reviews | implicit art

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23 July 2006 by sean slemon

Thomas! We Demand something new.

With his own brand of printed wallpaper (the pattern extracted from one of his photographs), Thomas Demand darkened the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens in London this summer. Each room a busy dark hue of green interfering with your vision in the same way that a chain link fence does: making us struggle to see the actual artwork. His intention was supposedly to make us aware of the domestic scale of the Gallery.His show consisted of large scale, slickly produced Plexiglas laminated photographs of “Life size sculptures painstakingly made by him” (Shame!) .Using rudimentary materials like paper and cardboard, he constructs banal scenes like a window surrounded by ivy, A kitchen, a photocopy shop, you get the drift right?

He has been working in this way since he left Goldsmiths in the early 90’s and has yet to find something new, rather choosing to attempt to refine the way of working and his idea.
The scenes are of course devoid of human presence and are crafted as accurately as possible. An image of a dead plant looks life like from a distance, but is revealed to be fake and constructed upon closer inspection. This show, and his work is really just a refined version of a concept that was better and more impressively produced ( and allowed to run its course) by Fischli and Weiss. The pair produced woodcarvings and Styrofoam sculptures of similar scenes and human scenarios, having since moved onto other methods of production and so, other ideas.
Demand has just reduced the same concept first to cardboard, and then to a photograph. Beyond the initial surprise of realising that what your looking at is constructed and not real, there is not much else to hold your attention, when it is really just an idea we have seen before, reduced to a large reflective photographic surface. Maybe it is more designed for the contemporary kind of travelling show, along with the need to edition, sell and adapt to the commercial museum and exhibition culture and the public’s constant need for exhibits.

How I wish for something new. The Serpentine Gallery is not one to give much away on their website.

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19 July 2006 by nathaniel

ABSA (updated below)

^{Ruth Sacks (image from joaoferreiragallery.com)}^{Photographic documentation of Don’t Panic, 21 March 2005, Skywrite, Cape Town CBD, approx. 2 X 18 km. Photo: Mario Todeschini}

For those who haven’t heard, last night’s ABSA L’Atelier went to a deserving Ruth Sacks, who showed video documentation of her clever and beautiful piece, Don’t Panic. From joaoferreiragallery.com:

On Human Right’s Day, March 21 (2005), she paid a pilot to write the words ‘Don’t panic’ in the sky over the Cape Town city bowl. The ‘don’t’ blew away long before the ‘panic’ did.

A mostly strong and diverse show, where merit prize winners include Nathani Luneburg (video), Riason Naidoo (video), Anet Norval (mixed media), James Webb (print that doubles as documentation for a site-specific installation) and Nomusa Mary Makhubu (polyptych of four digital prints that took the Gerard Sekoto prize). On the one hand, I think the awards should be applauded for their recognition of conceptual and new media work – both Webb and Sacks exhibited minimalist art that coupled as documentation for (beautifully executed, IMNSHO) larger-scale interventions already accomplished, and there were several video pieces in the top ten finalists. On the other, it was a bit of a coup for the priveleged – ABSA does not provide equipment for its participants, as the Kebbles used to. (My art "career," for example, basically started thanks to the Kebbles’ recognition of work they had provided the necessary gadgets for, and I still only put prints in other competitions, given lack of such support – contrary to popular belief, I can’t afford to buy my own equipment most of the time, and certainly can’t afford to buy it then lose it for ages. Most media art producers are in the same boat.) This means that our video peops had to provide their own projectors, players and / or screens for about 6 months while decisions were being made – not to mention the site-specific pieces’ probable cost and support needed from the artists and/or third parties. From what I can tell, there were less than a dozen video entries in total, so the fact that so many were awarded makes a statement to both sides of this argument – both ABSA’s committment to recognize, and their lack of support for, new media and large-scale work.

I suppose that the awards have erred on the side of rewarding more "continental" (note intentional euphemism, denoted by quotation marks) art, historically (thus their reasoning behind the Gerard Sekoto prize – for a bit of balance). My own tastes are probably in line with theirs, so I won’t go off on destructive tangents, but given their proclamation of being "the oldest and biggest" competition in SA – with the absence of the Kebbles – perhaps it’s time to offer provisions to those working with advanced media?

Update: just had a glance at the catalogue, and they put my work in it upside down, and said I went to ‘Trisch’ School of the Arts for my Masters. I had a good laugh.

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17 July 2006 by nathaniel

Victor ious

^{diane victor @ fried contemporary}

Made it to the Roles/Robes opening at Fried in P-town a few nights ago, and it was a strong show – I can’t believe that place has been around for an entire year now, and it is really going strong (huge turn out, for a starving audience of Cont-Art lovers up thar). Check out my flickr for pix of works by Wilma Cruise, Carinne Zaayman and Diane Victor. Diane’s works (detail pictured) really stole the show – extremely rich and textured, not to mention fragile, drawings she produced using the smoke from lit candles. Not only did these blow me away, but according to her, these were a rush job, and her Goodman exhibition (opening this Saturday) puts these works to shame. Maybe see you there….

