Just looking over the vast amounts of photos over the last few days, but have chosen to reminisce in text (remember: we’re in Africa; I like to keep file sizes down!)….
Wednesday morning began with a whole lot of gushing over Colleen Alborough’s amazing work. The production of Night Journey was a journey itself – Colleen has been working on the piece for about 3 years. But it is only with that time that the piece has come to be so amazingly well rendered, so obviously considered. The interactive elements are far superior to her last attempt (now moving to alarm motion sensors instead of motion tracking cameras), but rather than turning the piece into something playful, they push the piece towards an unrepeatable eeriness. Her felt (the material, not the action) walls and animated videos are a scary yet comfortable claustrophobia, and the lights and bodies in the space paradoxically make me feel safe, and make my skin crawl.
The next part of the morning was slightly different. We went to catch a rehearsal of Bombay Crush. You heard me right: Jay Pather, avant-garde choreographer extraordinaire, is producing a full-on Bollywood Musical. OMG it was super duper fun to watch its beginnings. Opens 1 Dec, and if time and money allow, I’m hoping to take my second-ever trip to Durban in order to see it.
Then we hit the Durban Art Gallery to see some of their permanent collection, some newly acquired works from the recent red-eye exhibition, and the positive: aids in 2005 show. The most interesting works for me were by Desmond Zeederberg, Clive van den Berg, Churchill Madikida and Wayne Barker.
Storm then took me for a bit of a tour – we hit ushaka for a walk on the pier, round the new and old architecture, through a few parks, and finally to the aquarium for a look at the fishies. There seems to be a new fascination with clown fish since the dawning of Finding Nemo, and I got to reference my / Josh Goldberg’s ‘clown joke’ far too frequently for the common man.
Day eased into night as I blogged a bit, did some personal admin online at the gallery, and prepped a small feast for our final night in Durbs. I’ll be back….
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