Creative Feel August 2017

9 771607

519004

SA R36,90 (incl. VAT) - August 2017

08017

Strauss & Co: The global leader 2 / Creative Feel / August 2017 in the South African art market

Making History at Strauss & Co JH Pierneef Farm Jonkershoek with Twin Peaks Beyond, Stellenbosch, (detail) 1928 SOLD R20 462 400, 5 June 2017 WORLD RECORD FOR THE ARTIST We are currently sourcing consignments for our forthcoming auctions in Cape Town and Johannesburg.

011 728 8246 | 021 683 6560 | www.straussart.co.za

EARLY SPRING SYMPHONY SEASON

CALL 031 369 9438 TO SUBSCRIBE & SAVE UP TO 20%

Making music together.

THURSDAY, 24 AUGUST 2017, 7:30PM, DURBAN CITY HALL

031 369 9438 • www.kznphil.org.za

Conductor:

Wolfram Christ

Soloist:

Kyoko Takezawa, violin

Mendelssohn Ruy Blas, Op. 95: Overture

WORLD SYMPHONY SERIES

Tchaikovsky

Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35

Dvorák

Symphony No. 6 in D major, Op. 60

THURSDAY, 31 AUGUST 2017, 7:30PM, DURBAN CITY HALL Conductor:

Wolfram Christ

Soloist:

Ben Schoeman, piano

Weber

Turandot: Overture and March

EARLY SPRING SEASON 2017

Mozart

Piano Concerto No. 20 in d minor (K466)

Schumann

Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 97, “Rhenische”

WITH OUTSTANDING SOLOISTS, STAR CONDUCTORS AND AN INTERNATIONAL TRIO, THE KZN PHILHARMONIC WILL PRESENT THE EARLY SPRING SEASON OF ITS RENOWNED WORLD SYMPHONY SERIES 2017 FROM 24 AUGUST TO 14 SEPTEMBER.

THURSDAY, 7 SEPTEMBER 2017, 7:30PM, DURBAN CITY HALL Conductor:

Daniel Boico

Soloists:

Fidelio Trio: violin, cello and piano

Beethoven

Coriolan Overture, Op. 62

Beethoven

Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello and Piano in C major, Op. 56

Beethoven

Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 36

THURSDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2017, 7:30PM, DURBAN CITY HALL NATIONAL YOUTH CONCERTO FESTIVAL Conductor:

Lykele Temmingh

Soloists:

Various Young South African Performers

Vivaldi

Concerto for 2 oboes in d minor: Mvts 1, 2 and 3

Mozart

La Clemenza Di Tito, K. 621: “S’altro che lagrime”

Mozart

Piano Concerto No. 20 in d minor, K. 466: Mvt 1

Hüe

Fantasie

Stephenson

Introduction and Allegro: Mvt 1

Verdi

Macbeth: “Come Dal Ciel Precipita”

Arutiunian

Trumpet Concerto in A flat: Mvt 1

Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 in c minor, Op, 18: Mvt 3 Bongani Tembe, Artistic Director

“The

KZN

Philharmonic

is

committed

to

Single tickets priced from R65 – R230 are available at Computicket. All concerts commence at 7:30pm at the

enriching the cultural life of South Africa’s diverse

Durban City Hall. Pre-concert talks are held from 6pm -

audiences by presenting world-class concerts

6:40pm. The City Hall precinct, including surrounding

and implementing education and community

parking garages, is patrolled by a dedicated security team.

engagement programmes.”

Ben Schoeman

Kyoko Takezawa

Wolfram Christ

Sponsored by

SOME OF THE ARTISTS FEATURED IN THE KWAZULU-NATAL PHILHARMONIC’S Fidelio Trio © Hugo Glendinning

EARLY SPRING

Daniel Boico

SEASON

NYCF soloist Thomas Mohlamme

The KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra

NYCF soloist Shaheel Kooverjee

NYCF soloist Yolisa Ngwexana

Cover image: Brace, Ruann Coleman, 2017. Cast Cement Branch and Rock with Strap. 84 x 20 x 13 cm. SOURCE SMAC Gallery

cover story 62 RE-COLLECTING AND RE-MEMBERING Ruann Coleman’s recent solo exhibition Certain Lengths at SMAC Gallery attracted great interest and confirmed once again his status as one of South Africa’s most promising artists.

35 SIZZLING WOMEN’S MONTH SHOWS AT SOWETO THEATRE...

36 BIG CITY, BIG DREAMS Joburg Ballet has joined forces with Vuyani Dance Theatre (VDT) and Moving Into Dance Mophatong (MIDM) for Big City, Big Dreams, a major new production.

38 20 YEARS OF ENABLING THE ARTS The National Heritage Council and Market Theatre Foundation share their well-wishes for the National Arts Council.

40 UKES AND KIDS LAUNCHES IN NEW YORK The Ukes and Kids songwriting project gives kids in

contents

South Africa the opportunity to meet, collaborate, create, play music, write songs and learn from each other.

arts and culture 16 AUGUST ART MONTH AT WELGEMEEND Strauss & Co is delighted to announce the fourth instalment of the annual August Art Month.

26 ONE PIANO, A DOZEN PAIRS OF FLYING HANDS, TWO SENSATIONAL WINNERS

42 IN PERPETUUM Following critical acclaim at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, Beth Diane Armstrong’s in perpetuum will show at the Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg from 4 August to 30 September 2017.

46 PAYING HOMAGE Last year’s Sasol New Signatures winner, Cape Town-

Twelve young piano whizzes are flexing their fingers

based artist, 54-year-old Zyma Amien, is currently

and summoning their muses ahead of the SAMRO

preparing for her solo exhibition at the Pretoria Art

Overseas Scholarships Competition in August, where

Museum later this month.

two will walk off with R200 000 scholarships.

30 PHENOMENAL WOMAN For Women’s Month in August, The Playhouse

Company will present its famed South African Women’s Arts Festival (SAWAF).

48 SANDMAN 2015 Absa L’Atelier Gerard Sekoto Award winner, Natalie Moore will be exhibiting Sandman at the Absa Gallery in Johannesburg from 13 August to 1 September 2017.

Standard Bank Young Artist 2017 BETH DIANE ARMSTRONG in perpetuum Standard Bank Gallery 4 August to 30 September 2017

Standard Bank Gallery, Cnr Frederick and Harrison Streets, Johannesburg Monday to Friday 8am – 4.30pm and Saturdays 9am – 1pm. Free admission.

Tel: 011 631 4467 www.standardbank.com/beth #SBGallery

Authorised financial services and registered credit provider (NCRCP15).

The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited (Reg. No. 1962/000738/06). Moving Forward is a trademark of The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited.

SBSA 266201-7/17

50 ENJOY A LUXURIOUS EXPERIENCE With the annual FNB JoburgArtFair just around the corner, there’s a lot to be excited about.

52 GAUGING THE VALUE OF YOUR ART Have you ever wondered what your works of art may be worth? Are you in need of an updated insurance valuation?

54 IF YOU WANT THE JOB DONE, GIVE IT TO A WOMAN The Department of Small Business Development will once again be supporting the participation of 20 visual artists at this year’s FNB JoburgArtFair.

lifestyle and entertainment 82 84 87

CINEMA NOUVEAU BOOK REVIEWS CD REVIEWS

contributors 18

ARTLOOKS & ARTLINES

This month, Creative Feel looks at the latest addition to the Market Theatre Foundation.

Creative Feel decided to find out more about the

contents Department and about the woman in charge, Minister Lindiwe Zulu, MP.

58 TRUTH, OR SOME OTHER ABSTRACTION

20

LITERARY LANDSCAPES

Literary Landscapes is a monthly column written by Indra Wussow, a writer, translator and director of

As part of the ten-year celebration of FNB

the Sylt Foundation.

JoburgArtFair, Dr Zoe Whitley has been asked to curate a special project entitled Truth, or some other abstraction.

22

BUSINESS & ARTS Business & Arts is a monthly column by Michelle Constant, CEO of Business and Arts South Africa

68 KEEPERS

(BASA).

John-Michael Metelerkamp will be exhibiting his Keepers series in August 2017 at Candice Berman Gallery, Johannesburg.

70 SHE POSES WITH DEFIANCE British-Liberian, multidisciplinary artist Lina Iris Viktor will be represented by Mariane Ibrahim Gallery at FNB JoburgArtFair this September.

24

THE ART OF PERFORMANCE Dave Mann is an editor and award-winning arts journalist.

CONTACT US FOR FREE ART VALUATIONS Johannesburg | enquiries@aspireart.net | +27 11 243 5243 Cape Town | marelize@aspireart.net | +27 83 283 7427 www.aspireart.net

Photograph: Nina Lieska | Repro Pictures

Moshekwa Langa, MmatĹĄie, 2012, mixed media, gouache and watercolour, 162 x 122 cm

Inviting consignments of Historic, Modern & Contemporary Art for our upcoming auctions in Johannesburg & Cape Town

EDITOR’S NOTE Women in the Arts South African women are celebrated during August and without even trying to publish a ‘women’s’ issue, Creative Feel did just that; celebrating the women in the arts because they are here, they are making things happen and they are successful.

As media partners to the FNB JoburgArtFair (8 to 10 September 2017), we naturally show the success of the art fair, now in its tenth edition under Cobi Labuscagne, who has been the director of Artlogic for all these years. Congratulations on having grown it to such heights.

We talked to Zoe Whitely, the 2017 Guest Curator of Special Projects, about her ten-year anniversary show while Lindiwe Zulu, the Minister of Small Business Development, shared how her department will be supporting artists at the fair.

Creative Feel, true to our mandate, has concentrated on the ‘Art Platforms’ at the fair and found that just about all of these Art Platforms are run by women, like Artist Proof Studio’s Kim Berman, Bag Factory Artists’ Studios by Thuli Mlambo-James, M Studio Community by Dawn Sarah McGee, Marianne Fassler talked about the Friends of the Johannesburg Art Gallery, and many more, like Mandie van der Spuy of Artinsure, who is partnering with the fair for the guided tours.

We feature recent award-winning artists like Beth Diane Armstrong, the gifted Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Arts 2017, who is bringing her exhibition from Grahamstown to the Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg; Zyma Amien, the Sasol New Signatures 2016 winner, who is having her extended solo show in September where she once again highlights the history of the garment workers in South Africa; and Absa L’Atelier Gerard Sekoto Award winner for 2015, Natalie Moore, who will be exhibiting Sandman at the Absa Gallery in Johannesburg.

We also start celebrating 20 years of the National Arts Council, currently under the leadership of Rosemary Mangope, and look at the annual famed South African Women’s Arts Festival (SAWAF) at The Playhouse Company, whose chief executive, Linda Bukhosini is herself a successful artist. There is also, of course, Michelle Constant, CEO of Business and Arts South Africa, our regular contributor.

I even had the honour of speaking to the ‘Queen of the Free State’, Jennifer Friedman, about her delightful memoir of growing up in the Free State.

Looking at these pages, there is no doubt that South African women are strong, gifted and resourceful and we have to find a way of celebrating women not only during the month of August – we actually have to find a way toSylvaine instil theStrike rightful respect for all women and stop the violence against women. It is a fundamental way of looking at women in our society that needs to change and, perhaps showing respect is a small start; the women of South Africa actually deserve that courtesy.

Lore Our apologies to Thuli Mlambo-James, the new director of the Bag Factory Artists’ Studios, for spelling her name incorrectly on her Encore page in the July issue of Creative Feel.

10 / Creative Feel /August 2017

excellence through possibilty

will be at the

FNB JoburgArtFair

8-10 September, 2017 | Sandton Convention Centre

Michael Peterson - The Golden Necklace - Screenprint -2017

William Kentridge - Skeleton Horse - Etching - 2017

Bevan de Wet - Plant Study 1 - Screenprint - 2017

Contact us for more info: gallery@artistproofstudio.co.za Artist Proof Studio

@ArtistProofJHB

@ArtistProofJHB

+27 11 492 1278

Artist Proof Studio

www.artistproofstudio.co.za

artistproofstudio

T

We love this!

E

A

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PUBLISHER & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Lore Watterson; lore@desklink.co.za COPUBLISHER & PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Chris Watterson; chris@desklink.co.za DEPUTY EDITOR Tamaryn Greer; tammy@desklink.co.za DIGITAL CONTENT CURATOR Angelia Muller; angelia@desklink.co.za ADDITIONAL EDITORIAL CONTENT: Ismail Mahomed Michelle Constant Indra Wussow Dave Mann SALES & MARKETING sales@desklink.co.za sales@creativefeel.co.za SALES & MARKETING COORDINATOR Zama-Africa Mkhize; zama@desklink.co.za DESIGN Leigh Forrest; leigh@desklink.co.za DISPATCH Khumbulani Dube SUBSCRIPTION & CIRCULATION subs@creativefeel.co.za

The Creative Feel Photobooth was created as a space to have fun and interact with our team and friends at events, while making you look like the latest artist on the cover of our magazine! Dress up, play around with some interesting props, and take quirky shots to share on your own social media pages!

Look our for #CreativeFeel’s #CFphotobooth at upcoming events and share the fun!

Published by DeskLink™ Media PO Box 3670, Randburg, 2125 Tel: 011 787 0252 Fax: 011 787 8204 www.creativefeel.co.za www.desklink.co.za PRINTING Raptor Print (Pty) Ltd © Copyright DeskLink™ Media The opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent the views of the publisher.

While every last effort has been made to check that the information in this magazine is correct at the time of going to press, the publisher and their agents will not be held liable for any damages incurred through any inaccuracies.

‘A beautiful place

to come home to and to stay after a busy day at work’

T

he above statement is straight from one of the guests that stayed at Casta Diva Boutique Hotel. Nestled on the northern side of the Magaliesberg mountain range, at this

Boutique Hotel A unique venue, nestled high on the northern slopes of the Magaliesberg amidst peaceful and tranquil surroundings that offer stunning views and an unsurpassed setting of natural beauty and elegance in an oasis of peace and serenity in the city.

beautiful place guests are hardly ever disappointed.

Taking a look at their TripAdvisor.com profile, it exposes the Boutique Hotel for what it is – a hidden gem where guests feel welcome and taken care of. At the time of writing this article, it was ranked number 8 out of 359 B&Bs in Pretoria, with a well-deserved Certificate of Excellence. Casta Diva is the ideal location for… well, any kind of stay. If you need to be in Pretoria for work, why not stay at a place where you can combine the ‘office’ with a touch of leisure? As summer is on its way, the refurbished half-Olympic size swimming pool will give you a sense of paradise as you enjoy the sunshine with a delicious glass of wine whilst staring at the Magaliesberg mountain range.

Restaurant Guaranteed the true Decadent, Divine, Delightful fine dining experience, the perfect fusion between the magic of Casta Diva, fresh ingredients, a dedicated culinary team and the friendliest service of South Africa.

Their beautifully maintained garden (just under two hectares) offers an almost fairy-tale escape as you wander through the tropical vegetation.

With the excellent on-site Charisma Restaurant, you can conveniently take a culinary adventure without driving to find great food. Serving a variety of dishes, the general consensus of guests is that the food is ‘excellent’. Not to mention the immaculate table settings, crystal glassware, and the attentive service provided by the hosts. For the wine lovers, there is a selection of delicious, local wines to choose from.

The Boutique Hotel has a total of 28 accommodations, all their rooms have tasteful and inspiring decorative art, and overall the rooms are uncluttered and very comfortable.

Visit their website at www.castadiva.co.za for more information, and keep an eye on their Facebook pages (Casta Diva the Place to | Casta Diva’s Charisma | Casta Diva’s Vissi d’Arte) to stay up to date with events and special offers.

Treat yourself to a getaway like no other. Visit Casta Diva – The place to… simply be. CF

14 / Creative Feel /August 2017

Mpumalanga Traditional Art Market (MTAM) “Empowering Artisans in Rural Communities”

MISSION Fostering the economic and cultural sustainability while preserving and encouraging the indigenous culture and heritage of the people of South Africa.

VISION Mpumalanga Traditional Art Market (MTAM) is an indigenous art market dedicated to changing lives of artisans in rural communities.

MTAM is a Non-Profit Organisation based in Gauteng, governed

by Board Members who recognize the potential for job creation that translates into poverty alleviation and development for rural and urban crafters.

The inaugural launch of MTAM took place in 2009, as an annual art market that kicks off heritage month.

At MTAM we assist artisans in the development of their skills in order to produce better quality product and access markets; We believe in creating interventions linking both emerging and master artisans as they produce quality products and access local and international markets.

MTAM’s primary goals are: • To honour rural artisans through the display of their traditional art, crafts and indigenous skills and knowledge; • To encourage the efforts and talents of South African rural artisans while addressing poverty through their quality workmanship; • To position their art forms as high end, high quality commodities which have great economic value to access foreign markets.

Power or Powerlessness Moonlight magic at RMB Starlight Classics 2017 Please join us for an evening of music and magic under the African stars at the Country Club Johannesburg.

Three South African tenors, Siyabonga Maqungo, July Zuma and Sunnyboy Dladla return to South Africa to perform with: Karen Zoid, Zolani Mahola and Lynelle Kenned; international trio NeuKlang; and The Drakensberg Boys Choir who are celebrating their 50th Anniversary.

They will be accompanied by the Johannesburg Festival Orchestra, under the baton of Maestro, Richard Cock and directed by Darren Hayward.

A World Out of Joint

V

uyani Dance Theatre (VDT) and steptext dance project will delve into the nuances of power in a bi-continental (Africa and Europe) dance collaboration, Out of Joint, which will open at the

Fringe at Joburg Theatre on Thursday 17 August 2017.

Multi-award winning and internationally celebrated choreographer Gregory Maqoma created this work together with industry colleague, German-Austrian choreographer, Helge Lentonja.

Maqoma comments, ‘It is exciting to be bringing Out of Joint to a South African audience at a time when we are experiencing such political turmoil and insecurities. The work was created as a response to the experiences of human indignity all over the world.’

The process of developing the production was truly one of exchange and collaboration in three phases, Lentonja spending a few weeks with the VDT dancers in Johannesburg and Maqoma doing the same in Bremen; both choreographers

DATE:

Saturday 9 September 2017

interpreting the issues around power in their artistic view.

VENUE:

The Country Club Johannesburg Auckland Park

The last phase was when all six dancers and the creative team

TIME:

15:00 – Gates open 18:30 – Concert starts

Country Club Members to book directly with Thomas More on reservations@ccj.co.za or 011 710 6408 Creative Feel readers to book through Richard Cock Music Enterprises: rcock@iafrica.com or 011 447 9264

came together in Bremen to form an integrated cross-cultural melting pot of creativity they opened an experiential world to both the artists and the audience.

‘Gregory and I met when he brought his work to our festival in Bremen and we were excited to share our artistic visions. Through this eagerness to further work together Out Of Joint was born and we both agreed to an extraordinary way of artistic collaboration. Choreographing together – one artistic team with two artistic languages. Each one of us creating in the country and with the dancers of the partner.

Then responding to the artistic proposition of the other.

Finally allowing a new third language to come into existence by mixing the two languages. This form of creation demands our skills courage and trust and we are very enthusiastic about it,’ says Helge Lentonja.

The production will run from 17 August until 20 August at the Fringe at Joburg Theatre and travels to the Jomba Festival in Durban with performances on 23 and 24 August. CF

COMING SOON...

Strauss & Co is delighted to announce the fourth instalment of the annual August Art Month at Welgemeend, a month-long exhibition of South African art at one of Cape Town’s most renowned manor homes. The theme for this year’s winter exhibition is Abstraction – South African art from the 1950s to the ‘70s and will showcase work from two important private collections, the Frank and Lizelle Kilbourn Collection and Pieter Colyn Collection. Words: Sean O’Toole.

