south african art

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15 April 2008 by nathaniel

Marcus Neustetter walkabout @ Art on Paper Gallery, Johannesburg

in two minds, Marcus Neustetter
a chat with the artist on Thursday 17 April 2008 at 18:00 – 20:00

Art on Paper Gallery, 44 Stanley Avenue Braamfontein Werf (Milpark), Johannesburg South Africa

Marcus Neustetter: in two minds, site-specific installation, 2008
Marcus Neustetter: in two minds, site-specific installation, 2008

Although Marcus Neustetter’s latest exhibition at Art on Paper Gallery invokes processes of mapmaking – representing space by drawing it in two dimensions on a map – it is not about conventional cartography. Rather, he introduces the element of motion into the mapmaking process, intimating the aspect of time in the exploration of geographical space. In fact, Neustetter’s art is about finding a method of referring to our experience of the coalescence of space and time.

On the last evening of Neustetter’s ascent of Kilimanjaro in December 2006 the night was so clear that the lights of the city of Moshi at the foot of the mountain seemed to be reflected in the stars of the sky. The sky above could as well have been a map of the landscape below. Neustetter generated digital maps of these reflections exploring the structural similarities of various spaces at specific times.

Marcus Neustetter considers his solo exhibition as an opportunity to articulate his ideas and concepts about dealing with a profound personal experience, and searching for the relationship between seemingly random occurrences in his life and subsequent visual ‘translations’. The exhibition includes an installation, digital traces, drypoint prints, drawings, photographs and images presented on SANSUI LCD screen.

Marcus Neustetter was born in Johannesburg on 14 November 1976 and attended the Deutsche Schule zu Johannesburg. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand, and his Masters Degree in 2001. During this time he launched sanman (Southern African New Media Art Network).

He has been a professional artist since 2001 and, in partnership with Stephen Hobbs, has been developing The Gallery Premises, The Trinity Session and their artistic collaboration, Hobbs/Neustetter, as documented in www.onair.co.za.

Marcus Neustetter lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa.
www.marcusneustetter.net

The exhibition closes on 26 April 2008

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10 April 2008 by nathaniel

Printmaking Today (and a minor kvetch)

My hard drive died last week, which sucked. I didn’t lose anything important like art or my PhD (thank goodness), but it’s taken days just to get back to running, due to file and email jumbles on various drives, etc (still not quite there, and will have some crazy organizing to do in my spare time – files everywhere! – over the next few months…).

Anyhow, lost somewhere in the gambit was this 2-page feature on David Krut projects – featuring li’l ole me! – in Printmaking Today magazine…

Read it.

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03 April 2008 by nathaniel

in two minds: marcus neustetter at art on paper gallery, johannesburg

Marcus is one of my favorite people and favorite contemporary artist-thinkers in South Africa. This his his first solo exhibition there (as far as I know). GO!

in two minds
Marcus Neustetter

Please join us for the opening on Saturday 5 April 2008 at 14:00
The exhibition is accompanied by an artist’s book

Preview by appointment
The exhibition closes on 26 April 2008

Marcus Neustetter Tswaing Meteorite Crater (detail) 2008 digital print on paper 700 X 1000mm
Marcus Neustetter Tswaing Meteorite Crater (detail) 2008 digital print on paper 700 X 1000mm

Although Marcus Neustetter’s latest exhibition at Art on Paper Gallery invokes processes of mapmaking – representing space by drawing it in two dimensions on a map – it is not about conventional cartography. Rather, he introduces the element of motion into the mapmaking process, intimating the aspect of time in the exploration of geographical space. In fact, Neustetter’s art is about finding a method of referring to our experience of the coalescence of space and time.

On the last evening of Neustetter’s ascent of Kilimanjaro in December 2006 the night was so clear that the lights of the city of Moshi at the foot of the mountain seemed to be reflected in the stars of the sky. The sky above could as well have been a map of the landscape below. Neustetter generated digital maps of these reflections exploring the structural similarities of various spaces at specific times.

Marcus Neustetter considers his solo exhibition as an opportunity to articulate his ideas and concepts about dealing with a profound personal experience, and searching for the relationship between seemingly random occurrences in his life and subsequent visual ‘translations’. The exhibition includes an installation, digital traces, drypoint prints, drawings, photographs and images presented on SANSUI LCD screen.

