JOBURG’S ARTS SCENE YINKA SHONIBARE RETURNS TO AFRICA SA R36,90 (incl. VAT) - September 2018
Creative Feel / September 2018 / 1
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2018 WINNERS ANNOUNCED As the longest running art competition in South Africa, Sasol New Signatures has been a platform for promoting emerging artists and their work to the art-loving public at large.
Jessica Storm Kapp from Stellenbosch was selected as the overall winner of the competition for her work entitled, Mapping Time. She wins R100 000 and the opportunity to have a solo exhibition at next year’s event. Peter Mikael Campbell from Cape Town is this year’s runner-up and was awarded R25 000 for his work entitled, Kaisen.
Art plays an important part in the cultural fabric of our nation and competitions serve to encourage greater creativity across age, gender and education, as well as to acknowledge the wealth of talent that we have in our country.
The Sasol New Signatures exhibition is held at the Pretoria Art Museum and runs from 30 August to 7 October 2018. This exhibition of compelling artworks, created by South Africa’s best emerging talent, is not to be missed.
OVERALL WINNER
Jessica Storm Kapp (University of Stellenbosch) Mapping Time Rammed earth columns and embedded object Installation: cm/ xSeptember 250 cm x 250 cm 2 / Creative150 Feel 2018
Five merit awards of R10 000 each were awarded to: Kelly Crouse, Debbie Fan, Pierre Henri le Riche, Mulatedzi Simon Moshapo and Megan Serfontein.
RUNNER-UP
Peter Mikael Campbell (Cape Town) Kaisen Pencil 102,5 cm x 73,5 cm
MERIT AWARDS
Kelly Crouse (Port Elizabeth) Medication: C₂₃H₂₇N₃O₇ Mixed media 60 cm x 120 cm x 13 cm
Debbie Fan (Port Elizabeth) Cheque or Savings? Acrylic and digital print on paper Diptych: (2) 240 cm x 90 cm Pierre Henri le Riche (Cape Town) Ap(peal) I & Ap(peal) II Porcelain, Egyptian cotton, yellowwood, plywood, glass Diptych: (2) 160cm x 60cm x 60cm
Mulatedzi Simon Moshapo (Polokwane) The leader shall govern Wood 90 cm x 120 cm x 90 cm
Megan Serfontein (University of Stellenbosch) Untitled Monitor, webcam, personal computer program 170 cm x 57 cm x 62,5 cm
CONTENTS
COVER IMAGE Yinka Shonibare, Planets in My Head, Music II (detail), 2018. 147 x 80 x 74 cm. Fibreglass mannequin, Dutch wax printed cotton textile, flute, globe, and steel baseplate. Courtesy the artist and Goodman Gallery. PHOTO Stephen White
cover story 26 CAN THE SEEMINGLY RUINED BE REMADE IN THE INCLUSIVE COLOURS OF THE EXCLUDED?
36 TELLING THE STORY OF A LIFE THROUGH ART In February 2017, 84-year-old Monty Mahobe walked into Artist Proof Studio (APS) with over 40 years’ worth of art that he had created – an astonishing
British-Nigerian artist, Yinka Shonibare, MBE,
collection of plates ranging from linocuts to wood
will return to the African continent for his first
relief carvings on the back of cupboard doors.
solo exhibition in 15 years.
arts and culture 22 WELCOME TO THE FNB JOBURGARTFAIR 2018! The FNB JoburgArtFair, the continent’s premium visual art event, is going for round eleven this year and it’s looking stronger than ever.
40 VHILS LEAVES HIS MARK ON MABONENG Towards the end of July in Johannesburg’s Maboneng Precinct, a portrait of an icon starts to take shape on the side of the multi-storeyed building.
42 STELLENBOSCH STUDENT WINS SASOL NEW SIGNATURES 2018 Stellenbosch-based artist, Jessica Storm Kapp, 22, has been announced as the winner of the 2018 Sasol New Signatures Art Competition.
30 PUBLIC ART GALLERIES: ARE WE ACCOUNTABLE? This year, the FNB JoburgArtFair has invited
46 EXCITING NEW VENTURES FOR STEPHAN WELZ & CO. For half a century, Stephan Welz & Co. has been a
British curator, cultural historian and Director of
meeting place for connoisseurs and collectors of
the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art
antiques, collectables and fine art.
in Washington, D.C., Augustus Casely-Hayford, OBE to participate in a panel discussion on public
48 REDISCOVERING THE CUTTING EDGE
art museums.
A retrospective of Christo Coetzee at the Standard Bank Gallery.
32 A TEMPORARY REPRIEVE as the Featured Artist for the 2018 edition of the
50 STRAUSS ART HUB ON KEYES ART MILE
FNB JoburgArtFair.
Strauss & Co is delighted to announce its
Malawian-born Billie Zangewa has been announced
participation in the form of an Art Hub at the
34 HAROON GUNN-SALIE’S REFLECTION SPACE Accomplished young artist, Haroon Gunn-Salie has been announced as the winner of the FNB Art Prize.
6 / Creative Feel / September 2018
Trumpet Building, located on the Keyes Art Mile.