August Art Month at Welgemeend looks at art from the

A

1950s to the ‘70s

ugust Art Month is the brainchild of collector Frank

The programme for August Art Month 2017 commences

Kilbourn and venerated auctioneer Stephan Welz,

on Wednesday, 2 August 2017. Collectors Pieter Colyn and

the former managing director of Strauss & Co who

Frank Kilbourn will participate in a moderated discussion

passed away in late 2015. Welz and Kilbourn shared

titled Abstraction – South African art from the 1950s to the

much in common when it came to art and culture.

The project they initiated, August Art Month, is framed by three key objectives, namely: to create awareness of and promote the historic property of Welgemeend; to raise funds for the

‘70s. Their talk will be followed by a fundraising gala dinner.

(Tickets are R1 000 per person. Enquiries: Helena Le Roux 082 461 9753) A number of art-related gatherings are planned for the

maintenance and restoration of Welgemeend and its historically

duration of August Art Month 2017, including social events,

important Boerneef Collection; and to introduce the public to

public lectures and guided tours.

important private collections of art that are not widely known.

The overwhelming success of the three previous

Welgemeend is a fitting venue for this rich cultural

instalments of this winter showcase points to a shared

dialogue. Established on the slopes of Table Valley in 1693

interest among Capetonians in preserving facets of their

and declared a monument in 1944, Welgemeend is owned

city’s architectural and cultural history. The presentation

and managed by Jan van Riebeeck Hoërskool in collaboration

of progressive modern and contemporary art into the

with the Friends of Welgemeend. This volunteer

programme at Welgemeend has, in past years, enabled

organisation provides vital support and assistance to ensure

audiences to understand the evolution of this work in a

the preservation of Welgemeend.

broader historical context.

A well-known feature of Welgemeend is its collection of

August Art Month 2017 is a collaborative initiative

earlier 20th-century masterpieces once owned by Afrikaans

that draws on the energy and generosity of the Friends

poet and scholar Izak Wilhelmus ‘Boerneef’ van der Merwe

of Welgemeend, Caro Wiese, Frank and Lizelle Kilbourn,

(1897–1967). Parts of the historical Boerneef Collection will

Pieter Colyn, Delaire Graff, Jan van Riebeeck Hoërskool and

be on view during August Art Month 2017.

Strauss & Co.CF

18 / Creative Feel / August 2017

When a

Nation Innovates, The World Watches

THE 2017 HEART TRANSPLANT COINS: CELEBRATING SOUTH AFRICAN INNOVATION 2017 marks 50 years since the world’s first successful heart transplant and the South African Mint has issued a pair of sterling-silver collectable coins to commemorate this medical innovation.

The coins are available individually or as a set of two which is packaged with a miniature sterling-silver mould of a human heart.

2017 R2 Sterling-Silver Crown

2017 2 1/2c Sterling-Silver Tickey

www.samint.co.za | +27 (0) 12 677 2460 / 2482 | coinworld@samint.co.za or numismatics@samint.co.za

Artlooks & Artlines This month, Creative Feel looks at the latest addition to the Market Theatre Foundation, The Exclusive Books Pan-African Reading Room at The Windybrow Arts Centre.

T

he Windybrow Arts Centre will become

Books Pan-African Reading Room for children on 18

Johannesburg’s newest hub for the advancement of

July 2017.

Pan-African literature.

The Windybrow Theatre was originally a family home,

‘The Market Theatre Foundation is at the forefront of producing and presenting cutting-edge stories that have

built in 1896 by mining engineer Theodore Reunert. Over

an authentic African artistic voice and which is inclusive of

the years, the theatre has served as a nursing home and a

the rich tapestry of African diversity. When Exclusive Books

cultural centre. The Windybrow Heritage House became a

launched their Pan-African series we immediately envisioned

theatre in the late 1980s, however, when the surrounding

a dynamic partnership with Exclusive Books to make stories

neighbourhoods started to degenerate, the theatre started

and literature from the African continent and the diaspora

to struggle. Despite falling into disrepair, it was declared

become more accessible to a wider audience,’ says Ismail

a national monument in 1996. In 2005, the Department of

Mahomed, CEO of the Market Theatre Foundation.

Arts and Culture declared the Windybrow Theatre a cultural

The Exclusive Books Pan-African Reading Lounge and

institution and the new Windybrow Theatre was officially

Reading Room which will be housed in the 121-year old

re-launched on 4 May 2006. The theatre today aims to

Windybrow Heritage House will be home to over 2 000

facilitate cultural development in the arts and is known as

book titles.

the Windybrow Centre for the Arts.

In a ground-breaking partnership between the Market

‘Sponsoring space at the Windybrow Arts Centre for the purpose of creating a reading room that can cater

Theatre Foundation and Exclusive Books, the Windybrow

to the local community is a meaningful contribution for

Arts Centre opened its doors to the Exclusive Books Pan-

the Exclusive Books Group,’ explains Benjamin Trisk,

African Reading Lounge for adults and The Exclusive

CEO of Exclusive Books. ‘It is particularly important in

20 / Creative Feel / August 2017

‘

contemporary South Africa to give back to the life of Hillbrow because Hillbrow was the genesis for the first

Over 120 young people come to the Windybrow Arts Centre every day to engage in our inspiring cultural educational programming.

‘

Exclusive Books when it opened its doors in 1951.’

‘Over 120 young people come to the Windybrow Arts Centre every day to engage in our inspiring cultural educational programming. We have 24 Market Theatre Laboratory alumni who teach at inner-city schools in Johannesburg. The launch of the Exclusive Books Pan-African Reading Room for children will be an excellent resource. It gives us the scope to promote a reading culture that will be inspiring, relevant and resonant with the African experiences of our constituency at the Windybrow Arts Centre,’ adds Mahomed.

A monthly book club programme for children and a series of forums for adults, focusing on African authors and on the titles available in the Reading Lounge, will be hosted at the Windybrow Arts Centre.

‘We are pleased that we can create a safe space for children and adults alike to have access to books, to care for them, and to treasure the stories that the books contain,’ Trisk concludes. CF

Literary Landscapes Literary Landscapes is a monthly column by Indra Wussow, a writer, translator and director of the Sylt Foundation.

V

enturing onto the beach, I often wonder about the

still reinventing itself. It should be remarked that it does so

books people choose to spend time with. There

within its own limitations. Lots of subgenres have emerged

were some years when everybody read the novels

and if one of those books is, for whatever reason, a bestseller

of Dan Brown and the Illuminati appeared in all

then virtually overnight its clones appear in the bargain bins

languages of the planet. An army of invisible characters that populated our landscapes in clandestine.

Crime stories like Brown’s books have gained ground over the last few years and many of today’s bestselling writers are specialists on the detective novel. In major newspapers, crime novels are widely reviewed; rights are sold in many countries and the novels are translated into many languages.

A character like Henning Mankell’s misanthrope, Inspector Kurt Wallander, has become famous all over the world, and his books have been adapted numerous times for television.

As editor of contemporary African fiction on the German market, I have thoroughly scrutinised the German translations from African writers and have found it incredibly interesting that every crime story that has been published in South Africa has been translated into German and has found a German publisher. I repeat: every published crime story has been translated and has been published in Germany.

Not that you misunderstand me – it is not because South Africa still has the image of the violent hell, where you will be killed or hijacked as soon as you step out of the airport.

of bookshops, in shops at airports and railway stations.

‘

It is a kind of law. A successful campus crime story, cat

crime story, monastery crime story never comes singly. This is owed to a certain uniformity of those products that tend to follow the same pattern.

I find it incredibly interesting that every crime story that has been published in South Africa has been translated into German, has found a German publisher

‘

The German book association announced that in 2016

a quarter of the annual turnover in bookshops was earned

South African crime stories are competing with so many

through the sale of crime stories. We are talking about a sum

others and have to stand against detective monks in Nepal; a

of 560 million Euros that readers spend to have their fears

chef who seeks murderers in the French culinary paradise of

entertained. The evil, that also serves as a projection for our

Burgundy; a blind prophet whose visions direct him towards

own aggressions and the dark sides within us.

the right track in the rainforests of Colombia. Sales in this

There are well-written crime novels, not only the classics

genre are still growing and many publishers need these

like Raymond Chandler and Agatha Christie, but there are a lot

detectives to subsidise those books they really care about.

of exquisite books written today that should find many readers.

According to surveys, evil has always triggered an

It is the inner world that interests us, our psychologies. To read

unimagined attraction; an attraction that seems to have

the better books often feels like diving into the deep sea. We

become more popular due to our event-driven society. The

know it is there and we can vaguely imagine what it looks like,

crime novel is subject to the rules of the market and it is

but we have never been there. The vague knowledge of our

absurd how this genre, with its quite predictable plots, is

inner selves can be challenged. Sometimes.

22 / Creative Feel / August 2017

‘The story could become an outlet for our aggressions, for our fears and a trigger to recapitulate all we have gone

‘

through,’ says German crime writer Peter Koch. ‘It feels like a virtual cinema.’

Another reason for the boom in crime stories might also be the perception that we are living in relatively criminal times. Domestic violence, corruption and wars support an underlying feeling of victimhood. The identification with the murdered victim or the stressed detective who ruins

Another reason for the boom of crime stories might also be the perception that we are living in relatively criminal times

‘

his private life for the sake of atonement, touches the heart

stories have recently found their space. When I enter the

of most readers. These books close with the victory of the

major bookstore of the island’s capital, Westerland, I count

good, in the end the world is a better place even though the

not less than 35 books that tell us about fictitious crimes on

detective’s marriage finally fails.

the island of Sylt. Almost all of them are boring and badly

It is such a vast market meanwhile and, as I said before,

written, the research often lousy, and these books often offer

there are more copycats than potential favourites on the

such a stereotype of the island and their inhabitants that I

shelves of bookshops. One of the worst developments in

just want to grab them and throw them immediately in the

the genre is the appearance of the regional crime novel.

dustbin. Of course, a crime novel should be entertaining

It followed the success of the Scandinavian crime novels

but it also needs an attitude. It should intelligently react on

and, especially in Germany, their sheer amount reached

the time and offer new ideas about our perceptions. Good

unrivalled heights.

literature always reacts on social developments and offers

While I am spending some time on the island of Sylt again, I can examine the success of this new subgenre even in small grocery stores. There is a space next to the teller for

new insights into our world – imagine how beneficial the insight into a villain’s heart could be.

But finally, I happily find some superb crime novels

all those Sylt devotional objects without which no tourist

by Dashiell Hammett, Liza Cody or Tana French on the

leaves the island, and among those many regional crime

shelves, too. CF

Creative Feel / August 2017 / 23

Business & Arts Business & Arts is a monthly column by Michelle Constant, CEO of Business and Arts South Africa (BASA).

T

he work of Zimbabwean-born Richard Mudariki, under the title of Mutara Wenguva (Time Line), is being shown at the Sanlam Art Lounge until 9 September. Mudariki, in his latest works, seems

to be channelling Hieronymus Bosch, the 15th-century Dutch artist. The latter’s fantastical images were a dark, dark reflection on the society of that period. Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights at the Prado in Madrid, is a hellish description of a world in turmoil, driven by politics, power, religion and greed. Mudariki’s latest works perform to a

‘ ‘ similar tune. In The Puppeteer, Mudariki describes a fiendish world, one of broken ‘junk’ puppets, of naked men and

women waiting in line, herded by red carpet velvet ropes, as they enter the underworld of a circus tent and its puppeteer

Signs of the Times, Richard Mudariki. Acrylic on canvas

It’s a difficult piece and captures the anger and fear that has been omnipresent in the conversation.

ringmaster. The ‘audience’, queueing to see the ‘earthly

delights’ of the circus tent, seem less about to enter a space

of entertainment but rather as though they are journeying to their own death sentence.

Likewise, his work Signs of the Times is a brutal and quite

horrific assessment of South African xenophobia – the brick, the South African flag and a tongue of sharpened, deadly

steel being the weapons of choice. It’s a difficult piece and captures the anger and fear that has been omnipresent in

the conversation. That the word hate is scrawled repeatedly in the painting is a message of such brutality that, as a

viewer, I am appalled and mortified by my own nationhood,

Shona Sculptor, Richard Mudariki, 2016. 80 x 70 cm

24 / Creative Feel / August 2017

and our flag.

Mudariki responds to our world with a withering eye, a harsh response to the Machiavelian activities in South Africa, currently. And yet the nakedness of the audience is tenderly addressed in The Puppeteer, as is the sculptor

‘

working in stone in the work Shona Sculptor.

Could I have these works in my home? I don’t think so.

I do have a gorgeous Mudariki work of a male jester bowing to a woman. Having said this, I believe that these are works

Mudariki responds to our world with a withering eye, a harsh response to the Machiavelian activities

‘

that everyone should see. The visceral response to a society gone terribly wrong, that one feels when one views the

Bosch collection, is much what I felt when I first saw some of Mudariki’s new works. They speak truth to power, but

they also offer a reprieve with works like the wonderful and uplifting Corruption Warrior.

In viewing the work, one is reminded of the lyrics from a Muyanga song, one that refers to ancient Indian poetry.

‘So deafly they listen, so blindly they see,’ he sings. It’s time many politicians spent a little time in the art world, if they decoded the images, they might start to understand how people are feeling.

On a slightly different (and perhaps more uplifting) note, the recent Artist Proof Studio (APS) student work in response to the Strauss & Co Pierneef, A Collector’s Passion at the Turbine Art Fair this year, was a real joy to behold. The

15 auG -3 SEp

artists were introduced to the themes of artist Pierneef in his etchings and lithographs, and then responded to those works and the conversation. I have to declare my interest here, I bought a wonderful work, for a nominal fee, from an APS student, which delicately poises the questions of nature vs. urban, past vs. present. The APS responses to the classical works of Pierneef are clever, interesting, diverse, and they remind us how we can answer difficult questions of the past with grace and intelligence. The students do us proud. CF

TICKETS FROM BIGCONCERTS

The Art of Performance Dave Mann is an editor and award-winning arts journalist.

Stages are stories

I

t’s funny how such great and important parts of your life

Alexander Bar, which is home to some wonderfully intimate

can sneak away from you so quietly. Then, upon returning,

shows. The Baxter houses many a stage beneath its high

they do so with such a force that you can only stop and

ceilings and never fails to draw a crowd. In Joburg, there

think: ‘Where the hell did you come from? And where did

is the Market Theatre of course, which is home to many

you go in the first place?’

I was in the Market Theatre a few weeks back for

exciting new projects, and the iconic Joburg Theatre in the CBD. Durban boasts the jazz-centric BAT Centre as well

a non-theatre related event. I arrived there early in

as the Playhouse Theatre, and there are countless more

the morning when, outside of the Market Theatre, the

theatrical venues scattered across the country.

Newtown commute was in full swing but inside, the

I mention places here rather than people for a reason.

building was wonderfully still. I took a walk around

As much as theatrical performance is an intrinsically human

the building by myself, taking in the make of the place

thing, the theatre space – the stages, the auditoriums, the

with all of its high ceilings, great, wooden doors, and its

front of house – is a story on its own.

archival black and white framed prints of performances

When I was in grade seven in primary school, we were

carried out in the years before I was even born. I was

expected to take on ‘roles of responsibility’. You could choose

walking around like this for some time before I was

to be a hall monitor, a mentor to the younger students, a

struck by this strange and sudden sense of loss: As if

library assistant, and other small roles. I formed part of the

I had dropped a part of my life somewhere, and only

media team and so, along with four other students, it was my

just now realised that it had been missing. It was an

job to help ensure the morning assembly ran smoothly (lights,

expansive, hollow sort of feeling that latched onto me

sound, setup) and that the school plays went off without a

with a great weight. It sounds a bit dramatic, I know, but

hitch (scene changes, sound cues, running orders). I loved this

I was at the theatre after all and what better place to

job. We were all 13 years old and didn’t quite know what we

allow these self-indulgent bouts of emotion?

were doing, but it was fun to act like we did. I savoured the

Anyway, it was in Joburg’s Market Theatre that I realised

moments after the lights went down – the sweeping of the

just how much I had been missing the theatre. It had been

stage, the packing away of the podium and the projectors, and

almost a year since I had properly sat down to enjoy a

the closing of those great, maroon curtains. There was a magic

performance and I missed everything about it. I missed the

in those quiet moments that I could never quite grasp, but

quiet pressure of the stage before a show kicked off – that

that I looked forward to each week.

electric tension in the air – and the millions of individual

In high school, I began to attend the annual Shakespeare

conversations that took place among audience members as

in the Park plays at the Maynardville Open Air Theatre in

they walked out of the venue, piecing together what they

Cape Town. A friend’s mother first took us when I was about

had just seen. I missed the venues themselves and the many

15 and struggling to find the inspiration to get through

energies they carried inside of them.

those high school setworks for English – The Merchant of

South African has a rich collection of theatre houses. To

Venice, Othello, A Midsummer Night’s Dream – all of those

name a few, there is the small but elegant Fugard Theatre in

classroom gems we loved to hate. She thought that, upon

the Cape Town CBD. Across town, there is the far younger

seeing some of Shakespeare’s works off the page and on the

26 / Creative Feel / August 2017

“There was a magic in those quiet moments that I could never quite grasp, but that I looked forward to each week”

The Mandela at Joburg Theatre stage, a number of things would fall into place for us. She

channelled into performance. I loved how everyone seemed

was right, sort of. I still don’t have a great deal of passion

to run off the energy, moving from venue to venue, carrying

for Shakespeare, but it was at the Maynardville Open Air

it with them. Throughout the year too, the city would be

Theatre that my love for staged performances began to

alive with community theatre, student initiatives and more.

solidify. The stage at Maynardville is a small and simple

There was always a show to attend, somewhere. Needless to

one, lined with a row of trees behind it which reach over

say, by the time I left Grahamstown, I was head over heels

the stage to form a sort of natural amphitheatre. Seating

for the theatre.

takes place on plastic chairs on the sloped lawn and quiet

But what is it about the theatre that we love so much?

streams run their way along the outskirts of it all. In this

Is it the electric air in the room or the passion-filled

way, almost anything you see on the Maynardville stage will

conversations before the show? Is it the simple act of

be aesthetically striking.

logging out and choosing instead, to sit in front of a show

By the time I left Cape Town to live and study in

that is taking place right there and then, before our eyes?

Grahamstown, I had an idea of wanting to write about the

Maybe it’s the content of the shows we choose to see and

arts, but it was a fuzzy one. I fell in with the artsy crowds and

how it resonates with us. It’s all of these things, of course,

began spending much of my time at the Rhodes University

but it’s also our common understanding of what the theatre

Theatre, hanging out with all the drama kids and listening

represents that makes it so magical.

to their many gripes about their classes and courses. It all

There’s a line by Maya Angelou that everyone loves to

fascinated me for some reason. I never wanted to do what

quote. It reads: ‘There is no greater agony than bearing an

they were doing, but I knew I wanted to be a part of what was

untold story inside you.’ The antithesis to such an agony,

going on there inside that old theatre complex. So I began

then, would be a supreme and euphoric sort of happiness – a

writing about the shows. They were mostly student works

great sense of calm. Whenever I’m in the theatre and the

and were all brimming with passion. I began writing on the

lights are low, I like to think that after all the stories that

performers and the directors too, spending many afternoons

have been told on the stage – evident in the scuff marks,

sitting in the rehearsal rooms and dusty theatres and talking

the used-up props, the dusty crevices of the wings – all

about writing, directing and performing for the stage. When

that’s left is a supreme tranquillity. I’ve never had any great

I attended my first National Arts Festival, I watched and

dreams to be on the theatre stage myself, but for some

wrote about more theatre than ever before. It was the first

reason whenever I’m seated in front of one, there’s no place

time I had experienced such a collective form of emotion, all

I’d rather be. CF

Creative Feel / August 2017 / 27

Twelve young piano whizzes are flexing their fingers and summoning their muses ahead of the SAMRO Overseas Scholarships Competition in August, where two will walk off with R200 000 scholarships to help give wings to their career dreams.

