a dead cat (close)
south african art
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Richard Smith at Con Hill
Pardon me for gushing, but Richard Smith’Äôs exhibition that opened at Constitution Hill Wednesday night, was a highlight for me. Andre Naude and I both walked away with the same word: inspiring, to say the least! Spanning over three of the rooms in the prison, the historical loadedness of the space also complemented the show’Äôs theme in every way. Robyn Sassen opened with a sensible and short speech.
I have learnt a new word: pedimento. Apparently, this is what the art technique of erasing to the bare surface, is called. I could not locate the word in on-line dictionaries, though. Anyone out there to help?
I was pleasantly surprised by Smith’Äôs works.. So totally different from what I expected. The large scale charcoal works with painted ’Äòspeech bubbles’Äô collaged onto the finished surfaces filled one room, while figures bulky in stature eluding some kind of vulnerability and raw emotional connotation can be found in the next.
I hope this becomes a permanent exhibition space. Quite a number of artists are going to stand in line for this!
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Ruan Hoffmann and Theresa-Anne Mackintosh
Ruan Hoffmann & Theresa-Anne Mackintosh at the Franchise Gallery, 44 Stanley, Johannesburg
This is a tight show and a real lesson in creating an enveloping space for your work – I’ve never seen Franchise like this before…. The two creators have quirky styles and work hard to “brand” their art in ways absolutely necessary in today’s world.
Ruan Hoffman’s plates and vases are beautifully made, have interesting designs, and would go nicely in my home. Admittedly, I’ve heard he’s a young ‘un – and I’ve never seen his name before this show – so I think he might have priced them a bit high for now. Still, given the area, and the style he makes them in, it just might be working (didn’t ask).
Mackintosh, on the other hand, has work with an aesthetic somewhere between Japanime and Barney, but with her own little design-y twist around questions of beauty and distinction. It’s fun, cute, trendy and easy to live with – more than 2/3rds of her “babies” (pictured) have already sold since the show’s opening on Friday (but she should give me one for free, just because). I remember meeting Theresa-Anne ages ago at GordArt, and her name has been thrown around a lot since then – it’s nice to see how hard she’s been working, the versatility of her media.
Theresa-Anne Mackintosh’s site
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Compressionism revisited
left: tree, 750 x 2000 mm, Sept. 2005 Compressionism is an ironic title for a series of works that use simple technologies to "capture and compress" subjects, then "edits and exhibits" them to explore different ways of looking. In the near future, I’ll play with video-based and sonic Compressionist studies; for now, I’ve been performing with a moving scanner and PhotoShop to produce the images – which I eventually turn into large-scale, archival prints. There’s some (video) documentation of the first experiments and their exhibition (April 2005, with Marcus Neustettter’s afterimages) here, and my latest studies (new ones finished today!) will henceforth be housed here. Compressionism grew out of serial faces, featured in Leonardo 38:3