinvigorate the city following the human, civic, and economic devastation of Hurricane Katrina. The primary goal of the biennial exhibition is to redevelop the city as a cultural destination where the visual arts are celebrated and can once again thrive. New Orleans was the first US city to host a recurring international art exhibition, beginning in 1887 with the Exhibition of the Art Association of New Orleans.

In this tradition, Prospect.1 will provide the public with work by 81 local, national, and international artists, hailing from more than 30 countries, who have been selected to participate in the inaugural edition of the biennial. Their works will be shown in some 25 museums, art centres, warehouses, and public spaces throughout the city, for a combined total of more than 100 000 square feet of exhibition space.

Exhibiting artists include South Africans Candice Breitz, William Kentridge, Zwelethu Mthethwa and Robin Rhode alongside the likes of Janine Antoni, Alexandre Arrechea, Luis Cruz Azaceta, John Barnes Jr, Sanford Biggers, Willie Birch, Monica Bonvicini, Cao Fei, Adam Cvijanovic, Skylar Fein, Tony Fitzpatrick, Gajin_Fujita, Rico Gatson, Nari Ward, Xu Bing, Haegue Yang, Superflex and Fiona Tan.

Opens: November 1
Closes: January 18

 

Cancelled Without Prejudice, Ismail Farouk in Los Angeles

The MAK Urban Future Initiative (UFI), Los Angeles, presents a survey of the work of artist and urban geographer and UFI fellow Ismail Farouk. Through video, photography and performance, Farouk documents patterns of spatial injustice and explores a variety of interventions aimed at producing a more just urban landscape.

Farouk's work examines the contradictions of mainstream urban development in Johannesburg and Los Angeles, revealing a common narrative unfolding in both cities: the privatisation of public space and the criminalisation of poverty.

'Cancelled Without Prejudice' includes a selection of video installations that illustrate Farouk's varied approach to circumventing the mechanisms of injustice, including a series of surveillance videos documenting police corruption and abuse of undocumented migrants in Johannesburg. Farouk's video and photography bear witness to similar patterns of injustice in Los Angeles, particularly in Skid Row.

'Cancelled Without Prejudice' is the second part of 'Locus Remix. Three Contemporary Positions', a three-part exhibition featuring the work of Katie Grinnan, Ismail Farouk and Dorit Margreiter.

Opens: November 5
Closes: January 4

 

Liquid Identities Video Art and Architecture in Brooklyn

Micro Museum, an independent arts space in Brooklyn, New York, presents two new shows: 'Metaphoric Sunrise/Sunset' and 'Liquid Cities - Video Art & Architecture'. The latter is the second instalment of an exhibition curated by Luca Curci and features South African video artist and painter Alison Williams alongside approximately 40 others including Stefano Fanara, Italy; Tamara Erde, Israel; Achilleas Kentonis & Maria Papacharalambous, Cyprus; Renata Szulczynska, Poland; Ane Fabricius Christiansen, Denmark; Verika Kovacevska, UK and Gregory Steel, USA amongst others.

Opens: November 22
Closes: February 21, 2009

 

Beyond the Familiar, photography in Massachusetts

'Beyond The Familiar: Photography And The Construction Of Community' is one of a four part programme at Williams College Museum of Art which focuses on the role of photography and film as it reflects, and potentially constructs, cultural identity.

The exhibition brings together 10 photography projects from around the world that span the history of the medium. These projects portray individuals from distinct cultural, economic, and professional groups.

Each of these artists has defined a group - whether by race, class, occupation, or neighborhood - and depicted individuals in a manner that moves beyond portraiture. Instead, each artist explores personal identity in the larger context of social groups.

Artists included in the exhibition are Felice Beato and Peter Henry Emerson from the 19th century; Edward Curtis, August Sander, and Aaron Siskind from the first half of the 20th century; Robert Frank, Barbara Norfleet and David Goldblatt from the second half of the 20th, and recent work by Tina Barney and Zwelethu Mthethwa.

Opens: September 20
Closes: March 8, 2009

 

Transnational Convergences in African Digital Art in Canada

Curated by Dr. Sheila Petty, 'Transnational Convergences in African Digital Art' challenges the perception that Africa appears to epitomise 'the postcolony itself' as 'defined by a sense of crisis' spurred on by failing economies and the ravages of war.

Far from being totally estranged from, or subsumed by, the forces of globalisation, there exist African-driven solutions to some of the challenges facing the continent. These unfold in a transnational context where art and culture are driven by, and transform or surmount, such barriers to advancement.

Included on this exhibition are digital artists Ingrid Mwangi and Robert Hutter, a collective from Kenya and Germany, who have created Cryptic, a Traveler's Diary, 2007 which questions how journey and intersecting histories affect identity. Berni Searle's Home and Away, 2003, explores large scale digital photography of her body to interrogate the notion of home and its effects on black South Africans.

Opens: November 14
Closes: January 18

 

Mikhael Subotzky at The Museum of Modern Art

'New Photography', The Museum of Modern Art's annual showcase of significant recent work in photography, this year features Josephine Meckseper and South African, Mikhael Subotzky. Subotzky's work is an expression of his experience of post-apartheid South Africa's social condition. By placing himself in an extraordinarily wide range of social situations, he allows his own experiences to formulate a vision of the social world around him.

Subotzky's most recent body of photographic work, 'Beaufort West (2006-2008)', portrays a transit town in which, according to the artist, many of the obscured social dynamics that scar South Africa seem to converge and reveal themselves. The photographer was drawn to this subject by the local jail, situated in the centre of the town, within a traffic circle on the main highway between Johannesburg and Cape Town. His images of the town's various populations - inmates, outcasts, families, residents, bureaucrats and passersby - present a unique vision of South Africa's strained post-apartheid condition.

To coincide with Subotzky's first North American exhibition, 'Beaufort West' is being published by Chris Boot Ltd, London.

Opens: September 10
Closes: January 5 2009

 

INPUT - Sindika Dokolo Collection at National Museum of Natural History, Luanda

The Sindika Dokolo collection of contemporary African art presents an exhibition of its most recent acquisitions. The exhibition includes works by both emerging and established artists and aims to highlight the artistic production of young Angolan and South African artists by showing them alongside established African artists.

Exhibiting artists are Abdoulaye Konaté, Mali; Berni Searle, South Africa; David Goldblatt, South Africa; Délio Jasse, Angola; Ihosvanny, Angola; Jellel Gastelli, Tunisia; Julie Mehretu, Ethiopia; Kiluanji Kia Kenda, Angola; Nandipha Mntambo, South Africa; Nicholas Hlobo, South Africa; Owusu Ankoma, Ghana; Willem Boshoff, South Africa, and Yonamine, Angola.

Opens: November 18
Closes: December 18