One piano, a dozen pairs of flying hands, two sensational winners

T

his annual music competition, presented by the SAMRO Foundation, has over the past 55 years built a reputation as an important incubator and enabler of local music talent, offering a tantalising (and, frequently, mesmerising) glimpse of

tomorrow’s music industry professionals, today.

The competition rotates on a four-yearly cycle and this year, it focuses on keyboard players. All twelve semi-finalists, be they jazz or classical musicians, happen to be pianists.

These budding kings and queens of the keys will square off in tense but thrilling ‘hand-to-hand combat’ at Unisa’s ZK Matthews Hall in Pretoria on Thursday, 24 August 2017. The four top pianists – two in Western Art music, two in the Jazz category – will then have to bring out their A-game and shine during the public final round at the same venue on Saturday, 26 August 2017.

After playing a prescribed South African commissioned work and their own choice of repertoire before a panel of high-calibre industry judges, the two winners will each receive a R200 000 scholarship to pursue their professional development internationally. There are also several subsidiary study awards up for grabs.

The 2017 semi-finalists are Peter Cartwright, Willem de Beer, Lourens Fick, Megan-Geoffrey Prins and Bronwyn van Wieringen for Western Art Music; and Lifa Arosi, Elizabeth Gaylord, Blake Hellaby, Teboho Kobedi, Ntando Ngcapo, Thandi Ntuli and Nicholas Williams for Jazz.

Three of the semifinalists are familiar faces, having taken part the previous time the SAMRO Overseas Scholarships Competition was held for keyboard players in 2013.

Jazz semi-finalist Lifa Arosi won the SAMRO/De Waal Award in 2013 and Nicholas Williams was the runner-up to Bokani Dyer that year, while also scooping two subsidiary awards.

Both are angling at a second chance at the glittering prize.

In the Western Art section, Megan-Geoffrey Prins was runner-up (to winner Jan Hugo) in 2013 and won a string of additional prizes for his prowess on the piano. He, too, is aiming for the gold standard the second time around.

SAMRO Foundation Managing Director André le Roux noted: ‘The fact that these three gifted pianists have entered again demonstrates not only the prestige attached to this competition but also their tenacity. Through this competition and our other programmes, we are steadily growing the SAMRO alumni to include young musicians who feel they have a welcoming and nurturing home in the organisation alongside our many other cultural ambassadors.’ CF

JAZZ SEMI-FINALISTS LIFA AROSI Lifa is a pianist, composer and music producer from a musical family; his parents are Suthukazi Arosi and the late Madoda Malotana. Having developed a passion for the jazz greats, he went on to obtain an N6 Higher Diploma in music from the Campus of Performing Arts. For the past ten years Lifa has performed extensively locally and internationally, while recording and producing his own music as well as that of other artists. He has also been involved in musical theatre. Lifa runs his own independent recording company, Piostate Productions, and is the music director for the Rockwood Theatre in Pretoria.

ELIZABETH GAYLORD Elizabeth began classical piano lessons at age 6. She developed a love for jazz in high school and, after extensive classical training, studied jazz piano with Dr Andrew Lilley at the University of Cape Town. She has performed at the South African Association for Jazz Education Festival, the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz, the Cape Town Big Band Festival and the Standard Bank National Youth Jazz Festival. In 2015, she attended a jazz programme in Italy, and last year she played in the Standard Bank National Youth Jazz Band under the direction of Carlo Mombelli. Elizabeth now works as a composer, performer and jazz educator.

BLAKE HELLABY Blake is making a name for himself across musical genres. He graduated from the University of Cape Town with a BMus in performance in 2014, having produced, mixed and mastered his band’s first EP. He has played in the Standard Bank National Youth Band and the Schools Big Band, and the Miagi Youth Orchestra. Blake has also performed at the Oslo Jazz Festival, the Cape Town International Jazz Festival, Standard Bank Joy of Jazz, Berlin’s Young Euro Classic Festival and Jazz on the Rocks. He also toured France with the Delft Big Band. In 2016 he released his debut solo album, New Beginnings.

TEBOHO KOBEDI Teboho is a pianist, vocalist, composer, recording engineer, teacher and aspiring producer who is studying jazz and popular music at the Tshwane University of Technology under Dr Roland Moses. Teboho has taken part in various jazz programmes, and has worked with leading lights in jazz such as the Nu Notes Big Band. He has performed at the National Arts Festival, Moshito Music Conference, Zakifo Music Festival, Bushfire Festival in Swaziland, Bayimba Festival in Uganda and the Cape Town International Jazz Festival. Last year, in France, Teboho performed at the centenary commemoration of South African soldiers who died in World War One.

Creative Feel / August 2017 / 29

NTANDO NGCAPU Having been exposed to choral, classical, South African and church music as a child, Ntando was enrolled in the Soweto Youth Music Development programme and later explored jazz with his band at the National School of the Arts. Since matriculating, Ntando has performed across South Africa.

In 2011, he was awarded a scholarship by the Berklee College of Music to attend its summer semester programme and perform with artists like Brenda Sara Mau. Ntando also performed at an Abdullah Ibrahim tribute concert at the Market Laboratory alongside jazz veterans. He graduated from the Tshwane University of Technology with a music diploma in 2015.

THANDI NTULI Thandi has a rich musical lineage, being the niece of pianist and Harari vocalist Selby Ntuli. She started taking classical piano lessons at age four, and her keen interest in jazz was kindled later in life. She subsequently obtained a BMus in jazz performance from the University of Cape Town. Since the 2014 release of her debut album, The Offering, Thandi has made an imprint in the local jazz scene, bagging a Metro FM Award nomination. Her compositions draw from an array of influences, which she attributes to the collaborative culture of jazz that has seen her working with artists across genres.

NICHOLAS WILLIAMS Nicholas is a pianist and composer who was mainly self-taught before being mentored by influential multi-instrumentalist Mark Fransman. He went on to study jazz piano at the University of Cape Town under the tutelage of Dr Andrew Lilley and André Peterson. In 2013 Nicholas was the runner-up in the SAMRO Overseas Scholarships Competition, enabling him to study with Swiss pianist Nik Bärtsch in Zurich. He has worked with South Africa’s leading jazz artists and has performed at most major local jazz festivals as well as in Italy, Belgium, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. He leads the Nick Williams Project.

WESTERN ART MUSIC SEMI-FINALISTS

PETER CARTWRIGHT Peter has performed in numerous venues around South Africa, as well as in the United States, Botswana and Zimbabwe. He has appeared as a soloist with the Johannesburg festival and youth orchestras and the Gauteng Camerata, and has performed at the National Arts Festival, the Wakkerstroom Music Festival and the Wits 969 Festival. In 2015, Peter attended the Aspen Music Festival and School, studying with Anton Nel and Anne Epperson. He holds an MMus from the University of the Witwatersrand, where he is an accompanist, piano tutor and concert organiser. He is registered for a PhD under Professor Malcolm Nay and Pauline Nossel.

30 / Creative Feel /August 2017

WILLEM DE BEER Willem has won the first Atterbury National Piano Competition, the Arts Trust Piano Competition, the Philip H Moore Music Competition, the Pretorium Trust Bursary Competition, Unisa’s South African Music Scholarship Competition, the Wakkerstroom Festival Music Bursary Competition, the Olive Liebertz Bursary Competition and the ATKV Muziq Competition. He has performed with all of South Africa’s professional orchestras, under internationally renowned conductors. During 2014 Willem obtained his BMus degree cum laude under Professor Joseph Stanford. He is a member of the esteemed Golden Key Society for excellence in academics, and is currently studying towards a Master’s degree with Doctor Bryan Wallick.

LOURENS FICK Lourens is a Master’s student at the University of Stellenbosch, specialising in piano performance under Bennie van Eeden. From the age of 5 he learned how to play the recorder, piano, euphonium, flute and violin. He won the 2008 Johann Vos and Unisa South African Music Scholarship competitions, and the 2011 Yamaha Key Performers of Note Competition, and was a semi-finalist in two Unisa National Piano Competitions. In 2013 Lourens played in the South African premiere of Benjamin Britten’s Young Apollo, Op. 16. He has performed as soloist with the Cape and KwaZulu-Natal philharmonic orchestras, and the University of Stellenbosch Symphony Orchestra.

MEGAN-GEOFFREY PRINS Megan-Geoffrey is a Doctor of Musical Arts candidate at the Cleveland Institute of Music, having completed his MMus there under Antonio PompaBaldi. Praised for his technical prowess, imaginative interpretation and keen sensitivity, he has received first prizes in the Unisa 120th Anniversary Competition, the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival, the fifth Unisa National Piano Competition and the 2016 ATKV Muziq Competition. In 2012, he received the Sadie Zellen Piano Prize from the Cleveland Institute of Music and this year was awarded the Maurice and Judith Kaplow Prize for Uncommon Creativity. He returns to South Africa regularly to perform, teach and do community outreach work.

BRONWYN VAN WIERINGEN Bronwyn completed her BMus in performance cum laude at the University of Cape Town under Professor Albie van Schalkwyk, having received SAMRO bursaries for the past four years. Prizes include the Schock Foundation Prize for Chamber Music, the Johann Vos Piano Competition and the South African College High School National Music Competition. Bronwyn has performed as a soloist with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra and the symphony orchestras of Stellenbosch University and UCT, and has attended master classes by Antonio Pompa-Baldi and Olga Kern. In September, Bronwyn will embark on a Master’s degree in piano accompaniment at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Creative Feel / August 2017 / 31

WOMAN

M

arking the Company’s twenty-first Festival, the event is themed ‘phenomenal woman’ to commemorate South African women in all aspects of life – in the arts and live on stage; in

our communities and in the workplace.

This not-to-be-missed two-week festival, which runs

For Women’s Month in August, The Playhouse Company will present its famed South African Women’s Arts Festival (SAWAF).

winning drama, dance, music and more!’

Here’s a glance at the South African Women’s Arts Festival (SAWAF) programme: Suddenly the Storm: Paul Slabolepszy’s latest play, which walked off with Best New South African Script (Paul Slabolepszy), Best Theatre Set Design (Durban’s Greg King)

from 10 to 19 August, features a host of award-winning

and Best Lighting Design (Wesley France) awards at this

dramas, like the Naledi Award winning productions Suddenly

year’s Naledi Theatre Awards.

The Storm and Scorched. Also on the programme is Handbag

Starring Slabolepszy, Charmaine Weir-Smith (Isidingo,

- Don’t clutch me too tight… a brand new dance work

Binnelanders, Generations) and Renate Stuurman (Isidingo,

presented by The Playhouse Company under the helm of

Scandal!), and directed by Bobby Heaney.

acclaimed choreographer David Gouldie.

Under the theme ‘phenomenal woman’, a range of free dialogues and workshops will be held in honour of South Africa’s women and their unique contributions to our

Suddenly the Storm will be staged from 10 to 12 August in the Loft Theatre. There is an age restriction of 18 (strong language).

Under the helm of critically acclaimed choreographer,

communities. Free live music sets – featuring some of KZN’s

David Gouldie, The Playhouse Company presents a brand

finest musos.

new dance work, Handbag - Don’t clutch me too tight…

‘Our South African Women’s Arts Festival has grown

Featuring the award-winning Phakama Dance Theatre

tremendously over the years and as we commemorate our

and Flatfoot Dance Company, the production is based on

twenty-first year – traditionally a year synonymous with

the real-life tales of the ladies who live at The Association

entering maturity – we’re happy to be offering a programme

for the Aged (TAFTA). This visual work explores their

which aims to address the gravitas of women’s issues. We will

stories and the everyday woman. The work is based

do this through a range of dialogues and offerings on our arts

around interviews and moments of the elderly ladies.

programme which speak to various issues relevant to women

Moments of joy, loss and remembrance will be explored

today. We also are celebrating women of South Africa through

and celebrated with the dancers using these stories and

an artistic programme which offers an eclectic mix of award-

emotions for the basis of this dance work. A first kiss,

32 / Creative Feel / August 2017

Handbag - Don’t clutch me too tight…

Creative Feel / August 2017 / 33

34 / Creative Feel / August 2017

Scorched

Suddenly the Storm

marriage, loss, forgiveness… The work will follow the

2016 National Arts Festival in Grahamstown to high critical

linear narratives of these intimate stories to ultimately

acclaim, and went on to a season at UJ Arts Centre in

speak to overall global issues.

Johannesburg. The production is directed by Jade Bowers,

Handbag - Don’t clutch me to tight… stages from 10 to 12 August in the Drama Theatre.

Our Story Magic is a popular children’s work written

with lighting design by Oliver Hauser, design by Nadine Minaar and music composition by Matthew MacFarlane.

The all-star cast features Cherae Halley, Jaques De Silva,

by acclaimed author/poet/storyteller Gcina Mhlophe and

Mpho Osei-Tutu, Bronwyn van Graan, Ameera Patel, Gopala

has now been adapted for stage by The Playhouse Actors

Davies and Ilse Klink. Scorched stages on 18 and 19 August.

Studio. This collection offers an opportunity to explore

There is an age restriction of PG13.

folklore stories through a theatre piece suitable for the whole family.

Presented in English, isiZulu, Setswana, Our Story Magic

The Playhouse Company presents semi-staged excerpts of Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème, featuring the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra and Clermont Choir, under the helm

offers children the opportunity to experience the power

of Director Marcus Desando. Featuring soloists Khayakazi

of imagination and live theatre beyond the cellphone, TV,

Madlala, Phenye Modiane and Siphokazi Maphumulo. La

and – dare we say it – the fidget spinner! More importantly

Bohème stages on 10 August at 19:30 and 12 August at 15:00.

it shows children the value of our original and authentic

For the duration of our festival, a range of contemporary

cultures through tales based on our own communities. The

décor, accessory and corporate gift items, all handmade in

production will stage on 19 August.

KwaZulu-Natal, can be viewed at our craft tables daily. Each

Scorched walked off with three Naledi Theatre Awards

item is imbued with the exquisite workmanship, vibrant

this year: Best Director of a Play (Jade Bowers), Best

colours and iconic designs that characterise Zulu craft

Lead Performance in a Play: Female (Ilse Klink) and Best

heritage and tradition. CF

Supporting Actress (Ameera Patel).

Bowers is the 2016 Standard Bank Young Artist for Theatre. Scorched premiered on the main programme at the

Tickets for all performances are available via Computicket.

For block bookings call (031) 369 9407.

Creative Feel / August 2017 / 35

36 / Creative Feel / August 2017

Sizzling women’s month shows at Soweto Theatre...

F

rom 8 to 20 August, Soweto Theatres kickstarts

Milked Voice, an enchanting music sensation depicting

women’s month with Gone Native: The life and times

an eloquent woman who is in search of her dreams, learns

of Regina Brooks. Brooks was a white woman who

the hard lessons through the challenges that she faces as a

wanted to be re-classified as coloured so she could

young artist. She embarks on a new journey as she escapes

live with black people and keep her child, who was the product

from her past to find somebody, or anyone, who will not

of an interracial relationship. The play also focuses on how

milk her talent and voice. The show will be on from 16 to 20

two young South Africans in the 1950s were able to fall in love

August and tickets start from only R70.

against incredible odds, and how they stood up to society.

Fast forwarding to 2017, the character of Regina Brooks

On 26 August, spend an evening enjoying the music of talented Lindiwe Maxolo and world-renowned musicians

will be portrayed by the multilingual Marietjie Bothma

Sibongile Khumalo, Gloria Bosman and Lwanda Gogwana.

who is fluent in isiZulu and also a talented actor, singer,

Lindiwe Maxolo holds an honours degree in Jazz Music from

motivational speaker, MC and businesswomen. Bothma’s

the University of Cape Town and in 2002 won the afro vocal

life story is very interesting and worth telling; a story of

category at the Old Mutual Jazz Encounters competition. In

despair, perseverance, hope and eventually success! Other

2012, she released her debut album, Time, which secured her

talented cast members include Ayanda Nhlangothi, who has

a nomination for Best Jazz Album at the 2014 South African

recently played the role of Sarafina in Mbongeni Ngema’s

Music Awards (SAMAs) and Best Creative Album of the Year

smash hit musical, Sarafina!. Another interesting element

at the 2014 Wawela Music Awards. Tickets are only R200 and

in the presentation of the play will be an installation of an

the show will start at 20:00.

exhibition centred on Regina Brooks, which will include

An Evening with... is an exclusive series of one-night-

images and letters. Dr Hugh Masekela, who was recently

only performances by South Africa’s most talented vocalists

awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Music from Wits

and singers accompanied by their bands. The evenings are

University, will be the musical director of the play.

tailored to showcase songsters in their best light, allowing

Tickets for the show start from R120 and block booking discounts are available. Following its run at the Soweto

audiences the opportunity to enjoy an up-and-close performance by their favourite singers.

Theatres in August, Gone Native: The life and times of Regina Brooks will show at the Joburg Theatre in April 2018.

For more exciting theatre shows and events visit www.sowetotheatre.com. Like our Facebook page, sowetotheatre, follow us on Twitter at @sowetotheatres or just come around to say hello!

Soweto Theatre, where everyone plays a part!

Shannon Glover and Eugene Mashiane in Big City, Big Dreams. PHOTO Lauge Sorensen

BIG CITY,

BIG DREAMS Joburg Ballet has joined forces with two other leading South African dance companies – Vuyani Dance Theatre (VDT) and Moving Into Dance Mophatong (MIDM) – for Big City, Big Dreams, a major new production which will première on Friday 28 July at Joburg Theatre for a run of eight performances.

C

elebrated SA stage director Fiona Ramsay is

The stage settings and lighting flow from the creative mind

working with an award-winning creative team to

of Wilhelm Disbergen, while the dancers will be dressed in sleek

develop a new dance work inspired by the dynamic

urban clothes by costume designer Noluthando Moropa.

energy and pulse of Johannesburg – big dreams set

against the backdrop of South Africa’s biggest city.

It’s teamwork all the way in the creative process for Big

Ramsay has been involved since the beginning of the project when she was approached by CEO of Joburg Ballet, Esther Nasser, ‘to talk about a collaboration and whether

City, Big Dreams, with Ramsay and choreographers Shannon

this would be possible or how it would be possible.’ Once

Glover (Joburg Ballet), Lulu Mlangeni (VDT) and Sunnyboy

they had decided that the piece should be an amalgamation

Motau (MIDM) telling the story of a young man who steps

of ballet and contemporary dance, set in Johannesburg, they

confidently onto the first steps of the Joburg corporate

cycled through names like ‘Pantsula Pirouette’ and ‘African

ladder, only to discover an unexpected and fascinating new

Arabesque’ before deciding on Big City, Big Dreams, ‘because

window to the world of dance opening before him.

that’s what it sort of is,’ says Ramsay.

Unfolding in scenes showcasing the exhilaration of SA

‘It occurs right in the city, it’s not a kind of “Jim comes to

dance, Big City, Big Dreams fuses styles from classical ballet

Joburg” story of a young boy who comes from out of town;

to contemporary and street dance, combining high-powered

it’s set in the city. We wanted to make it really Braamfontein,

technique with vibrant emotion, set to an original score by

to make it as close to the Joburg Ballet as possible, because

composer Nik Sakellarides.

that’s where the origin was,’ she says.

