THE SOUTH AFRICAN
ART TIMES
www.arttimes.co.za • August 2008 • Issue 8 Vol 3 • RSA Home subscription 180 p.a • August print & distrib. 8 000 copies •
SASOL snuffs Wax Award
“When it comes to support for the arts,
sustainability seems to become a fickle
enterprise. Support for the arts could be
dished out and cancelled
at the drop of a hat.”
By Johan Myburg
The visual arts have always
benefited from patronage.
In Medieval times the church was
the grand patron. Many papal
whims contributed to some of
the greatest art ever created by
Michelangelo and his peers. And
during the Renaissance flamboy-
ant individuals and or families
such as the De Medici’s became
synonymous with the proliferation
of the visual arts. Today corporate
sponsorship has taken over the
role of institutions offering vital
support for the visual arts.
Although these tokens of support
and patronage are laudable and
indispensable, determining the
nature of the relationship between
the benefactors and the arts
become increasingly important. To
what extent have patrons of the
arts become patronising? Would
one be able to speak of a truly
symbiotic relationship between
sponsorship and the arts? What
constitutes the mutual benefit of
this relationship? And is reciprocity
regarded important at all?
In South Africa we have witnessed
the devastating effects of the
abrupt end of the Brett Kebble Art
Awards. And recently we have
witnessed the end of the Sasol
Wax Art Award. No self-respecting
corporate institution would operate
oblivious to the importance of
sustainability.
But when it comes to support for
the arts, sustainability seems to
become a fickle enterprise. Sup-
port for the arts could be dished
out and cancelled at the drop of
a hat, so it seems. If the chair of
LI T
UA Y
LEN Q
PRODU
C T ZEL
PROFESSIONAL
the board has a flair for the arts,
sponsorship becomes an avenue
for corporate social investment.
Should the chair retire, the support
dwindles or dries up completely.
If one takes into consideration
mutual respect (from the sponsor
towards the arts and artists, and
from the art world towards the
sponsor) the question arises
whether the patron is consult-
ing the art world in establishing
sponsorship and in withdrawing
sponsorship. This could be the
case in establishing the award or
competition or form of support. But
the termination of support seems
to be a unilateral decision.
The pope has another scheme in
mind and the work on the Sistine
Chapel comes to a halt.
In an age with accountability and
transparency as buzzwords, it
seems odd that the visual arts
have to be treated as a minor
– sponsorship will decide what
is beneficial for the arts. They
will decide the amount of pocket
money that could be allocated to
the arts. While the arts sheepishly
do their best to promote the image
of the sponsor, honouring the
obligation to produce quality work
so that the sponsor could cash in
on publicity and a polished profile
as ‘supporters of the arts’.
Perhaps the time has come for the
art world to enter proper negotia-
tions with sponsors to secure a fair
deal for both. The arts need spon-
sors. Sponsors need an aesthetic
quality to be associated with.
No one needs to be reliant on the
other.
Artists are professional people
and need to be taken seriously.
,
Painting by Richard Hart : The illusive deeper of Rita’s girls, Oil on canvass, was one of the works on Bigwood 2 held at
ArtSpace Durban. For more work see: www.artspacedurban.co.za The show will travel to whatiftheworld gallery soon
Strike down capitalism: dump your old art
By Patrick Burnett
You’ve heard of retreading old tyres,
but how about taking your unwanted
pieces of art down to the local deal-
ership for a bit of recycling?
While you’re doing it you would also
be making a statement on the evils
of capitalism and the selfishness
of art that hides out on the walls of
private collections.
A group of Johannesburg artists
have launched a “creative
recycling” project that will take
privately owned art and recondition
it into public works – an idea that if
nothing else has stoked debate in
the art world. The Joburg Art Bin, the
concept of a group of artists known
as Empty Office and consisting of
Landi Raubenheimer, Paul Cooper
and Brenden Grey, and supported
by The Bag Factory artist studio, is
being described by organisers
as a “gesture of resistance to the
privatization of contemporary art”.
The collective recently issued a call
to private collectors to dump works
of art between 18 July and 2 August.
A debate on the concept was also
held on July 4.
The concept of retreading old art
has raised concerns ranging from a
feeling that the project is
a tongue-in-cheek indulgence, to
worries about the implications of
tampering with art that is located
in historical, social and political
Available worldwide
contexts.
But the organisers have explained
their efforts in the following terms:
“The premise behind the project is
to problematize the fetishization,
instrumentalization, commoditization
and privatization of art by generat-
ing public art from the physical
detritus of privately owned pieces
which have been destroyed by their
owners.”
They hope to explore how the
“meaning and form of a privately
owned art object transforms when
it is reworked by another artist and
re-imagined in a public context”.
The proposal is that the recycled
art will be used in a series of public
art works to be installed in central
Johannesburg in preparation for
Joburg Art Week and the Joburg
Art Fair 2009. Artists will work in
collaboration with those who drop
off work.
Grey said the project was asking
questions about why artists made
the work they did and who saw
that work and was interested in the
dialogue and debate around these
questions. He said work was not
being defaced but recycled and
reconstructed. The Bag Factory
education officer Bronwyn Lace said
a panel discussion had been held
on July 4 to discuss the project. “It
was a heated debate and no clear
answers were reached...The debate
did raise many questions though
as to the validity of art in the public
realm, whether much of it is truly
transformative in nature, the reasons
for collecting etc.” Lace said some
works had already been deposited
but was not able to give details on
what would be done with them.
Antoinette Murdoch, CEO of the
Joburg Art Bank, which has dropped
off some art works, said about 10
pieces had been handed over. She
said while it was “an interesting
idea”, the bank would not be in-
volved in re-purposing the work and
saw it more as a convenient way “to
get rid of what you don’t want and
re-purpose something”. “If it does
nothing else but to generate a lot of
debate then that is fabulous because
I’m so sick and tired of people not
debating. If new voices can be heard
and people are saying what they
think then I think that’s fabulous.”
Page 2 South African Art Times. August 2008

The South African Editorial

Art Times Editorials from publishers should
always be yawned at: what do they
August 2008 know about art, let alone passion,
www.arttimes.co.za love and beauty that artists sacri-
fice through their struggle, home
Published monthly by comforts and material gain. The
Global Art Information most beautiful thing art publishers
like is a meager salary and a wildly
PO Box 15881 Vlaeberg,
8018, Cape Town wonderful relationship with their
Tel. 021 424 7733 readers. In this regard I am thrilled
Fax. 021 424 7732 to have received a wonderful
Editor: Gabriel Clark-Brown
response from your readers ques-
editor@arttimes.co.za tionnaires, that range from very
good, to irritation on late editions.
Advertising: Leone Rouse The readers survey has pointed
leo@arttimes.co.za
us into good directions, there is
Subscriptions: Bastienne Klein an overwhelming 90% request for
subs@arttimes.co.za more pictures!, no we wont switch
to newsprint, and yes we would
News: press@arttimes.co.za
Shows: show@arttimes.co.za like to include more dialogue with
Artwork: art@arttimes.co.za artists and community members,
folk are still filling out their question-
naires.
I would like to thank everyone for
your support, I hardly write editori-
als, but I believe that the paper
should, like a work of art speak for
itself. Having said this, one could
divide the paper into 3-4 different
taste groups and produce a paper
for many groups that see them-
selves apart from the other, maybe
its not so bad then, that we learn to
see what others are doing.
Please do watch our website. We
are thinking of making a SA Art
Media feed. A local clipping agency
estimated that they wouldn’t get
more than 100 art related media One of the praised heroes: Pieter van Dalen member of the crack “Copperheads” unit whose team’s
clippings per month- two weeks investigation recovered the sculpture within 3 days of theft. Photo: Neil Baynes of allround photography.com
into the contract I received a phone

