Archive: Issue No. 117, May 2007

06.05.07 Nicholas Hlobo in Italy
06.05.07 Gavin Younge in Paris
06.05.07 Ed in Basel
06.05.07 Nathaniel Stern in Ireland

01.04.07 Ruth Sacks and Robert Sloon in Bratislava
01.04.07 Robin Rhode and William Kentridge in London
01.04.07 Guy Tillim in Rome
01.04.07 William Kentridge in England
01.04.07 David Goldblatt in Switzerland

THE AMERICAS

06.05.07 South African artists in New Yorkl
06.05.07 Berni Searle in New York

AUSTRALIA

06.05.07 Berni Searle in Australia
 

Nocholas Hlobo presents 'Umakadenethwa engenadyasi' at the Extraspazio in Italy this month. The exhibition presents a series of Hlobo's now trademark sculptures and drawings exploring notions of ritual, homosexual desire and male Xhosa identity.

With his tree trunks and inner tubes, Hlobo presents an intense exploration of materiality that mirrors his complex, tongue-in-cheek engagement with language and translation. The exhibition title, for example, translates literally as 'he or she who goes out in the rain with no protection', and is a saying that refers to somebody who leaves themselves exposed to the difficulties of the choices they make, as well as alluding to sexual practices and dangers in South Africa.

Hlobo's exhibition is particularly important in Rome now, as Italy's homophobic sentiments are currently being expressed with an alarming fervour, as evidenced in a recent comment by Italian senator, Paulo Binetti: 'Homosexuality is not normal. It is a deviation from the norm written in a morphological, genetic and character-related code.'

Opens: May 3
Closes: July 10

Gavin Younge shows an extended body of work in vellum in his mini-retrospective 'Prosthesis: Gavin Younge 1997 - 2007' at La Noire Galerie in Paris this month. This newly opened Parisian gallery is dedicated to representing contemporary African art and this show presents all of Younge's seminal vellum pieces from the last 10 years, this organic medium embodying many of the ambiguities of life, death, memory and history that abound in his work.

Opens: May 6
Closes: June 3

Ed Young exhibits alongside artists such as Santiago Siera in 'The Art of Failure', an exhibition that runs simultaneously with Art Basel 38. Whether it is unrequited love, despair over one's own shortcomings, an ideology in disarray, political standstill, or the simple inability to comprehend what is going on, ever since Samuel Beckett, failure has been inextricably linked with artistic production.

The artistic contributions on display here brim with ambivalence and irony. Creating something provisional, non-finite, ambiguous, but at the same time profoundly serious seems, perhaps, a good way of turning failure into a compelling act, and perplexity into art.

Opens: May 5
Closes: July 1

Nathaniel Stern exhibits with Cork-based Canadian Paul LaRocque at the Haydn Shaughnessy Gallery all throughout the Irish Summer.

Stern presents a series of revolving performative prints, using a custom-built scanner appendage in and around his subjects and objects, this time engaging with the stories, locals and surrounds of West Cork and Dublin. Also in the gallery, printmaker Paul LaRocque combines digital and traditional techniques, local iconography and political discourse to explore cultural relationships in an increasingly globalised world.

Opens: May 31
Closes: Winter in Ireland

Ruth Sacks and Robert Sloon will be participating in 'Evolution de l'Art', a gallery established to only sell artworks that are immaterial, with no physical residue, that does not release certificates of authenticity, nor statements or receipts.

Sloon and Sacks present a number of works including No Excuses which sees the artists being obliged to follow their horoscopes, as presented in The Voice every day for a week and With Relish where the artists will change the date they celebrate Christmas every year to one the buyer selects, not attending any other Christmas celebrations.

Gallery headquarters are in Bratislava though one is also free to peruse and purchase the artworks on the gallery website www.evolutiondelart.org

Opens: March 21

The 'exhibition' is ongoing

Robin Rhode and William Kentridge both feature in 'Momentary Momentum' at the Parasol Unit in London. The exhibition is devoted to animated drawings, comprising a dozen installations and film loops.

