implicit art

In the guise of a seer who has some sort of zeitgeist on the times, many cynics (mostly liberal ones, often people of color) keep posing the question, “Is America ready for a black President?” (Or just answer “no” when asked.)

I’ll Answer that one: of course we are.

Look at the polls.  And a lot of these people are answering no, even tho they would vote for a black candidate (they just think everyone else is beneath them, less evolved, wouldn’t do so). Yes, there are some who won’t vote for a black man as the Commander in Chief, and there are some who may vote for him (implicit “him”: Barack) for no other reason. And these numbers may or may not cancel each other out (especially given that we need to consider who might be mobilized to vote in such an election).

But I have bigger issue with the question itself, given what it might lead to in my own party (er, the party I’m currently registered for). Voting for “who we think can win” in the Democratic primaries led to the last boring candidate. We need a leader. Someone who had vision on Iraq from day 1, can bring people of faith back to the party they belong in, wants us to end poverty and bring Universal Health instead of just making the rich richer. Do you really think that someone who would vote for Rudy or McJohn over Barack, for issues of race (consciously or unconsciously), would vote for Hillary or JohnE instead? That’s just silly.

If we don’t get Obama for president, it’s not cuz America is not ready, it’s because the Democrats aren’t - the primaries will decide, not the general election. I’m more and more impressed with this man every single day (that link on Iraq above, his foresight - wow. And please also take a look at his announcement speech…). Take him seriously - and do not discount him with a pretense of knowing superiority; you do yourself, and America, a disservice.

PhotographySA.com || The Bag Factory

Reminder: This Saturday, 24 February 2007
First African photomarathon to be held in Johannesburg
Description: On 24 February 2007, PhotographySA.com, in collaboration with the Bag Factory’s About Art programme, will organize the first African photomarathon in Johannesburg.

24 February 2007 8am - 8pm
photomarathon starting at The Bag Factory

3 March 2007 3pm - 5pm
panel discussion by professional Johannesburg photographers

15 March 2007 5:30pm for 6pm
photomarathon exhibition and announcement of winners

Update on Prizes:

The Bag Factory will be sponsoring two ipod shuffles (http://www.zastore.co.za/ipodshuffle06.php) for the winners and Crumpler (http://www.crumpler.co.za) will be sponsoring bags for the winners and a gimmick for all the participants.

Please also read through our safety guidelines. All participants will be required to sign a copy of these guidelines stating they have read them so why not save yourself some time before the event and read them now: http://photographysa.com/blogger/2007/02/photomarathon-safety-guidelines.asp

Johannesburg, 26 January 2007 – On 24 February 2007, PhotographySA.com and the Bag Factory will organize the PhotographySA.com photomarathon 2007 :: Johannesburg. A photomarathon is an event, characterized by great length and concentrated effort and typically lasting 12 to 24 hours, where participants obtain a series of photographs on predefined subjects or themes. The city of Johannesburg has been selected for its unique dynamics and vibrancy and because of the large amount of active photographers and the relative lack of profiling opportunities for them.

The 2007 photomarathon will start at 8am on 24 February 2007 and will last for 12 hours. Each four hours, participants will receive four new themes at a new venue, moving throughout downtown Johannesburg. At the end of the event, at 8pm on the same day, participants have to submit exactly one photograph for each theme. In the week following, there will be a panel discussion by various prominent photographers working in Johannesburg and a professional jury will decide on a winning series and winning photographs from the photomarathon event. The winners will be announced at an exhibition of the works that will be hosted at the Bag Factory from 15 March.

To give every photographer the opportunity to participate, digital and analogue photographers can participate in separate categories. Participation costs 50 Rand, but early birds get a discount. Bronwyn Lace, the education officer for About Art, says “This is an enormous opportunity for both up-and-coming and established photographers to compete in a singular event in downtown Jo’burg.”

More information can be obtained straight from the website PhotographySA.com or by contacting Babak Fakhamzadeh at admin@photographysa.com or Bronwyn Lace at bronwyn@bagfactoryart.org.za. Participants can register through the website and in person at The Bag Factory.