Waterwitch heroes win acclaim

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By Patrick Burnett
City officials, the police and
members of the community involved
in tracking down thieves that stole
the Waterwitch statues in Athlone
scooped the bulk of praise in a
City of Cape Town civic awards
ceremony held in early July.
Life-sized bronze statues of struggle
heroes Robbie Waterwitch and
Coline Williams, MK cadres killed
in an explosion outside the Athlone
Magistrate’s Court on July 23, 1989,
were brazenly stolen in March from
opposite the Athlone police station.
The thieves, who attempted to
sell the statues for scrap metal,
apparently attached ropes to the
figures and then toppled them with
the help of a bakkie, before loading
them up and driving away. A City of
Cape Town task team - dubbed the
Copperheads - tracked down 300kg
of the carved-up statues and 10
suspects were arrested.
However, four months later the
suspects have yet to have their day
in court.
Investigating officer Detective Gary
Jacobs said investigations in the
case had been concluded. Of the 10
original arrests, five suspects had
been released due to insufficent
evidence.
He said it was expected that the
case would be transferred from the
Athlone Magistrate’s Court to the
Wynberg Regional Court, where a
trial date would be set. Of the five
accused, all were out on bail and
had yet to plead in the case.
Cape Town mayor Helen Zille,
speaking at the civic awards func-
tion, held to recognise extraordinary
acts of service, said the balance of
the awards were to acknowledge the
efforts of those involved in bringing
to book the thieves of the
monument.
Zille reserved special thanks for
Rens Bindeman, a private individual
that helped in tracking down the
thieves.
She also made special mention of
Arthur October, who had headed
the Copperheads’ response unit until
he died recently in a car accident.
She said October, the staff of the
Copperheads and its head Pieter
van Dalen had gone “beyond the call
of duty, with almost no resources, to
catch the criminals responsible for
the memorial’s theft, and to take the
fight against cable theft in general to
the thieves and illegal scrap
dealers.”
She also recognised the efforts of
the SAPS in making themselves
available.
“They went above and beyond the
call of duty in service to the com-
munity of Athlone and of Cape Town
in general, and we want to give them
formal recognition for their efforts.”

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Free delivery within Cape area artstuff@webmail.co.za www.artstuff.co.za Call Paul Tunmer 083 2610084
South African Art Times.
‘Space liberating’ auction causes concern in Eastern Cape
By Patrick Burnett
A row has erupted between East-
ern Cape art enthusiasts and the
Nelson Mandela Bay municipality
over the auction of art works from
the Nelson Mandela Metropolititan
Art Museum, which is run by the
municipality.
The municipality maintains that the
art works sold did not belong to the
museum and that stringent proce-
dures were followed in disposing
of them, but a former director of
the museum has questioned these
claims.
In a statement dealing with the
auction, which took place in
July and raised over R30,000,
municipal spokesperson Lourens
Schoeman said the museum had
“scrupulously” followed South
African Museum Association
(Sama) professional guidelines on
disposals.
“The process was started two
years ago when a public appeal
was made for owners to remove
their artworks or to give the art
August 2008
museum information about them,”
said Schoeman. He said the
works earmarked for disposal had
been advertised via Sama, who
had posted information to all its
members.
After consulting the budget and
treasury, the works had finally
been sent for auction. Schoeman
said the sale had not been moti-
vated by financial difficulties, but
that the museum had been “des-
perate to liberate storage space
which had been taken up for many
years by artworks abandoned at
the museum”.
But one art administrator in the
province said: “I am very con-
cerned about what is happening to
collections in South Africa. There
are ominous rumblings of things
being lost and destroyed. There
is a lack of interest in anything
from the colonial period, but
these works are also a part of the
rainbow nation.”
And Clayton Holliday, a previous
director of the King George VI
Art Gallery, which became the
Nelson Mandela Metropolititan Art
Museum, said the works had been
owned by the council and become
the responsibility of the gallery.
“Like lost waifs and strays they
were taken in, most restored and
once beautiful again, became part
of our heritage.”
Holliday said he had recognised
most the works out up for auction
when he had seen them two days
before the sale. However, he said
he had not recognised two 32cm
by 22cm Victorian landscapes by
W. Manners (1892), which must
have been acquired by the gallery
after he had left. “They should
never have been sold,” he said.
“That art was sold to ‘liberate
storage space’, sold for R33,500,
should make the community rest-
less and uncomfortable. How safe
are our collections and what are
the safeguards for the future?”
He said there should be “concern”
about the disposal of items from
the musuem and about the care of
all heritage material.
Holliday said while Schoeman
Page 3
had said the sale had followed
Sama guidelines, he had not seen
these even though he had been
a life member of the association.
Schoeman had not responded to
requests for information about the
guidelines at the time of finalising
this article, but a Sama official
confirmed the existence of the
guidelines.
Holliday said he was not satisfied
that advertising had only been
done through Sama because only
paid up members received Sama
publications.
“I never saw the advert or I might
have responded,” he said.
Holliday also raised questions
about a hanging sculptor in the
City Hall by Edouardo Villa, which
he said had been destroyed.
In addition, he asked how a Frank
Rogaly painting in the Opera
House by Neil Rodger had been
removed from its place of honour.
Work by Photographer Stephen
Shore entitled: Memphis,
Tennessee, December 1973
Influential photographer Stephen
Shore - invited by the newly
formed Roger Ballen Foundation
will be hosting workshops as well
as exhibit in South Africa.
For more details see Page 14
or go to www.rogerballen.org
Page 4 C M Y CM MY CY CMY K South African Art Times. August 2008

Eastern Cape art award promotes creative talent

(Above) Finalists to the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum Biennial exhibition: Marc Pradervand, Christine Maree, Mxolisi Dolla Sapeta, Kate
Arthur, Lisa Walker, Goerge Kockott. (Right) Work on show. (Below) Marc Pradervand with his work Wild Coast (2007), Mxolisi Dolla Sapeta with his
work Distant Things (2008) and Finalist Lisa Walker with her work Delilah (2008).

By Patrick Burnett
The nine finalists of the Nelson
Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum
Biennial have been announced,
with the artists now competing for
the grand prize of a solo exhibition
in 2009.
Designed to promote artistic
excellence in the Eastern Cape,
an exhibition of work from the final-
ists, held between 19 June and 27
July, saw a mixed bag of work on
display, including video, ceramics,
painting, printmaking, sculpture,
textiles and photography.
Of the nineteen artists selected for
the exhibition, eight were short-
listed as finalists. They are Kate
Arthur, Linga Diko, George Kockott
, Christine Maree, Marc Prader-
vand, Mxolisi Sapeta, Jessica
Vandeleur and Lisa Walker.
Emma Taggart, the exhibition
curator, in a presentation at the
opening, said: “Art competitions
play an important role in promoting
art and are integral in an environ-
ment like South Africa’s where
funding is hard to come by. These
competitions push artists to pro-
duce ground-breaking work and
act as creative platforms for artists
to experiment and play.”
Following the closure of the exhibi-
tion on 27 July, the finalists will
now be expected to submit a pro-
posal to motivate why their work
should be chosen for the award of
a solo exhibition in 2009.
Marc Pradervand, one of the final-
ists, said he was originally from
the Eastern Cape but had since
lived in Cape Town and the United
Kingdom before returning.
“It’s nice to be noticed quite soon,”
he said.
His work on display at the exhibi-
tion consisted of three photo-
graphs of Sangoma initiatives in
an early morning ceremony in the
sea at Port St Johns on the Wild
Coast. He said the photographs
fell into the theme of children
being put into positions of adult-
hood, while he had always been
interested in Port St Johns as a
place that was a forerunner of the
new South Africa.
Looking forward to the finals,
Pradervand said Eastern Cape art-
ists “just do their own thing”. The
province therefore produced good
artists, who created art for the
sake of creating it and not for the
sake of commercial competitions.
Maree, another finalist, said being
a finalist played an important part
in getting her work “out there”.