38 / Creative Feel / August 2017

Eugene Mashiane, Kwazi Madlala and Mahlatse Sachane in Big City, Big Dreams.

PHOTO Lauge Sorensen

‘

we are using elements of the contemporary for the ballerinas to do and to embrace and so it’s been quite incredible

‘

more facility to do, but we are using elements of the

contemporary for the ballerinas to do and to embrace and so it’s been quite incredible.’

Although Ramsay is not traditionally associated with dance, she says: ‘Albert Einstein once said: “Dancers

are the athletes of the heart” and in a way that is what I believe, so I’m very excited to see how the dancers

embrace some acting technique as well in the telling of the story, which is not always available to them.’

Attractive ticket offers include half price opening

night on Friday 28 July (all tickets 50% off ), Saturday Night Special on Saturday 29 July (all tickets 20% off ) and a morning matinee on Tuesday 1 August (all ‘It’s been quite a long journey of collaboration. I wrote an

tickets R80). For all other performances, standard

outline of a story, we kind of chewed over that and then we

prices (R180 – R450) apply except for pensioners (less

changed it according to what the choreographers needed or

15%) and group bookings (less 10%). Booking is at

what they felt worked. It’s been a true collaboration in a lot

Joburg Theatre Box Office, or phone 0861 670 670, or

of ways, which doesn’t come without its challenges.

at www.webtickets.co.za.

‘Ultimately, all three choreographers have to look

New to Joburg Ballet’s special booking offers for Big

at each section. We’ve tried to integrate it and, in some

City, Big Dreams are free tickets for tertiary level learners.

cases, come up with a style that is not ballet and is not

Students can simply present a valid student card from a

contemporary. We do have pure ballet, but my aim is to

tertiary education institution in person at Joburg Theatre

have contemporary and ballet represented on stage at

box office before any performance to claim two free

all times. And how you do this is my challenge but so far

best-available tickets for Big City, Big Dreams (subject to

we have them fairly interweaved, some sections are just

availability on the day). CF

ballet, some are contemporary but there’s never not a contemporary person around.

‘All three companies are dancing together, and the

Keep up to date with the company on our social media platforms; Facebook.com/joburgballet,

idea is not to limit the dancers by making a ballerina

Instagram.com/joburgballet, @JoburgBallet or online at

perform something that a contemporary dancer has much

www.joburgballet.com

Creative Feel / August 2017 / 39

It’s been two decades since the inception of the National Arts Council (NAC), the public entity mandated to facilitate the development of arts, culture and heritage in South Africa. The National Heritage Council and Market Theatre Foundation share their wellwishes for the NAC.

O

ver the years, the NAC has provided funding and

The NAC covers seven disciplines under its umbrella

support to initiatives and projects that educate,

– dance, theatre, literature, visual art, music, craft and

uplift, empower and express the hopes and dreams

multidiscipline – all of which enjoy the same amount

of South Africans, who have since 1994 been waking

of attention and care from its teams of dedicated

up to the possibilities of freedom of expression and democracy.

Since 1997, the NAC has funded a total of 5 896

arts development officers, members of the board and executive, and support staff. As part of the national

projects and artists, an average of 536 projects and artists

Department of Arts and Culture’s Mzansi Golden Economy

per year, with total funding amounting to more than R550

initiative, which aims to stimulate the economy by

million, averaging more than R50 million per year. Over

creating employment in the arts, culture and heritage

and above this, the NAC has opened many avenues and

sector, the NAC has identified several Flagship Projects

provided platforms for South African arts and culture

across each discipline. These projects are aimed at

workers in the international arena, paving the way for

creating socioeconomic growth through education and

investment and development.

grassroots development.

40 / Creative Feel / August 2017

A message from CEO of the National Heritage Council (NHC): Adv. Sonwabile Mancotywa ‘This 20-year milestone of the National Arts Council of South Africa marks the coming of age of the strategic direction of the arts, culture and heritage sector in this democratic country. Congratulations to the NAC for striving to give South Africans the freedom to express their culture and heritage through the arts. I can concur that they have done so through a fruitful partnership of national importance that we have with the organisation, through the NHC’s Heritage Education School Outreach Programme, to educate our primary school learners about our country’s intangible heritage. The arts, culture and heritage are fundamental to society for they possess the creative and innovative means of self-actualisation and social transformation based on the social practices, values, traditions and histories of cultural communities. Through our partnership, we remain committed to educating South Africans about their heritage through the arts, and strive to sustain the economy of our country through arts, culture and heritage.’

A message from CEO of the Market Theatre Foundation: Ismail Mahomed ‘This 20-year milestone in the history of the National Arts Council offers it an invaluable opportunity to reflect on its past, celebrate its resilient existence and to re-envision the next milestone. As artists across our country take their curtain calls and as audiences applaud, as crafters package their new products and as art collectors take home their new artworks, the message is loud and clear – we are undoubtedly a far better country where the arts continue to heal us and to offer us hope. For that we do owe some gratitude to those who have worked tirelessly at the National Arts Council over the past two decades to facilitate our artistic journeys and experiences.

‘Not only have South African artists successfully created exciting and cutting-edge work to present in our leading theatres, galleries, music halls and festivals but over the past 20 years we have witnessed so much more work being developed and presented in some of the most remote parts of the country.’

Creative Feel / August 2017 / 41

Ukes and Kids launches in New York The Ukes and Kids songwriting project gives kids in South Africa the opportunity to meet, collaborate, create, play music, write songs and learn from each other and a host of local and international volunteer performing artists, educators, and mentors.

I

n 2014, the NAC and ICRD Group Foundation marked the

and underdevelopment through knowledge and skills

celebration of 20 years of freedom in South Africa with

development,’ the ICRD Group Foundation said in 2014.

another youth music and performing arts camp under

The Ukes and Kids Songwriting Project was created out

the theme ‘Rainbow and Me’. The purpose of this project

of the love for children and the belief that through music we

was to promote social cohesion, shared values and outlooks,

can make the world a better place. The project offers unique

as well as unleash Mzansi Golden Economy’s hidden talents.

opportunities for children from regions in Southern Africa

Additionally, the camp participants were given an opportunity

to learn songwriting skills while engaging in a creative

to take part in the ‘New Africa Indigenous Orchestra’. The

exchange with peers and music making with a team of local

Rainbow and Me camp enabled young South Africans to

and international performing artists. Ukes and Kids provides

celebrate their rich heritage through spoken word, song and

a platform for the innate creativity and expression in every

dance. The camp, which took place in June 2014, infused ‘the

child to be heard and seen while fostering their talents

old and the new’ in a two-week-long music and performing

through an immersive week of music, dance, poetry, theatre,

arts extravaganza. ‘The ICRD Group Foundation is proud to

clowning, songwriting and, most of all, fun!

work with the NAC and cross-sector partners in using the

Bringing together local and international musicians,

medium of art to address poverty, crime, teenage pregnancy,

educators and volunteers, the Ukes and Kids project

HIV/AIDS, drug and substance abuse, unemployment

unearths, supports and develops creativity in children

42 / Creative Feel / August 2017

through songwriting, resulting in a fully produced album

Africa, with a second week-long music and performing arts

of original music written by the kids. The Mobile Arts

camp planned for 23 exceptional talented children drawn

and Entrepreneurship Institute (MAEI) embarks on an

from underprivileged communities.

exploratory journey searching for 20 exceptionally talented

This project will bring together local and international

children in rural and urban communities of Southern Africa

musicians, educators, volunteers and children to work on

and this talent search process culminates in the production

a production of original compositions in promotion of

of commercially viable kids music albums support arts

Environmental Sustainability. This camp will be held at

education in disadvantaged communities. Their debut album

the Mopani Rest Camp Kruger National Park from 1 to 7

entitled The Journey was launched at the Jalopy Theatre in

October 2017.

Brooklyn New York on 25 March 2017.

This album is a kind of Ukes and Kids audio diary

This project seeks to promote social cohesion, explore shared values, intercultural understanding, tolerance, unity

dedicated to all music lovers across the globe. The Journey is

in diversity, as well as use art to promote environmental

an audio diary with music and songs chronicling the journey

sustainability. The camp participants will also be given an

of children’s relationship to music, what they want to do as

opportunity to form part of The Planet and Me Ensemble.

they grow up into adulthood, how music has changed their

This initiative will enable the participants to celebrate our

lives and how they hope their music can be an agent for social

rich heritage through song, dance and spoken word. The Planet

change. With the support of Kickstarter funders, The National

and Me: Youth Music and Performing Arts Camp programme

Arts Council of South Africa, The Ukulele Hall of Fame, The

will infuse the ‘old and the new’ in a week-long performing arts

NYC Ukulele Festival, Kala and Mahalo Ukes, friends and

and environmental conservation extravaganza.

family, the album was officially launched in New York.

This year, the directors of the Mobile Arts and

To support this initiative, please contact the ICRD Group

Entrepreneurship Institute (MAEI), in collaboration with

Foundation on:

the National Arts Council (NAC) and National Lotteries

Tel: +27 11 024 9290 | Email info@icrdgroup.org |

Commission (NLC), will mark 23 years of freedom in South

Website: www.icrdgroup.org

Creative Feel / August 2017 / 43

Following critical acclaim at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, Beth Diane Armstrong’s in perpetuum will show at the Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg from 4 August to 30 September 2017.

in perpetuum Words: Tim Leibbrandt

i

n perpetuum is a sculptural exhibition centred on contrasting variations of density and looseness.

Accompanying her 2017 Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Art, the exhibition highlights

Armstrong’s use of sculpture to explore different expressions of these two terms in relation to scale, structure, materiality, space, representation and process.

The title in perpetuum suggests something which is ongoing and everlasting. In the sense that Armstrong applies the term, it refers to negotiating an unremitting pull between the desire to be entirely overwhelmed and subsumed by a sculpture and the drive to resolve and contain the idiosyncratic challenges posed by it. A central ambition which continues to inform Armstrong’s process is the translation of fleeting, abstract experiences into the permanence of a physically demanding material such as steel.

One of the leading contemporary South African sculptors of her generation, in perpetuum captures Beth Diane Armstrong’s mastery of the medium. The exhibition accentuates her meticulous processes, her attention to detail and her astounding ability to effortlessly switch between intricate smaller works and imposing large-scale masses of steel. This body of work encompasses themes and motifs drawn from her entire career as a sculptor and marks a full-circle return to where it began, having received her Masters in Fine Art from Rhodes University in 2010.

Close up details of Division Process - F. Beth Diane Armstrong, 2016.

Edition 2/3, Stainless Steel, 510 x 362 x 311cm

44 / Creative Feel / August 2017

Division Process - F. Beth Diane Armstrong, 2016.

Edition 2/3, Stainless Steel, 510 x 362 x 311cm

Armstrong grapples with the ways in which bodies experience space and translate this experience into structures, both perceptual and physical. Beginning as

level realisations of the works as sculptural structures, maintaining a synchronous relationship to both aspects.

The works continuously shift between two binaries.

thought experiments, the works evolve according to a set of

Recognisable forms such as trees and rhizomes served as

parameters which the artist prescribes. Armstrong develops

metaphors for rootedness and adaption/reaction and are

these parameters on the level of underlying structures

juxtaposed with elusive abstract arrangements of steel

(calculations, measurements) and through the higher

beams. Ideas of orientation and stability are contrasted

Creative Feel / August 2017 / 45

46 / Creative Feel / August 2017

Only One Living, Beth Diane Armstrong, 2016 4mm galvanised wire, clear lacquer 173 x 125 x 125cm

Armstrong synthesises a number of influences for whom cycles of flux have been an overarching concern. These include the paradoxical etchings of M.C. Escher, the rhizomatic philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari, and Douglas Hofstadter’s opus Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid.

Taken as a whole, in perpetuum presents Beth Diane Armstrong’s work as a continuously self-generating system driven by the interplay between density and looseness. CF with impressions of chaos and perplexity. Large-scale steel

The Standard Bank Gallery, located on the corner of

sculptures sit alongside delicate, meticulously constructed

Simmonds and Frederick streets in central Johannesburg,

wire assemblages. Video footage - capturing the interplay

offers free, safe undercover parking on the corner of Harrison

between light and lens - continuously pulls in and out

and Frederick streets. Gallery hours: Mondays to Fridays from

of focus. The expansive aesthetic idea of the sublime is

8:00 to 16:30, and Saturdays from 9:00 to 13:00. Entrance to

contrasted with the contained resolution of the beautiful.

the exhibition is free.

Visually, the works take their cue from the relational

The Standard Bank Gallery will be open on First

play with scale and sheer surfaces of Richard Serra, the

Thursdays during the exhibition. First Thursday dates are

examination of structures in Sol LeWitt’s work and the

3 August and 7 September. For more info on in perpetuum

meticulous attention to process of Ruth Asawa. Thematically,

visit www.standardbank.com/beth

Creative Feel / August 2017 / 47

PAYING HOMAGE Last year’s Sasol New Signatures winner, Cape Town-based artist, 54-year-old Zyma Amien, is currently preparing for her solo exhibition at the Pretoria Art Museum later this month.

I

n addition to walking away with R100 000 in prize money as the 2016 Sasol New Signatures winner, Zyma Amien’s prize included a solo exhibition, to be hosted at the

Pretoria Art Museum.

As with her award-winning entry, Zyma Amien’s artwork intends to address labour issues, particularly within the garment and textile industry. It is a reaction to the adversity faced by her mother and grandmother who worked, and continue to work, in this trade. “Real” lives and “Ordinary” objects: Partisan art-making strategies with garment workers in the Western Cape... continuation references the lack of recognition, exploitation as well as mental and physical trauma they endured. ‘With this installation, I aim to honour these workers and pay homage to them,’ says Amien.

The solo exhibition forms part of her prize, and the artwork Paying Homage consists of 21 long, gauze overalls with sewing machines placed at the end of the overalls.

48 / Creative Feel / August 2017

The installation occupies a space of about eleven metres along the wall together with five upright sewing machines with seven metres of gauze. On the gauze she has stitched buttons, inserted zips and added detailed stitching and overlocked patterns. This alludes to the task seamstresses perform on a daily basis. On the floor next to each station will lie a heap of buttons and zips.

To complement the installation, Amien is in the process of creating prints, etchings and embossings. The embossings will consist of buttons, zips and pins. Her intention with the buttons is to visually show the alienation and loneliness that the workers endure.

‘I created overalls, an outer garment worn by workers (these are worn by female workers), using gauze. Gauze, usually used for wounds and scars, was used to allude to historical, physical and structural pain,’ says Amien. ‘Pins were used to hold the side seams together, which is a metaphor for the manner in which the machinists have been pinned to their seats and sewing machine as machinists. My mother worked as a machinist for more than 50 years.

‘The word “homage” is synonymous with recognition, honour, tribute and acknowledgement – all emotions I experience in relation to the garment workers, while “pay” refers to the minimum wage these workers earn. Currently they are earning R788 per week.’

Zyma Amien’s solo exhibition coincides with the announcement of the winner of the Sasol New Signatures 2017, which will be announced on 30 August at a gala event. After which, the winning works along with Amien’s exhibition will be displayed at the Pretoria Art Museum from 31 August 2017 to 8 October 2017. For more information, visit www.sasolnewsignatures.co.za CF

Creative Feel / August 2017 / 49

Wide Asleep, Natalie Moore

Sandman

Following three months at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris as part of her 2015 Absa L’Atelier Gerard Sekoto Award, Natalie Moore will be exhibiting Sandman at the Absa Gallery in Johannesburg from 13 August to 1 September 2017.

Creative Feel: What did it mean to you to have won the

There is something about the nature of a cloud, the

Gerard Sekoto Award in the 2015 Absa L’Atelier?

forever shifting form, yet unchanging essence, which

Natalie Moore: It was my very first time entering the Absa

reminds me of the desert dunes. As of late 2015, I have

L’Atelier and it was such a dream to walk away with the

been exploring that of the desert. In the middle of the

Gerard Sekoto Award.

desert, rarely a cloud but to mock, one is submerged in

I am walking in a dream of mine.

perspective. To my mind, the landscape echoes

I would like to extend a sincere thank you to my

the ‘dreamscape’.

sponsors IFAS, SANAVA and Absa. And specifically the

With the surreal nature of the desert, it was only fitting

following individuals who have played such important roles

that I found myself before the late surrealist painter René

behind the scenes: Marion Claudel, Lerato Maku and the

Magritte at the Pompidou Centre.

Absa Gallery team.

It was my obsession with the desert theme that carried my feet four hours south of Paris to Arcachon and saw my

CF: Tell us about your three months at the Cité

footprints in the beautiful hidden gem that is Dune du Pilat

Internationale des Arts?

(the tallest sand dune in Europe). A picturesque anomaly

NM: I am an incurable daydreamer and clouds have always

straddled by forest and ocean.

resembled everything but clouds to me. My time at [the Cité

It was a poignant coincidence that one of my last places

Internationale des Arts] was the stuff of dreams and had me

of exploration outside of Paris, before my departure home,

on cloud nine.

was the land of the clock: Switzerland. It was in Zurich that

50 / Creative Feel / August 2017

I reflected deeply on my time spent in Paris. Time that was

our subconscious. This lack of chronological order points

both suspended and on fast-forward.

to another notion explored through my imagery – that

I reflected on the place I had come to see in my short

of Chronos versus Kairos time. Where conscious time is

time as another home; the culture of pleasure but not

perceived in a constant, measurable, chronological fashion;

excess; of savouring the moment; of relationships and

time in a dream exists outside of this construct. When

connections; a place of beauty, from the architecture, to the

we dream we access Kairos time – all encompassing time.

art and museums, to the language, the people, the artistry. It

Kairos is also that time we experience to different degrees

was often the least expected moments that were of the most

when we daydream or are in flow state or any heightened

inspiration and value to me.

awareness of being.

There are just too many nuanced, condensed experiences

In this age, we are so dictated by linear time – never

for me to even touch the surface of. Yet in my opinion that is

having ‘enough’ of it, always been ‘pressed’ for it, working

the charm of Paris – her depth and mystery. I plan on visiting

‘over’ it, being ‘charged by’ it and being ‘paid for’ it (and not

Paris again, but until then I will visit her in my daydreams.

productivity alone).

CF: How do you think spending three months in Paris has

nightmares are fuelled by fear but inversely, in a dream, we

benefited your career?

seem to act and love without fear. I believe this is truer to

NM: Anything you achieve, you have to first achieve in the

our nature than the masks we sometimes wear in real life.

mind. You reach the destination psychically before you do

This begs the question of how we define what is more real

physically. So shaping the mind is the core of it all. And what

when some aspects of dreams are more real than reality.

Paris gave me was another perspective and dimension of

What is oasis and what mirage?

Another aspect of the dream world is our inhibitions. Yes,

thought. Paris is the perfect setting to daydream in.

It is my hope that the fairytale aspect of it will provoke people to think as they did when they were a child –

CF: Tell us about your upcoming exhibition in the

without scepticism, or as people with 2.5 children and

Absa Gallery.

