Thursday, January 26, 2012

As January hits the third week of the month, the city’s art galleries take down the group shows directed at the summer visitors, and get serious again. Or, relatively serious.

At blank projects last week, Avant Car Guard and friends were staging a finissage. The text on one of their banner pieces read, IF YOU DIE, CAN I HAVE YOUR CELL PHONE ? Perhaps only in South Africa could this statement seem like a reasonable request.

Across the road from blank, at the Stevenson, Viviane Sassen’s seductive, off kilter images are a complete antidote to the perfectly lit, carefully placed subjects one has grown accustomed to encountering on gallery walls.

Viviane Sassen’s Kapijmpange

In this portrait of a young girl, the focus of Sassen’s attention is the fragile, rose printed voile of her dress. In order to concentrate on this gentle texture, the girl’s features have been lost in a soft dark pool. Conversely, this makes her more magnetic than if we had been able to discern every eyelash.

Stuart Bird’s Blood Knot

Round the corner at the Goodman, Stuart Bird has mounted his first solo show, and displays a dazzling virtuosity in his handling of materials. Blood Knot is the title of a searing Athol Fugard play about two half brothers, one black, one half white. it is also the title of Bird’s intertwined knotted sculpture, made not of rope, but carved, meticulously and sinuously, from wood.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

A performance detail from Athi-Patra Ruga’s Ilulwane

It’s really too hot to work today. Come on, it’s a baking 34°C, or 93.2° F. Of course, there’s no air con in the studio. And if you open the windows more than a crack or turn up the fan, papers blow everywhere.

So I’m trying to keep cool by writing about Athi Patra Ruga’s watery Ilulwane at the RoseLee Goldberg-directed Performa Biennial of performance in New York last November.

Ruga drew part of his inspiration from the 1970s and 80s photographs of Alvin Baltrop, a photographer who struggled for recognition for his photos of queer life on the West side piers of Manhattan. Baltrop died in 2004, and it is only now that his work is beginning to be exhibited in mainstream galleries. Working with Baltrop’s evocative visual references, Ruga added elements from his own Xhosa culture, on initiation ceremonies, and also reflected on the AIDS crisis to build up his 45 minute synchronized swimming performance.

A performance detail from Athi-Patra Ruga’s Ilulwane

Synchronized swimming? This is a sport I have always associated with ruched floral bathing suits and colour coordinated rubber caps. I believe Ilulwane will be performed in South Africa later this year. I can’t wait to see how Ruga pulled all these diverse elements together.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Storm Janse van Rensburg and Claire van Blerck


One of the best things about the New Year is the opportunity given to wipe last year’s messy slate clean again. Emails one should have – but did not – respond to ages ago can now be sent out with Happy New Year wishes and the recipient will probably forgive you.

This period of armistice doesn’t last long, however – after January 15 the truce is toast.

It’s also the time of year to make a list of all the half formed projects in your mind, and see which ones have strong enough legs to warrant further work. And which ones can be dumped right now.

Over at the Goodman Cape last week, the artists gathered for end of year drinks and to say goodbye to Storm Janse van Rensburg, who is off to Berlin. The incoming director is Federico Freschi, currently associate professor in the history of art department at Wits. Let’s raise a glass to his success.

Stuart Bird’s carved wooden text piece overcame at least some of the artist’s difficulties when it sold on opening night at the Goodman Cape Summer Show.