sean slemon

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31 December 2006 by nathaniel

happy new year

I’m exhausted. I know, I’ve been on holiday for the last couple of weeks (but that was visiting family, so it’s not really "restful"), and I mostly just took the last two months "off" to move to Dublin. But a new baby, moving continents, catalogue production, many shows, starting a PhD, quitting my three jobs (after working them all year), two new print series (having never been a printmaker) – this has been a big one, and I’ve got another one coming. I was hoping to spend at least a little bit of time during this li’l trip to NYC re-connecting with some old contacts, maybe making some new ones, but it never happens that way when you go "home". I always just spend time with my wonderful family and friends (no complaining here). I’ll have to make a secret trip to NYC one day if I ever want to actually show or make work here… I’d love to actually do that in the city of my birth at some point :)

We had a nice time in Florida (Sarasota with my aunt/uncle, sister/bro-in-law) – some pix with my family are up on flickr, and more are forthcoming. We’ll be spending New Year’s with Sid’s Godmother and her boyfriend, as well as Sean Slemon and Amy Kaufman in Brooklyn – a quiet evening with friends.

I did have one day to zoot about; didn’t get to see much art, but learned that – if you can believe it – Paddy Johnson of AFC is even cooler in person than her web site lets on. PJ: I’m down for some of the potential colab stuff we talked about, and hope you had a good time with your bro…  I also had a nice chat with Kate at David Krut’s NYC gallery – am hoping we work together some time, cuz she’s a super cool but down to earth art persona… Thanks for boosting my AND Paddy’s egos while we were in your gallery, Kate.

The next few weeks, I’m hoping to dive right in and work my ass off on research for the dissertation, maybe look for some potential conferences or festivals to be on for ’07 and ’08. So, you may not be hearing from me too much… If you are reading this in Joburg, please oh please join me for my opening at Art on Paper Gallery @ 44 Stanley on 27 January, 3PM. I’ve put a lot of work into this series, which has been highlighted on various sites and in several magazines despite its not really being seen, so please come out and see; it’s my first solo catalogue, and I am oh so happy with it.

Alright, enough self promo.

I’m not really a top ten list kind of guy, but please enjoy Edward Winkleman’s Top Ten List of Top Ten Lists as much as I did. Cheers!

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20 November 2006 by sean slemon

I could not resist:


Photo: Tom Hanson/Canadian Press, via Associated Press, New York Times
This image was just too hilarious not to post: President Bush and other leaders today at the Asian economic summit meeting in Vietnam, where U.S. officials talked of a new set of incentives for North Korea to give up its nuclear program.
There have also been serious protests at Bush’s presence in Vietnam.
I will hold myself back from deconstructing this image!

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16 November 2006 by sean slemon

Ron Mueck at the Brooklyn Museum

This weekend, Ed Young and Christian Nerf were in town – to cause trouble. So we took a break from that and went to the Brooklyn Museum, where Ron Mueck currently has a mid-career solo on show.

If you don’t know his work, he pretty much makes small, or large scale super-realistic sculptures of humans. Average humans – not your Gwen Stefani’s or your Brad Pitt’s, just the man in the street. The work he became famous for- a small version of his father, was on show, including a 16ft(3m) long baby, having just been given birth to-still fresh with blood and the umbilical cord. There was also the spaced out village idiot on a chair-his shin bone as tall as a man. These sculptures make you fell like your on stage with the cast of a the Big Friendly Giant.
The show is very slick. Very minimalist to a degree. It is only people- all naked and clean. But the sheer amazement is what makes it work. Each hair is visible. Each wrinkle and skin blemish has been replicated, created.
The grand finale was a woman alone in bed: her head as tall as us, staring vacantly out into the distance. It was at this point that I realised that it takes some time to get past the size and realism, to the root of what Mueck is dealing with. The size almost detracts from the issues of reality, social class and expression of life experience that these works deal with- showing everyday people in various states of distress, death, depression or mental illness: the baby has just been born, the man in the boat looks as if he is about to be transported through a black hole. The women in bed seems to be contemplating whether or not to get up for work and the man in the corner seems to be trying to stop the thoughts inside his head. The village idiot-well, he’s the village idiot. We all need one as a measure. And maybe that’s what this is to some extent-a measure for us and for the artist… So that we can place ourselves in context and see where things really are and how they are for us.
Mueck communicates communication-or the lack of it maybe.
The only criticism I would have of the show is the section related to his artistic process. He drills the holes in the silicone by hand and threads them in! Each Hole!!! Each Hair!
It is fascinating to see this but I think it is a mistake for him-As it removes a level of mystery that these works have. His video of him working in his studio has a shocking soundtrack to it. But other than that you really get the sense that some of these pieces are going to jump at you.
Check out the work on the Brooklyn Museum website.
And if you haven’t been to one of their first Fridays then you should go. They are great.

