Archive: Issue No. 71, July 2003

16.07.03 Jeremy Wafer at Michael Stevenson Contemporary
16.07.03 Sandile Zulu at Michael Stevenson Contemporary
16.07.03 Gregory Kerr at Chelsea on 34
16.07.03 Philip Barlow and Mary Rose Hendrikse at the AVA
16.07.03 Seth Harper and Jesus Macarena-Avila at the Museum of Temporary Art
16.07.03 World Press Photo Exhibition at the castle of Good Hope
16.07.03 Cape Town International Convention Centre walkabout
01.07.03 Liza Grobler and Jesus Macarena-Avila at the Museum of Temporary Art
01.07.03 Rorke's Drift: Empowering Prints 1962 - 1982 at the SANG
18.06.03 Chris Ledochowski at Michael Stevenson Contemporary
15.04.03 Jane Alexander at SANG

15.05.03 Alan Alborough at the Sasol Art Museum

01.07.03 Recent Works by Alastair Whitton at the Ibis Art Centre
16.06.03 National Arts Festival

Having closed its Wynberg doors earlier in the year, the Chelsea Gallery re-opens in Darling. Former Professor of Fine Arts at the University of Stellenbosch Gregory Kerr holds the inaugural exhibition. Kerr presents drawn and painted images of Nguni cattle, an interest in which he has pursued since 2002. These cattle have been closely tied to the economy and traditions of various Nguni groups in this country since their southward migration centuries ago.

Since retiring from his academic post in 2000. Kerr has lived in Schoenmakerskop, near Port Elizabeth, where he has established a studio and teaching facilities. He holds a PhD in Aesthetics and Criticism and has practiced as an artist since graduating from the University of Witwatersrand in 1972. His work is to be found in many public and private collections in the country.

Opens Saturday July 19
Closes August 4

Chelsea on 34, Mount Pleasant St, Darling
Tel: (022)492-3745
Email: chelsea-gallery@mweb.co.za
Gallery hours: Fri - Mon 10am - 1pm, 2pm - 5pm

Philip Barlow's first one-person exhibition at the AVA is entitled 'This Thing of Light'.

In 2000, following several years of commissioned paintings and murals, Barlow began exploring 'photographic abstraction' and blurred images in his paintings. The images he has painted are obscured but somehow recognisable. The works are drawn largely from photographs of people in open spaces, where they move through an ambiguous environment of light and shadow. Barlow displays an interest in light and form and their fluctuating relationship. Barlow was born in Pietermaritzburg in 1968 and obtained a diploma in Graphic Fine Art from the Technikon of Port Elizabeth in 1990. He currently lives and works in Cape Town.

Alongside Barlow, Mary Rose Hendrikse exhibits what she describes as "a fairly open-ended exploration of the possibilities of portraiture". Her aim in these paintings is to express the "transient status of character and the fugitive qualities of facial expressions".

Opens Monday July 21
Closes August 8

Association for Visual Arts, 35 Church Street, Cape Town
Tel: (021) 424 7436
Fax: (021) 423 2637
Email: estava@iafrica.com
Website: www.ava.co.za
Hours: Mon - Fri 10am - 5pm, Sat 10am - 1pm

Jeremy Wafer's first major exhibition of work in Cape Town follows closely on last year's comprehensive 'Survey', held at Stellenbosch's Sasol Art Gallery. Including both new and older work, the show is entitled 'Topographies'.

The title derives from the landscape motifs, which run through a large part of Wafer's work. While the landscape has been represented more literally in his photographic pieces, either close-ups of the ground, stones or in images made from aerial photographs, the less representational works also allude to land or landscape. The repetitive marking of the surfaces or the repetition of similar images in a series relates to Wafer's growing interest in musical rhythm, particularly the repetition of simple motif characterising, for example, Zulu walking songs. Wafer's exploration of landscape relates to marking or measuring, establishing one's place in the world.

Wafer was born in 1953 and has a Master's degree in Fine Art from the University of the Witwatersrand. He taught for a long time at the Durban Technikon (now the Durban Institute of Technology) and currently heads the Fine Art Department at the Witwatersrand Technikon. His work is included in all South Africa's major collections and he has produced numerous commissions, most recently one in collaboration with Greg Streak at the Arabella Sheraton Grand Hotel adjoining the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

Opens: July 23
Closes: August 16

Michael Stevenson Contemporary
Hill House, De Smidt Street, Waterkant, Cape Town
Tel: (021) 421 2575
Email: michael@michaelstevenson.com
Website: www.michaelstevenson.com
Hours: Mon - Fri 9am - 5pm, Sat 10am - 1pm

Sandile Zulu's first one-person exhibition in Cape Town is entitled 'Points of the Delta'.