Steve Bandoma

Eldorado, 2008
http://stevebandoma.blogspot.com
 ART GUIDE AUGUST 2008

Works from Cast and Crew by Alex Hamilton will be shown in his upcoming November exhibition at his Woodstock studio. The show includes 1000 hand cut stencil portraits- 300 of these are South African icons- see more on : www.alexhamilton.co.za
Page 6
The pregnant pause gives birth to evocative work
It is the intimate moments, the quiet pauses between emotions or actions which Hanneke Benade portrays in her almost life size pastel drawings
Hanneke Benade in her studio
By Steve Kretzmann
It is the intimate moments, the
quiet pauses between emotions
or actions which Hanneke Benade
portrays in her almost life size
pastel drawings.
Although she studied printmak-
ing with Dianne Victor – an artist
she has nothing but praise for - at
University of Pretoria in the early
‘90s, charcoal, and later, powder
pastels, became the medium of
choice with which she has worked
ever since, creating evocative
images, often described as
Hanneke Benade’s ‘In Time’ opens at the Everard Read Cape on September 18
Photo: Steve Kretzmann
baroque, predominantly of women
in contemplative states or seem-
ingly caught in the middle of doing
something else.
Benade’s images exist without
reference to time (except perhaps
for the apparel worn by the model)
or place. So although she has
lived in the small country town of
Robertson in the Western Cape for
some time, there’s no reference to
landscape, whether rural or
urban, her figures are routinely
drawn against a black backdrop or
darkened interior.
Thus the choice to live in Robert-
for more details see www.everard-read-capetown.co.za
son was more about quality of life,
she says, than any need for artistic
inspiration, as her ideas emerge
from within rather than being influ-
enced by what is around her.
“Ek werk van binne na buite, nie
van buite na binne (I work from the
inside out, not from the outside in).
I have these images and I work to
get them as close as I can to what
I see in my head,” she says.
Working from photographs taken
of a chosen model, Benade says
she places them in a context
where “it’s not about where they
are physically, it’s more about
where they are emotionally”.
“Almost like Edward Hopper’s
work, but without the set.”
Her intention is to create an open-
ended interpretation for the viewer.
“I don’t want to force any idea onto
anyone.”
She describes her works as being
“like a play, a silent move, a freeze
frame”, and immediately mentions
the latest movie she’s watched:
the Coen brothers’ No Country
for Old Men, which she rates as
excellent and, obviously somewhat
of a Coen brothers fan, goes on
to mention the merits of Fargo
and O Brother Where Art Thou.
Less inherent in the images she
produces, Benade describes them
as “the silence between the notes”.
“It’s the silent moment before
you turn around. We have that
throughout the day, those intimate
moments when you think no-one’s
watching.”
And focussing on this subject mat
Untitled. (work courtesy iArt Gallery)
ter, and the pastel medium, has
treated her well. Her most recent
exhibition, held in a farmhouse
outside Oudtshoorn during the
Klein Karoo Kunstefees, was
almost sold out, and her work
resides in numerous corporate and
private collections, including those
of Spier, Absa and Sanlam.
Her upcoming exhibition ‘In Time’
at the Everard Read gallery
in Cape Town, introduces an
interesting twist in that she places
adults in childhood contexts or in
the midst of traditional childhood
games.
She agrees the exhibition is about
a longing, or nostalgia, for a cer-
tain emotional space that exists
South African Art Times.
in childhood but is lost when we
become adults. “We sometimes
long for things that were and
for how things used to be,” she
explains, but there is also the reali-
sation that we can never go back,
we no longer fit. This is almost
literally illustrated in some of the
paintings, such as one of an adult
man and woman enacting the
childhood tea party, dwarfing their
chairs and table. Childhood games
being played by adults is a theme
throughout this body of work which
introduces – consciously or not,
Benade doesn’t say – an appeal-
ing surrealism to the works.
And having worked with pastel
for most of her artistic life, she
August 2008
is a past master of the medium,
describing her hands and fingers
as her most valued “tool”, as she
uses them to mix her colours,
much like someone working with
oils would. In fact she says her
works are often mistaken for oils
because she layers the colours,
as is also often done with oils, and
one or two of her unglassed works
have been damaged by people
checking exactly what the medium
is (she doesn’t use fixative as its
long term effects on the paper are
unknown).
While still happy with pastel, the
challenge of a new medium is
calling and she drops some hints
about what she has planned – but
laughs and warns me not to let on
too much or people will start hav-
ing expectations.
‘In Time’ opens at the Everard
Read Cape on September 18
Groen: (work courtesy iArt Gallery)

