AUGUST 17 - 23
Sunday, August 17
Today and tomorrow I am to do some interviews in Johannesburg for my monograph, Sue Williamson: Selected Work, so have to get up at six on a dark, wintry Cape Town morning to make the plane. Johannesburg is crisp and sunny - love those highveld winters. First stop is the Johannesburg Art Gallery, where the Trinity Sessions' Kathryn Smith is having a birthday braai in the semicircular courtyard off the lower floor. Kathryn is showing off her new tattoo, part of her performance at the gallery last week, which looked at the forensic links between British artist Walter Sickert and Jack the Ripper. Kathryn is off to London soon to further her art research by taking all the Jack the Ripper tours offered en route to a residency in Normandy.
Can't spend long at the JAG, have to meet Angie Kapelianis for the first interview, for SABC radio, in a Melville café. I have never met Angie before, and am very pleased to do so now. Angie was deeply involved in recording the testimonies at the Truth and Reconciliation hearings for the SABC, and when I wanted to get copies of the original tapes of two of the hearings for my piece, Can't forget, can't remember, Angie was the one who facilitated it. Without her, I would probably never have got through the SABC bureaucracy. We talk for an hour, and Angie promises to email me to let me know when it will be broadcast.
Back to the airport at 5 for a meeting with Hentie van der Merwe, who is leaving to go back to Europe after his show at the Goodman. We discuss the possibilities for the print he will make for Editions for ArtThrob, and decide on an elongated format with five photographs from a new series of groups of people from an immigrant area of Amsterdam. We are both excited by the prospect.
Am staying in Melville with Penny Siopis, Colin Richards, and their son Alexander, the subject of many artworks by both Penny and Colin over the years. Some of these hang on the walls of their house, along with numerous other paintings, religious iconography, and on the mantelpiece, a stacked pile of fragments of statuary of cherubs and angels. Penny is celebrating her 50th birthday next Saturday with a huge party to which I would love to go, but will not be able to stay.
Monday, August 18
Another early morning rising to get to the television studios for the SABC's Morning Live - a news programme, followed by a live interview or two. Am shown to a small waiting room with bad coffee, and a large woman with an unpleasantly grubby powder puff in hand materialises and presses powder all over my face. News reader Tracy Going comes in and introduces herself briefly then disappears again. All at once I am summoned to the studio, and seated next to Tracy, who has my book in her hand and is looking at a sheet of questions. A commercial break is in progress. 'Can I see the questions?', I ask. 'No', says Tracy. 'We'll just chat.' Calling out to the technicians, she asks, "Do you have shots of any of the pictures from the book?" A couple appear on a monitor. A shot from the passbook piece. Annie Silinga's grave. Suddenly we are live. The interview, about 15 minutes, goes by in a blur. I am talking to Tracy and don't look at the monitor, but at one point I catch sight of myself and wonder why I chose to wear that highly patterned fairisle sweater for the occasion.
An hour later, in the car, the phone rings. Brett Murray, calling from Cape Town. 'I woke up this morning and found you in my bedroom', he says. So some people did see it, I think.
The last interview - with Laetitia Pople from Die Beeld newspaper.
Spend the afternoon with Jo Ractliffe, chatting and catching up. Animals have always played a large part in her work, and her offbeat new series features one with her dog Pilgerman standing near his waterbowl in her garden with a stuffed dog nearby. This one has been accepted into the finals of the Brett Kebble award, and Jo is also in the finals of the DaimlerChrysler Prize. This year, it is being given for photography.
Drinks with Clive van den Berg and his partner Rocco de Villiers in their magnificently converted stone house on a ridge overlooking Braamfontein. Last year, Clive, assisted by Cape Town artist Sean Slemon, was commissioned by the Northern Province government to engage local artists and artisans in a large scale project creating artworks and mosaic murals for the governmental buildings. The photos are stunning, a spectacular achievement. Clive gives permission for us to run the story on ArtThrob. Will contact Sean to do it. Watch for it in News.
Tuesday, August 19
Breakfast with editor Sean O'Toole is followed by a long meeting with indefatigable gallerist Linda Givon at the Goodman Gallery discussing future plans and possibilities. The current gallery show is a pairing of Luan Nel and Hentie van der Merwe. Hentie has clad the walls of his space in black and white or red and white checked gingham, and pinned on to this background watercolour drawings in which well known animal logos have been optically cut out and shifted. A sort of kitchen camouflage effect, which surely relates in part to the artist's relocation from Africa to Holland.
Linda tells me there is a new gallery in town, Gallery Momo, under the directorship of curator Monna wa Mokoena. We drive around for a visit. Monna's not there, but the gallery is housed in a handsome new contemporary building, and should provide an extremely welcome addition to the art scene in Johannesburg. Monna will no doubt use his numerous connections to draw in a new art audience, and Kay Hassan is one artist scheduled for an upcoming solo show at the gallery.
Talking of Kay � I have an appointment with him in an hour - just time beforehand to call in at the Rosebank Photoza Gallery to take in the show of ArtThrob's Tracy Lindner Gander. A rather drab space, but Tracy's Flounce - double images of artist Katherine Bull playing out an unspecific narrative in Cape Town settings - is as engaging as ever.
Kay is part of Johannesburg's Bag Factory, and I am here to discuss his print for Editions for ArtThrob - he will be the final artist for this year. Kay will think about what he wishes to do, and work with photographer/print facilitator Andrew Meintjes to realise his image.
Pop in to see Sam Nhlengethwa, who is working on a series of drawings of Mpumalanga workers on the tobacco farms, part of an installation for the next Havana Biennale, the 8th, which opens on November 1. The other artists invited are Zwelethu Mthethwa, Rodney Place, Arlene Amahler Raviv, Dale Yudelman and David Brazier. Sam tells me he and the other artists have been refused funding by the NAC and are facing the prospect of paying all expenses themselves, or not going at all. What is it with this country? I read this week that R54 million earmarked for arts and culture by the National Lottery had not been allocated, yet artists invited to international biennales cannot get funding. There should be a central arts agency which deals specifically with this area of international arts funding as against local projects.
Just time to dash over to the MuseumAfrica before it closes to take a look at the MTN New Contemporaries show. Extremely well informed and friendly museum guide Phineas Zwane explains in detail Alison Kearney's project in which she focussed on the myriad items beings sold by the street hawkers around the museum, and catalogued them, museum style. Her work had made him much more aware of what was going on around the museum, said Phineas, adding that his favourite piece of all on the show was Matthew Hindley's infra-red lighting installation, in which the reflected viewer becomes the subject of the piece.
Thursday, August 23
Back in Cape Town, go to the opening night of the Cape Town Fashion Week, to take in the show of Hip Hop's Kathy Paige Wood and Cheryl Arthur. The clothes are very beautiful. "Saw you on Morning Live!" says Kathy afterwards. "But that sweater ... next time, let me dress you?"
