Monday, April 26, 2010

A lot of you have been asking why ArtThrob has not reviewed Spier Contemporary yet. I know. The review is coming. I’ve just been so incredibly busy trying to complete a commission to make an artwork which reads from both sides of a 30 metre glass wall at the IRT station at Cape Town airport, here beautifully illuminated from the road side by the rising sun. There are 26 panels which must be sandblasted and in some cases painted from both sides. And of course it’s all got to be finished for the World Cup. But more about that another time.
The glass wall at Cape Town airport

Back to Spier. I have walked round the show three times, wondering quite what to say. I thought of doing a whole review just on the labeling of the images with the artist’s statements, many of which could be entered for a most cringe worthy of the year contest. There is a terrible self consciousness, and an earnestness which pervades overall, and which does not sit well with what art should be. To say nothing of the grammar.

A label from Spier Contemporary

Take this one, which accompanies a photograph of a grimacing man holding a dead white rabbit. ‘In this self portrait I AM holding a dead white rabbit and dressed in an academic gown, this comments on MY struggles for employment as an art lecturer at a higher education institution. The belief is, the struggle is because of skin colour. The ‘Crazy Store’ frame makes reference to the strained financial implications of being an academic.’

One’s understandable reaction to reading this drivel might be, Get another job, dude. But speaking generally, South African artists have to get rid of the idea that spelling out every nuance of every thought that goes through their mind in making a piece has to be shared with their public.

The work must stand on its own, and be open to a variety of readings.