By Patrick Burnett
Okiep, a small town near the
Namibian border 560 kilometres
from Cape Town, isn’t usually the
kind of place you would be likely to
bump into James Webb, the win-
ner of the prestigious 2008 Absa
l’Altelier award who has a CV run-
ning to several pages which details
his growing list of exhibitions in
capitals around the world.
Once the centre of copper mining
in South Africa, many of Okiep’s
residents spend long days in dusty
streets with no hope of gainful
employment. The local bottle store
has a steady stream of customers
in search of cheap wine.
Collaborative workshops, rituals and performances with Dawn
Langdown in Okiep, Namaqualand.
It’s also the home of Dawn Lang-
down, an inspirational choreog-
rapher and dancer who grew up
in Okiep and returned to teach
local dancers. As part of a unique
collaborative project that links
artists from different disciplines to
see what kind of magical syner-
gies will result, Webb, who has a
growing international reputation
for his use of sound in his artistic
creations, found himself in Okiep
recently working on a project with
Langdown.
Matching the urban sophistication
of Cape Town-based Webb with
the tough and lively Langdown
produces a result that sleepy
Okiep has never seen before and
isn’t likely to see again.
Working with Langdown’s dancers,
the collaboration culminates in
blindfolded dancers pouring out a
circle of wine in the dusty ground
of a part of town where wine drink-
ers gather. They then dance bare
foot and blindfolded on shards of
crushed up glass placed in the
circle. The residents, to say the
least, are stunned.
The collaboration is different for
Webb in the sense that it didn’t
involve sound – or recorded sound
which features in much of his
work – but it’s similar for the way
in which it forces the observers to
turn the lens in on themselves. In
this case, by seeing the associa-
James Webb: Reaping the harvest
tion of alcohol, the blindfolds and
the painful image of bare feet on
crushed glass, a powerful state-
ment is made about alcohol abuse.
Described variously as “one of the
most crazy but creative artists out
there” or “an undercover agent
whose conceptual pranks are
aimed directly at the art world
itself” his ability to probe the inner
self and the unknown seems to be
one of the hallmarks of much of
Webb’s work.
His work contains themes of isola-
tion and alienation that are in no
way unique to artistic expression,
but somehow the way in which he
tackles them with a combination
of humour and dark observation
accentuates the message, drawing
the subject in, almost coercing
them. He won the 2008 Absa
l’Atelier prize for his work ‘Auto
Hagiography’, a black chaise
longue with speakers fitted under-
neath that play recordings of the
artist speaking under hypnosis.
Even more grand in concept was
‘Black Passage’ (2006), which
took listeners three kilometres un-
derground through the sounds of
a metal cage descending into the
earth, forcing an engagement with
the mining industry, the source of
wealth, but also associations with
the mythology of the underworld.
“You feel it in your teeth, your
shoes, your gut. The experience
shatters your emotional equilib-
rium,” wrote Robyn Sassen about
the work in Art South Africa.
A sense of mischievousness
frequently manifests.
In ‘Wa’ (2003), he spread the word
that a famous Japanese DJ was
going to be performing at an event
at the Castle in Cape Town and
then hired a Korean tourist to act
the DJ and broadcast an assault
of sound at the thousands of
revellers.
Webb grew up us as an English
speaker on a farm in Stellenbosch,
which gives a hint as to the source
of feelings of alienation. His inter-
est in the immersive potentials of
Page 7
And then there is 2009. January
and February will see him take up
a residency in Rabat, Morocco.
Then for two weeks in March
he will be on an island called
Gotland off Sweden. April is a trip
to an island called Sylt in northern
Germany. May will see -
In ‘Wa’ (2003), he spread the
word that a famous Japanese DJ
was going to be performing at an
event at the Castle in Cape Town
James Webb, winner of the 2008 Absa l’Atelier prize and then hired a Korean tourist
to act the DJ and broadcast an
assault of sound at the thousands
of revellers.
kind of political or social or magical
meaning.” him in Dusseldorf and from June
He rejects the title of sound artist. to December he is in Paris, part of
“If you work with sound you will the Absa l’Altelier award.
get called a sound artist and its “Mmm, ja, who is going to water
unfortunate because sound art my plants?” he jokes.
for me is the idea that the word
sound is before the artist so sound But he believes in the old cliché
will qualify all the artistic practice that there is a time to reap and a
and sound becomes the object, time to sow. “I’m hoping I can get
verb and subject of the work.” He a lot of inspiration and recordings.
argues that his work is also about I’m looking forward to being in a
a range of other elements, includ- new and initially unusual place and
ing visual. somehow making my way back
Expect some interesting things home internally,” he says.
from Webb. He talks about his next See more of James at:
project as a recording of an animal http://theotherjameswebb.blogspot.com
being slaughtered at an abattoir
that will speak to the commodifica- The black chaise lounge with
Recorded in Cape Town, this
sound track back to his experience tion of animals and will be shown speakers fitted underneath that
installation consisted of prayers
of nature on the farm. at the Johannesburg Art Gallery. play recordings of the artist
from different faiths.
He now sees his penchant for speaking under hypnosis.
sound as something of a hobby
which has taken him all over the
world, to the Brazilian Amazon,
parts of China and Europe.
He describes his work as process-
orientated and the field recordings
he makes as a process that might
lead towards “some sort of work
or a way of rethinking a work”.
Put another way it’s a method
of generating ideas, “my form of
sketching”.
But for Webb, whose academic
background is in theatre, compara-
tive religion, classics and advertis-
ing, sound is only a carrier for the
message and he resists being
categorised as a sound artist.
“My theory about the way I work
with sound is I’m more interested
in the juxtaposition between sound
and space that could create some
 SOUTH AFRICAN ART GALLERY SHOW LISTINGS FOR AUGUST
Eastern Cape
East London
Anne Bryant Art Gallery
14-30 August - The peep show
exhibition
23 August - Art open day
25 August - 07 September - Santam’s
child art traveling exhibition
27 August - ‘Inyathi’ – A journal on arts
9 St Marks Road, Southernwood,
East London T. 043 722 4044
Free State
Bloemfontein
Oliewenhuis Art Museum
16 Harry Smith Street, Bloemfontein
T. 051 447 9609
Gauteng
Johannesburg
Absa Gallery
Until 22 August - The Absa L’Atelier
Exhibition
161 Main Street, Johannesburg
Art Extra Gallery
Until 16 August - Michael MacGarry
- ‘When enough people start saying
the same thing’
373 Jan Smuts Avenue, Johannes-
burg T. 011 326 0034
www.artextra.co.za
Artspace Gallery
02-23 August - Graeme Williams
-‘The Edge of Town’
17 August -18 October - ‘The Royal
Invisible’
142 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood, T.
