Archive: Issue No. 138, February 2009

26.02.09 David Goldblatt at Michael Stevenson
28.02.09 Xander Ferreira (Gazelle) at Whatiftheworld / Gallery
25.02.09 Fahamu Pecou at Bell-Roberts
28.01.09 Pigment on Paper at UCA
26.02.09 Review Revue at the Goodman Gallery Cape
09.02.09 Polly Alakija, Jenny Parsons, Christopher Zinner, Hanneke Benade, Tamlin Blake and Marlise Keith at the AVA
18.01.09 Noria Mabasa at Bell-Roberts
04.02.09 Wendy Anziska at João Ferreira Gallery

27.01.09 Four at 34 Long
24.01.09 Deborah Bell at Goodman Gallery Cape

15.01.09 Pieter Hugo at Michael Stevenson
15.01.09 Conrad Botes at Michael Stevenson
11.12.08 William Kentridge at Iziko SANG

12.11.08 Andrew Verster at Iziko SANG

Goldblatt's photogaphic essay, 'In Boksburg', was shot from 1979 - 80 on the East Rand of the Witwatersrand, and the book published in 1982, but this will be the first time that the full series has been shown in the 30 years since the photographs were taken.

The spread of Boksburg's new suburbs across the veld and the daily life of the town encapsulated - to Goldblatt's eye - the intricacies of the lunacy of ordinary white middle-class life in the years of apartheid. As he wrote in the foreword: 'Boksburg is shaped by white dreams and white proprieties. Most of its townspeople pursue the family, social and civic concerns of respectable burghers anywhere, while locked into a deep and portentous fixity of self-elected legislated whiteness. Blacks are not of this town. They serve it, trade with it, receive charity from it and are ruled, rewarded and punished by its precepts. Some are its privileged guests. But all who go there, do so by permit or invitation, never by right.'

Goldblatt photographed life on the streets, in shops and businesses, the sports and social clubs, the churches, the municipality, the homes and gardens and the cemetery. As he recalls, 'Literally for days on end, I stood rivetted to street corners, parking lots and sidewalks. I was completely engaged by what I saw and tried to penetrate and hold with the camera, of the wholly uneventful flow of commonplace, orderly life.' With his characteristic intimacy and dispassion, he dissected the social structures of this town to remind us of the ironies and hypocrisies as well as sincere gestures that were entwined in daily life in this town.

For this exhibition Goldblatt has returned to his negatives of the series and, in addition, has printed several previously unpublished images. He has also returned to Boksburg to photograph the town in its present incarnation, and a selection of these large-format colour prints will be included on the show.

Opens: February 26
Closes: April 9

Xander Ferreira's debut solo exhibition 'The Status of Greatness' deploys staged photography, performance, installation, video and sculpture to 'actively coerce the mechanics of political and cultural celebrity'. This happens through the mimicry of historical precedent, fictional narratives and iconic, theatrical personae unique to numerous African states post-independence. Artifice, surface, image, ego, propaganda and myth are exercised, manipulated and embodied in the very fabric of Ferreira's project, which subverts how African political figureheads, despots, warlords, pop stars and cultural icons self-represent. Within this delirious docu-theatre exists the superego nexus point that is the character Gazelle.

Opens: January 28
Closes: February 21

New York-born Fahamu Pecou is a painter who lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia. Pecou's paintings utilize his alter ego as 'art celebrity'. These works consider and challenge art-world politics and issues of the black male body. Audacious, confrontational, and witty, the work appropriates the lexicons of celebrity, magazine and fine art culture to facilitate conversations that allow the viewer to examine these traditionally separate worlds and see where they connect.

This is Pecou's debut showing in South Africa following a string of exhibitions in the US and Europe.

Opens: 25 February
Closes: 28 March

'Pigment on Paper' features work by five local artists, the commonality being the paper on which the images appear.

Work on paper is, perhaps, the foundation of the artwork; the line drawn on the page as a means of artistic exploration, which may (or may not) lead to other media. Pushing the idea further, one finds printmaking, watercolour painting, photography. Possibly the most recent development in this conceptual constellation of works on paper is a relationship to graphic design and illustration, with which the traditional perception of fine art is becoming increasingly comfortable. What results is an inclusive creative display, beginning and ending with pigment on paper.

Featured here are large-scale charcoal drawings by Michael Taylor alongside Nicola Grobler's drawings entitled 'Accidental Species', which take off from work begun at her last solo show at Erdmann Contemporary. Ilene Jacobs' previously un-shown 'Vestiges' are fragments of a more personal nature. Her intimate enamel paintings were once family snapshots, but now only the figures remain. Adrienne Van Eeden's Fall and Untitled Christmas Gift series explore the fragile (and dispensable) qualities of paper itself.

Close to contemporary connotations of work on paper, Jacqui Stecher's drawings refer obliquely to graphic design. Experienced in animation, Stecher reveals the influence of illustration in her images, which explore teeth as symbols of the authority of ancestry in the process of identity formation.

