Week One: Johannesburg,
February 11
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Writer Matthew Krouse leans
in to catch curator Okwui Enwezor’s every word at the press preview of ‘The Rise and Fall of Apartheid: Photography
and the Bureaucracy of Everyday Life’.
This mega exhibition – more
than 800 works are on show – has moved to the MuseumAfrica in Newtown,
Johannesburg from New York, Munich and Milan.
The indefatigable Okwui
Enwezor
Artist Nandipha Mntambo at
the press preview. Love the shoes.
This is the seating area in
Serge Nitegeka’s studio in the End Street area of midtown Joburg. It’s the neatest artist’s studio I’ve ever
been in bar none.
Freedom Park in Pretoria
opened a while ago, so being in Joburg provided us with an opportunity to drive
over and have a look.
And in case you were wondering exactly what the
mandate of the new museum is: the
displays start imaging South Africa 3.6 billion years ago, working their way up
through colonization, industrialization, apartheid, freedom, and in one small
room, poignant videos from the hearings of the Truth & Reconciliation
Commission.
Clive van den Berg was
responsible for the art and design of the sophisticated and complex
installations, like this one, which records the early days of the country.
And this one, which explores
slavery. It’s salutary to see this fraught subject addressed through a
contemporary art installation, rather than through boards of text.
On Friday, I drop in at the
Artists’ Press, located in the Bus Factory in Newtown. The studio is fully
equipped to make prints of all kinds, and has an important training programme
for would-be printmakers.
Week Two: Cape Town,
February 20
Cameron Platter is showing
at What If the World, and this evening ArtThrob editor Matthew Blackman
interviews him at the gallery about his art making process.
The striking large yellow
and black triptych in this photo is a drawing which Cameron describes as a collage of a fast food
menu, a pornographic video and Matisse’s Stations of the Cross. When questioned
by Matthew as to why he is so fond of drawing chicken, Cameron replies
mysteriously, ‘When I’m drawing chicken, I’m not thinking about chicken.’
Wim Botha’s new exhibition
‘Linear Perspectives’ opens at the Stevenson. It’s a great show. Some
sculptural pieces are in cardboard painted black, some bronzes have been cast
from a Styrofoam maquette and painted black. And then there are Carrera marble
sculptures splashed with black paint – like Platter, Botha enjoys playing with
conventional art practice.
Famed British designer
Thomas Heatherwick, here to talk at Design Indaba, is revealed as the architect
of the new Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art. At a press preview at the
Zeitz Pavilion at the Waterfront, Heatherwick takes his audience through the
design decisions that have been made which will transform the old silos into a
stunning new museum, planned to open in 2016.
I am given an interview slot
with Heatherwick following the press conference, and will write up a story of
the new MOCAA later this week.
The old silo, presently in
the early stages of conversion into a magnificent contemporary museum
At the Slave Lodge, Siemon
Allen, who has been living and working in the US for more than a decade, is
showing ‘Labels’. An obsessive researcher, Allen has assembled thousands of
record labels of South African music, and hung them in plastic sleeves to
create a walkway through the exhibition space. One wishes it were possible for
the labels to operate like touch screens – allowing a gentle touch on a label
to fill the air with music.
ArtThrob staffers Chad
Rossouw and Matthew Blackman at the ArtThrob stand on the Cape Town Art Fair –
its second manifestation.
This time around, the Cape
Town Art Fair was staged in what was once the BMW Pavilion at the Waterfront.
The circular layout allowed exhibitors the freedom to get away from the normal
gridlike stands at an art fair. The galleries put on a good show, and most
people seemed to agree it was a big success. Much better than the first attempt
last year. I certainly enjoyed it.