011 482 1258
www.artspace-jhb.co.za
David Krut Print Workshop
02 August - 01 September - Wilma
Cruise -‘Split’
142 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood,
Johannesburg T. 011 447 0627
www.davidkrutpublishing.com
Everard Read Gallery
04 September - John Caple -
‘To the Quiet Moon’
6 Jellicoe Avenue, Rosebank,
Johannesburg T. 011 788 4805
www.everard.co.za
Gallery Momo
Until18 August - Shepherd Ndudzo
Thapong
52 7th Avenue, Parktown North,
Johannesburg T. 011 327 3247
www.gallerymomo.com
Goodman Gallery
Until 09 August: Hentie van der
Merwe
163 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood,
Johannesburg
www.goodman-gallery.com
Gordart Gallery
03-23 August - Nathani Lüneburg and
Marili De Weerdt - ‘Goodbye Little
Miss Perfume’, Dale Yudelman -‘Re-
ality Bytes’ and Willem H. Oosthuizen
-‘Precious little’
72 Third Avenue Melville,
Johannesburg T. 011 726 8519
www.gordartgallery.com
Graham’s Fine Art Gallery
Until 29 August - ‘The Modern Pal-
impsest – Envisioning South African
modernity’
Corner Cedar & Valley Roads, Broa-
dacres, Fourways T. 011 465 9192
www.grahamsfineartgallery.co.za
Johannesburg Art Gallery
05 August -12 October - Dinkies
Sithole - ‘Shrine Rituals’
King George Street, Joubert Park,
Johannesburg T. 011 725 3180
The Photo Workshop Gallery
06 August - ‘In Transit’ - A Photog-
raphy Exhibition forming part of
Newtown Celebrates Women’s Day
2 President Street, Newtown
T. 011 834 1444
www.marketphotoworkshop.co.za
The Worldart Gallery
Until 09 August - Ian Waldeck and
Pieter Swanepoel - ‘Landscapes’
95 Commissioner Street,
Johannesburg T. 011 901 5045
www.worldart.co.za
Pretoria
The UNISA Art Gallery
Until 03 September - ‘Construct’ - Be-
yond the documentary photograph
Unisa (main campus), Theo van Wijk
building 5th floor T. 012 429 6823
www.unisa.ac.za/gallery
Alette Wessels Kunskamer
Exhibition of Old Masters
Maroelana Centre, Maroelana GPS :
S25º 46.748 EO28º 15.615
Tel: 012 346 0728
Cell: 084 589 0711
www.artwessels.co.za
Kwazulu Natal
Durban
artSPACE Durban
04 August - ‘Formation’ paintings by
Dee Donaldson, Grace Kotze, Anet
Norval,
and Janet Solomon, Jacki Bruniquel -
‘Remember’ and ‘Aids Prayer-Flags’ -
Anne Cameron
08 August - The Moveable Arts Feast
3 Millar Road, Durban
T. 031 312 0793
www.artspacedurban.co.za
Bank Gallery
Until 21 August - Greg Streak - Ac-
cumulative Disintegration
217 Florida Road, Morningside,
Durban T. 031 312 6911
www.bankgallery.co.za
MaxNormal.TV, fronted by the artist previously known as Waddy Jones,
is a pop art crew that makes wild high-energy rap music, soft and dreamy
acoustic music, music videos, short-films, hand-made limited edition
soft-toys and comic books. To accompany their live performance on 29
August at The KZNSA Gallery, see more at www.kznsagallery.co.za
KZNSA Gallery
Until 24 August: Production Marks:
Geometry, Psychology, Damien Schu-
man: Face It - The Stigma Exhibition,
Aryan Kaganof: Velvet. Upcoming: 26
August - 14 September Maxnormal
TV: Goodmorning South Africa
166 Bulwer Road, Glenwood T. 031
202 3686 www.kznsagallery.co.za
Western Cape
Cape Town
34 Long Fine Art
12 August - 06 September - ‘FACE
08’ - Group exhibition
34 Long Street, Cape Town
T. 021 426 4594
www.34long.com
art.b Gallery
Until 13 August - ‘Spirit’ - Paintings by
Benjamin Mitchley and ceramics by
Tania Babb
Library Centre, Carel van Aswegen
Street, Bellville T. 021 918 2301
www.artb.co.za
Bell-Roberts Gallery
Until 08 August - ‘Between meaning
and matter’ - Group exhibition
13 August- 19 September ‘Print08’
176 Sir Lowry Road, Woodstock
www.bell-roberts.com
Blank Projects
06-30 August - Warren Lewis -
‘‘Telling Fibs’
198 Buitengracht Street, Bo-Kaap,
Cape Town
www.blankprojects.blogspot.com
David Krut Fine Art & Books
Until 21 August - Deborah Bell Monte-
bello Design
31 Newlands Avenue, Cape Town
T. 021 685 0676
www.davidkrutpublishing.com
Erdmann Contemporary
Until 23 August: ‘Departure’ - An
exhibition showcasing unique visual
vocabularies of four photographers
including Roger Ballen, Lien Botha,
Patricia Driscoll, Abrie Fourie & Dale
Yudelman
25 August -27 September - New
Comic Art - Group show
63 Shortmarket Street, Cape Town
T. 021 422 2762
www.erdmanncontemporary.co.za
Goodman Gallery - Cape
07 August - 06 September - ‘Mono-
mania’ - Brings together works by five
artists, Siemon Allen, Ryan Arenson,
Joanne Bloch, David Koloane and
Arie Kuijers
3rd Floor, Fairweather House
176 Sir Lowry Road Woodstock,
Cape Town T. 021 462 7573/4
www.goodmangallerycape.com
Iziko S A National Gallery
16 August – Friends visit: John Bauer
- Ceramicist with a difference
Until 16 November - Albert Adams
-‘Journey on a Tightrope’
Government Avenue, Company’s
Garden T. 021 467 4660
www.iziko.org.za
Michael Stevenson Gallery
Until 23 August - Guy Tillim -‘Avenue
Patrice Lumumba’, Ángela Ferreira
-‘For Mozambique’ and Manthia
Diawara Maison -‘Tropicale’
Ground Floor, Buchanan Building,
160 Sir Lowry Road, Cape Town
T. 021 462 1500
www.michaelstevenson.com
The Cape Gallery
Until 16 August - ‘From Precept to
Concept’ - Prints by Juli Jana, oil
paintings by Mike Wolfson and John
Robert
24 August -13 September - A Wildlife
exhibition - Paintings by Lin Barrie,
Gary Frier, Peter Gray, Elizabeth
Poulsom, Cobus van der Walt and
Bronzes by Barry Jackson, Bridget
Randall and Steve Tugwell
60 Church Street, Cape Town
T. 021 423 5309
www.capegallery.co.za
UCT Irma Stern Museum
Until 16 August - exhibition sponsored
by Irma Stern Trustees
27 August – 13 September: Tyrone
Appollis
Cecil Road, Rosebank, Cape Town
T. 021 685 5686
www.irmastern.co.za
Urban Contemporary Art
29 August -13 September - Works by
Anthony Mlungisi and Robin Jones
46 Lower Main Road, Observatory,
Cape Town T. 021 447 4132
www.urbancontemporaryart.co.za
Whatiftheworld Gallery
05-30 August - Rowan Smith -
‘Future shock lost’
First floor, 208 Albert Road
Woodstock T. 021 448 1438
www.whatiftheworld.com
Franschoek
The Gallery at Grande Provence
Until 10 September - exhibition by
three well known South African artists
- Paintings by Philip Badenhorst and
Rina Stutzer and ceramics by Helen
Vaughan
Main Road Franschoek T. 021 876
8600
www.grandeprovence.co.za
Stellenbosch
Die Dorpstraat Galery
16 August -30 September - ‘Antidote’
- Paintings by Theo Kleynhans
and sculpture by Ruhan Janse van
Vuuren
144 Dorp Street, Stellenbosch
T. 021 887 2256
www.dorpstraatgalerie.co.za
SMAC Gallery
Until 29 August - Abstract South
African Art from the Isolation Years
Part 2
De Wet Centre, Church Street, Stel-
lenbosch T. 021 887 3607
www.smacgallery.com
Knysna
The Dale Elliott Art Gallery
Oyster Festival exhibition on Knysna
and her surrounding areas
Woodmill Lane Shopping Centre,
Knysna, 6570 Tel: 044 3825 646
www.daleelliott.co.za
Villiersdorp
The Elliott’s Art Gallery
Exciting Winter exhibition of latest
works by Dale and Mel Elliott.
80 Main Rd, Villiersdorp, 6848
Tel: 028 840 2927
www.daleelliott.co.za
(Below) ‘Old Bond Street’ by Dale
Yulelman is one of the works to be
seen at the Erdmann Contempo-
rary show entitled: ‘Departure’ - An
exhibition showcasing unique visual
vocabularies of four photographers
including Roger Ballen, Lien Botha,
Patricia Driscoll, Abrie Fourie & Dale
Yudelman. Until 23 August: 2008
 AROUND THE GALLERIES

