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28 March 2009 by nathaniel

Public Lectures and Exhibitions in Milwaukee and Johannesburg

Last night saw the opening of Night Work at The Armoury Gallery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Some great responses, surprise guests, new show offers, decent sales – a really great Milwaukee debut for both me and Jessica (my collaborator). Thanks to everyone who helped, came out, etc. For those who didn’t make it, the show was a kind of “weekend pick” over at Milwaukee’s Journal Sentinel (where one of the gallerists also pitched the show), and it’ll be up for more than a month (including Milwaukee’s gallery night, on April 17th!). If you can’t make it, it’s brand spanking new work, so we still need to document it – I’m hoping to have some images and/or video online in the next few weeks. We’re really excited about the progression, so watch this space….

I will also be giving public lectures about my work this week, twice. First, I will take over a spot on Wednesday, April 1st, 7pm (in ACL 120) for the Artist Now! series in the Visual Art department, Peck School of the Arts, at UWM:

Artists Now! is a Wednesday evening lecture series designed for a broad audience with an interest in contemporary visual art. The series presents a diverse group of artists working across traditional, hybrid and emergent disciplines. Join these nationally and internationally recognized practitioners as they explore and expand the boundaries of creative visual practice today.

All lectures take place on Wednesdays at 7 pm in the Arts Center Lecture Hall, 2400 E. Kenwood Blvd. on the UWM campus. The lectures are free and open to the public.

I’ll give an hour’s worth of overview of my practice, some works, and a couple of the trajectories I’m aware of in them. But if you can’t make that, don’t worry! The very next day I will be giving a very similar talk (pretty much the same one, with perhaps slightly more on the tech side, and with the general variability that comes with my “performances”) as part of the Computation and Craft lecture series in the School of Architecture & Urban Planning (SARUP) – Thursday, April 2nd at noon in AUP 110, also UWM. See the flyer below (click for larger).

interactions, interventions and implications: computation and craft lecture at UWM

interactions, interventions and implications: computation and craft lecture at UWM

Finally, I’ll kind of be all over the Johannesburg Art Fair, in South Africa – well, my art will. I personally can’t attend, but I am: (twice) in the Internet Art in the Global South net.art exhibition, curated by Tegan Bristow; on Bad Form, an interesting show over at Blank Projects, curated by Christian Nerf and Kathryn Smith; featured in a talk by Wilhelm van Rensburg on contemporary printmaking (Gallery AOP); and will mostly likely also feature at the David Krut table. Should be an awesome fair – sad to miss it.

Hope to see some of you around these great events!

Archives

13 August 2006 by nathaniel

the shooting gallery

via site:

a digital ceremony for a war photographer

Literary cult figure and pioneering digital filmmaker, Aryan Kaganof joins Catherine Henegan, Amsterdam based multi-disciplinary artist, for a gripping performance about a war photographer and an insatiable media machine. Also included in the team is James Webb, internationally renowned electronic sound artist who has created an audio landscape for the performance….

read more….

I went to go see this piece on its closing day. There were some amazingly beautiful moments, such as when aryan swung naked from the ceiling, blowing out candles in remembrance, or his hilarious first phone call about war being great for his career. A comment on mass media as producing reality, some important messages in the piece (tho occasionally the piece itself felt a little too mediated). Definitely a historical landmark for networked performance in South Africa, if not the world.

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05 May 2006 by nathaniel

SMS Sugar Man promo

The press release (click on image for 3MB quicktime promo / feature – Aryan Kaganof’s v. v. fun work!):

“SMS Sugar Man”, the world’s first feature film shot on mobile phone cameras, launches its 1st promo.

SMS Sugar Man ladies
Still: Grace (Leigh Graves) and Selene (Deja Bernhardt) Photo copyright: SMS Movies
“… in Johannesburg… on Christmas eve… bad things happen”

The world’s first feature film to be shot exclusively on Mobile phone cameras is launching its 1st promo at midnight, 5th May (GMT+1).

It will be available exclusively www.smssugarman.com.

The film is written and directed by Aryan Kaganof (www.kaganof.com),

Producer Michelle Wheatley: “We will also be placing the promo on Google, Yahoo and MySpace.com, and trying to reach a global audience.”

The story, an original idea of Kaganof’s, takes place on Christmas Eve, and is a love triangle with a twist. A feel good story for the modern urban viewer.

The film will be distributed on a variety of media, on Mobile TV, the Internet, theatrical, television and DVD platforms, offering the public maximum access in innovative ways.

Contact:
Michelle Wheatley (SMS Movies)
T: +27-82-33-66-897
E: michelle [at] dv8 [dot] co [dot] za

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28 March 2006 by nathaniel

the Jill Ross @ David Krut hook-up

Been chillin’ wit JR and RK (Richard Kilpert) at David Krut’s studio as of late, working on translating some of the Compressionist images into more traditional prints – looking towards using things like silk screen, lithography, engraving and etching. You can check out one preliminary experiment over at the kagablog (I just started the occasional art post over there – thanks, Kags!). Am very excited about this work – RK and JR are inspired!

Gotta mention there’s some nice work by Colbert Mashile o’er thar (Krut) – and that his painting also sold for a ‘nice price’ at the Beeldspraak benefit auction. Worth a shout out or three. The pic is Jill in front of an unintentionally reflective (no pun intended) Mashile print….

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02 February 2006 by nathaniel

PWO (post whites only)


still: dineo bopape

Kagablog, ex-guest blogger Aryan’s own space, writes about a showing of South African art he curated for the Rotterdam Film Festival (obviously, ironically titled – that’s info for my overseas readers who don’t know Aryan, who is, ironically, also ironically titled…):

post whites only digs deeper and provides an encounter with the more disturbing realities of the south african condition. identity is always a concern with artists working in a neo-colonialist context, and it is no surprise that some of the most rigorous and challenging work coming out of south africa today is directly concerned with interrogating issues of identity and self manufacture.

It’s a lucid and long post, detailing all featured artists and their works. He’s also been added to the ‘roll and the ‘reader. We miss him over here, but are also glad to see some consistent text about his other work online! See his daily – I would not call them rants. They are too articulate to be rants.  uuuuuuum – posts. My ‘sentimental deconstruction,’ A Song for The, is a video made sometime mid-last-year, specifically for the festival and at Kaganof’s request. It’s a ‘slammy’ exploration of growth and listening, inspired by conversations with my father, Marshall Blonsky and Edmundo Desnoes. There’s a hot line-up on Kag’s reel, and I hope he considers re-showing it in Joburg etc sometime soon!

Archives

31 January 2006 by nathaniel

Kaganof’s Phone Film

The Sunday Times just covered Kaganof’s new project – a film shot entirely with cell phones:

‘Action!’ says the director for at least the 20th time in as many minutes, prompting the two female leads to start doing their thing at the pool table. As the girls hit the balls, chat and flirt, their movements are recorded by the cameras embedded in two of Sony Ericsson’s slick new W900i cellphones. That’s right: once this film, SMS Sugar Man, is completed, it will be the first feature film in the world to be shot entirely on cellphone cameras.

Read more.

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