About Art is the Bag Factory’s art education programme which focuses on stimulating, enriching and advancing the careers of professional practicing artists within its local community as well as its wider arts network. PhotographySA.com is a cooperative adventure of Ismail Farouk, and Rat Western, artists from Johannesburg and Babak Fakhamzadeh, traveling web guru from Iran. With the 2007 Johannesburg photomarathon, PhotographySA.com and About Art aim to bring together established and developing photographers in an adventurous and creative event which will truly cross boundaries.

PhotographySA.com
The Bag Factory
10 Mahlatini Street, Fordsburg, Johannesburg

Babak Fakhamzadeh
Bronwyn Lace (About Art Education Officer)

+27 76 5604079
+27 11 834 9181

admin@PhotographySA.com
bronwyn@bagfactoryart.org.za

http://PhotographySA.com
http://bagfactoryart.org.za

This blog is 4 years old today.

I don’t recall being 4, really, but according to the stories I’ve heard, I mostly enjoyed it.

Lately I’ve been obsessing over scanner art on the Internet, trying to find anyone else who has been doing things on the more performative side (like Compressionism), and also remembering (I had forgotten) that I did a series of textile designs with scannings of water, spices and various other objects in 1993, when I was at Cornell. Wish I could find those files somewhere….

Been reading this Hansen book, which is oftentimes unnecessarily dense and self-congratulatory (whilst mocking other theorists), but it has more than a few great ideas that I certainly would never have come to on my own. Also started Brian Massumi’s 2002 book, Parables for the Virtual, and it’s kind of blowing my mind a bit; he’s such a generous thinker! One passage on writing (the whole introduction maintains this level of intimacy and playfulness along with the integrity and conviction of an inventor-writer):

The essays in this volume work through examples. The writing tries not only to accept the risk of sprouting deviant, but to invite it. Take joy in your digressions. Because that is where the unexpected arises. That is the experimental aspect. If you know where you will end up when you begin, nothing has happened in the meantime. You have to be willing to surprise yourself writing things you didn’t think you thought. Letting examples burgeon requires using inattention as a writing tool. You have to let yourself get so caught up in the flow of your writing that it ceases at moments to be recognizable to you as your own. This means you have to be prepared for failure. For with inattention comes risk: of silliness, or even outbreaks of stupidity. But perhaps in order to write experimentally, you have to be willing to “affirm” even your own stupidity. Embracing one’s own stupidity is not the prevailing academic posture (at least not in the way I mean it here).

… page 18

And so on. I like to think I produce (in my various media, including text) much in the same way Massumi writes.

Sorry for the lack of postings lately, but as promised before the move to Dublin, that’s just how it’s gonna be (until such time as Bronwyn and Rat do the regular blogging they tentatively offered here; like most Joburgers, they’re busy with more than a handful of things, so…).

OK, catch-up spanning (and doing little justice to) about 4 weeks of "stuff," beginning with a talk I gave at Ireland’s National College of Art and Design on 18 Jan. A bit of an enlightening experience for me in terms of crowd response — I guess I’m used to the very animated audience that Joburg and greater South Africa offer, so when people listened without expression, I ended about 30 minutes into the presentation, thinking I had completely bombed (all the more disappointing, since it was a crowd of about 70 - 100 people, a good turnout, IMNSHO - In My Not So Humble Opinion). But alas! A great discussion persisted for another 45 minutes beyond my early end! Mostly very generous questions which led to great dialogue, a few compliments, and one very provocative accusation; I have to say I’m excited to be starting off with a discussion in this community, and hope my leaving the country a few days after the talk didn’t put a potential speed bump on what began there…. NCADers - let’s hang?

I won’t cover my own exhibition since both Bronwyn and I already mentioned it, but there was a nice piece in beeld that was more like a profile of me just before leaving, and I think Robyn Sassen may be writing a short text in the Jewish Report. I did manage to go see GordArt’s new space, with several good shows (am new to Zach’s work - nice), lots of red stickers and the usual enthusiasm and support every art scene needs. Gordon Froud should be thanked over and over again by emerging and established artists alike, for his ongoing contributions.

Also caught the last of the Parking Gallery (at least in its initial Joburg incarnation) collaborations, this one between Simon Gush and Dorothee Kreutzfeldt at the Drill Hall. It was a very funny performance piece called 3-point turn, where they hired Sam Metentji to go, the wrong way, down a one-way street in downtown Jozi during rush hour. Many debates ensued, but mostly laughs and good byes: Simon has since left for a 2-year residency at the prestigious HISK in Belgium; see you there in July, buddy.