9 to 5 jobs would say, ‘being realistic’. I want the viewer

NM: My exhibition is entitled Sandman and is set in

to both have fun with it and to reach a deeper place of

the dreamscape. The sheets are representative of the

thought. My hope is to sprinkle sand in the eyes of the

conscious mind, and the desert that of dreams and the

viewers and that their eyes of possibility and imagination

subconscious. It is a narrative akin to one’s dreams, where

would awaken.

the storyline may seem fragmented and unstructured to our conscious mind, but natural to the fabric of a dream and

When you walk into my exhibition space, I want you to walk into a dream world and walk out with your dreams. CF

Conscious vs Subconscious, Natalie Moore

Creative Feel / August 2017 / 51

Pernod Ricard Prestige Channel Director, Vika Shipalana

at the FNB JoburgArtFair with Perrier-Jouët With the annual FNB JoburgArtFair just around the corner, there’s a lot to be excited about. This year’s fair looks set to offer another outstanding

O

f course, events like the FNB JoburgArtFair require a tremendous amount of artistic, economic and physical input from a number of different people and organisations in order to get off of

the ground. To do what they do on such a scale, they rely on several mutually beneficial partnerships, and one of those

showcase of new artworks,

partnerships is Pernod Ricard’s Perrier-Jouët.

talks, special projects and more,

world-renowned champagne, Perrier-Jouët has come to be

including work by the 2017 Featured Artist, Robin Rhode, and curated programmes by London-based Dr Zoe Whitely.

While Pernod Ricard itself is no stranger to the arts, its one of the number one brands behind art fairs and events the world over. To date, they have partnered with Design Miami, London Art Week and more, offering an exclusive and luxurious experience to artists, gallery owners and art lovers alike.

Beyond offering up a unique experience to art fair patrons, the Perrier-Jouët brand is one that’s always found its home in the arts. Prestige Channel Director, Vika Shipalana, and Business Development Manager, Mandla

52 / Creative Feel / August 2017

Pernod Ricard Business Development Manager, Mandla Holomisa

a brand like Perrier-Jouët would be a better fit with the FNB JoburgArtFair because of the nature of the festival.

Individuals like art lovers, gallery owners, collectors, and more are able to attend the fair and enjoy a VIP experience with our champagne.’

With a bar situated at the centre of the art fair, PerrierHolomisa, explain that the origins of the brand itself can be

Jouët will ensure that FNB JoburgArtFair patrons are treated

traced back to a love of art.

to a truly luxurious experience. The goal, says Shipalana, is for

‘The story goes back to the two founders, Pierre-Nicolas

everyone to create lasting memories at the FNB JoburgArtFair

Perrier and Rose-Adélaїde Jouët,’ the two explain. ‘They were

and for Perrier-Jouët to form a part of those memories.

a young couple who were in love, and they had a mutual love

‘The FNB JoburgArtFair is one of the most looked-

for art – particularly Art Nouveau – and a passion for nature,

forward-to events on the cultural calendar and every year,

so a lot of the work we do with Perrier-Jouët is always

people come away with a whole range of stories from their

relating to the arts in some shape or form.’

time at the art fair. What we want to do is to form a part of

The very look and feel of Perrier-Jouët is a testament to

those stories. We want people to remember the art and the

good taste and fine art, too. On the bottle, swirls of Japanese

people, and we want them to remember that it all started

anemone flowers blossom across the glass, wreathed in a

with a glass of Perrier-Jouët champagne,’ she enthuses.

rich gold. This is a nod to the story of Perrier and Jouët and

And what are the team at Perrier-Jouët looking forward

their mutual love for nature, as well as a subtle homage to

to at this year’s FNB JoburgArtFair themselves? ‘The VIP

the arts itself.

programme is always fantastic,’ says Holomisa. ‘There are

But how does one of the leading names in champagne find

dinners and discussions and a whole lot of networking with

itself in a partnership with one of South Africa’s most well-

some of the art world’s most passionate people.’ Shipalana

known art fairs? It was a natural progression, says Shipalana.

adds that the opportunity to invest in the African art scene

‘We’ve partnered with some of the most exciting

is just as exciting. ‘For us, Africa is at the forefront of the

and esteemed art fairs in the world, so when we decided

world’s art scene, and to be a part of that means you’re a part

to introduce Perrier-Jouët to South Africa, it was only

of something great.’

fitting that we should partner with what we consider to

Indeed, the FNB JoburgArtFair looks like it’s shaping up

be one of the biggest art events on the continent,’ she

to be another truly inspiring and innovative fair. If you’re

explains. ‘Pernod Ricard as a whole has had a longstanding

headed through this year, be sure to keep an eye out for the

relationship with the FNB JoburgArtFair through our

Perrier-Jouët bar. Fine art and stimulating conversation

other brand, Absolute Vodka. But we soon realised that

always go down better with a glass of something good. CF

Creative Feel / August 2017 / 53

Children under Apartheid, Dumile Feni, 1987. Charcoal. 24.5 x 133 cm. PHOTO Nina Lieska, Repro Pictures

Gauging the value of your art Have you ever wondered what your works of art may be worth? Are you in need of an updated insurance valuation? An expert, up-to-date valuation of your works of art can be obtained from the highly qualified Art Specialists at Aspire Art Auctions, who are just a phone call away.

Y

ou may have noticed that there has been an

3 500 000, JH Pierneef’s A view across Fisherman’s Cove,

exponential growth in the art market recently,

Seychelles sold for an astonishing R4 547 200, reaching over

especially for works by top South African artists.

four times the previous record for a non-South African

Aspire Art Auctions has a proven track record of

subject. Amadlozi artists also fared well, improving on

excellent results at auction. Its inaugural Johannesburg auction

the previous records set by Aspire in its inaugural sale in

in October 2016 attracted a large crowd of collectors who bid

October 2016. Edoardo Villa’s Vertical Composition, set a

competitively to achieve a staggeringly high lot average of

new record at R1 818 880. Similarly, the Skotnes market was

R322 527. The top lot of the sale was Alexis Preller’s exceptional

affirmed with Ravine Wall selling for R795 760.

Profile Figure’s (Mirrored Image), selling for over R7 million

Significant highlights from the Johannesburg sale in

– eclipsing all other amounts earned for the artist in 2016.

July included: Peter Clarke’s Figures on a path, Tesselaarsdal

Further top sales included William Kentridge’s Untitled (Colonial

from 1960, sold for R682 080 (double its low estimate);

Landscape), achieving over R2 million, and Irma Stern’s gouache,

Louis Maqhubela’s Flight, sold for R70 928 and Dumile

Congolese Woman, selling for over R1.9 million.

Feni’s charcoal drawing Children under Apartheid, went for

Aspire set various major records at its second sale in Cape Town in March 2017. At estimates of R2 500 000 –

54 / Creative Feel / August 2017

R1 200 320, an auction record for the artist. Children under Apartheid was commissioned for a campaign against child

THE SPECIALISTS ARE: Emma Bedford worked at the Iziko South African National Gallery for 25 years. As Senior Curator, she produced exhibitions for major artists such as Maggie Laubser, William Kentridge and Marlene Dumas. She was the first Director of Goodman Gallery Cape Town, working with artists like Robert Hodgins and Sue Williamson. Her international profile includes exhibitions curated for the Venice Biennale in 2001. Bedford has more than seven years’ experience as an art specialist in the auction industry.

Contact: emma@aspireart.net | 083 391 7235 Jacqui Carney graduated from Wits Art School with a BA in Fine Arts and promptly entered the auction industry. With seven years’ experience, she is regarded as the most accomplished art cataloguer and researcher in the field.

Contact: jacqui@aspireart.net | 071 675 2991 Mary-Jane Darroll, a Master of Fine Arts Golden Mask, Marina Abramović, 2009. Framed chromogenic print. 127 x 127cm.

PHOTO Nina Lieska, Repro Pictures

graduate from Wits University, has worked across the entire ambit of the fine art industry during her career, which spans more than two decades. Darroll’s previous positions

abuse in the United States, and was subsequently exhibited for some years in the

include Curator of the Standard Bank Gallery

UN buildings in New York City. After being forced into exile, New York was Feni’s

and Corporate Collection and Director of the

home in the 1980s. This important work returned to South Africa, entrusted

Everard Read Gallery in Johannesburg.

to Aspire to go to auction. The contemporary collection included Border Order

Contact: mj@aspireart.net | 082 567 1925

by Kendell Geers, which sold above its top estimate at R193 256, and showing for the first time in a local market a work by Moshekwa Langa titled Mmatšie,

Ruarc Peffers, a leading art auctioneer in South

sold for R318 304, breaking the previous auction record also held by Aspire.

Africa with 14 years’ experience in the industry.

International art star Marina Abramovic’s Golden Mask, went for R1 448 200.

Peffers studied at the University of Edinburgh

If you are curious to find out what your art is worth, contact one of the Art

graduating with a Master’s degree in Modern

Specialists at Aspire Art Auctions. While the company was recently founded with

Art: History, Curating and Criticism.

financial backing from Brian Joffe and Adrian Gore, Aspire’s experts have a long

Contact: ruarc@aspireart.net | 084 444 8004

history in the art industry and can provide you with the information you need

to make informed choices; which works of art should you hang onto and which

Marelize van Zyl has worked in the local and

should you consider selling, what can be done to enhance the value of your

international art market for the past ten years.

collections and how should you be looking after your works to ensure that your

As the former Associate Director of SMAC

investment appreciates over time.

Gallery, she has gathered an impressive resumé

One of these knowledgeable art specialists can examine your works of

of curatorial projects while working closely with

art in the comfort of your home. Alternatively, they welcome you to make an

many prominent South African artists like Peter

appointment at either of their offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town, where

Clarke, Erik Laubscher and Willem Boshoff as

they will assist you.

well as a number of international artists. She

Aspire’s Spring Sale takes place on 4 September 2017, at the Avenue V&A

holds a Master’s degree in Visual Studies from

Waterfront in Cape Town. Visit this beautiful venue during the public preview

Stellenbosch University, and has edited various

days, 1 to 3 September, to enjoy some choice works, amongst them a rare early

art publications.

Simon Stone mosaic triptych sure to delight viewers and collectors. CF

Contact: marelize@aspireart.net | 083 283 7427

The Department of Small Business Development will once again be supporting the participation of 20 visual artists at this year’s FNB JoburgArtFair. As a media partner to the fair, Creative Feel decided to find out more about the Department and about the woman in charge, Minister Lindiwe Zulu, MP.

L

indiwe Zulu, a member of the South African

Minister Zulu is very clear on what is needed to address

parliament, is the Minister of Small Business

the development of small businesses. ‘Our work is even more

Development and has been leading this young

important in South Africa because of our history. Although it

ministry since its establishment in 2014. Minister

was a very short visit, I have visited Germany and have seen

Zulu and her team are working hard to achieve the vision ‘of

very practically what it means when Germany says that small

a vibrant culture of entrepreneurship and enterprise growth,

and medium enterprises are the backbone of the economy.

where small businesses and co-operatives act as drivers

I was also in Italy at the beginning of my term and even

of job creation and inclusive economic benefit.’ Talking to

there I understood what they mean when Italians say most

her now, she echoes the same enthusiasm for changing the

businesses are family owned businesses. In the South African

plight of informal, semi-formal and small business that she

context, a lot of the small to medium enterprises are family

did 25 years ago when she returned from exile to ‘make a

owned businesses, but because we have the problem of the

difference’ in South Africa.

black population that is trying to move up from zero and we

By her own admission, Minister Zulu is not a person who

also have the problem of the youth who are out there with

sits at her desk and discusses the problems that the South

no jobs, it is very clear that had we had the discussion 20 to

African economy is facing. She is out there, meeting people

30 years ago about small to medium enterprises and support

from all over the country who want to share ideas on how best

from the government, then we might be having a different

the support from her department can make all the difference

type of conversation right now. Unfortunately, it’s only now

for SMMEs, so as to meet their entrepreneurial endeavours.

that we have a real push in small and medium enterprises.

56 / Creative Feel /August 2017

‘The other challenges in the South African context

not only in the South African market, but in the African

are regulation and legislation. Regulation is what makes

continent and globally. Thirdly, it is about access to the

it difficult for small businesses. From a South African

market; they can produce all these beautiful products but

perspective, it needs to be an issue for everyone, not just an

without access to markets it is a problem. It is for this reason

issue for the Minister of the Department of Small Business

that my department plays an active role in facilitating

Development. Both within and outside government,

market access opportunities for the craft and visual arts

including introducing entrepreneurship in schools and

sectors. The issue or challenge is what we do as government.

colleges because you can’t think that you can have people

This firstly creates a conducive environment for the growth

who don’t even value the money that they have and then

and development of small businesses. Secondly, it is

think those people will become very good business people.

through collaborations with other sector organisations like

It is very difficult, but it is even more important in the

the CCDI, BBCDI and government institutions such as the

context of our South African history.

South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) and provincial

‘

I looked at that and said to myself, if these youngsters are producing this kind of corporate gift, and this is a corporate gift that can be

‘

ordered by big companies, it can be good for them because there are

potential economies of scale here

‘It is true that there is generally an understanding on the value of small businesses and their importance in growing the economy, bridging the inequality gap and creating jobs.

The research that is being done, not just by government, is also very exciting because without research, facts and figures, you cannot have the right interventions. So, three years down the line, I am very excited that there was this decision to have a ministry and a department that can focus on small to medium enterprises and cooperatives.’

Asked specifically about the Department’s involvement at the FNB JoburgArtFair, the Craft Market in Santa Fe and their collaboration with the Cape Craft and Design

development agencies that we are able to make a more meaningful impact for the creative sectors. In an effort to improve the competitiveness of locally produced crafts, my department collaborated with the SABS to develop a standard for the craft sector so that products can be tested and granted the required quality stamp of approval.

‘Our local products are competing with international

products. So when I say I need everybody, each and every person and every department, it is important. The Department of Economic Development can’t have plans with regards to the economic development of the country without considering any development plans and the impact they

Institute (CCDI), Minister Zulu is certain of the importance

will have on the small and medium enterprises. The entire

of supporting artists’ exposure to the general public and

economy in itself, if they say is technically in a recession,

of helping them sell their work at market-related prices.

if they say we have been downgraded to junk status, all of

‘I feel very passionate about the Creatives Industries as

that has a negative impact on small to medium enterprises.

it is an important sector of the economy but at the same

Despite all of these challenges, I’m seeing a lot of resilience

time it faces many challenges. Firstly, in ensuring that they

by SMMEs themselves. All of the SMMEs I visit, I don’t hear

produce quality goods. Secondly, that the goods can compete

them making noise about the junk status; they are looking

Creative Feel / August 2017 / 57

for solutions. What is more exciting for me is the younger generation. The youth are new in the space and when you talk about junk status and technical recession, it doesn’t sink in the same way as it does with bigger businesses who then go around and make louder noises.

‘Your SMMEs say, “okay this is the situation we are finding ourselves in, what are the solutions, what can we do?” We as government need to step up and that is why for instance in a meeting of all ministers of the economic cluster we tasked ourselves to go and find ways and means of how we can cushion the economy, how we can turn the situation around first and foremost. The next step is to go

The Department will be supporting the participation of 20 visual artists at the FNB JoburgArtFair. The exhibition will be

and think, plan and report back what can be done to help

curated by Senzeni Marhasela and assisted

change the situation, but also to have the conversation

by protégé curator, Zodwa Tunani from

with the private sector. It pains us sometimes to hear that we are being told the private sector is sitting with a lot of

the Walter Sisulu University. Creative Feel

money in South Africa. Now, when you hear that and you

spoke to two of the participating artists,

understand that this country is coming from a difficult situation, but you also need to understand that those people will only invest if they feel they are going to get the return. It is a chicken and egg situation; if they sit on the money and yet want a return for the money, obviously it means there is going to have to be some risk taken so that somewhere in the next ten to fifteen years the situation might turn around.

‘I was at a dinner where all the guests were young

Pauline Mazibuko and Ephia Mmbidi.

T

he Department of Small Business Development (DSBD) has been participating in the FNB JoburgArtFair since inception and will once again be presenting a meticulously curated experience for

visitors to the fair.

The Department will, in consideration of the unique

people who are in business and I was given a corporate

theme of ‘Looking back and looking forward’ that the FNB

gift from them that was completely locally produced. I

JoburgArtFair will be focusing on for its tenth anniversary,

looked at that and said to myself, if these youngsters are

be honouring, celebrating and recognising a diverse range

producing this kind of corporate gift, and this is a corporate

of artists from established masters of the industry to new

gift that can be ordered by big companies, it can be good

emerging artists entering the visual arts scene. ‘The DSBD is

for them because there are potential economies of scale

committed to encouraging the transformation of the creative

here. It becomes the responsibility of both government

economy and the upliftment of the community through

and ourselves to improve on what we call private-public

market access initiatives such as the FNB JoburgArtFair.’

partnerships. The private sector should not just be ticking

The DSBD exhibition will be presented under the ‘South

the box, they should be responding to the real felt needs of

African Art Collective’ brand, which will feature artists

SMMEs, which therefore means it’s about them opening up

who have been selected to represent a wide demographic,

the opportunity in the value chain, so that in whatever way

in particular, the upliftment of women and youth from

is possible, some of the smaller parts of something come

the creative sector of South Africa. The South African

from smaller businesses.’

Art Collective was launched in 2016 and has been the

During the first interaction with Lindiwe Zulu some 25 years ago, she was so passionate about the role that the informal or semi-formal and, ultimately, the regulated

brand used to represent visual artists supported by the department at exhibitions, both locally and internationally.

The South African Art Collective recently presented a

small business played in some countries that she had

hugely successful four-city touring exhibition of the United

stayed and studied in during her years of exile. Talking to

States of America, showcasing works in Santa Fe, San

her now, one cannot but feel she will make the difference

Diego, Miami and New York. The featured artists Pauline

she promised herself, with the help of some dynamic team

Mazibuko and Ephia Mmidi were part of the touring

members in her department. If you want the job done, give

exhibition. The tour also featured seasoned artists such as

it to a woman. CF

renowned artists Esther Mahlangu and Andrew Tshabangu.

58 / Creative Feel / August 2017

Pauline Mazibuko Pauline Mazibuko says she has been an artist all her life.

paint on paper focus on portraying emotions of everyday

While training at Funda Community College, she traded

people through a focus on facial expressions. ‘My quest is

in oil paints for tiny bits of magazine paper as she simply

to achieve more expressive art, where the idea of a drawing

couldn’t afford it. And she hasn’t looked back, she now

is pulled from its conventions and deconstructed into

creates incredible, colourful collage works that celebrate

fragments of collage, colour, marks and exploration of colour

women and children in South Africa, while acknowledging

and reduction of form create the centrality of a figure.’

the hardships they face. There is a vibrancy and positivity

Mmbidi studied Btech Fine Arts at the Vaal University

in her works, despite the difficult subject matter her works

and is in the process of completing her Master’s. She

often deal with.

too works as a teacher as well as with the Valued Citizen

After completing her studies at Funda, Mazibuko specialised in printmaking at Artist Proof Studio (APS) for two years. She was awarded a bursary to study Art Teacher

Initiative, given a second chance to those who have committed minor offences.

Both Mazibuko and Mmbidi express the difficulties

Training through Wits University and has worked at

they have found working as female artists in South Africa.