Master Printer and Director of the Robert Blackburn Print Studio, New York, Phil Sanders, has been invited to A show entitled: “Awaken” by Tracy Payne can be seen at Kizo Art Gallery: Image: Starburst Monk
the David Krut Print Workshop (DKW). He will be at DKW for three weeks to work with the printers and select For more details see: www.kizo.co.za
artists. Left is DK’s Master Printer: Jillian Ross

From Marco Cianfanelli’s Transit Dance series forms part of: Production Marks: Geometry, Psychology and the ‘Shapeshifting’ – from animal to human, an exhibition by Dylan Lewis will open at the Rupert
electronic age at the KZNSA Gallery, Durban. See more details at www.kznsagallery.co.za Museum in Stellenbosh on 31 October this year for six months. Photograph by Dook

Bretton-Anne Moolman If you want to fly...have good shoes to land in to One of the works by Vasek Matousek at Rust-en-Vrede Gallery, One work on John Caple’s show entitled: To the Quiet Moon opening
be seen in Rust en Vrede Gallery, Durbanville CT. 26 Aug- 18 Sept Durbanville, CT untill 23 Aug 08 at the Everard Read Gallery (Jhb) on Thursday 4th - 21st September.
 Page 10
ART PIG
Alex Dodd
If ever I need a reminder of why I live
in such in such a wayward bruiser
of a city, I find it by stepping out of
my (un)comfort zone and taking a
dip into Joburg’s ever surprising and
unexpected art circuit. It rarely fails to
redeem. Take last night…
At about 5.30pm I’m sitting at Boeke-
huis, Jozi’s stalwart indie bookshop,
sipping on a cappuccino, listening
to a bit of Bach and paging through
Angaza Africa: African Art Now, British
Museum curator Chris Spring’s new
hardcover glossy hymn to African
contemporary art. As the last rays of
the Highveld sun start to retreat from
the Sunbeam-polished red stoep, I
remember that Rites of Fealty/ Rites
of Passage, an evening of perform-
ance art, is about to unfold at The Bag
Factory artists’ studios. So Tuesday
night begins with a trip downtown
to gritty Fordsburg, past the factory
warehouses and the mosque to the
energetic end of Mahlatini Street,
where four televisions have been
installed in a tree above a DJ consol
blasting ‘decon’ remixes to make John
Cage proud.
Artist Rat Western emerges from the
interior in a black jacket, white sus-
penders and lots of kohl eye makeup,
and stands on the pavement singing a
mournfully defiant ditty. Over and over
she repeats her plaintive mantra: ‘Big
Girls Don’t Cry’. The next thing she’s
yanking on a big industrial chain that
hauls up the creaking corrugated iron
front door onto an antechamber cov-
ered in clots of black coal. In the centre
of the gallery, Johan Thom, who is
about to depart for three years of study
at Goldsmiths in London, is half naked
before an iron tub filled with milk.
His wife Mika, who has just left her po-
sition at Gallery Momo to accompany
him to London, is dressed in a nurse’s
uniform and proceeds to lovingly
slather handfuls of blood and honey
over his shaved skull and shoulders,
after which he submerges his head in
the tub of milk for as long as he can
stand it.
It’s extreme affecting stuff – visceral,
corporeal – flesh, blood and bare
song taking our breath away on a
cold weekday night, reminding us
what we’re made of. Photographer
Nadine Hutton has transformed her
studio into a confined, tented space.
The viewer must crouch down and
enter through razor wire portals into
the smoke-filled interior surrounded by
a crucible of projected flames blazing
around a small altar on which lies a
South African ID book. It’s the closest
I’ve come to experiencing what it must
have felt like to be a victim of one
of the violent attacks on foreigners.
Better than reading so many life-sap-
ping newspaper reports – and Hutton
should know. She worked at the Mail
& Guardian as chief photographer for
many years before embarking on her
career as an artist.
The evening is a wild array of different
acts and moments, unfolding sporadi-
cally amidst the noisy hubbub of the
increasingly populated studio complex.
Fresh talents like Anthea Moys,
Ismael Farouk and Dinkies Sithole
all play their part in the evening’s
pop up carnival of happenings. But
mostly people are hooked on the solid
conceptual bait underpinning Bronwyn
Lace’s mystifying game of ping pong.
A myriad of transparent gut strings,
attached on one end
via Velcro to Lace’s moving body and
on the other to an assembly of ping
pong balls hanging down a gallery
wall, track her movements as she
plays this solitary game, scoring only
against herself. The movement of the
suspended ping pong balls,
reminiscent of the strings inside a
grand piano, is determined by Lace’s
gestures but is also oddly poetic in and
of itself.
Thursday night was whole different
story – a surprisingly warm excursion
into the avant-garde digital realm
via the work of three artists brought
together by gallerist Ricardo Fornoni
for a show entitled Trespass – ‘to
encroach or creep, gradually, so that
a footing is imperceptibly established.’
The exhibition had precisely that effect
on my own consciousness. At first I
was mainly struck by the foreignness
and coolness of the works on show,
but rarely quick to bolt, I soon found
myself engaged in conversation with
Fornoni, who like Warren Siebrits and
Michael Stevenson, not only revels in
combining talents in unexpected ways
but also in making sense of his choic-
es by writing about them. As a native
Spanish speaker with Chilean roots,
his texts are wonderfully red-blooded
and provocatively lateral. With his
pioneering trans-national spirit and his
global network, Fornoni has definitely
brought something new and valuable
to the Jan Smuts art strip. Not only
does he bring together artists from
different generic pools, he is also intent
on forging live connectivities across
national and cultural boundaries.
On Trespass, I was most drawn to Nils
Eichman’s freshly abstract engage-
ments with colour. Eichman, who
recently moved here from Berlin, is
entranced by the peculiar qualities of
African light, which he has translated
into his intriguing high-gloss composi-
tions in the quirkiest of ways. And
I’m not the only one who thinks so.
Based on his works for the Trespass
show he has been invited to join the
Florence Biennale for 2009. Never a
dull moment.
Talk of the Town
What’s happening in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town
THE ART
COWBOY
Peter Machen
Staying close to the light.
I have often said that the best art moves
me like cinema and the best cinema
moves me like art. Of course, like most
aphorisms, this is not true all the time,
but it does accurately describe my own
predilections in both directions on these
supposedly twin landscapes. And video
art, which should conjoin these mighty
forces, sits sad and lonely in between.
I recently came upon a quote from
masterful British guerrilla artist Banks
which said “the thing I hate the most
about advertising is that it attracts all the
bright, creative and ambitious young
people, leaving us mainly with the slow
and self-obsessed to become our
artists”. It’s a striking statement, and I
was reminded it of it while watching my
regular dose of Monday night comedy,
my singular obeisance to the TV sched-
ule and the mainstream world.
Perhaps I was just very, very tired.
But I was struck by the quality of the
commercials, in relation not only to the
content of the programmes, but also to
so much video art, and a good portion
of film. The reasons include Banksy’s
observation, the sheer extravagance of
commercial advertising budgets, and
also, and perhaps most importantly,
because every advert has a reason for
existence, something that is patently not
true for much of video art.
July was an extremely audiovisual
month in the cultural life of Durban.
There was the video-art show Dis-ease
at Bank Gallery, The Fixed Frame Film
Festival at the KwaSuka Theatre, a
selection of video works by Columbian
artist Carlos Motto at the KZNSA, and
of course the ten-day long immersion in
cinema that is the multi-venued Durban
International Film Festival. By the end
of all of this, there were some genuinely
exhausted people.
The Film Festival continues to be one of
the most important events on South Af-
rica’s cultural calendar. It is the country’s
only international film festival, and the
Centre for Creative Arts, with the help
of numerous sponsors, goes all out for
the event. Hundreds of filmmakers,
writers and administrators descend
on the city for more than two hundred
features, documentaries and shorts as
well as a plethora of workshops. The
finest of this year’s offering certainly
functioned as the finest of fine art. And
while I watched many of them on
DVD rather than in the theatre – one
of the consequences of being a critic
– with the really great stuff, it actually
doesn’t matter, because the medium
disappears.
The same is not true of video art,
though. I remember talking to the late
Deryck Healey about the size and
quality of the screen in video art. He
spoke memorably about the immense
power of seeing Robert Longo’s works
projected onto walls several stories
high, a power that the television screen
could only ever diminish.
Of course, the focus on scale does
not always hold true. There are many
works that have successfully utilised
small screens to maximum effect,
including some of the work at the Bank
Gallery’s Light Show earlier this year.
But it’s true that the power of a lot of
video work increases exponentially
on the big screen, as demonstrated
by the scale and quality of the actual
projections of the Dis-ease show. I
watched the work twice, once on the
beautifully projected wall, and again on
television for review, and the difference
was remarkable.
While the big screen doesn’t deliver
salvation to the weaker works, the finest
of them really delivered the goods,
the power of cinema transmuted into
moving art-object. And I suspect that
as projectors become increasingly
cheaper and more powerful over the
next decade, that there might be a giant
shift in the ways that film is distributed
and shown.
Finally, to pull a tangent into a circle, I
must mention the superb Bigwoods 3
show at ArtSpace Durban. The show
featured a strong selection of the kind
of cartoon-based illustrative work that
many would not have welcomed into
the definition of fine art a decade ago
but which now populates the world’s
galleries. I think this is due in no small
part to Takashi Murakami and the
superflat gang, and also to a global
desire to escape from an increasingly
grim world into one that might also be
filled with certain flavours of darkness
(the woods are always dark) but at least
has softer corners.
I loved the show but it didn’t fit remotely
into my introductory definition as to what
I like. [But the content of the show, of
which I reckon at least 80% hit its mark
(including a ceiling height cardboard
bunny rabbit from curator Trevor Paul)
pointed to two curious things about the
use of cartoon and comic-style. One
is that it allows an extraordinarily large
space for dissidence, and the other is
the ease with which we allow ourselves
to identify emotionally with characters
that are often no more than a deftly
drawn squiggle or a few roughly hewn
flash animations. No need for the epic
expanse of cinema here to achieve
resonance.]
The exception to the exception was
Richard Hart’s work. There’s a paradox
here – since Hart’s paintings are on
the some essential level illustrative.
You can easily imagine them being
lavished upon a beautifully rendered
storybook. But at the same time, the
work, like a film condensed into a single
frame, moves out in all directions. Hart
has been gracing group exhibitions
occasionally with a few of his paintings
over the last few years but will soon be
having a solo show at whatiftheworld in
Jozi. Look out for him.
South African Art Times.
Alex Emsley
THE ARTFUL
VIEWER
Melvyn Minaar
Why is Madiba so Difficult?
Capetonians with aesthetic sensibilities
should count their blessings.
For years now, there has been pres-
sure - especially by those politicians
who don’t think beyond the length of
their noses - to put up a bronze statue
of our great statesman in the precincts
of parliament. But thanks to a few
art-sensitive operators around those
corridors, so far, we’ve been spared
that. And so has the embarrassment
to Madiba.
Fact is that the world still has to see an
even half-decent three-dimensional
portrait of Nelson Mandela anywhere.
Everyone that tries, simply make a
mash of it. Failed Madiba statues are
everywhere, big to small.
Starting small: the five-rand coin that
the South African Reserve Bank sent
into circulation to honour Madiba on
his 90th Birthday is awful. Apparently
designed by an SA Mint employee,
Natanya van Niekerk (whose initials
are forever affixed next to the famous
face on the coin), the snazzy-dressed
bank governor couldn’t have launched
a more unattractive, inelegant birthday
gift.
That great late local engraver Mauro
Pagliari, who established the great art
of such metal mastery in South Africa,
is spinning in his grave. Ugly is the word
for the portrait, never mind accurate.
Aiming very high (too high): luckily
we’ve not heard much more about
the R50-million statue of Mandela that
Port Elizabeth was to build on a special
island in the city’s harbour. The foolish
plotters wanted it to be 22 metres taller
than New York’s Statue of Liberty. With
some luck it’s not to happen.
Unfortunately others have. The tallest
so far in South Africa is the monstrosity
that stands amongst the fumes of the
steakhouses on a shopping square in
Sandton. Bad sculpture and lopsided
like a lollipop man, it is bathed in vulgar-
ity. Some say it is an insult to Mandela.
At least the 2.7-metre bronze sculpture
on London’s Parliament square, which
was unveiled with such pomposity last
August, looks a little more dignified -
even though those outstretched metallic
hands, elegant as they are, is simply,
in a sculptural sense, offering a parcel
of (hot) air.
(Talking about Mandela hands: as
part of the sometimes sad commer-
cialisation that seems to dwell in the
August 2008
great man’s aura, a bronze cast of the
birthday boy’s right hand was made by
Hout Bay’s Paul du Toit and sold at the
fundraising birthday dinner auction in
London in June. According to reports,
a flashy 3.5 million dollars were paid for
it. At least the purchaser got something
that closely resemble part of the real
man.)
Of course, Cape Town does have a
Mandela in bronze. Down in the docks
- or what remains of this ever-increas-
ingly Sandton-shopping-by-the-sea
area - there is the Nobel foursome that
the provincial authorities and Waterfront
business decided some three years
ago to put up.
In a process that still takes the cake for
‘consultation’ (and also as subject mat-
ter for a doctorate in local arts history!),
the ace wood-carving artist Claudette
Schreuder was commissioned to
make figures for casting in bronze the
four South African Nobel Peace prize
winners, Albert Luthuli, Desmond Tutu,
Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk. As
part of the convoluted process, a clay
piece by the great Noria Mabasa was
also cast in that metal.
Even admirers of Schreuder’s
sculptural suss will agree that the
cast versions of her quirky, somewhat
tragi-comical characters don’t quite
pull through. And the Mabasa piece
comes across exactly as the tokenism
it represents.
Both Schreuder and Mabasa make
great art in wood; the latter also in clay
and former is a fine drawer. But the
jump to the grandeur and pomposity
of bronze is where the problem seems
to lie.
Perhaps this is what is to be expected.
A monumental sculpture of a hero in
bronze, placed in public places, is very,
very much a colonial tradition. It simply
ain’t Africa.
And this is where the joke so badly
misfires on these recently-emboldened
African politicians who have their herit-
age and cultures mixed up. We don’t
need more bronzes.
One can understand that those who
traipse around parliament and the
Company gardens get an eye-full of the
colonials-in-brass on their pedestals,
and feel the need to do something.
(Poor arrogant old Rhodes with his
self-assured outstretched arm recently
got another blast from an arrogant
young politico. And the battle between
the two ugly Jannies in the Avenue still
make good dinner conversation. Curi-
ous though that no-one objects to Tant
Victoria and her royal spanspek, but
then she’s well camouflaged among
the clivias.)
Of course, the presence of these pup-
pets of history represents an imbalance.
But what to do? Adding new ones
is playing their game; we need our
own. From our African perspective the
very concept of monumental bronze
sculptures should be outdated. (Let the
capitalist wheeler-dealers of shopping
palaces play with it if they wish.)
A delicious, subtle subtext of Guy
Tillim’s Avenue Patrice Lumumba
exhibition at Michael Stevenson is
that of old colonial statues broken in
gardens and those of new heroes
equally dilapidated.
But getting back to Madiba: why, one
wonders, is it so difficult to make a
decent three-dimensional image of the
man? He has such specific features,
body language that portraiture should
be a delight. But the opposite is true.
Maybe just as well.
See our new
website at
www.arttimes.co.za
South African Art Times. August 2008 Page 11

