cape listings
Jo Ractliffe
On the road to Cuito Cuanavale III,
2010.
Silver gelatin print
.
'As Terras do Fim do Mundo'
Jo Ractliffe at STEVENSON in Cape Town
Over the past two years Ractliffe has been tracing the routes of the Border War fought by South Africa in Angola through the 1970s and 80s, travelling alongside ex-soldiers returning to the places where they fought for the first time since the SADF's withdrawal from the region. Her new body of black and white photographs follows 'Terreno Ocupado' (2007), in which she explored the social and spatial demographics of Angola's capital city of Luanda five years after the country's civil war had ended.
In 'As Terras do Fim do Mundo' (The Lands of the End of the World), Ractliffe captures the the traces of war focussing on the idea of landscape as pathology; how past violence manifests in the landscape of the present, both forensically and symbolically.
21 October - 27 November
also showing
Simon Gush
4 for Four: A speculative montage for David Oistrakh and Sergei Prokofiev,
2010;
Video
© 2010 Michael Stevenson. All rights reserved
'4 for Four: A speculative montage for David Oistrakh and Sergei Prokofiev'
Simon Gush
Simon Gush presents '4 for Four: A speculative montage for David Oistrakh and Sergei Prokofiev', a musical and visual composition with four storylines that are both independent and interrelated. Accompanied by Prokofiev's First Violin Sonata in F minor as soundtrack, the piece takes as its point of departure the relationship between the Russian virtuoso violinist David Oistrakh (1908-1974) and Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953), one of the most important Russian composers of the 20th century.
Fascinated with the complexities of 'speaking politically', Gush adopts a strategy of not approaching things directly, believing that the most effective way to communicate is through allusion and devices such as metonymy and metaphor. Responding to Eisenstein's use of montage as a political tool, Gush offers an open ended piece where the act of 'saying something political' is continually examined and rehearsed.
Eija-Liisa Ahtila
Fishermen (Études no 1),
;
Single-channel DVD installation
Courtesy of Marian Goodman Gallery, New York and Paris
'Fishermen (Études no 1)'
Eija-Liisa Ahtila
Finnish artist Eija-Liisa Ahtila's 'Fishermen' is the first in a series of five studies or 'Études'. The term refers to a short composition for a solo instrument, intended as an exercise but with sufficient artistic merit to make it suitable for performance. Shot on a beach in West Africa, the piece observes local fishermen who attempt to overcome strong wind and heavy waves to launch their boats out to sea. Although modest, 'Fishermen' is nevertheless visually and emotionally compelling.
'Elevator'
Claire Van Blerck
Claire Van Blerck collaborates with Kyle Morland to present the installation 'Elevator'. Van Blerck writes:
'The atmosphere inside these containers either silences conversation, or renders it forced and self-conscious. The elevator works best as a place of thought and meditation. This work functions as a portrait for the solitary traveller - there is no space in which the individual is more alone than when they are travelling in an elevator, temporary and functionless'.