CONTENTS
52 THOUGHTS ON STOMPIE SELIBE’S ART OF ABSTRACTION
70 JANICE HONEYMAN: THE DOYENNE OF SOUTH AFRICAN THEATRE
Music and images are key features in Stompie
Every play that Janice Honeyman directs is a complete
56 READJUSTING HISTORY THROUGH 100-YEAR ART COLLECTION
60
success, and her latest, Fool for Love, is no exception.
Selibe’s works of art.
If you had to tell the story of South African art over the last 100 years, where would you begin?
ART IN THE TIME OF AFRICA Art in the Time of Africa is a one-day colloquium taking place on 13 September 2018 at the
lifestyle and entertainment 80 84 87
CINEMA NOUVEAU BOOK REVIEWS CD REVIEWS
Chinua Achebe Auditorium, APK Library, University of Johannesburg.
62 SAMRO OVERSEAS SCHOLARSHIPS WINNERS ANNOUNCED
contributors 54
COLLECTING FOR THE FUTURE
Ruarc Peffers advises new collectors to invest in art
The 2018 SAMRO Overseas Scholarships
and heritage.
Competition has awarded two young composers, one in jazz and one in Western Arts Music, with R200 000 each to pursue postgraduate music studies or professional development.
66 TSHEPANG: THE THIRD TESTAMENT Critically acclaimed South African play hits the Joburg Theatre this October!
74
ARTLOOKS & ARTLINES
Ismail Mahomed explores the life of Lady Florence Phillips – Johannesburg Art Gallery’s founder.
76
BUSINESS & ARTS
Michelle Constant reviews Florence and the queen of Johannesburg.
68 SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE Enchanting romantic comedy returns to the Fugard by popular demand.
78
THE ART OF PERFORMANCE
Dave Mann considers the Goodman Gallery’s On Common Ground.
82
LITERARY LANDSCAPES Indra Wussow’s tale of family and fur coats.
8 / Creative Feel / September 2018
Ephraim Ngatane, Abstract Composition with Figures
R150 000 - 200 000
Thinking of selling your art? Collecting consignments towards the theme of
An Unsung History for our 12 November auction. For a confidential art valuation please contact us. Entries close mid September Enquiries 011 728 8246 | jhb@straussart.co.za www.straussart.co.za
Strauss & Co: The global leader in the South African art market
EDITOR’S NOTE
LET’S GET DIGITAL
I
f you’re reading this, we know you like us, but do you really like us? On social media, we mean. We love print, and our thriving arts and culture sector has kept this print magazine alive and steadily growing for the past
17 years. But our website and social media have given us a space to share exciting news as soon as it happens, or projects that we feel are important but just don’t have the space to fit into print. The digital world allows us to interact with you, our readers, friends, supporters and artists, on a more instant and personal basis, from anywhere in the world. Creative Feel is a fun place to work, and we’ll sometimes give you a glimpse of that – when you visit our social media pages, you’ll find videos of our graphic designer hard at work or behind-the-scenes fun at events. Sometimes there are events that you can’t attend – but we will be there and you can experience it live with us, just by visiting us on Instagram (search @creative_feel). Speaking of Instagram, we like to keep things visual there. Go on and have a look, it’s colourful and vibrant (just like the creative sector) and filled with videos and pictures of the things we love. Twitter and Facebook (look up @creativefeel for both) are for connecting, chatting and sharing news – but we still keep the Creative Feel aesthetic. This is where we like to break instant news (we were the fastest-finger-first with the announcement of the FNB Art Prize winner) and share exclusive content. By following us, you’ll also keep up-todate with what our partners, clients and art friends are up to. Did you see Joburg Ballet’s Bite-sized Ballet and Breaking Ballet series? The videos are incredible, a hit with our followers, and something we just wouldn’t have been able to share pre-social media. As you can see, we are BUSY! We have a dedicated team and we post to our website and social media pages regularly throughout the day. An email newsletter goes out once a week, and it’s definitely worth going to our website (www.creativefeel.co.za) to sign-up to receive the latest arts and culture news that you might have missed, directly in your email inbox. So, in short, please go find us online, we would love to engage, to hear your comments and, most importantly, share Africa’s amazing creativity with you! The Creative Feel team
‘A great place to spend time’
T
he above statement was recently made by guests who stayed at Casta Diva Boutique Hotel. Nestled on the northern side of the Magaliesberg mountain, guests here are hardly ever disappointed. With summer on its way,
relaxing alongside the half-Olympic-size swimming pool will give you a sense of paradise as you enjoy the sunshine and mountain views with a glass of wine. With the excellent Charisma Restaurant on the premises, you can conveniently take a culinary adventure without even leaving the property. The general consensus among guests is that the food is ‘excellent’, and there is a wide variety of dishes to choose from. Not to mention the attentive service provided by the hosts. For wine lovers, there is a delicious selection to choose from. There are also several exciting performances to look forward to at their intimate Vissi d’Arte Theatre this September. Spring Baritones featuring Thabang Senekal and Dikgang
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.