The show's title refers to the triangular mass of sediment that accumulates at a river's mouth, causing the river to disperse into a maze of smaller tributaries. Deltas have been inestimably significant in the development of human society through the agriculture and cultivation made possible by the deposit of fertile soil at a river's mouth. Zulu also refers to the 100 million-year-old star, 'Delta Cephei', which belongs to Population II, a class of old stars found in the core and in the halo of the Milky Way galaxy.

In this show Zulu employs both a five-pointed star and simpler triangular shape repetitively throughout his large and complex abstract works, which are made literally using fire, water, earth and air. His work is often characterised by the repetitive branding and burning of surfaces and materials. Zulu describes his new work as a continuation and partial consolidation of the investigative process started with his earlier exhibitions 'Fire' (1995), 'Artomic' (1997) and 'Camouflage' (1998). Here he delves deeper into his exploration of revolutionary and transformative acts.

Zulu lives and works in Johannesburg. Since graduating from the University of the Witwatersrand in the early 1990s he has exhibited extensively in South Africa as well as in the US, Germany, France, Sweden, Scotland and the Seychelles. He has won numerous international awards and is represented broadly in public, corporate and private collections.

Michael Stevenson Contemporary
Hill House, De Smidt Street, Waterkant, Cape Town
Tel: (021) 421 2575
Email: michael@michaelstevenson.com
Website: www.michaelstevenson.com
Hours: Mon - Fri 9am - 5pm, Sat 10am - 1pm

'Isongololo/Millipede' is a new installation project by Seth Harper and Jesus Macarena-Avila revolving round form and tension. The artists will use industrial material, including bubble wrap and barrier tape, to create the projects tension.

Seth Harper is a visual artist based in Cape Town creating installation projects and fashion design. He has exhibited at numerous places including the National Gallery, Castle, Museum of Temporary Art, Association for the Visual Arts (AVA), and Bellville Art Centre. Jesus Macarena-Avila is a multi-media visual artist working and living in the city of Chicago, USA. He holds a BFA degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a MFA degree from Norwich University-Vermont College. Macarena-Avila is a visiting artist with Greatmore Studios in Woodstock.

Opens: July 21
Closes: August 10

Museum of Temporary Art, Trill Road, Observatory, Cape Town
Trill Road, Observatory, Cape Town
Email: babyjaguar@yahoo.com

Showcasing the world's most outstanding press photography, this year, almost 55 000 images representing 4000 photographers were submitted by photojournalists, agencies, newspapers and magazines. Winners in 9 categories were selected by an independent international jury which included South African Herbert Mabuza, Picture Editor of the Sunday Times. This exhibition will travel to over 40 countries and is a tribute to the power of photography to transcend all cultural and linguistic frontiers. The impetus for the event comes from the World Press Photo Foundation, an independent platform for international press photography founded in 1955.

Almost 200 winning photographs will be on show alongside winner Eric Grigorian's poignant black-and-white image of a group of Iranian mourners burying an earthquake victim. Also represented amongst the winners is a haunting photo of Xhosa initiates by South African Brent Stirton.

Opens July 17
Closes August 10

The Castle, Darling Street, Cape Town
Tel: 464-1263
Hours: Mon - Sat 9.30am - 4pm

The public will have the opportunity to look 'behind the scenes' of the artwork decorating the Main Foyer of the new Cape Town International Convention Centre. At an event hosted by Friends of the SA National Gallery, Marilyn Martin, Director of Iziko Art Collections and art consultant for the CTICC, discusses the background of the art competition that culminated in the giant wall relief. Created by the late San artist /Tuoi Stefaans Samcuia, in collaboration with well-known local artist, Brett Murray, the mural is described by Martin as 'groundbreaking public art'.

The second phase of the artwork competition, which will also be discussed, was awarded to Gavin Younge and comprises sculptures entitled Reservoirs,, incorporating metal, wire and even boat hulls. Both Murray and Younge will discuss their artworks.

