Some cheeky brats over in Cape Town had their students buy beer for them and wrap them as gifts, all in the name of contemporary art. Pictured: Bruce Gordon and Ed Young receiving gifts from Christian Nerf’s Stellenbosch students.
More pix available on their new blog, that I hope goes beyond this project: http://nerfyoung.blogspot.com/
Why didn’t I think of that?
PS – I’d prefer the URL to be YoungNerf….
So I was at Spier last night with some really cool artists. Not all of them made it on the same night, but amongst the ten finalists selected for their hotel art project are myself, Kim Lieberman, Mustafa Maluka, Matt Hindley, Usha Seejarim, Dorothee Kreutzfeld, Jo O’Connor and Nicolas Hlobo. Had a nice dinner among new friends, great conversation, perhaps some future help and collaborations. I’ll probably propose some Compressionist images for the project – got some great scans on site before my scanner finally died (another one on the way – thank you, ebay!).
James Webb also joined up for dinner, and managed to sneak the two of us into Brett Bailey’s Orpheus, for which he sound designed. We had to drive over the bridge at right. Yes, that’s the best I could do for an image – desperate times….
Sometimes over the top and obvious where unnecessary, and a few of the scenes could have been shorter to get their points across better, but Orpheus was undoubtedly a brilliant piece. The lead narrator, portrayed by Sibongile Khumalo, was an amazing presence with heart-wrenching physical character, and Orpheus (I cannot find the actor’s name) had the haunting singing voice of a dying angel (he did not once speak out of song). The set, the silence, the sound, the politics, even most of the parts that may have been OTT (over-the-top) worked seamlessly. A devastatingly beautiful rendition by all of the artists involved — see it if you can.
On a quick visit, running around like a headless chicken! Been hangin’ with Ralph Borland and Toni Oliver, plus got to see Christian Nerf and Kathryn Smith this morning. Good peoples! Battery died so no pix, and only have a few mins left in this internet cafe, so more later / prob when I get home. To Spier tonight, to hang with Matt Hindley and James Webb, maybe see Orpheus. Back to Joburg tomorrow… w00+.
The awaited launch of the new SA Art Times:
The SA Art Times has evolved from the South African Art Information Directory in fore filling a need to go beyond simply listing and cataloguing the SA Arts community, to actively providing energy, information and news thorough this community.
Has anyone seen it? How is it – any good? If their ‘about’ page on their site (quoted above), and its grammar (and clarity), is any signifier, we are totally f^ck=d. Does anyone know what the above sentence means (fore filling? thorough this community?)? At some point they approached me for some writing, but I’ve been swamped. I’m curious, so maybe I’ll hit them up….
After a morning of various errand – running / personal – admin BS, I began the Real Day with a lunch meeting / brainstorm session starring myself and the ever-inspired and energetic Richie K. He told me a bit about his new iterative photographic – photoshoppy – inkjet process and images, which sound divine, while I shared a bit more on my performative Compressionist prints – and the two seem to work very well together. Kilpert and I are starting to potentially think about two upcoming duo shows (I’d share my Outlet show with him, and he an upcoming exhibition space with me), which would display the complimentary series side by side, maybe include some collaborative efforts as well.
This lead perfectly into our excursion to see Jill Ross at the David Krut gallery and print shop. After being dazzled by Jill’s beautiful work with Wilma Cruise (shown: Jill + Wilma print + Blurry Richard), I attempted to return the dazzle with the Compressionism documentation and some images. We brainstormed through some teamwork possibilities – Jill really is a well of printmaking knowledge, as is Richie, and we’re all pretty excited by the potentials in combining our talents and work.
We ended with all kinds of collaborative printmaking seeds, and I’m hoping to work with Jill and Richie in the near future. Oooooh, I see some New Art coming on…. It’s gonna be H-O-T. Will keep you "posted."
Under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Share-Alike license; thanks to Cary Peppermint for being so SUPERCOOL. I know I could not have done this without you. I’m on the path, I know it, I can feel it, cuz I don’t care:
nathaniel is SUPERCOOL video link, 424kb, 7 seconds