Other than this Chelsea has been largely depressing. Nothing significant going on there. Makes one wonder.

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25 September 2006 by sean slemon

Zaha at the Guggenheim

If you want to be humbled, motivated and inspired then go to the Guggenheim, and use the building as it was designed by taking the elevator to the top floor, and walking down the ramps.
If you walk up like everyone else, you’ll be too tired to fully appreciate the work by the time you reach the top.
The only reason they design shows starting at the bottom is to accommodate the thousands that visit the museum each day. There aren’t enough elevators and the building was designed to have 500 or so people passing through each day.
Zaha Hadid is an architect based in London, born in Baghdad, and now in her 50’s she is easily one of the most prolific architects living. She has thankfully not developed the one liner attitude to building that someone like Frank Gehry has- build big glass box, make skew, fill with art and people, leave. (see the criticism on Wikipedia).

Her buildings are elegant forms, each work designed for and of the space it uses, both on a practical and physical level, as well as a conceptual level. Her design is practical-something many architects have garnered much criticism for not being. In the last few years she has begun to build and receive commissions across the world- with projects on the go everywhere. And in between all of this she still finds time to paint, draw and keep abreast of the latest technology in building and production: admittedly she has a small army working for her, probably living in fear of being fired at the drop of a hat (something for which she has become notorious for). As one blog stated-great show-now take a chill pill!

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07 September 2006 by sean slemon

Dropping Knowledge

In 2 days, www.droppingknowledge.org will launch a global dialogue platform at the table of free voices, Berlin. On September 9th, 2006, 112 of the world’s great minds will come together around the world’s largest table in Berlin’s historic Babelplatz Square.

Recorded by 112 digital cameras, they will simultaneously answer 100 questions chosen out of thousands donated by the global public. The resulting 600+ hours of audiovisual content will launch an unprecedented online resource: a knowledge portal and dialog forum created to host a global conversation covering the most pressing questions of our time.

Among 112 participants, a number of them are artists, musicians, filmmakers and authors. A complete list of participants can be viewed on the site.

Please visit www.droppingknowledge.org for more information.

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21 August 2006 by nathaniel

new signatures

Motsebetsi ya Motsho “Black Labour” (Supa Market) by Cillie Malan
Motsebetsi ya Motsho “Black Labour” (Supa Market) by Cillie Malan

OK I’m a lazy shit who is mostly cutting and pasting a press release; but am crazy with finishing up ‘stuff’ cuz we leave in 8 weeks(!), and I can’t believe how little press there has been on New Signatures! Who is this Cillie Malan, and why have I heard no opinions on the work? Admittedly, I found the line to view it a bit too long at the opening (lots of VIDEO, but at least these guys, as opposed to the L’Atelier, provide -albeit extremely minimal- equipment for the artists), so will have to go back to see it before it comes down. Anyone? Anyone? My longtime crush (and a judge) Jo Ractliffe says, "‘I like that the work is both diagrammatic and educationalist, but still has a comic undertone." Good for him. (Sean Slemon is pissed they doubled the prize money this, instead of last, year.)

Tidbits from the press release:

The judging panel voted to award two runner-up prizes. Gina Kraft and Rat Western, both from Johannesburg, received R15 000 each.  The judges were struck by the haunting and emotional beauty of Kraft’s performance art piece, Untitled, which has a relevance to the relationship between East and West today. Western’s video installation, Untitled, was praised for the sophisticated manner in which it explored themes of urban living.

Kraft is a Wits student, and Rat is an alum (she studied in the first year of the Digital Arts MA where, pity for her, I was still getting my teaching chops. She says I wasn’t too bad, but I’m not so sure). Congrats! More:

Two merit awards of R5 000 each were awarded to Angeline-Ann Le Roux for her work titled A place called home and Olaf Bisschoff with Jean Marais for their work titled CONTAIN.

Their new "Acknowledgement Awards" also went to some familiar names. Musha Neluheni won a small prize last year and had a recent show at ArtSpace, Bronwyn Lace was a YAP participant, and founding co-editor at SAartsEmerging, Ismail Farouk is Rat (merit winner’s) partner that had a great show I wrote about recently as well as being a merit winner in New Sig last year, I don’t know Elmarie Pretorius and Franya Botha but really liked the former’s work (didn’t see the latter’s), Nomthunzi Mashalaba (aka ‘Toonsie’) is a great young p-town artist I know through Abrie -and you can look for a feature on her work on SAarts soon- and Thabang Richard Lehobye just made some funky @$$ s#!t….

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