Sibikwa Community Centre and APS as a teacher. Her works

From needing to work twice as hard to prove themselves,

have been exhibited worldwide and are held in various

or being told that a woman’s work isn’t art but rather

private collections.

cleaning, cooking, sewing and gardening. In spite of this,

At age 7, Ephia Mmbidi’s father said she would be

and through the help of programmes such as the DBSD’s

an artist, she laughed. Now, she couldn’t imagine being

South African Art Collective, they are striving onward and

anything else. Her works, which make use of collage and

creating artworks that South Africa can be proud of. CF

Ephia Mmbidi

Creative Feel / August 2017 / 59

or some other abstraction This year’s FNB JoburgArtFair marks the milestone of a decade of sustained engagement with contemporary artistic practice. ‘This has meant showcasing the work of artists not only from Johannesburg, but those based throughout South Africa, across the continent and beyond. Through the successive curated programmes of talks, screenings, performances and

A

s part of this ten-year celebration, Dr Zoe Whitley has been asked to curate a special project entitled Truth, or some other abstraction. The project ‘is intended to acknowledge but a few of the

numerous artists from the previous generation who not only share with us who they are, but in so doing, allow us to

special projects, the FNB JoburgArtFair

see ourselves and to understand our shared histories more

has stimulated new paths of public

this special project and what visitors can expect.

engagement and given a platform to numerous artists to connect to audiences who may not otherwise visit galleries, museums, artist studios or creative workshops,’ says 2017 Special Projects Curator, Dr Zoe Whitley.

60 / Creative Feel / August 2017

clearly.’ Creative Feel asked Whitley more about herself and

Creative Feel: Dr Zoe Whitley, tell us more about these artists from the previous generation that you have chosen for this project, their work and why this particular ‘generation’?

Dr Zoe Whitley: So many under-acknowledged artists created artworks under apartheid in incredibly difficult circumstances because they had no other choice. There’s a bravery in that which cannot be overstated. Johannesburg

Museum Cases, Sue Williamson, 1993

Art Gallery (JAG) staged an important exhibition in 1988 that recognised what it called the ‘neglected tradition’: aiming to show what and who official histories had left out. That continues with their recent exhibition of Gladys Mgudlandlu and Valerie Desmore. Who gets to be an artist? Who makes him or herself an artist? Doris Lessing once wrote, ‘It is terrible to destroy a person’s picture of himself in the interests of truth or some other abstraction.’ So that was my starting point. Likewise, I wanted to share early, lesserknown works by artists who may be better known.

I’m constantly drawn to wanting to understand how artists affirm themselves, forge their own communities. Arts Centres like Rorke’s Drift or FUBA (Federated Union of Black Artists) were where artists such as Sam Nhlengethwa first studied and later taught. Lucky Sibiya was a protégé of Cecil

Dr Zoe Whitley

Skotnes. Sue Williamson wrote the book on resistance art in South Africa which introduced me (in the late 1990s) to many of the country’s practitioners.

Creative Feel / August 2017 / 61

‘

I do hope, as a result of the fair, attendees may then feel compelled to spend more time at JAG, Wits Art Museum (WAM) and many other exciting new spaces like the Centre for the Less Good Idea

Underground, Sam Nhlengethwa, 2016. 2.5 x 1.7m. SOURCE Kendal Young Photography

‘

CF: You are the curator for this project, what does it mean to

at root, a curator is a connector: making connections

curate such an exhibition and how do you go about it? How

between artists and artworks and hopefully doing so in a

do you actually define the role of the curator?

way that allows the people who receive the connections

ZW: As with every project, I start by talking to artists.

to, in turn, make connections of their own. I want it to be a

I revisit conversations I may have had with them in

conversation: between me and the artists, between artworks,

their studios. I read and I re-read exhibition essays and

between artworks and audiences, and wherever possible,

catalogues. I ask artists what they may have held onto and

to facilitate conversations between artists and audiences

why. I ask artists which other artists they find interesting

directly. I’m never aiming for a monologue.

and why. Art is a powerful way to create meaning and to make connections. I have up until now curated in a museum

CF: In your own career, you have chosen to specialise in a

context, so my curatorial work has always been about

field where many of the artists are still alive. Does that mean

building national collections for public access or exhibition-

you have a lot of actual interaction with the artists? How

making designed to have artworks reach a wide audience.

does this ‘personal’ touch influence your exhibitions?

Even in the convention centre context, my aim will be the

ZW: I can’t tell you how much I enjoy talking to artists! I’d

same: I want to connect people to artists and art. I suppose

be dishonest if I said working with living artists was always

62 / Creative Feel / August 2017

easy. But it’s the best kind of challenge I find. To see the world through an artist’s eyes changes the way one sees. I often have a great deal of interaction with the artist and this allows me to relay information as faithfully as possible. My aim is for any authority I may have on the subject, and my curatorial rigour, to come from clearly communicating the artist’s intention as I’ve come to understand it. Learning firsthand from artists is a real privilege. Being entrusted with an artist’s vision is a responsibility I take seriously.

CF: Dr Zoe Whitley, would you share with us what the topic of your doctoral research for your PhD was?

ZW: My thesis is titled Against a Sharp White Background: dialogic and exhibitionary practices of black contemporary artists in art museums. The subtitle may be a mouthful but it’s all about subjective approaches to art museum space.

How do you find yourself in that space? What systems of address allow for you to feel seen and heard? A number of artists very generously gave of their time and experiences, including some from South Africa.

‘ ‘ Learning firsthand from artists is a real privilege. Being entrusted with an artist’s vision is a responsibility I take seriously

exhibition Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power at

Tate Modern, which I’m co-curating with my colleague Mark Godfrey. It runs from 12 July to 22 October, so my greatest

challenge at the moment is being excited and committed to two projects, simultaneously, in two different places.

CF: How did your close relationship with South Africa and the FNB JoburgArtFair come about?

ZW: I’ve been coming to Johannesburg a couple times

a year for several years for research purposes. So many

CF: Growing up, were you raised in an ‘artistic household’?

artists in Jozi and Cape Town have been open, welcoming

How did you develop your love of art and your field of

and generous with me. A number have become friends and

expertise: ‘research centred on contemporary art of the

I am deeply moved by their work. For the 2015 and 2016

African diaspora and 20th-century and contemporary works

iterations of the fair, I’d been involved in the non-sales

on paper’?

related programme of talks. Mandla Sibeko invited me to

ZW: I was raised in a very creative environment. My

curate a special project for the tenth anniversary and I was

grandmother was a home economics teacher and spent

honoured to accept. Mindful of the rich and complex history

most of her spare time in my childhood years designing

of artists and their role in documenting history, I began

clothing and showing it in annual fashion shows organised

talking to artists about what I might do.

by an organisation of African American women called NAFAD, the National Association of Fashion and Accessory

CF: On your own website you have the wonderful

Designers. We were always making things: hot air balloons

quotation by Charles Mingus: ‘Making the simple

for my toys; quilts; summer dresses that I’d design and

complicated is commonplace; making the complicated

make with my grandmother’s help. I made a lot of art as a

simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.’ Is that what

teenager. My mother trained as an artist but in the interest

we can expect from you and your special project at the

of looking after me and working full-time, didn’t pursue it

celebratory tenth FNB JoburgArtFair?

professionally. She always took me to museums though. I

ZW: It’s my favourite quote about the creative process. I’m

credit them both with making me a strongly visual person...

working hard to bring together, where possible, artworks

that, and spending all my money on clothing I find beautiful!

from private collections, public collections, artists’ studios, a

weaving workshop and even a film made for television. The

CF: You were born in Washington and now you live and work

artist community in Johannesburg in particular is so very

in London. Please tell us more about your work in London

meaningful to me. I do hope, as a result of the fair, attendees

and what your greatest challenges currently are.

may then feel compelled to spend more time at JAG, Wits Art

ZW: I was born in Washington, DC but grew up in Los

Museum (WAM) and many other exciting new spaces like the

Angeles. I’ve now been in London for 16 years. I was a

Centre for the Less Good Idea. CF

curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) from 2003 to 2013, then pursued a PhD. I ended up working as

The FNB JoburgArtFair takes place at Sandton Convention

a Curator at Tate since late 2013. I’ve been working on the

Centre from 8 to 10 September 2017.

Creative Feel / August 2017 / 63

RE-collecting and RE-membering Ruann Coleman’s recent solo exhibition Certain Lengths at SMAC Gallery attracted great interest and confirmed once again his status as one of South Africa’s most promising artists. After last year’s success as one of the featured artists at the FNB JoburgArtFair, SMAC Gallery will again show strong Coleman work at this year’s fair.

Wound, Ruann Coleman, 2017. Plaster of Paris, Marble Hydrate, Strap, Found Stone and Branches.

184 x 53 x 47cm

T he Distance Between Us, Ruann Coleman, 2017.

Connected Measuring Tapes. 7 x 38 x 3 cm

I

t is Dr Danny Shorkend’s review of Ruann Coleman’s Certain Lengths for The South African Cultural Observatory that puts this exhibition into perspective: ‘Coleman’s work incorporates a multitude of different forms and

materials, some found, some directly from nature and others geometric, leaning against one another and objects teetering on the verge of thought and objecthood. He has incorporated measuring tapes and in one piece titled Faktura – a drawing on oxidised steel – one notices a kind of mathematical formulation or problem that is in the process of resolution. Civilization, for want of a better word, is often nothing more than the abstract understanding of nature, in order to use, manipulate, excavate and appropriate. In this sense, nature is turned into culture and is then glorified as the order or system of dominance. Yet, perhaps the artist questions pure empiricism as a measuring yard stick; perhaps one cannot measure, perhaps the finite has a deep non-quantifiable at its root, so to speak? I suggest the artist alludes to this through his constant upsetting of the natural. For example, the measuring tape is often cut up and reordered. Besides, the exact value of things are only relative to the initial frame of reference – the highly arbitrary unit of measurement. In a sense then, there is no Platonic mystery attached to numbers. On the other hand, the sense that all material things can be quantified is a highly useful method for categorisation. Yet, such a picture is fragmented and that is why Coleman returns to nature as he uses a large trunk-like form that interacts with the gallery as it seemingly protrudes from the wall and then reacts with the observing consciousness. Nature and culture need to be balanced; neither subservient to the other.’

Ledelle Moe’s catalogue notes give further insight and explain how Coleman’s Certain Lengths ‘navigates through precariously balanced, tilted, leaning and firmly connected objects and forms. These sculptures and their accompanying titles evoke a sense of fragility and play as they connect with

Creative Feel / August 2017 / 65

‘

Ruann Coleman’s artistic practice is based on play, impromptu juxtapositions, experiment, chance and the serendipity of random accident. Mostly freestanding, un-monumental, process-related and at times, in formation, his sculptures combine and amalgamate organic and inorganic found materials such as wood, metal, tape or glass, establishing a rapport with an array of post-minimal practices.

Conceptually, his work pivots around the materials of his found objects, their weight, scale, form and balance

‘

Brace, Ruann Coleman, 2017. Cast Cement Branch and Rock with Strap. 84 x 20 x 13 cm

both the surrounding architecture and viewer.

Relationships are evoked out of entangled materials. These relationships are geological and speak of time, matter, age and sediment. They are disposable and speak of waste, improvisation and haste. They are plastic and speak of composite chemicals, expanding foam, industrial intrusion and infrastructure. They are found objects, old and re-framed.

‘Coleman RE-collects and, in doing so, RE-members. He uses materials to re-member each piece, collecting each object to re-collect, translate and reorient these material and objects into a new vocabulary. In doing so, the construction of each sculpture involves a certain deconstruction of the materials. In this way their behavior and function are subverted and appropriated.’

Ruann Coleman was born in 1988 in Johannesburg, South Africa. He obtained a Master of Fine Arts in 2014 from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, prior to which he completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the same institution in 2012. Coleman presented his first solo exhibition, titled Balancing Act, at SMAC Gallery in Stellenbosch in 2014. In 2015, he was the artist in residence at the Centro Luigi Di Sarro in Rome, Italy, which culminated in his debut international solo exhibition titled Found:Rome. Coleman’s work was included in OUT OF CONTEXT at the UJ Art Gallery, Johannesburg in 2015 as well as The Space Between Maps at the Absa Gallery in Johannesburg in 2016.

Coleman was selected to take part in the Corso Superiore di Arti Visive (CSAV) – Artists Research Laboratory at the Fondazione Antonio Ratti in Como, Italy in July 2016. Between residencies he continues to live and work in both

Misobservation (in), Ruann Coleman, 2017 Measuring Tapes. 71 x 49 cm

Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa.

Ruann Coleman presented a solo exhibition, titled Ulterior, as a special project at the 2016 FNB JoburgArtFair. CF

Creative Feel / August 2017 / 67

The Big Picture Natalie Knight Art-o-Biography

About the book The Big Picture is Natalie Knight’s Art-o-Biography – part-memoir, part-art history, filled with beautiful art images, society photos of the time and the stories behind many of the pieces she sold.

Natalie rubbed shoulders with the who’s who in the art and socialite world as owner of the landmark gallery in Hyde Park (1981– 1995). She introduced the works of major international artists such as Andy Warhol and David Hockney. She exhibited the works of many South African artists including William Kentridge, Willem Boshoff, Esther Mahlangu, and Alfred Thoba before they became well-known. In her Art-o-Biography, Natalie remembers the guts, glory (and a little gossip) of the International and South African art scene – with all its ego, talent, quirkiness and glamour. This book is a beautiful photographic romp through art and social history.

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Keepers II, John-Michael Metelerkamp, 2016 Acrylic on canvas

John-Michael Metelerkamp Acrylic on panel

John-Michael Metelerkamp will be exhibiting his Keepers series in August 2017 at Candice Berman Gallery, Johannesburg. Lucinda Jolly spoke to the artist about his process and this new series.

I

n the same way that humans have looked for patterns

There are other characteristics too. The constant shifting

to aid their survival, so art critics have grouped

and exploration of the new and, of course, his prolific

artists under umbrella names. It’s as if to hedge some

outpouring, often completing a painting in a day.

kind of order against impending chaos, to make the

Metelerkamp’s subject matter is mostly the female nude. He

uncontainable containable.

ascribes this to finding women more interesting to paint.

If one were to make like a contem.0porary Ariadne

‘Females have a lot going on under the surface. Their story is

and search the labyrinth of John-Michael Metelerkamp’s

more dramatic than men’s, I feel,’ he says. And Metelerkamp

paintings for the single thread of a common denominator,

believes that ‘higher levels of emotion make for great

it would surely be the painter’s eclectic nature – with

storytelling material.’

influences from the masters to modern-day posts on Instagram, and street photographer, Joel Meyerowitz.

70 / Creative Feel / August 2017

A self-taught painter, Metelerkamp is not bound by the restrictions and notions held by the art world. Instead, he is

‘

‘

a battle of sorts; inner turmoil with a resounding longing and request for relief

photographer brother threw him a tough love lifeline in the form of an ultimatum. ‘Paint anything,’ he commanded. And

Metelerkamp took hold of this. And in so doing, he turned the destructive Thanatos into creative Eros. As it does for many

artists, ‘painting provides a cathartic release’ for Metelerkamp.

The changes that painting full-time have brought have made him ‘now excited with life. Curious about people and all that they encompass. I am getting on very well with all of my family. And I enjoy people’s company now, which is a huge change for me,’ he says. Metelerkamp has ‘transmuted’ his ‘tumultuous behaviour into’ his painting.

Originally Metelerkamp sculpted, a medium that he says came very easily to him. Although painting and sculpture are very different media, he explains that it taught him about form and structure. But he let sculpture go in favour of painting, as he felt that he ‘wasn’t pushing, as far as concept goes.’ Interestingly, at the time of our interview, he says he is in the process of returning to it.

In keeping with most of Metelerkamp’s work, the eleven acrylic paintings that make up Keepers started as a single painting and organically progressed into a series. Each painting comprises paired, voluptuous, naked females painted in a Picasso-esque style who dominate assorted free to create within the vastness of the beginner’s mind. His

landscapes (occasionally, a man-made environment) that

paintings demand an instinctual reading from the gut, heart

are dotted with tiny, seemingly less-significant figures. Each

and groin. The raw immediacy of the paintings is a far cry

woman is depicted with dual faces.

from the often cautious, cerebral approach. ‘I don’t think I trust my constructed thoughts,’ he says.

The paintings appear as outcomes of an urgent drive to

Keepers is firmly positioned in the artist’s highly personal iconography. Although he is not concerned with the political, he is fascinated by human nature and the

capture heightened emotional states. Metelerkamp’s modus

behaviour that drives it. He is naturally drawn to ‘the

operandi is suggestive of the German Expressionists who

experience of those on the fringes of society’, and he likes

worked quickly to capture the peak of an emotional response

to think that his work ‘is the antithesis of stereotype’.

before it burned itself out.

Metelerkamp says that he understands people, and explains

In order to gain context and perspective of

that though he will always try to portray humans in a

Metelerkamp’s body of work, Keepers, it might be useful to

sympathetic manner, his way of painting and thinking puts a

go back to the beginning. For all the edge-pushing evident

subversive spin on his interpretation.

in his paintings, Metelerkamp is unwilling to allow the risk

Metelerkamp prefers the viewer to make up his or her

inevitable in a spoken interview. He says he needs time to

own mind about the meaning of his paintings. Apart from

consider my questions and his answers, and opts rather for

Keepers’ emotional impact, there are some other inherent

an email exchange.

clues. The title holds the first one. For Metelerkamp, it

Metelerkamp takes me back five years to his post-rehab

suggests a ‘guiding force’. He does, however, describe Keepers

days when, in a directionless space, he spent a great deal

as ‘a battle of sorts; inner turmoil with a resounding longing

of time on the couch, surfing TV channels. His filmmaker-

and request for relief.’ CF

Creative Feel / August 2017 / 71

She poses with defiance British-Liberian, multidisciplinary artist Lina Iris Viktor will be represented by the Mariane Ibrahim Gallery at FNB JoburgArtFair this September.

L

ina Iris Viktor is a conceptual and performance artist, and painter who spends her time between London and New York. The multidisciplinary approach to her work weaves disparate

materials and methods belonging both to contemporary and ancient art forms while calling into question the nature of time and being. Her works merge photography, performance, and abstract painting along with the ancient practice of gilding with 24-karat gold. This cross-pollination of genres unite to create increasingly dark canvases embedded with ‘layers of light’ in the form of symbols and intricate patterns that Viktor calls ‘light-works. Viktor has exhibited in museums in the

72 / Creative Feel / August 2017

Materia Prima, Lina Iris Viktor. Pure 24K Gold, Acrylic, Gouache, Print on Matte Canvas.

101.6 x 132.08 cm

United States and abroad, most notably the Harvard Art Museums and The Cooper Gallery, Harvard University; and the Spelman Museum of Fine Art, Spelman College.

Viktor’s work transcends mysticism in a postcolonial spectrum and, in doing so, she reenacts a disruptive idea of primitivism. Misinterpreted and distorted, her interpretations reveal intelligence, beauty and perfection. Yet trapped in refuge and confinement, her reflections of post-modernist societies seem dark and threatened. By blackening her naked body, she inverts European notions of beauty and purity. Viktor poses with defiance.

Her use of gold on and around the black body reminds the viewer that she acknowledges light because of the existence of dark. One begins where the other ends. Centring the black female body alludes to women’s mysteries of African matriarchal collectives and the preeminent roles women played within these collectives as harmonising enforcers of justice.

Viktor’s narrative poses a concept of utopian threat where women reign supreme as the arbiters of justice, the aesthetic ideal, and the divinity we all look to, to reestablish balance in the world. Her utopian décor contradicts values incarnated in a society that has long lost, or is trying in earnest to regain, its values through spiritual introspection. Viktor layers her body on top of the canvas and gold on top of her body such that the imaginary becomes secondary. Viktor’s works recall the realm of adornment that once existed prominently.

So far, her intuitive introspection reveals a collective memory. Meticulous and mysterious, her works are an entreaty to the divinities. Each portrait is gilded, adorned, and blessed with her own hands as a personal and intimate offering. Using symbolic characters, the artist spreads a light that invokes the desire to celebrate the inner substance of life, but also excavates the essence of wealth from under earth: oil and gold.