2pm, Saturday July 19

R30 for members and R35 for guests. To book, call Lizzie (021) 467-4662 from10am - 2pm, Tuesday and Thursday.

'EXCESS: PROUDLY SOUTH AFRICAN' is an installation project by Capetonian Liza Grobler and Jesus Macarena-Avila from Chicago, USA. This time-based project presents social commentary which critiques consumerism in Cape Town. The artists have installed advertisement signage from local stores, referencing, in a tongue-in-cheek manner, the recent 'Proudly South African' promotional campaign.

Grobler obtained her BFA and MFA from the University of Stellenbosch. She lives and works in Cape Town and works from Greatmore Studios in Woodstock. She also lectures at the University of Stellenbosch. Macarena-Avila is a multi-media visual artist working and living in Chicago. He holds a MFA from Norwich University-Vermont College and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is currently undertaking a residency at Greatmore Studios.

Opens June 21
Closes July 19

Museum of Temporary Art, Trill Road, Observatory, Cape Town

This retrospective exhibition has been curated by Elizabeth Rankin and Philippa Hobbs and is an MTN Foundation Arts and Culture flagship project. The Evangelical Lutheran Church Art and Craft Centre at Rorke's Drift has long been recognized as a highly influential source of training for black artists in South Africa in the years when tertiary institutions were closed to black students. Rorke's Drift has been included in many accounts of South African art, but exhibitions and publications devoted to the Art and Craft Centre have been surprisingly few, and those which take printmaking as a theme even more rare. This exhibition showcases the period from the conception of the Centre at Ceza to the closure of the Fine Art School in 1982.

The exhibition includes 120 artworks representing a wide range of Rorke's Drift printmakers, many of whom, like Paulos Mchunu and Michael Ngema, are virtually unheard of. At Rorke's Drift, discussion and debate around social issues was encouraged, affording the art a political dimension that has not fully been acknowledged. The exhibition will include works that underscore this point, from very early 'resistance' pieces, by artists like Azaria Mbatha to overtly political examples of work by Charles Nkosi and Tony Nkotsi. The centre is perhaps most famous for John Muafangejo's linocuts, but a wide range of media - including etching, aquatint, drypoint and mezzotint as well as screenprinting - were part of the curriculum. The exhibition also includes print designs for tapestries and ceramic decoration.

Opens July 7
Closes September 7

South African National Gallery, Government Avenue, Company Gardens, Cape Town
Tel: (021) 481-3823 from 8:30am-1pm
Fax: (021) 461 0045
Email: ebedford@iziko.org.za
Website: www.museums.org.za/sang
Hours: Tues - Sun 10am - 5pm

Michael Stevenson hosts a second photographic exhibition with Chris Ledochowski's 'Cape Flats Details: Art and Life in the Townships of Cape Town'. For the past 15 year Ledochowski has documented life in the townships (or Cape Flats) in Cape Town. Racked by the harsh 'southeaster' (as Cape Town's notorious wind is affectionately known) and frequently flooded in winter, the Cape Flats is highly unsuitable for residential purposes. But today it has become home to nearly one million people.

Ledochowski's use of the term 'details' stands in contrast to the general appearance of the townships as a bleak and colourless environment - an environment, which over time, challenges one to seek and unveil hidden layers. It is here that Ledochowski has found individual and collective expression of creativity and resilience that give positive meaning and definition to peoples' lives. His works present public and private images of hope that bring together and convey tradition and modernity, stability and change, faith and despair. Against the rigid domination by apartheid, so physically represented in the construction of township living spaces, people created and nurtured a culture that was under their control.

"In the townships, I focused my attention on capturing - through photography - the dignity with which people were surviving and challenging their oppressive living conditions," says Ledochowski. "The energy and soul of this struggle drew inspiration from the growing climate of political defiance. A collective desire for change gave people purpose and direction. I found that even in the midst of this modern political struggle, people still drew primarily on their traditional cultures and religious convictions, using them as outlets for creative expression. This project attempts to capture expressions of that process."

A second set of the 'Cape Flats Details' images will simultaneously be shown at the Venice Biennale. Ledochowski was invited by Biennale Director Francesco Bonami to present a selection from this series in the exhibition 'The Structure of Survival' curated by Carlos Basualdo, where he is one of only three African artists.