AROUND THE GALLERIES

Mighty Hand: The Rupert Art Foundation will bring a
Book burning: a fire blazes from the Delft University of Technology, Netherlands - over 40 000 books
collection of 27 original Auguste Rodin bronzes to the
were burnt in the library, including books relating to the Boer Republics. Photo: Thomas Schlijper
Rupert Museum in Stellenbosch opening 21 August.
Yue Minjun ‘Untitled’ 2001 Silkscreen - one of the
works to be seen at FACE 08 - 34Long Fine Art
opening on Tuesday 12 August 2008.
See www.34long.com for more details

Work by Danie de Wet entitled The Way, a new artist on www.art.co.za African Shrine- Mixed Media - a work by Dinkies Sithole to be seen as part of his show entitled: Shrine rituals at
the Nando’s Project Room #2 at the Johannesburg Art Gallery until 5 October 08

Blue Darling Mermaid Doll: from
Nicolaas Maritz’s show entitled
Unmentionables at the Irma Stern
Museum recently
The wild, wild “Why Men Project” by Usha Seejarim that won a
BASA Award is to be seen at Sandton Central, the project - made
YOUR HELP IS NEEDED: Diane Victor’s studio was broken into last week and 20 of her large zink etching plates from 5 km of ropelights - bring happiness to millions of souls
were stolen - possibly for scrap - but maybe not. Please keep a lookout for her distinctive plates and get back to her working in the area. See September AT for further details
asap - info on www.art.co.za

Winner of the Absa - Gerard Sekoto Award, Retha Ferguson.

Left is the National President of SANAVA, Anton Loubser, and right the An image from Peter Binsbergen’s invite entitled Night Flight - a (loadshedded) journey through space and time that showed at
French Ambassador Mr Pietton. The Association of Arts, Pretoria last month. See more of Peter’s work on www.art.co.za
 Tyrone
Appollis
“These houses we live in”

We represent these artists:

Ben Coutouvidis 27 August -13 September
Alice Goldin
Wendy Rosselli UCT Irma Stern Museum
Lyn Smuts
Phillipa Allen Cecil Road, Rosebank
Hardy Botha
Theo P. Vorster Open: Tue-Sat
Original Art, Etchings, Sculpture, Ceramics. Judy Woodbourne
from 10h00-17h00.
David Riding
Cecil Skotnes Ph: 021 685 5686
and others. “Good morning Langebaan”, 2008
Assisted by The Arts and Culture Trust

Hout Street Gallery

David and Gail Zetler

270 Main Street, Paarl, 7646

Phone + 27 (0) 21 872 5030

Fax + 27 (0) 21 872 7133
E-mail: zetler@icon.co.za
www.houtstreetgallery.co.za

Artwork: Cupido, The Accordion Player

Fiona
Ewan
Cape Town’s largest contemporary art gallery
exhibiting works by leading South African artists
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Website: www.carmelart.co.za full selection on website
Page 14 South African Art Times. August 2008

Newly launched Roger Ballen Foundation hosts

Stephen Shore in his first solo SA exhibit
What’s on at Iziko
Exhibition: Timbuktu Script & Scholarship