The history of motion pictures and animated images is vast, complex and enthralling. Advances in technology have enabled artists to orchestrate their thoughts and ideas into animated works in ways that would have seemed impossible to artists of yesteryear. Such dramatic changes resonate in the content of the works in this exhibition. The simple, naïve and exalting emotions portrayed in animated folk tales of the past have given way to animated versions of contemporary life, ranging from love stories and poetic narratives to violence, political issues, disjointed stories and countless other flights of the imagination.

'Momentary Momentum' particularly celebrates the simple economy of the drawn line featuring, along with Rhode and Kentridge, the likes of David Shrigley and Francis Alys.

Opens: April 3
Closes: May 12

'Not all Roads Lead to Rome' forms part of the annual FotoGrafia photography festival in Rome. The exhibition is at the EX GIL, a never-before-used exhibition space, and features work commissioned from six established photographers, including South African Guy Tillim.

The result is a reconnaissance of all the areas of Latium, a region of ancient Italy, home to the original Latin people, offering different perspectives on its complex history and landscape changes in the most suggestive and unusual locations. Tillim revisits part of St. Francis' walk over the mountains in the Rieti area, producing a reportage on the Sabina area, portraying the places and traditions unchanged by time and depicting nature that is, however, contaminated by contemporary elements.

Opens: March 16
Closes: June 6

William Kentridge exhibits in 'Paper Cuts' at the Hove Museum and Art Gallery this month. The exhibition sees eight artists use the everyday medium of paper to reflect on culture and environment where the delicate quality of paper relates to our own vulnerability, dreams and ambitions.

'Paper Cuts' is a touring exhibition organised by Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery and curated by Yasmin Canvin.

Opens: April 7
Closes: July 1

David Goldblatt's seminal retrospective, 'South African Photographs 1962 - 2006', travels to Zurich this month. The photographs on show were all taken in South Africa, occupied with the people, the work, the social constellations and the constructed and natural spaces of the country. Goldblatt explores the violent, conflict-torn history of the country, constantly focusing on the political and sociological development of South Africa, the social disunity and the turbulent political events during and after apartheid.

Opens: March 30
Closes: May 7

'Uniform: South Africa's New Clothes' is an exhibition of work by South African photographers curated by South African-born Claire Breukel at the Spanierman Modern in New York. The exhibition comprises photographs by Pieter Badenhorst, Bridget Baker, Lien Botha, Franci Cronje, Donovan Ward, Dale Yudelman and Santu Mofokeng that reveal varying qualities of life and the nature of human relationships in South Africa 12 years after the demise of apartheid. Included are photographs of people from different ends of the socio-economic spectrum, wearing either actual uniforms or clothing indicative of status and position, as well as landscapes that characterise a country experiencing re-formation at all levels of culture and awareness.

Opens: May 3
Closes: June 30

Berni Searle is currently exhibiting on 'Global Feminisms' at the newly established Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the University of Brooklyn. The show claims to be the first international exhibition exclusively dedicated to feminist art from 1990 to the present and is curated in part by feminist theorist and heroine, Linda Nochlin. The show consists of work by approximately 80 women artists from around the world and includes pieces in all media, aiming not only to showcase a large sampling of contemporary feminist art from a global perspective, but also to move beyond the specifically Western brand of feminism that has been perceived as the dominant voice of feminist and artistic practice since the early 1970s.

Opens: March 23
Closes: July 1

Berni Searle exhibits in 'Figuratively Speaking' at QUT Creative Industries Precinct in Brisbane. The exhibition explores the ways in which the figure is used in contemporary video art. Using methods like performance and sampling pop-culture movies, artists examine themes of cinema, the 'everyday' and the female body, as well as abstract representations of the body and concepts of pain, endurance, humour, memory, loss and family.

Opens: May 23
Closes: June 9