{"id":423,"date":"2004-09-02T08:23:48","date_gmt":"2004-09-02T06:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/?p=423"},"modified":"2005-02-04T08:51:02","modified_gmt":"2005-02-04T06:51:02","slug":"anton-karstel-wild-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2004\/09\/02\/anton-karstel-wild-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"surreal hatred: anton karstel’s wild thing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"karstel.jpg\"<\/p>\n

photo credit: Thomas Barry<\/i><\/div>\n

And on an art note, I hit the Anton Karstel opening at Franchise last night. His installation, Wild Thing<\/i>, saw a kind of tiled, floor-based and flattened (steam-rolled?) photo-mosaic (reminded me a bit of those experimentations where young artists were making their own, large-scale, panoramas with cheap disposable cameras a few years back) of one of the notorious Casspirs of South Africa.<\/p>\n

For those outside of SA, and possibly not in the know, ‘the Casspir, an anagram of the acronyms SAP (SA Police) and CSIR\u00ac\u00dd (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) was designed in the late 1970s and introduced into police and later military service in the 1980s. It was at first extensively used by the infamous “Koevoet” police counterinsurgency unit in northern Namibia during the apartheid era and later also by the Southwest African Territory Force’s 101 Battalion and the SA Army’s 5 Reconnaissance Regiment.’ (from Business Day<\/a>). It connotes brutality, death and racism, even after a decade of democracy.<\/p>\n

Ironic then, is the uncanny beauty of Karstel’s installation. We can’t hate it, no matter how hard we try. At some point in the evening, I was asked by an artist named Amy what I thought about the piece, and I said that I had to start writing about it before I knew what I felt (oh, how Derridean). This is true, of course, but at the same time, when do I ever pass up the opportunity to give my opinion, even if I don’t have one yet? (ha)<\/p>\n

I realize now that, in this case, I struggled, and I’m still struggling. How can I despise such a beautiful thing? How can I aspire to be that which I abhor? I re-member, in a past life, hearing many proclamations that there could be ‘no more art after the holocaust.’ Perhaps what these ill-fated prophets meant was, how could we possibly imagine anything else now<\/b>?<\/i><\/p>\n

What space are we in, and what do we do with it? Atrocity is not something we want<\/i> to express, but something we have<\/i> to. This is not my cynicism speaking, but a space of mourning begging to grow.<\/p>\n

Granted, Karstel’s work is, by no means, Nuit et brouillard (Night and Fog<\/a>)<\/i>; it does not, cannot<\/i>, demand respect from us. But it does ask for it; and it got mine, if only for a fleeting moment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

photo credit: Thomas Barry And on an art note, I hit the Anton Karstel opening at Franchise last night. His installation, Wild Thing, saw a kind of tiled, floor-based and flattened (steam-rolled?) photo-mosaic (reminded me a bit of those experimentations where young artists were making their own, large-scale, panoramas with cheap disposable cameras a few […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,4,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-news-and-politics","category-south-african-art"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9blZT-6P","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":683,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2005\/07\/26\/anton\/","url_meta":{"origin":423,"position":0},"title":"anton","author":"kaganof","date":"26 July 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "kaganof"","block_context":{"text":"kaganof","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/old-categories\/kaganof\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":802,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2005\/09\/28\/brett-kebble-murdered\/","url_meta":{"origin":423,"position":1},"title":"Brett Kebble murdered","author":"nathaniel","date":"28 September 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Controversial mining mogul and arts patron, Brett Kebble, was shot and killed last night in Melrose. He was in his car, which was not taken (nor was anything else), so police think it may have been a \"hit.\" No suspects yet, but it is under investigation. Altho, like most people,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news and politics"","block_context":{"text":"news and politics","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/news-and-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":837,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2005\/10\/15\/ralph-borlnd-in-nyc-suited-for-subversion\/","url_meta":{"origin":423,"position":2},"title":"Ralph Borland in NYC: Suited for Subversion","author":"nathaniel","date":"15 October 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"South Africa's own Ralph Borland is exhibiting on a group show in NYC at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), right now! Suited for Subversion is part of the exhibition SAFE: Design Takes on Risk, October 16, 2005 - January 2, 2006. Here's two pics he sent me from over\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":591,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2005\/04\/22\/watercolours-and-works-on-paper-warren-siebrits\/","url_meta":{"origin":423,"position":3},"title":"watercolours and works on paper @ warren siebrits","author":"nathaniel","date":"22 April 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"kentridge's UNTITLED watercolor concertina, circa 1991 First, I gotta say that the siebrits site is just about finished, and it's already looking pretty classy... I like it when SA arts go live for the rest of the world to find! Woot. Second, as usual, Warren et al have put together\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1159,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2006\/04\/29\/intent-and-content\/","url_meta":{"origin":423,"position":4},"title":"Intent and Content","author":"nathaniel","date":"29 April 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"For those of you who recall, I did a little write up on Contempo mag - the new Arts\/Cutlure\/Design SA thinger - when it first came out. More or less, I said I completely support their intentions, despite my occasional skepticism of some of their content (which is mostly applaudable).\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":594,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2005\/04\/26\/mooimarkshow-vienna-johannesburg\/","url_meta":{"origin":423,"position":5},"title":"Mooimarkshow-Vienna-Johannesburg","author":"nathaniel","date":"26 April 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"SA artists in Austria! 12.5. - 18.6.2005 Opening:\u00ac\u00dd 11.5.2005 Kunsthalle Exnergasse W\u02c6\u00a7hringerstra\u02c6\u00fce 59, 1090 Vienna Austria photo: dave southwood Participants: Hubert Dechant, Saskia Draxler, Abrie Fourie, Matthew Hindley, Hillbrow Signwriters, Mandy Lee Jandrell, Susanne Jirkuff, Friederike Klotz, Dorothee Kreutzfeldt, Santu Mofokeng, Christian Nerf, Marcus Neustetter, Katrin Plavcak, Ella Raidl und\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}