 
^{all photos taken on my crappy cell phone}

Sad to say I missed most of all the other goings-on in the art world, catching up on my own crap, but I hear the Guy Tillim show at Goodman was divine, and there’ve been a few workshops at the Bag Factory worth checking out.

And finally, a few calls:
You have til Monday to nominate yourself or a friend for the iCommons Artist In Residence in Croatia (use the Wiki).
Rhizome has its annual call for net.art commissions.
Turbulence has, probably, the most interesting net.art call I’ve ever seen: a collaboration with Art Interactive and Ars Virtua.
Ars Electronica Prix has been launched, with a few new categories.
Not new media (tho my proposal will be, if I get into the second round) there’s the Sasol Wax Art Award for South African mid-career artists.

I’m sure there are others, too. These are just the ones I’m currently working on or thinking about working on ;)

Hmm, that wasn’t really catch up so much as a few little things I’d been meaning to mention, but there you are. TFN (Ta For Now).

History could be being made in so many ways. It doesn’t work on an Intel Mac (please let me know if you find a QuickTime or YouTube version), but (Works now): it’s one of the best contemporary political speeches I’ve heard (up there with Nader at Cooper Union, Gore on MLK day and just about every time I hear Feingold speak). Click the image below, then click the one that says “Presidential Campaign”…

PS Just settling back into Dubs, trying to get some stuff done, working on a few proposals, etc.

Sorry for the lack of posts whilst in SA. Just been too hektik on this visit home. It’s been so great, and I miss this place immensely… Old friends and colleagues… great art and passionate community builders… yadda yadda.

Sitting in 44 Stanley making a quick post. Here’s a great photoset of images from the opening, with credited images by Christo Doherty and Franci Cronje. My favorite is of course the one of William Kentridge looking on to satin, a hand-made print (carborundum, etching and engraving) inspired by the image on the invite (see below post).

PhotographySA.com || The Bag Factory

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 2nd February 2007

First African photomarathon to be held in Johannesburg

Description: On 24 February 2007, PhotographySA.com, in collaboration with the Bag Factory’s About Art programme, will organize the first African photomarathon in Johannesburg. 

Johannesburg, 2nd February 2007 – On 24 February 2007, PhotographySA.com and the Bag Factory will organize the PhotographySA.com photomarathon 2007 :: Johannesburg. A photomarathon is an event, characterized by great length and concentrated effort and typically lasting 12 to 24 hours, where participants obtain a series of photographs on predefined subjects or themes. The city of Johannesburg has been selected for its unique dynamics and vibrancy and because of the large amount of active photographers and the relative lack of profiling opportunities for them.

The 2007 photomarathon will start at 8am on 24 February 2007 and will last for 12 hours. Each four hours, participants will receive four new themes at a new venue, moving throughout downtown Johannesburg. At the end of the event, at 8pm on the same day, participants have to submit exactly one photograph for each theme. In the week following, there will be a panel discussion by various prominent photographers working in Johannesburg and a professional jury will decide on a winning series and winning photographs from the photomarathon event.  The winners will be announced at an exhibition of the works that will be hosted at the Bag Factory from 15 March.

To give every photographer the opportunity to participate, digital and analogue photographers can participate in separate categories. Participation costs 50 Rand, but early birds get a discount. Bronwyn Lace, the education officer for About Art, says "This is an enormous opportunity for both up-and-coming and established photographers to compete in a singular event in downtown Jo’burg."

More information can be obtained straight from the website PhotographySA.com or by contacting Babak Fakhamzadeh at admin@photographysa.com or Bronwyn Lace at bronwyn@bagfactoryart.org.za. Participants can register through the website and in person at The Bag Factory.

About Art is the Bag Factory’s art education programme which focuses on stimulating, enriching and advancing the careers of professional practicing artists within its local community as well as its wider arts network. PhotographySA.com is a cooperative adventure of Ismail Farouk, and Rat Western, artists from Johannesburg and Babak Fakhamzadeh, traveling web guru from Iran. With the 2007 Johannesburg photomarathon, PhotographySA.com and About Art aim to bring together established and developing photographers in an adventurous and creative event which will truly cross boundaries.      

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