‘Viktor’s aesthetic narrative and visions reflect “our” aesthetic standard and thus a very good fit into the gallery’s artistic program. Having worked with Viktor on previous projects, most recently Back Stories, we are very confident her work will contribute to and broaden the mission of the gallery,’ says Mariane Ibrahim.

Founded in 2012 in Seattle, the Mariane Ibrahim Gallery is dedicated to selecting established as well as emerging international contemporary artists. CF

‘

Her use of gold on and around the black body reminds the viewer that she acknowledges light because of the existence of dark

‘

Creative Feel / August 2017 / 73

Confined, Lionel Davis, 1982 Weltkulturen Museum. Photo Wolfgang Günzel

Friends of the

Johannesburg Art Gallery

T

he Friends of Johannesburg Art Gallery (FOJ) was

Most major museums, including MOMA, Royal Academy,

formalised in 1973 when its Articles of Association

Metropolitan, Rijksmuseum and many others, depend on

as a Not for Gain Company was lodged. This

funding sourced from their Friends organisations. FOJ

formalisation was spearheaded by two very powerful

is the only way that JAG can access corporates as well as

women, Dr Thelma Gutsche and Mrs Hettie Finger. There had

small businesses and benefactors or individuals. We are

always been a long tradition of support for the Johannesburg

determined to make a huge difference with the help of our

Art Gallery (JAG), but this was a giant leap forward towards

Financial Director and mentor with the longest institutional

involving like minded people with the purpose of the

memory, Jack Ginsberg.

promotion and funding of this important cultural institution.

Fundraising was one of the objectives. This involved many diverse events, as well as selling memberships to individuals.

Bringing FOJ into the new digital space was the initiative

What will be the focus of your stand at FNB JoburgArtFair and how do you aim to use it as a ‘platform’ for artists?

of Fashion Designer, Marianne Fassler and Brand

We will be looking forward to 2040, in fact – the year that

Architect, Eben Keun, of Breinstorm Brand Architects. It

government has identified as a deadline for the development

is now possible to become a Friend of JAG online at

of the JAG and Joubert Park precinct.

www.friendsofjag.org and to interact with the Museum and

We will take this virtual journey in partnership with

its events through Facebook and Instagram #friendsofjag or

Cuss, the Johannesburg-based artist group founded by

Johannesburg Art Gallery on Facebook and on Twitter.

Ravi Govender, Jamal Nxedlana, Zamani Xolo and Lex

As such, Friends of JAG represents an essential

Trickett. ‘The collective responds to commercial, cultural

partnership with the City of Joburg (COJ) and JAG. It can

and technological super-hybridity through the filter of

fundraise and motivate larger projects that the COJ is unable

urban trends, material artefacts, and youth culture in

to fund. The Friends can initiate events and activities,

contemporary post-post-colonial South Africa.’

activate communications and lobby for additional funding.

For the FNB JoburgArtFair, Cuss will create a digital

74 / Creative Feel / August 2017

What role does your organisation play as a ‘platform’ for artists? What positive outcomes have you seen from your current projects?

JAG’s heritage lies in its collection and the illustrious lineup of artists, both local and international, who have exhibited there over the decades. We are very proud of the art we have managed to showcase, even in times when resources were thin on the ground.

Our autumn exhibition, Ângela Ferreira’s South Facing, has received broad local and international coverage and reviews, and we hope to build on this momentum. JAG’s own collection is gaining increasing international interest, with works travelling to prestigious institutions beyond our borders on a regular basis.

What are your organisation’s plans for the rest of 2017 and 2018?

We have a strong lineup of fully-funded exhibitions going forward in 2017/18. We will be communicating these exhibitions and linked functions and activations to our Friends and on our online platforms.

Currently on at JAG is Labour of Love, an exhibition of South African art from the collection of the Weltkulturen Museum in Frankfurt never seen in South Africa before. The exhibition is comprised of works Cuss, Georg Gatsas

produced in the 1980s by black South African artists, including internationally renowned

interactive experience around JAG and its collection.

figures such as Peter Clarke, Lionel Davis,

With a heritage audit of the JAG building nearing

David Koloane, together with 20 new artistic

completion and the prospect of fruitful collaboration with

productions by Sam Nhlengethwa.

a new City Government dispensation dedicated to heritage

The exhibition also integrates a

and the arts, the 2040 vision for JAG may indeed become

contemporary perspective on the original

true even before then.

Weltkulturen Museum collection through new works produced by Gabi Ngcobo and four

Why is exposure at a fair of this calibre so important for

young South African artists who engaged with

artists? What role do fairs play?

the collection and its specific history over a

The FNB JoburgArtFair mandate has long been to become

number of weeks in 2014.

a catalyst for the local creative economy. In that sense, it has reiterated the value of art and the arts sector over the

What are you most looking forward to at

past years of its existence. In more recent years, it has also

this year’s FNB JoburgArtFair?

become a space where the public and local artists can get

We are looking forward to the wonderful art

exposure to artists from other parts of the continent who

and creative atmosphere, and meeting up

exhibit in South Africa less frequently.

with old and new Friends of JAG. CF

Creative Feel / August 2017 / 75

What will be the focus of your stand at FNB JoburgArtFair and how do you aim to use it as a ‘platform’ for artists?

The Market Photo Workshop’s stand at the 2017 FNB JoburgArtFair will launch the inaugural Market Photo Workshop Alumnus Prize. The Photo Workshop has an extensive alumni network that represents more than 27 years of its existence and photographic practice since 1989. The Photo Workshop

the-art photography facilities at Market Square, Newtown,

continues to invest in programmes to support its alumni through

consist of ample photography training spaces, including

our various mentorships and public projects. The Alumnus Prize

classrooms, darkroom facilities, digital manipulation

will afford the winner the opportunity to present a selection of

laboratories, two exhibition venues, a library for scholarly

a body of work at the FNB JoburgArtFair. The FNB JoburgArtFair

research, a space for future photography archives, and

is a key platform in the South African art world, and presents an

plenty of room for talks, presentations and visitors both

opportunity for the winner to connect to various stakeholders

within and outside the structure

through the visibility of the fair.

What are your organisation’s plans for the rest of 2017 What role does your organisation play as a ‘platform’

and 2018?

for artists? What positive outcomes have you seen from

The Photo Workshop will present a series of projects that

your current projects?

range from training and mentorship projects to exhibitions

The Market Photo Workshop has played a pivotal role in

and critical symposia. In August we will launch an exhibition

the training of South Africa’s photographers, ensuring that

project that delves into our image history from 2004 to

visual literacy reaches neglected and marginalised parts of

2017, with a focus on women’s creative photographic

our society. World-renowned photographer, David Goldblatt

production at the Photo Workshop, co-curated by Thato

contributed vastly to the establishment of the Market

Mogotsi. In September we will host the second Visual

Photo Workshop from 1988 to 1999. Since then, the Photo

Arts Symposium(VAS), which is organised by Black Mark

The Market Photo Workshop Workshop has been an agent of change and representation,

Collective. The theme of this year’s VAS discussions is

informing photographers, visual artists, educators, students

‘Urgency and Agency – Strategies and Contingencies’,

and broader communities of trends, issues, and debates in

which will focus on artistic and photographic practices that

photography and visual culture.

traverse traditional categories and that have been initiated

Showcasing a number of high profile, local and

beyond the gallery system. We will also soon announce

international photographers, as well as student and alumni

the Market Photo Workshop’s 2017 Tierney Fellow, who

photography work, the Market Photo Workshop has been able

will be mentored by a key South African Photographer

to build a strong and consistent audience base around our

for the coming year, and will result in an exhibition at

gallery, The Photo Workshop Gallery in Newtown, which is on

the Photo Workshop Gallery in 2018. We are launching

the same premises as the school. Since 2005, when the gallery

the second phase of our Community Media Training and

was initially launched, the kind of platform it has engendered

the third edition of our DAC Incubator Programme which,

encourages not only emerging students to experience and

respectively, will result in public photographic projects and

enter into professional practice, but has distilled a new

exhibitions in 2018.

type of photographic practice amongst the greater artistic

The Photo Workshop will also be hosting the outcome of its

community. Various critical discourses, especially around the

continental mentorship, the Tierney Bamako Award, by the

role of contemporary documentary photography, have been

current inaugural recipient and Mali-based photographer

stimulated by the multitude of exhibitions that have shown at

Moussa John Kalapo, in early 2018. Also focusing on

The Photo Workshop Gallery, creating dynamic interactions

international engagement, a photography exhibition curated

between students and the greater photography community.

out of photographs produced in our training programmes

Market Photo Workshop has since relocated to its new premises at Mary Fitzgerald Square. The new state-of-

will be shown at the Allcott Gallery, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill in October 2017. CF

Artist Proof Studio What will be the focus of your stand at FNB

young artists to our alumni and associated artists. Artist Proof

JoburgArtFair and how do you aim to use it as a

Studio employs our top fourth year graduates as interns where

‘platform’ for artists?

they receive professional work experience and are expected to

Artist Proof Studio (APS) has the honour of showcasing the

independently produce work that can be showcased on all our

two latest magnificent works by William Kentridge derived

sales platforms. We are proud of their ability to enter the art

from his monumental Triumphs and Laments frieze along the

market and support themselves from their practice.

Tiber River in Rome.

The Triumph of Bacchus and The Skeletal Horse (that ends

APS has a team of master printers who each have many years experience in collaborative printmaking. Their deep commitment

the procession of 81 figures) are folding book works each

to excellence enables alumni and artists that publish with Artist

made up of 20 sugar-lift aquatint plates printed on Phumani

Proof Studio to produce some of the most skillful, dynamic and

hand-made hemp and sisal paper and mounted on rough

innovative printmaking work in the country.

weave cotton cloth. The latest work of Skeletal Horse will be shown for the very first time and APS will have only three

What are your organisation’s plans for the rest of 2017

prints of these extremely limited edition works for sale.

and 2018?

This year, APS will be featuring an exciting body of new

APS has always been focused on ensuring the sustainability

screenprinted works by selected artists in collaboration with

of our organisation in order to honour our mission to support

APS Screenprinting. Over ten new works, previewed at One

and subsidise quality education for aspiring artists who do not

Colour at a Time: a collaborative exhibition of contemporary

have the finances or necessary qualifications to study at formal

artists at Wits Art Museum, will be available for sale.

tertiary institutions. We are unique in our ability to attract some extraordinary talent that may have otherwise been lost.

Why is exposure at a fair of this calibre so important for

Our focus going forward is to increase collaborations

artists? What role do fairs play?

with a broader pool of innovative African artists who do not

The FNB JoburgArtFair has been pivotal to connecting

necessarily specialise in printmaking. We are very excited to

artists to galleries, galleries to galleries, artists to artists and

launch an online platform at the beginning of 2018, enabling us

showcasing dynamic new talent to the South African and

to increase our ability to make direct sales to the public.

international market and industry.

APS is proud to have received sponsorship from the

What are you most looking forward to at this year’s FNB

Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG) to participate at

JoburgArtFair?

the FNB JoburgArtFair for the past seven years. We have

The selection for FNB JoburgArtFair 2017 includes the best

grown from strength to strength and the exposure that

of our collaborations with established and emerging artists,

this platform has offered us has enabled many emerging

showcasing excellence in printmaking. A key collaboration for

artist’s careers to flourish. We are exceptionally proud

2017 has been the printing of a collection of plates from Montey

of APS alumni such as Philemon Hlungwane, Mongezi

Mahope, a Soweto-based artist and musician born in 1934 in

Ncaphayi, Nelson Makamo, Bambo Sibiya, Themba Khumalo,

Sophiatown who was trained by Gideon Uys. His collection

Lehlohonolo Mashaba and many others whose works are

of relief prints track and document the history of Soweto and

profiled in many of the commercial galleries at the fair.

Sophiatown and other South Western Townships over more than 40 years. We look forward to sharing these collaborative

What role does your organisation play as a ‘platform’

experiences with the public. CF

for artists? What positive outcomes have you seen from your current projects?

Our organisation’s core function is to create ‘possibilities through excellence’. This extends from our Education programme that subsidises and trains aspiring talented

excellence through possibilty

will be at the

FNB JoburgArtFair

8-10 September, 2017 | Sandton Convention Centre

The Bag Factory Artists’ Studios What will be the focus of your stand at FNB

What positive outcomes have you seen from

JoburgArtFair and how do you aim to use it as a

your current projects?

‘platform’ for artists?

Our programmes have given rise to the careers of

The Bag Factory Artists’ Studios will present the David

artists like Blessing Ngobeni, Asanda Kupa and Benon

Koloane Award – Artist Writers Mentorship.

Lutaaya, many of our studio artists and award recipients

The award is a celebration of the life and career of Dr

have received opportunities to showcase their work

David Koloane, internationally respected artist, curator,

internationally through our networks as well as being taken

writer and founder of the Bag Factory Artists’ Studios.

on by major galleries. Our current aim is to nurture and grow

The programme will focus on developing critical writing and approaches to the contemporary visual art landscape.

exciting new talent, so look out for young artists coming through our space.

Young writers will be mentored by established South African writers and critics Ashraf Jamal and Robyn Sassen. Together

What are your organisation’s plans for the rest of 2017

they will produce a small publication based on the works of

and 2018?

select Bag Factory Artists.

We are currently hosting the 2016 Absa L’Atelier Merit Award Winner Onyis Martin for his award residency, and running

Why is exposure at a fair of this calibre so important for artists? What role do fairs play?

The FNB JoburgArtFair has been the leading contemporary African art fair for ten years, attracting international collectors, curators and gallerists, which makes it the perfect platform for young artists to have their work exposed to

the second edition of the Young Female Residency.

We will present projects at FNB JoburgArtFair in September and Aardklop in October.

Anthea Moys and A’shua Imran (Singapore) will be in residence from late September to December.

In 2018 we have a number of international residencies

the larger art industry. Young artists often still struggle to

lined up including partnerships with IASPIS (Sweden) and an

get local opportunities with galleries and exhibitions so

exchange programme with Kooshk Residency (Iran).

to have their work shown at a fair like this is an incredible opportunity to showcase who they are and also to interact

What are you most looking forward to at this year’s FNB

with other artists, curators and writers from the continent

JoburgArtFair?

and beyond.

Robin Rhode, featured artist for 2017.

The 2017 Special Projects – we are interested in seeing how

What role does your organisation play as a ‘platform’

guest curator Dr Zoe Whitely will curate the project as she

for artists?

has contributed immensely in researching contemporary

The Bag Factory has been instrumental in providing

artists and art practices across the African continent and the

opportunities, development and informal mentorship

African diaspora. CF

for many now established South African artists and current young emerging artists.

We provide a space that allows for the creation and experimentation of visual practice for emerging and established artists. Through our local and international partnerships with organisations, businesses and funders, we are able to provide an exchange of knowledge, skills and ideas while showcasing the excellence of the growing art industry.

78 / Creative Feel / August 2017

NWU Gallery

What role does your organisation play as a platform

The NWU Gallery has been a leading voice and space on

for artists? What positive outcomes have you seen from

the NWU Potchefstroom Campus, providing a creative

your current projects?

environment that is vibrantly inclusive and transformative.

The MTN Foundation and the NWU Gallery have built a

It furthers these ideals through its many projects with a

mutually beneficial relationship, seeing many successful,

strong focus on upliftment, community development and

meaningful and acclaimed projects and exhibitions

educational programmes. The institution aims to broaden

coming to light over the past couple of years. From

socio-political and cultural perspectives through discussion

Conversations we do not have in connection with The

and thought. The North-West University’s students, staff, the

Voices of Women Museum (2015), to Figuratively Speaking

surrounding community, as well as artists from the North

(2016), which saw the MTN Foundation and the NWU

West province and beyond, are offered new possibilities

Gallery join forces to present a boundary-shifting

and opportunities by means of collaborative projects and

exhibition, featuring select works out of both the MTN Art

exhibitions. The NWU Gallery is being utilised as a space for

Collection and the NWU Art Collection.

cultural expression that serves as a meeting point for people

The catalogue of the Figuratively Speaking exhibition saw

from all walks of life. The NWU Gallery has established itself

the immortalisation of this project through the capturing of

as an invaluable space in which progressive arts and culture

the works that were on show not only to the university and

have been flourishing over the past couple of years.

Potchefstroom community, but also to a wider audience in the North West province and beyond.

MTN Foundation The MTN SA Foundation adopted a strategy to guide it in

The pinnacle of the MTN Foundation and the NWU Gallery’s relationship was that of the awarded Art Safari for

its aim of becoming a leader in connecting communities for self-reliance. This strategy concentrates its resources so that communities benefit from co-ordinated interventions across focus areas. Community level corporate social investment (CSI) interventions work best when they address more than one community need, and that development is most sustained when family stability, good health, dependable

NWU Gallery

infrastructure, quality education and innovation creativity for entrepreneurship are all present together. Our policy is to bring about meaningful, measurable and sustainable change

Kids, which put the educational and developmental need

that will lay the foundations for disadvantaged and rural

in the visual arts first, during the Aardklop National Arts

communities to become more self-reliant. To this end, all our

Festival in 2016. This project, with the support of the MTN

interventions place a strong emphasis on capacity-building

Foundation, is to be presented again during 2017, building

and empowerment.

on the successes of the past.

Custom designed educational material, based on Figuratively

What will be the focus of your stand at FNB JoburgArtFair

Speaking and Art Safari for Kids, is also being created for FNB

and how do you aim to use it as a platform for artists?

JoburgArtFair – where the NWU Gallery and MTN Foundation

A selection of works from Figuratively Speaking, an exhibition

will promote and share their collaborative work.

which comprises out of NWU Art Collection and MTN Art Collection works, will be shown. Both art collections are about

What are your organisation’s plans for the rest of 2017

1 400 works strong, and boast with locally and internationally

and 2018?

acclaimed artists. A catalogue of the exhibition has been

Various workshops and collaborative training programmes

published and will be on sale. A custom designed digital

are being presented in-house, as well as to the public, by

educational programme is also being developed with FNB

the NWU Gallery and MTN Foundation throughout 2017,

JoburgArtFair in mind, based on the collaborative and award

including the Aardklop National Arts Festival.

winning educational programme by the NWU Gallery and

The NWU Gallery will exhibit Mohau Modisakeng,

MTN Foundation. Both these institutions place a strong focus

Francois Pretorius, a Coral Fourie retrospective, a large scale

on educational development within the South African arts

debut group show (details to be unveiled), Beezy Bailey and

and culture sector.

others in the remainder of 2017.

Creative Feel / August 2017 / 79

m studio community

– #followtheladyinwhite. One of the performances was selected to show at last year’s FNB JoburgArtFair. The aim

What will be the focus of your stand at FNB

of the project was to ignite unauthorised public performing

JoburgArtFair and how do you aim to use it as a

artworks across the city of Pretoria. We completed 18

‘platform’ for artists?

performances throughout the year.

M Studio Community has curated a group showcase for our stand at the FNB JoburgArtFair 2017. The works are

The vision

focused around commenting on our current social climate.

