Last night was intervention. the second opening as part of the negotiate series at the Johannesburg Art Gallery (for a brief on the last opening, intercession, see my entry from 18 august).
Here’s a pic of Johan Thom’s performance, Outpost from the Minotaur series, live in front of the JAG – you can’t see the pig’s blood he used to great effect during the performance, on a long stage that was lit atop the stairs of the main entrance. The performance was admittedly a bit long (over 3 hours), but I think that may have been the point. It almost seemed banal by the end, his ritualistic and Barney-like awkwardess around that which is far from banal.
The show was opened by none other than Warren Siebrits, and was attended by some Very Important People ;) As usual, I felt very out of place.
city+suburban all-star, christian nerf, dressed up all the security guards in Polite Officer gear (tho I didn’t see him there, himself), and Rat Western made a beautiful sculptural treasure box to house a computer for the negotiate web site.
The big highlights tho, were the performances.
Other than Thom, Strangelove fashion collaborated with Anthea Moys in an attempt to change our relationship to the gallery (I missed this, but heard great things, and got to chat with Anthea a bit later – interesting lady!), and Dinkies Sithole did a live tap dance in the garden, asking what the connotative differences between performance and performance art might be (pictured).