Opens: January 28
Closes: February 28

Dating from the early 19th century, the notion of the modern revue was drawn from the medieval French street fair into the theatrical realm; a staging of diverse visual spectacle for widespread public delight. But the revue has also traditionally been a site for implicit commentary on current affairs, and the challenging of prevalent social mores and political systems. 'Review Revue' presents a selection of diverse works from over 50 years of South African art (from the 1940s to 1990s) - situated within a localised history.

From Dumile Feni's anguished figurative drawings - in which each tragic or violent encounter becomes a cipher of apartheid - to John Muafangejo's linocut narratives of individual and communal belief; from Walter Battiss' celebration of creative and political liberties in the invention of 'Fook Island', to Robert Hodgins' sardonic portraits of contemporary lack of conscience, the exhibition provides an opportunity to re-view the past through the eyes of many of the country's most significant artists.

'Review Revue' traces the relationships between the artists exhibited - many of whom were mentors, teachers or close friends to others on show - particularly those, such as Cecil Skotnes and Sydney Kumalo, who not only produced their own art of outstanding quality, but also left a lasting legacy through their role in institutions such as the Polly Street Art Centre. Their relationships across the arenas of education, politics and literature as teachers, activists and poets, resulted in a nuanced engagement with the conditions, ideas and people around them. The show also recalls the Goodman Gallery's own role in this milieu.

Opens: February 26
Closes: March 21

Born in the UK, Polly Alakija lived in Nigeria for 15 years before moving to Cape Town in 2005. 'The Dance Paintings' reflect her extended observations at the 'Dance for All' studios and depict the human form as animated by dance. 'The Dance Paintings' is her second solo exhibition at the AVA. She is accompanied by Jenny Parsons in the Long Gallery. Parsons, who has dealt previously with the terrain of urban landscapes, explores the mixed residential and industrial area in Salt River, Cape Town. Her paintings suggest the layered history of human habitation of the land.

Christopher Zinner presents his first solo exhibition on the Artstrip. This autobiographical body of work deals with the human condition, examining universal power structures at work within relationships.

In 'The New Media Gallery', Hanneke Benade, Tamlin Blake and Marlise Keith exhibit 'Keepsakes', a collection of re-worked magic lantern slides mounted in small light boxes. Within these small and intimate spaces the artists present to the viewer exotic views, scenes and ceremonies, and some more scandalous surprises.

Opens: February 9
Closes: February 27

Venda sculptor, Noria Mabasa, was born in Tshigola Village Limpopo in 1938. Her career was inspired by a recurring dream of an old woman which she first had in 1965. Haunted by this dream, this figure showed her how to work in clay, which she began to do in 1974. Her clay work combines the figurative and the functional in a more earthy way and her pots are often in the shape of the female body or characterised faces.

In 1976 she began to work with wood (again inspired by a dream), a medium traditionally associated in Venda culture with men and she remains the only Venda woman to do so. Mabasa found recognition nationally and internationally in the 1980s for her clay figures decorated with enamel paint, and some of these were included in the first Johannesburg Biennale in 1994. In 2003 Mabasa was awarded the prestigious national award of 'Silver level of the order of the Baobab' for her 'exceptional achievements in unique forms of fine arts under trying circumstances'.

Opens: January 28
Closes: February 21

Wendy Anziska presents a new exhibition of paintings entitled 'Show Time' at João Ferreira Gallery. Anziska believes that the world 'is going through a negative period reflected in our earthly desires, vanity and plastic values'. The work expresses a sense of hope for change and an understanding of the nature of our own contingency in a much larger scheme of things.

Anziska has exhibited in South Africa since 1970 and internationally since 1994. Her work is held in prominent corporate and private collections, as well as the South African National Gallery.

Opens: February 4
Closes: February 28

The mix of artists on 34 Long's current show, 'Four', has proved popular and so its run has been extended, with some exciting additions. Several works - among them some by Robert Hodgins, D*Face and Willie Bester - have left the gallery, and have been replaced with new ones. A new work by Marlene Dumas has been added as well as a limited number of editioned prints by Takashi Murakami. If these passed you by last year, be sure not to miss them now.

Opens: January 27
Closes: March 7

In this new body of work enitled 'Flux', Deborah Bell continues exploring her art-making process in relation to her life's journey. Using references to mythology and archetypes, she draws on what Achille Mbembe has referred to as 'a multiplicity of universes', which includes the figurative art of Benin, Egypt, China and Babylonia, amongst other worlds.

Bell's interests range from the history of development in the imagery and iconography of spiritual beliefs, to writings on trans-substantiation, social change and cultural exchange. She sees the artist making images as a metaphor for the notion of 'drawing our worlds into being'. Her research drawings made in museums and from the study of visual history culminate in works which operate on a continuum of illusion and reality, seeking to bridge visible and invisible worlds.

The artist often cites Songlines by Bruce Chatwin as an inspiration and evokes a subconscious, pre-linguistic experience of the world. Revisiting ancient cultures, her muti-layered images suggest a shared history and a common ancestry.

'Flux' consists of both large and small scale bronzes, mixed media paintings on paper, and etchings, exploring transformation through process and material. Making reference to alchemy, creativity and dreaming, they celebrate the capacity to draw re-invented worlds into being, and examine archetypes including the journey, the chariot, the horse and rider, the chimera, and the oracle.