Marcus Neustetter was born in Johannesburg on 14 November 1976 and attended the Deutsche Schule zu Johannesburg. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand, and his Masters Degree in 2001. During this time he launched sanman (Southern African New Media Art Network). He has been a professional artist since 2001 and, in partnership with Stephen Hobbs, has been developing The Gallery Premises, The Trinity Session and their artistic collaboration, Hobbs/Neustetter, as documented in www.onair.co.za

Marcus Neustetter lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa.
www.marcusneustetter.net

Art on Paper Gallery
44 Stanley Avenue Braamfontein Werf (Milpark)
P O Box 91476 Auckland Park 2006 Johannesburg South Africa
+27 11 726 2234 info@artonpaper.co.za
www.artonpaper.co.za

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04 March 2008 by nathaniel

Turbulent Works

getawayexperiment.net, a work of mine with Marcus Neustetter, is part of the first net.art exhibit by Greylock Arts in Massachusetts, in collaboration with turbulence.org:

A group exhibition of net art commissioned by New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. for its Turbulence web site.

Turbulent Works features a selection of Turbulence commissions which represent the broad spectrum that is net art. In these works you will experience new interfaces for sound expression, art created within virtual worlds, art which is politically and socially motivated, video performances, photographic explorations, and websites re-interpreted through painting.

Now celebrating 12 years, Turbulence has commissioned over 150 works of net art and exhibited and promoted artists’ work through its Artists Studios, Guest Curator, and Spotlight sections. As networking technologies have developed wireless capabilities and become mobile, Turbulence has remained at the forefront of the field by commissioning, exhibiting, and archiving the new hybrid networked art forms that have emerged. Turbulence works have been included in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Biennial (‘00, ’02, ’04), and its Bit Streams and Data Dynamics exhibitions; Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea; C-Theory, Cornell University; Ars Electronica, Austria; International Festival of New Cinema and New Media, Montreal; European Media Arts Festival, Germany; and the Sundance Film Festival, among others.

Read more / see the works

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20 February 2008 by nathaniel

Contemporary Irish Art Society and a Birthday Blog (updated below)

sirens' dillisk, lambda print on metallic paper, 2007, 610 x 1200 mm, edition 5Haydn and I gave very brief talks to the the Contemporary Irish Art Society last night, about my recent print work for Art on Paper Gallery (South Africa) and Haydn Shaughnessy Gallery (Ireland and in Second Life). It was really fun to be with an audience who knew nothing of the technologies I normally use (they were so curious and interested when I showed them one of my interactive installations, stuttering, for example), but who could completely appreciate the trajectory coming from that work, and leading into my performative printmaking process. The most buzz from them came out of the art historical referential pieces, such as nude descension and nude descension II, or Joburg Boogie Woogie and Joburg’s Ghost, as well as the locally made works. The Society itself wound up buying sirens’ dillisk (shown right, and a detail is in the header of this blog), a piece produced in West Cork in the middle of last year. They often purchase Irish works that are later donated to museums, galleries, hospitals and other official bodies, so I’m curious to see where it winds up.

Tangentially, today is my blog’s 5th birthday. It’s gone through many refigurings, so I appreciate any and all who have been “with” me for any length of time, as well as newcomers to my work and occasional rants. This means MTAA also had a recent blog birthday – Tim, here’s your yearly reminder.

update: Haydn on his talk last night

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31 January 2008 by nathaniel

Catch of the day: Second Life’s new gallery

A little press from the Guardian’s art blog, here. Mark Hooper runs a bit cool on SL and its economy, but speaks positively about the gallery itself, and my and the other artists’ work. Snips:

 Three artists are showcasing their art in a new virtual gallery. But is this really the best place to see their work?

Ten Cubed gallery
The perfect art gallery? … a view of Second Life’s Ten Cubed gallery

I’ll be honest. My experience of Second Life is fairly limited. … So you’ll have to forgive me if I’m not as excited as some people about the launch of Ten Cubed, a new art gallery in Second Life, which goes live here today.

The gallery has been developed by Depo Consulting in association with Galleryica. Don’t get me wrong; it all looks very well designed. “Most virtual galleries are like your average website, poorly designed without any sense of optimising a visitor’s experience,” announced Depo CEO and creative director Peter Dunkley. “Ten Cubed has been designed by a professional architect to exploit fully the showcasing opportunities of the virtual medium.”

I’m sure he’s right. The inaugural show features the work of Chris Ashley, Scott Kildall and Nathaniel Stern, all interesting artists whose use of new technology makes them perfect for this sort of project….

So – nice design, nice publicity stunt. It’s made me check out the artists online anyway, via their own websites. Which is the only place I’d even contemplate buying their art.

The whole article.

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