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14 July 2006 by nathaniel

V/A (various art)

Been doing filler (mostly my own stuff) for the past while on the blog, whilst on residence in Brazil, and not getting out much since going gaga over my daughter. Hit the gallery strip two days ago, tho, and as usual was pleased by the works at Warren Siebrits – with the exception of the young, up-and-coming Colbert Mashile, the works were a bit steep in price, but that’s what you pay for in the Siebrits space, I gather; he does the work of finding great work. Colbert is also, obviously, a guy to watch. Not that impressed with Cecil Skotnes @ Goodman, but it is what it is – emotive paintings and prints, from an old master… Just not my vibe. The Krut group show of works is really worth seeing, and the pieces are really affordable for those who want to start collecting going-places (or already there) artists (I actually bought a Slemon piece for myself). Note that this is not a self-plug – my prints on show are not for sale….

Also currently on in Gauteng:
Dorothee Kreutzfeldt @ Outlet, and (oh shit, nathaniel just realized he deleted the shows he had intended on blogging from his inbox), and some other stuff at some other galleries, I am sure. Maybe look at m&g or art.co.za or Artthrob listings or something. I’m tired.

Oh yeh, and my opening at Parking Gallery went live last night (up for three days by appointment). Here’s a great photo by Christo Doherty (followed by a few others on my crap phone). Doherty says, "the image of woody allen came out rather like a francis bacon portrait – i quite liked that. he was also an artist challenged by the problems of communication and the corporal body…."

^{vincent @ parking gallery, a photo by Christo Doherty}

^{simon gush (parking gallery curator) and clive kellner (johannesburg art museum curator). the latter says the former is a great gallerist, and that i could quote him on that. after he said i should not blog about him spilling coca-cola everywhere, that is….}

^{rat western and her bright nose in my terrible photos say, "it’s nice to see your crap"}

PS – my daughter has a new site, if interested
PPS – about to post my first guest blog at Art Heat

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08 July 2006 by nathaniel

Artthrob and a New Look

I think it’s safe to say that, over the last few months, Artthrob has taken a distinctive turn toward the critically engaged; and the site is better for it. Between relative newbies Michael Smith and Linda Stupart, their influence and writing, and the influence of the upcoming international plugs for Cape Town on the older staples ("not a Biennale" and the BBC special, for example), The Throb has started to change shape from a mostly Cape Town scene Advertisement, to a mostly Cape Town scene Arts Magazine – certainly a step in the right direction. And it is not without irony that I recognize my own blog is, as Linda puts it, "usually glowing" about Johannesburg artsters. Admittedly, I’m a little jealous of The Throb’s recently energized chutzpah, and may take a leaf.

That being said, Linda’s thinly veiled "art blogs review" in this month’s issue is little more than a defense and appraisal of Art Heat, the most recent addition to online arts engagement in SA, and at the heart of the UCT scene (of which she is a part; she did not mention her own relationship with the site, which seems to be relatively tight….). Her "disproportionate" (see article to know why I use this term), dismissal of other sites as high-brow (Africa South Art Initiative – not sure I agree about this), nepotistic (SAarts – partially true, but this assumes we have power we do not, and ignores our open call policy), or in the case of this site having far too many pictures of my daughter (Linda: 4 out of 1133 posts have pix of Sid – you utterly misrepresent me) culminates in a kind of whiney "just misunderstood" and "please wade through the crap" for the aforementioned. I agree that Art Heat adds value to the SA art scene on several levels (stricken – this not true "~~disproportionate" amounts of boring, local gossip and too many posts about Ed Young notwithstanding~~); but I think most of this comes not from their irreverence, self-promotion, in jokes, or even the occasionally smart arts review that Linda is quick to point out. It’s, rather, from their not taking themselves too seriously. Perhaps we could all (this means you and me, too, Linda) take a leaf from this. (And I may take them up on their offer of guest blogging now and again for practice in the near future….)

Admittedly, some of Linda’s other comments about this site particularly – biting or not – ring too true for me to ignore, as alluded to by my looking for chutzpah, above. Read her words here.

Also worth noting in this issue: interesting feedback for a change, an artbio on Cecil Skotnes, a Zaayman bit on M. MacGarry, this, this and not least this (go mikey!).

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03 July 2006 by nathaniel

RBS

One of the most fascinating discussions that emerged from the iCommons iSummit, at least for me, came out of the presentation by Israeli rock stars RHYTHM BEATING SILENCE aka RBS. Their fascinating story is of a band who "made it," but in a small scene driven by virtually one label and one radio station, were completely taken advantage of. Instead of sitting idly, the band went on their own, and gave their music away for free (now all under Creative Commons licences), making money by playing gigs and archiving their albums. Everything is available for re-mix use and non-commercial distribution through their web site. We went on to discuss revenue generation for lesser known artists, various production modes, DIY art and the importance of collaboration. RBS’s frontman, Nimrod Lev, is quite an interesting activist – here’s a translation of a recent speech he gave at the University of Haifa. Money quote (speaking of criminalizing the downloading of music):

Personally, I was never willing to think of my audience as criminals or to turn the people for whom I create music into criminals, just because the music industry is in a crisis. …

I would like to begin with the opening lines of the announcement we attached to the song "Vegas" which was played here earlier:

It does not matter when and how the music and all that is related to it became only a matter of business and commerce. It happened. The love of music became marginal, and in most cases it is not part of the considerations of music products, marketed to the public.