Bell was born in Johannesburg in 1957 and received her Master's in Fine Art from the University of the Witwatersrand. She is represented in major museums and public collections in the US, the UK, Japan and South Africa. Public sculptures have been commissioned by, amongst others, Standard Bank and Wits Business School.

Opens: January 24
Closes: February 21

In the Nollywood series, Pieter Hugo explores the multi-layered reality of the Nigerian film industry. Photographs from the series were included on 'Disguise: The art of attracting and deflecting attention' at Michael Stevenson in May 2008. Hugo has subsequently returned to Nigeria to extend and deepen this body of work, and the series will be published in book form by Prestel in October 2009.

Nollywood is the third largest film industry in the world, releasing between 500 and 1 000 movies each year. It produces movies on its own terms, telling stories that appeal to and reflect the lives of its public: it is a rare instance of self-representation in Africa. The continent has a rich tradition of story-telling that has been expressed abundantly through oral and written fiction, but has never been conveyed through the mass media before. Stars are local actors; plots confront the public with familiar situations of romance, comedy, witchcraft, bribery and prostitution. The narrative is overdramatic, deprived of happy endings, tragic. The aesthetic is loud, violent, excessive; nothing is said, everything is shouted.

In his travels through West Africa, Hugo became increasingly intrigued by this hyperactive industry, in constant production. He compiled a list of the iconic images and scenes that had attracted his attention, and imagined photographing in these settings. Initial attempts to photograph on actual film sets however failed, in Hugo's mind, to capture the intensity of the situations. He decided to take his interpretation of these staged realities into another realm by assembling a team of actors and assistants. He asked them to recreate the stereotypical myths and symbols that characterise Nollywood productions, reproducing the dynamic of movie sets.

In 2008 Hugo was the winner of the KLM Paul Huf Award and the Arles Discovery Award at the Rencontres d'Arles Photography Festival in France. He had solo exhibitions at Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam, the Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool and Ffotogallery in Penarth, Wales. Group shows in 2008 included 'Street & Studio: An urban history of photography' at Tate Modern, London, and 'Make Art/Stop Aids' at the Fowler Museum, UCLA. Hugo was the Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Art in 2007.

Opens: January 15
Closes: February 21

Conrad Botes' exhibition, titled 'Cain and Abel', is a reflection on the origins of violence, a return to the very first tale of murder as related in the Bible and Qu'ran, as if to grapple with the notion of aggression itself. The story was translated into a gritty black and white comic published in Bitterkomix #15, a detailed allegory of rivalry, jealousy, corruption and lust which forms the point of departure for many of the works on this show.

The comic strip 'Cain and Abel' is reworked here as a series of reverse-glass painted panels, a medium that Botes has made distinctively his own, translating the graphic immediacy of his drawing into paint. In Crime and Punishment and Cain's Lament, horned male figures, their bodies inscribed with symbols, are seen to worship lofty female figures, but the impulse is less one of veneration than covetousness and the desire to possess. Large-scale landscapes form the backdrop for the archetypal figures of two men fighting, and a series of generic portraits of men is entitled Hostile Territory. There is a pervasive atmosphere of violence, horror, grit, a feeling the artist describes as 'like shrapnel under the skin'.

Botes is the co-founder and editor, with Anton Kannemeyer, of Bitterkomix, issue #15 of which was published in 2008. He participated in the third Guangzhou Triennial, China, in 2008; other recent group exhibitions include 'Apartheid: The South African Mirror' at the Centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona (2007); 'Africa Comics' at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2007); 'Turbulence' at Hangar-7 in Salzburg, Austria (2007); and the ninth Havana Biennale, Cuba (2006).

Opens: January 15
Closes: February 21

William Kentridge's multi-channel projected work entitled I am not me, the horse is not mine is on view at Iziko South African National Gallery. Based on the short story, 'The Nose' (1837) by Nikolai Gogol, and part of the process of developing Kentridge's production of Dmitri Shostakovich's The Nose, commissioned for the Metropolitan Opera in 2010, it was first presented to international acclaim at the Biennale of Sydney in June this year.

The work stems from Kentridge's ongoing interest in the roots and trajectory of modernism: a mixture of the absurd, the self-reflective (and the 'self-divided') and the forms of fragmentation that one associates with modernism, its crushing in Russia in the 1930s and the long-term trajectory of the terrors of hierarchy.

Opens: December 11
Closes: March 8

'Past/Present' is a survey of works by Andrew Verster who turned 71 this year. The exhibition's point of departure is 1994 - the start of democracy in South Africa - and shows work produced from that time to the present. The artist places significance on this particular period as it has been a milestone for personal and political freedom, mainly due to the new Constitution which grants equal rights to all. Speaking as a gay man, Verster claims that 'For the first time in my life I became legal.' His work reflects a sense of liberation and joyousness which seems to have recently burst forth.

Curated by Carol Brown, 'Past/Present' is a multi-media exhibition consisting of paintings, drawings, stage sets, costume designs and wax panels. The intention is to showcase the diversity and consistent creativity of one of the country's most prolific and respected artists.

Opens: November 12
Closes: March 22, 2009