M Studio Community is creating a space within our

M Studio artists are conceptually based and we encourage

contemporary society that provides South African artists with a

our community to voice their opinions and thoughts around

support system and networking platform. The company aims to

their own experiences in our modern world.

enable emerging artists to develop their careers in a community of their creative peers. Artists need to work together and

Why is exposure at a fair of this calibre so important for

not as isolated thinkers if they wish to take the vital steps

artists? What role do fairs play?

towards changing and accurately reflecting the current social

The appropriate art fairs are vital for the development of an

environment, this is the notion which founded M Studio.

artist’s career. M Studio Community works with emerging

Our community provides artists with mentorship in both

artists. An art fair of this calibre provides a fruitful platform

conceptual and technical development. The artists are able

for our artists; here they can gain important exposure

to debate, collaborate and communicate their thoughts and

for their own art, while ensuring that their creations are

technical discoveries with other community members. By

challenging the industry and remaining avant garde.

becoming a critic, spectator, mentor and mentee, the artist is building their body of work at an elevated level.

What are your organisation’s plans for the rest of 2017

Our unconventional gallery brings the viewer, audience

and 2018?

member or client into the artist’s studio space. By combining

M Studio currently houses studio space for six resident

the gallery with functional art studios we are inviting clients

artists. We are aiming to expand our community over the

to interact directly with the artist within a professional

next two years, both in members and in territory. We hope

environment. Our open studio layout encourages artists

to see ourselves moving into the international market and

to enhance their client relations and understanding of the

establishing our artists in the international art world. As a

business side of the art world.

community we are aiming to represent the benefits of working together to stir up change in our social environment.

M Studio Community is a space assisting emerging artists on their journey to establishing themselves as contemporary conceptual artists within the art industry. CF

History of M Studio M Studio has been working in Johannesburg from August House since February 2017. Our company turned two on the 1st of July this year. The Director of the company is Dawn Sarah McGee. The artists currently working within the community are Azael Langa, Nkhensani Rihlampfu, Michael Selekane, Nompumelelo Ngoma, Johnny Guava, Victor Kuster, Phila Mabaso, Ofentse Seshabela and Neo Mahlangu. M Studio encourages development and communication between diverse artistic mediums.

We mentored and established a public performance movement in Pretoria last year called Activate My City

sa mint What will be the focus of your stand at FNB JoburgArtFair

nation’s heritage through the various themes we feature

and how do you aim to use it as a ‘platform’ for artists?

on our coins. We also collaborate extensively with South

The Krugerrand stand at the art fair will focus on celebrating

African artists in commissioning actual coin designs as well

the 50th anniversary of the iconic coin. The Krugerrand has

as other additional art pieces that complement the themes

witnessed a lot of external change over the last five decades,

of our coins.

and we have commissioned artworks that represent some of

these world events that the Krugerrand has ‘lived’ through.

What are your organisation’s plans for the rest of 2017 and 2018?

Why is exposure at a fair of this calibre so important for

We have just taken part in 100% Design, where we

artists? What role do fairs play?

showcased five separate designs that we commissioned from

The design and craftsmanship that go into making

South African designers. They were asked to interpret what

Krugerrand coins are an art which we look forward to

the Krugerrand means to them, through their existing works.

showcasing at the event. Taking centre stage at the fair

These five designers were Okapi, Ceramic Matters, Blandat,

will be six artworks we commissioned from various artists,

Thabo Makhetha and Pichulik.

to give an interpretation of some key moments in history

We will also have a pop-up coin experience in Elegance

over the last 50 years. The Krugerrand has borne witness

Jewellers, Melrose Arch where these and other artworks will

to 50 years of change, yet has remained the same reliable

occasionally be exhibited to promote South African art as it

investment and collectable gold product, remaining true

relates to the South African Mint and coin-making.

to its original mandate of making gold accessible to the layperson, with its various sizes and price points.

What are you most looking forward to at this year’s FNB JoburgArtFair?

What role does your organisation play as a ‘platform’

Being from ‘outside’ the traditional art industry, we are

for artists? What positive outcomes have you seen from

excited to participate in this year’s fair and introduce

your current projects?

the art world to the Krugerrand. We also look forward to

The South African Mint is a leading purveyor of South

some of this year’s special projects like Truth, or Some

African heritage. We consider ourselves storytellers of our

Other Abstraction. CF

The Kuenyehia Trust for Contemporary Art was set up in

The Trust again convenes an annual thought

2014 by Elikem Nutifafa Kuenyehia to promote and advance

leadership seminar that interrogates issues concerning

contemporary art with particular emphasis on contemporary

the arts with the intention to re-focus attention on

art of Ghanaian and African origin.

art in policy and practice in Ghana. This year’s theme, ‘The Responsibility of the African Artist in Challenging

What will be the focus of your stand at FNB JoburgArtFair

African Stereotypes’ seeks to question the role of African

and how do you aim to use it as a ‘platform’ for artists?

artists in unconsciously and consciously perpetuating

To showcase the works of our artists to a wider audience

the stereotypes of Africa and Africans. Winners of the

and give them the necessary exposure to draw attention

Kuenyehia Prize become de-facto panelists of the Trust’s

to their artistic practice and place their works on the

thought leadership seminar. This is to challenge them to

international art market.

continue questioning and broadening their perspectives.

Kuenyehia Trust For Contemporary Art What role does your organisation play as a ‘platform’

What are you most looking forward to at this year’s FNB

for artists? What positive outcomes have you seen from

JoburgArtFair?

your current projects?

For this year’s FNB JoburgArtFair, we look forward to

Elikem Nutifafa Kuenyehia founded the Kuenyehia Prize

engaging with the galleries and the visitors, exposing them

for Contemporary Ghanaian Art, which is managed by

to curated works of selected Ghanaian artists from the

the Trust. The prize is open to emerging and mid-career

Kuenyehia Prize shortlists. We would also be looking forward

Ghanaian contemporary artists between the ages of 25 and

to engaging in conversations with the various art platforms

40. Currently in its fourth season, The Kuenyehia Prize will

to enquire about possible collaborations.

become a Pan-African art prize from 2020. Similar to what the Turner Prize has done in the UK, the Kuenyehia Prize seeks to raise the bar for Ghanaian and African art.

A major focus of the prize is the development and continental and international exposure of shortlisted artists, hence the participation in fairs such as the FNB JoburgArtFair and the Neighbour Next Door exhibition at Palacio del Infantado, Guadalajara, Spain.

Our artists have received mentoring and coaching on critical areas such as intellectual property, personal branding and art as a business.

82 / Creative Feel / August 2017

Orange Babies’ projects focus on vulnerable children and women in our country via education and guidance for pregnant HIV positive mothers. Orange Babies was established in 1999 by Senegalese creative, Baba Sylla. Working in the world of fashion, art and design in Europe, he felt a growing need to do something meaningful for the most disadvantaged members of our society, especially in Africa.

Orange Babies is a small NGO with an international allure

• Soweto – Prevention of mother to child transmission

supporting a number of Prevention of Mother to Child

guidance and education, Community Mothers (gogos) HIV

Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) projects in Africa as well as

‘train the trainer’ programme.

projects caring for orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC).

It also funds several early childhood development (preschool) facilities.

Orange Babies’ ultimate aim is to deliver HIV free babies and to support these mothers and children towards a healthy future to achieve an HIV free generation.

2. H elping more than 60 000 children infected or otherwise affected by HIV/AIDS, 3. C ontributing to the scaling down of mother to child transmission of HIV from 30% to below 2% in the Soweto area (3 million inhabitants) in ten years, 4. T he South African government adopting two Orange

Some of Orange Babies’ achievements include:

Babies projects and incorporating them into national

1. Supporting carefully selected PMTCT/OVC projects in

programmes.

Southern Africa, with focus in SA on projects in: • Limpopo: HIV education, a Mobile Health Clinic (Health

We directly engage with our partners via project visits

& HIV testing) and guiding disclosure groups;

(Mandela day, Youth day), newsletters, and impact

• Cape Town: HIV education, nutrition and support

measurement reports (M&E), in order to create sustainable

towards the children via Community Mothers (40 grannies

support towards the underprivileged in our country.

looking after 30 children daily); • Lenasia – Feeding scheme, (HIV) education, counselling and a safe haven for 1 000 children and a PMTCT clinic for

For more information visit www.orangebabies.org.za or on the

HIV pregnant women and children;

Dutch (founders) website: www.orangebabies.nl

Creative Feel / August 2017 / 83

THE EXCEPTION DIRECTOR: David Leveaux STARRING: Jai Courtney, Lily James, Christopher Plummer, Janet McTeer A German officer (Jai Courtney) is sent to Holland to determine if the British Secret Service has infiltrated the home of Kaiser Wilhelm II (Christopher Plummer) during the onset of World War II, but starts a lethally dangerous affair with a young Jewish Dutch woman (Lily James) with consequences neither they nor the Kaiser could have foreseen.

84 / Creative Feel / August 2017

16NS A

AT CINEMAS 8 SEPTEMBER Creative Feel / August 2017 / 85

The Queen that called the Free State ‘home’ Queen of the Free State

By Jennifer Friedman Publisher: Tafelberg ISBN: 9780624081616 Review and interview: Lore Watterson

W

hat was it like to grow up in a small platteland dorp in the 1950s and ‘60s? Growing up in the then Orange Free State, not only Jewish but English speaking, among the ‘regte

Afrikaners’ of Hendrik Verwoerd’s apartheid era? Jennifer Friedman explained just that in a collection of stories that is

spoken at home. Much later, her parents decided to send her

a fascinating and true reflection of such a childhood in her

to a rather refined boarding school for girls for her last few

memoir, Queen of the Free State.

years of school. Her life changed forever after the postman

Meeting Jennifer Friedman, the ‘Queen’, while she was

arrived at her door with a telegram with the news that she

visiting South Africa from her new home in Australia, was

had been accepted as a boarder at a posh girls’ school in

rather special. Here is an author who is not shy to share

Cape Town; a nightmare experience that her parents never

emotions and private stories when answering questions that

gave her a choice in. She never stayed with them again.

somehow still remained after reading her book.

Although Friedman faced many hurdles when growing

Friedman talks about how, during her first year as a boarder, again without any prior warning, her parents moved

up, it seems her childhood was a relatively happy one even

to Cape Town. They sold her home and her father’s chemist

though she battled to find a place in the world she lived in,

shop, gave away her possessions, the model aeroplanes and

the ‘bladdyjew’ who belonged to the Jewish community,

her beloved dog, Sandy. Friedman cries when she recalls

a community she experienced with humiliating incidents

(during the interview) the callousness of receiving the

like a Habonim camp for Jewish kids where other children

news, again, via telegram and how devastated she was at

refused to believe that she was Jewish.

the time (and still is, without having an actual answer for

There are the stories about her parents that portray

their behaviour). She remembers how it affected her to never

them to be somewhat disturbingly harsh and unloving

again see Marta, the domestic, who cleaned and cooked

towards her, parents who just could not relate to her natural

and carried Friedman – dubbed Mpho (Gift From God) – on

rebelliousness. Friedman grew up English speaking until

her back or Isak, the gardener; all the people who had been

her mother decided that she needed to attend the Afrikaans

working for her parents since before she was born and, as far

primary school in the village; only Afrikaans was then

as she was concerned, were part of her family.

86 / Creative Feel / August 2017

Book Reviews Recently published

A History of the Iziko South African National Gallery | By Anna Tietze | Publisher: UCT Press, an imprint of Juta and Company (Pty) Ltd | ISBN: 9781775822165 In South Africa, with its highly contested and changing understandings of national identity, its National Gallery is no less a contested space. A History of the Iziko South African National Gallery considers questions of artistic and cultural identity, from the late 19th century to the present day. It explores how the gallery has understood its function and its audience, as a ‘national’ gallery from 1930 and, before that, the chief gallery of the Cape Colony. This question is But there are also the other stories that show happier memories, like at her maternal grandparents’ farm, Boesmansfontein near Philippolis, where she spent many

investigated through a study of the gallery’s administration, collection and exhibition practices over the last 150 years.

What is understood by and expected of a national gallery

happy hours. She remembers, particularly the old cemetery,

varies considerably worldwide. Should it regard itself as part

with its marble crosses marking the Anglo-Boer War graves

of a broad international cultural discourse, or should it be

that held the remains of British soldiers; marble angels,

representative of a specifically national – or even regional –

doves and lambs perched or lay on the crumbling slabs,

identity? The gallery is a microcosm of the greater debate:

while wreaths of faded flowers gathered dust under the

how South Africa, as a nation, relates to the larger world and

cracked glass of their domes. ‘It was a place where the

how, if at all, it understands the concept of a shared culture.

cypress trees were high and old, a place of quiet where no one shouted or told her what to do.’

South Africa at the time of Friedman’s childhood was still

In the last 20 years, Museum Studies has become a major part of the field of Cultural Studies. There is vast literature on what might be called the ‘history’ museum, but far less on

a British colony and, according to her mother, the Queen was

the art museum or gallery. To date, there has been no large-

all-powerful and she reigned supreme. So, in the cemetery in

scale historical inquiry into the Iziko South African National

Philippolis, Friedman pretended that she was the Queen, and

Gallery (SANG), the country’s national gallery. The absence of

all the people, the little children lying beneath the slabs and

such a history marks a serious gap in the literature, which this

angels, the doves and little lambs, were all her loyal subjects.

study aims to fill.

They loved her and obeyed her. She loved them and ordered them about; she was the Queen of the Free State.

Anna Tietze is a cultural and art historian with an interest in past and present conceptions of art, academic art history

Currently, the ‘Queen’ is writing the sequel to the

and the art museum. She has taught at the University of Cape

Free State, about the times in between the Free State and

Town for many years, in the departments of Cultural History,

Australia, when she lived in the Cape and why she moved

History of Art, Historical Studies and Michaelis School of Fine

to Australia. Hopefully, she will find the time to write these

Art, and has had extensive curatorial experience with the

stories quickly, her readers are waiting… CF

Iziko SANG. She is a research associate of Iziko SANG. CF

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W W W. C R E AT I V E F E E L . C O. Z A

CDs Morricone 60 | Ennio Morricone with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra | Decca 5700071 Ennio Morricone is probably the most famous film composer of the 20th century. He is also one of the most prolific composers working in any medium. No exact figure is available, but he’s scored over 500 films over several decades, plus many dozens of classical works. While his film scores have been in almost every imaginable musical style (and for almost every imaginable kind of movie), he is most identified with the ‘spaghetti Western’ style of soundtrack, which he pioneered when providing the musical backdrop for the films of director Sergio Leone. Morricone’s palette is extraordinarily diverse, drawing from classical, jazz, pop, rock, electronic, avant-garde, and Italian music, among other styles.

Esteemed by such important figures in modern music as John Zorn (not to mention contemporary directors like Martin Scorsese), he is increasingly placed among not just the finest soundtrack composers, but the most important contemporary composers of any sort.

Age has not slowed Morricone in the least. In fact, the 1980s, ‘90s, and 2000s saw his commercial success and widespread recognition at an all-time peak. He garnered Academy Award nominations for The Mission, The Untouchables, Bugsy, and Malèna, and worked for such top directors as Pedro Almodóvar, Brian DePalma, Roman Polanski, Mike Nichols, Oliver Stone, and Barry Levinson.

Cinema Paradiso is probably the most renowned of his scores from that period. In his late 80s, he made waves with his work on the 2015 Quentin Tarantino western The Hateful Eight, which won him a Golden Globe and his first Academy Award for Best Original Score.

With such an abundance of recordings, collecting Morricone remains a daunting proposition. It’s doubtful that anyone will collect all of his soundtracks under one roof.

Distant Light | Renée Fleming | Decca 4830415 Recorded with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra in the acoustically opulent Konserthuset, Distant Light features a hauntingly atmospheric assortment of 20th-century Scandinavian music. The exception is the opening track: Samuel Barber’s dreamy, nostalgic Knoxville: Summer of 1915, written in 1947. Swedish composer Anders Hillborg (b. 1954) wrote The Strand Settings, a 24-minute-long song cycle set to the poetry of former U.S. Poet Laureate Mark Strand, with Renee Fleming’s voice in mind.

Surprisingly, Renee Fleming rounds out the album with three Björk songs: ‘Virus’ from the 2011 album, Biophilia and ‘Jóga’ and ‘All is Full of Love’ from the 1997 album, Homogenic. It’s impressive to hear how adeptly Fleming changes the tone color of her voice and the style of her singing to fit Björk’s music. Yet she’s still definitely recognisable as Renée Fleming. Sample ‘Jóga’, both for the flavor of the orchestral arrangements by Swedish composer Hans Ek and for Fleming’s apparent affinity for such lines as ‘a state of emergency is where I want to be.’ The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic under Sakari Oramo keeps up with Fleming’s changing moods here, and the end result is an unusually strong Fleming release.

The Essential | Soweto String Quartet | Sony Music Entertainment Africa CDSM684 The Soweto String Quartet emerged during the late 1980s around the nucleus of the three Khemese brothers – violinists Sandile and Thami, and cellist Reuben. The sons of a conductor father and a choral-singing mother, the Khemese siblings attended their uncle’s township music school, with Sandile and Reuben later serving as violinists with the Soweto Symphony Orchestra. During the early half of the 1980s, Sandile continued his studies in the UK, including a four-year stint at Manchester’s Royal North College of Music; after returning to South Africa he taught at the Madimba School of Music, forming the Soweto String Quartet in 1989. Completing their roster with the addition of viola player and longtime family friend Makhosini Mguni, the ensemble initially faced criticism at home for their adherence to traditional European instruments, but in the years to follow their music increasingly absorbed native African rhythms and intonations, even experimenting with guitars, keyboards and drums. Increasing national popularity resulted in a nine-month residency at the once-infamous Sun City resort, where the Soweto String Quartet was discovered by BMG Records producer Grahame Beggs; their label debut, Zebra Crossing, appeared in mid 1998, followed by Renaissance a year later.

encore Mandla Sibeko is Director of the FNB JoburgArtFair and Founder of

Seed Capital Ventures. His accolades include being nominated by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader in 2010, serving as

Director of Paarl Media Group and Chairman of Netflorist South Africa, opening the second Pick ‘n Pay store ever in Soweto and serving as a trustee of loveLife and Raith Foundation; among many others.

Name one artist you would love to meet.

shift in the industry and in the country, but I think we can

Marlene Dumas.

start with embedding the value of it from primary school levels onwards.

What are you reading at the moment?

Empire of Cotton: A Global History by Sven Beckert, it’s a

What is your most treasured possession?

brilliant book about the burgeoning of capitalism and the

I value experiences more than I treasure possessions, we

roots of inequality.

all love beautiful things but it’s experiences that shape the context of our lives.

What is in your car’s CD player?

My music library is quite eclectic; it ranges from Hugh

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

Masekela to Youssou N’dour or Jay Z, for example.

Hopelessness. I think we all should do what we can for ourselves and our fellow man to avoid reaching that point.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

What is it that makes you happy?

I would not change anything because I believe my life

Positive people from all walks of life! Seeing people find

experiences, specifically as a South African, have shaped me

beauty in a world that’s messy and often dark fills me with a

for the better, but I always stay open to learning and growing.

lot of joy.

How have the arts industries in South Africa changed

What projects will you be busy with during 2017 and

over the last ten years?

into 2018?

We’ve seen a shift in focus wherein our artists are taking

The tenth edition of the FNB JoburgArtFair in September,

centre stage on a global scale at a faster pace. The access

the Sanlam Handmade Contemporary Fair in October and

they now have to show their work in important museums and

the rolling out of a national sculpture fair happening over

spaces internationally is testament to the world-class work we

three provinces, to name a few.

produce here and speaks of what is possible in the future.

Name one goal you would like to achieve in the next Name one thing you think would improve the arts and

twelve months.

culture industry in South Africa.

I want to do as much as I can to give momentum to

On a macro scale, I think spending more resources on

initiatives that propel art and the creative industries

creative education would see a bigger economic and social

forward, it’s a big picture goal. CF

90 / Creative Feel / August 2017

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