The Roger Ballen Foundation
recently announced the first
solo exhibition in South Africa of
Stephen Shore, one of the icons
of colour photography at the South
African National Gallery in Cape
Town. The show will focus on two
of Shore’s seminal series: Ameri-
can Surfaces and Uncommon
Places, along with his more recent
work including his ibooks. The
exhibition will be complemented
by a lecture series and workshop
at the Michaelis School of Fine
Art, University of Cape Town; the
workshop received additional sup-
port by the US Consulate General
in Cape Town.
Stephen Shore’s early colour
photography, from the 1970’s, was
some of the first colour photog-
raphy to be included within the
canon of art. He was 14 when
the Museum of Modern Art (New
York) collected his work; he was
the youngest person ever to have
a solo show at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art at the age of 23.
His images are now seen as
classic Americana; culturally rich
images showing the tempo, palette
and artifacts of the time and place.
Although seemingly taken in a
the appreciation and understand-
ing of the photographic medium. It
is the first institution of its kind to
focus on bringing to South Africa
international photographers at the
forefront of their art.
Ballen, internationally recognised
for his psychologically haunting
black-and-white images, often
attributes the development of his
own visual literacy to his New
York childhood when he was
surrounded by many of the great
photographers of the day such
as Cartier-Bresson, Kertesz,
Steichen, Strand and Arbus. This
experience made him appreciate
the value of exposure to world
renowned photographers and the
desire to create a similar milieu
for the South African artistic com-
munity.
“Because we work with artists from
around the world, our programme
enables students and general
audiences to engage with notable
contemporary photographic art
that would not otherwise be seen
in South Africa” explains Ballen.
”Each component of our series will
focus on one important contempo-
master class will be presented in
partnership with the Wits School
of Arts.
Exhibition:
South African National Gallery
Government Avenue, Company’s
Garden, Cape Town. Open 10:00-
17:00 Tuesday to Sunday. From
24 September- 23 November 08.
Lectures:
Open to the public
At 1pm Tuesday and Wednesday,
14 and 15 October 2008
At the Commerce Lecture Theatre,
1st Floor Commerce Building,
Michaelis School of Fine Art, Hid-
dingh Campus, 37 Orange Street,
Cape Town
The Tuesday lecture will focus
on his exhibition at the National
Gallery.
On Wednesday, there will be a
conversation between Shore and
the curator, Meredith Randall, as
well as an in-depth question and
answer session from the audience.
Please see www.rogerballen.org
for a map to the campus and for
more information.
Workshop:
Taught by Stephen Shore
Sankore mosque, Timbuktu. This mosque was one of the major centres of Islamic learning in Timbuktu
Photo credit: Lindsay Hooper for Iziko Museums of Cape Town
Timbuktu Script & Scholarship is an
exhibition of about 40 manuscripts
from the holdings of the Ahmed Baba
Institute (IHERI-AB) in Timbuktu,
Mali. Some of these manuscripts
are hundreds of years old, and
were written in a variety of styles of
Arabic calligraphy by scholars and
copyists who were part of an African
Islamic intellectual tradition centred in
Timbuktu. Some of the manuscripts
are beautifully decorated with gold
illumination and kept in finely tooled
leather covers. The exhibition in-
cludes manuscripts ranging in subject
matter from religion to astronomy and
mathematics, as well as history and
literary forms. It also includes manu-
scripts covering legal judgements and
commercial transactions that give a
sense of the daily life of the citizens of
Timbuktu. The exhibition is an integral
part of the South Africa-Mali project
which was initiated by President
Mbeki in 2002. As a flagship cultural
initiative of the New Partnership for
Africa’s Development (NEPAD),
the project aims to conserve the
important collection of manuscripts
held at the Ahmed Baba institute of
Higher Islamic Studies in Timbuktu
through the training of conservation
staff and the construction of a building
to house the collection of the Ahmed
Baba Institute.
Timbuktu Script & Scholarship is
complemented by a catalogue, edited
by University of Cape Town historian,
Dr Shamil Jeppie. Exhibition ends 3
September.
The exhibition is funded by the na-
tional Department of Arts and Culture
Also at Iziko SA National Gallery
Albert Adams
Retrospective Exhibition
Forty Years of Friendship:
The friends of the SA National
Gallery: 1968–2008
(Until 28 September 2008)
Pancho Guedes:
An Alternative Modernist
(Until 31 August 2008)
Fabrications: Drapery and Dress
in Works from the Iziko Collection
Romantic Childhood
For more details see:
www.iziko.org.za

Villagers demand warrior statue be scrapped

snap-shot style, deep reflection
reveals that they are carefully con-
structed compositions. Shore has
influenced countless contemporary
photographers, from Andreas
Gursky to Nan Goldin.
The Johannesburg-based Roger
Ballen Foundation, is dedicated
to promoting the education of
photography in South Africa by de-
veloping programmes that further
Invitation to Consign
rary artist that uses photography
as an integral part of his practice.
It will include an exhibition and
a lecture series to help expand
the South African discourse on
photography.”
The Shore show will be followed
in May 2009 by a Vik Muniz
exhibition, in partnership with
the Johannesburg Art Gallery. A
corresponding lecture series and
On Wednesday and Thursday, 15
and 16 October 2008.
To apply for placement in the
class, please contact Svea Jose-
phy on: svea.josephy@uct.ac.za
or 021 480 7111 as well as our
website www.rogerballen.org for
an application.
(Above Picture) Steven Shore :Gin-
ger Shore, Causeway Inn, Tampa,
Florida, November 17, 1977
By Avuyile MNgxitama
From the Daily Dispatch
THE second day of public hear-
ings into the Duncan Village
Massacre memorial took a
different turn as families of victims
demanded the warrior statue be
replaced.
People who testified at yesterday’s
massacre,” said Mazwi.
He said they wanted something
that would symbolise the 1985
event and not of events that
happened in the 18th and 19th
century.
“If we look at that statue that is
Shaka, it has the spear and a
shield. The MK soldiers were not
naked ,” said Mazwi.
He said the community was an-
. I went to the TRC and told my
story, my heart breaks when I talk
about this,” said Mzamo, agreeing
with the idea of a child sculpture.
“I wish that a woman who had a
baby on her back would be used
as a statue. With the erection of
the statue, I was contacted by my
councillor and he told me about
the unveiling but my child’s name

Contemporary Art Have the

National Heritage Council hear- gered at organisers’ failure at not was not there,” she said.
ings said they wanted the current consulting victims of the massacre
monument of a semi-naked warrior when coming up the statue and She said the death of her son was
Consignments for our Inaugural Contemporary Art Auction
to be held in Johannesburg
on Tuesday, 4 November 2008 are currently invited
South African with spears scrapped because it
bore no relation to the events of
that the preferred symbol would be
that of a six-month-old baby.
a great loss, especially consider-
ing the current economic situation.

Art Times 1985.

The day before residents had
expressed their satisfaction with
delivered the memorial but asked that they
be consulted in future.
“The baby that was suffocated
by tear gas is the perfect picture
of the event. We must bear in
mind that the generation that is
“I sometimes think my son would
have had a decent job and would
be providing for me today,” she
said.

to Bongani Mazwi, who was arrested

during the riots in 1985 and is a
coming after us must know about
that event. A warrior is not what The panel will compile a report

your door
member of the Duncan Village
Victims’ and Veterans’ Association,
was among those unhappy .
“The monument is beautiful but
it doesn’t depict what happened
in Duncan Village. That statue is
(Zulu leader) Shaka. We were not
Robert Griffiths Hodgins (1920-)
CLUB MEN OF AMERICA: THE KLAN Call Bastienne fighting with spears during that
90 by 120cm, estimate: R100 000 – R150 000
everyone could identify with,” said after the two-day hearings and will
Mazwi. then come up with a conclusion at
Miriam Mzamo, whose 15-year-old a later date.
son was shot while playing on the
street, raised her objections too.
“I don’t like that statue. My child
was brutally killed by the security
police while he did not do anything

Please call the Paintings Department on 011 880 3125

or email paintings@swelco.co.za 021 424 7732
to arrange an appointment for a free valuation
Stephan Welz & Co. (Pty) Ltd Send us your stories:
13 Biermann Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg e-mail us at
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 Willem Coetzer (1900-1978) Gathering Clouds (detail), Pastel 360 x 445

The
Philip Harper
Galleries
Hermanus, Western Cape
www.thephilipharpergalleries.co.za
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Oudehof Mall, 167 Main Road, Hermanus, Tel: 028 3124836