Opening 6pm, Wednesday June 18

Opens: June 18
Closes: July 19

Michael Stevenson Contemporary
Hill House, De Smidt Street, Waterkant, Cape Town
Tel: (021) 421 2575
Email: michael@michaelstevenson.com
Website: www.michaelstevenson.com
Hours: Mon - Fri 9am - 5pm, Sat 10am - 1pm

Jane Alexander, winner of the 2002 DaimlerChrysler Award for South African sculpture, is best known for The Butcher Boys, which she made in 1985. The work remains the SANG's most popular and famous work. But it is not only this work that won her the prestigious award, which provided funds for a major international exhibition and the production of an impressive catalogue.

This exhibition at the SANG includes The Butcher Boys, 'The Bom Boys' series (which she showed at the Irma Stern a few years ago) as well as her new tableau 'African Adventure'. Where the first work made specific comment on the brutality of South African apartheid society, with the 'The Bom Boys' Alexander has narrowed her focus to her immediate environs. This series found the artist looking to Cape Town's street kids, a problem which inspires empathy and fear in equal measure amongst Capetonians. These street kids are particularly prevalent on Long Street, where the artist lived for a period.

Alexander never limited herself to simply depicting these young children, and the scaled-down and masked figures spoke much more widely about the human condition and South African society generally. The odd scale and proportions of the figures was very disquieting and the recurrent trickster figures prevented any interpretation from resting too easily.

Alexander's 'The African Adventure', her most recent series, also looks to Long Street, home to an increasing number of tourist operations and adventure centres. Sculptures, photomontages and video work look at the uneasy truce between the 'African Adventures' offered to backpackers and the gritty realism of the increasingly multi-cultural street with its problems that just won't go away.

Alexander is a senior lecturer at the Michaelis School of Fine Art and has received several major awards including 1995's Standard Bank Young Artist Award and the FNB Vita Art Now Award the year following. She has exhibited extensively internationally and her work is to be found in numerous public and private collections.

Opens: April 26
Closes: July 27

South African National Gallery, Government Avenue, Company Gardens, Cape Town
Tel: (021) 481-3823 from 8:30am-1pm
Fax: (021) 461 0045
Email: ebedford@iziko.org.za
Website: www.museums.org.za/sang
Hours: Tues - Sun 10am - 5pm

Alan Alborough's cryptically titled show 'work[ing/ in] pro[cess/ gress]' opens at the Sasol Art Museum. Typically, the press release is devoid of much information and includes no image. Tantalisingly though, Alborough promises to be in residence at the gallery on Wednesday evenings and Sunday afternoons as the 'work evolves'.

Alborough has been remarkably prolific in the last few years, having produced his major Standard Bank Young Artist Award exhibition, a solo show at the US Gallery and having won the last FNB Vita Award with another major work last year. Most of these works and exhibitions were accompanied by no information and few images, while both the US and the Standard Bank shows evolved during the course of their running. An education programme aimed specifically at young learners will run concurrently with the exhibition.

There will be an opening reception on June 14 at 1 pm.

Opens: May 7
Closes: July 23

Sasol Art Museum, 52 Ryneveld Street, Stellenbosch
Tel: 021 808 3693
Fax: 021 808 3669
Email: lmdw@sun.ac.za
Website: www.sun.ac.za/usmuseum
Hours: Tues - Fri, 9am - 4pm, Wed 9am - 8pm, Sat 9am - 5pm, Sun 2pm - 5pm

Alastair Whitton is a Technikon Natal (now the Durban Institute of Technology) graduate. After spending some time overseas he has returned to South Africa and now lives in the Karoo. Of this new quiet, contemplative work he says, 'Each work is an ordering of a private terrain or an archaeological site of an internal landscape. Unearthing and recovering a sense of balance, substance gives way to shifting mirages of reality, abstraction and metaphor.'

Opens June 27
Closes July 30

Ibis Art Centre, Nieu-Bethesda
Tel: (049) 841-1623
Email: ibis@intekom.co.za
Website: www.ibisartcentre.co.za

Nieu-Bethesda is situated 25km off the N9 between Middelburg and Graaff-Reinet, making it the essential 'breather' en route to or from the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown.

The National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, although somewhat scaled down from previous years, presents a comprehensive visual arts programme. Two of the three major one-person exhibitions are by woman of colour, and the third by a black man, which marks a slight and welcome change of direction this year. The event takes place June 27 - July 5.

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