Mantoro, accompanied by our magical piano. As the new season sets in, these two baritones will make you feel revived and rejuvenated with songs like ‘Bésame Mucho’, ‘Some Enchanted Evening’, ‘Because’ and opera aria favourites like ‘Eri tu’, ‘Si puo?’ and many more. The duo met in April 2004 while participating in Black Tie Ensemble’s incubator programme and have since been working hard on their vocal careers. Spring Baritones is exactly the same as they last sang it back in 2011. Performance date: 2 September at 15:00. La Voz Humana by Aukse Trinkunas, accompanied by Paul Ferreira. Lithuanian born mezzo-soprano Aukse Trinkunas and collaborative
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.
pianist Paul Ferreira join forces to take you on un viaje musical (a musical journey) through Europe and the Americas. This delightful programme will include audience favourites like Carmen’s ‘Seguidilla’ (Bizet) and Dalila’s ‘Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix’ (Saint-Saëns), as well as less frequently performed gems such as songs by Francis Poulenc, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Kurt Weill. Patrons can also look forward to piano solos by Erik Satie and Anton Rubinstein as well as the Cuban song cycle Cinco canciónes negras by the Spanish composer Xavier Montsalvatge. Performance date: 9 September at 15:00. All Jazzed Up by Tonya Koenderman. The year is 1939. The place is New Orleans. And the streets are alive with jazz – Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra. The world was at war, and people were depressed, disillusioned, and poverty-stricken. But extreme times usually call for extreme creativity and self-expression – some of the greatest songs of all time were written during this period. Come and enjoy a laid-back evening with acclaimed cabaret artist Tonya Koenderman. Performance date: 22 September at 19:30. To book, email info@castadiva.co.za, or phone / Whatsapp 081 542 4449. CF
12 / Creative Feel / September 2018
TEAM 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 Indra Wussow Michelle Constant Dave Mann SALES & MARKETING COORDINATOR Zama-Africa Mkhize; zama@desklink.co.za SALES & MARKETING sales@desklink.co.za, sales@creativefeel.co.za Tshepang Ralekgari; tshepang@desklink.co.za DESIGN Leigh Forrest; leigh@desklink.co.za DISPATCH Khumbulani Dube SUBSCRIPTION & CIRCULATION subs@creativefeel.co.za Published by DeskLink™ Media PO Box 3670, Randburg, 2125 Tel: 011 787 0252 Fax: 011 787 8204
We love this! There is Humming in the Air, Jake Michael Singer, 2018. Stainless Steel 316L. Edition: 1. Photo courtesy Kalashnikovv Gallery. Jake Michael Singer is an artist fascinated by spatial arrangements. Architecture
www.creativefeel.co.za www.desklink.co.za Printed and bound by
, a Novus Holdings
Company © Copyright DeskLink™ Media The opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent the views of the publisher.
therefore plays a predominant role in his work, capturing the way people interact with built form and spaces. Born in the city of gold in 1991, he still finds his inspiration walking in the heart of the Jozi CBD.
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.
ERIC ABRAHAM PRESENTS A FUGARD THEATRE PRODUCTION
HE WAS WHITE. SHE WAS NOT. THEY BROKE THE LAW TO DANCE.
FROM 20 NOVEMBER 2018 | THE FUGARD THEATRE 021 461 4554 | BOOK ONLINE AT THEFUGARD.COM
Kyle Shepherd PHOTO Shooheima Champion
Megan-Geoffrey Prins PHOTO Shooheima Champion
Young pianists invited to enter national competition
T
he sixth instalment of the prestigious Unisa National Piano Competition will take place from 13 to 20 July in the ZK Matthews Great Hall on Unisa’s Muckleneuk Campus in Pretoria.
The event will once again include a Jazz Piano category
running parallel to the traditional Classical category. Two panels of adjudicators will evaluate the performances. Successful candidates will be required to prepare four different programmes for four live rounds, all in one short week. The final round on 20 July will be the highlight of the event with four young pianists getting the opportunity to perform with some of South Africa’s best professional musicians. The two jazz finalists will perform with a professional rhythm section while the two classical finalists will each perform a full piano concerto with a symphony orchestra. The event, sponsored by Unisa, is famous for the high level of musicianship, stamina, technique and focus it requires of the pianists. They will be well rewarded for their efforts since the prizes are worth R210 000 altogether. The winners of the 5th National Piano Competition were Megan-Geoffrey Prins (classical category) and Kyle Shepherd (jazz category). CF
16 / Creative Feel / September 2018
William Kentridge, Drawing from Stereoscope (Double page, Soho in two rooms), 1999, R4 500 000 - 6 000 000
SPRING AUCTION
Johannesburg | 28 October 2018
Historic, Modern & Contemporary Art SELL WITH US. CONSIGN NOW ENQUIRIES & FREE VALUATIONS JOHANNESBURG +27 11 243 5243 | enquiries@aspireart.net CAPE TOWN +27 83 283 7427 | cpt@aspireart.net
www.aspireart.net
Matilda The Musical comes to SA!
M
atilda The Musical, presented by Pieter
more than eight million tickets sold since the production
Toerien and GWB Entertainment, will begin
began its life at the RSC’s Stratford-upon-Avon home. It has
its run from 17 October 2018 at the Teatro at
toured across North America, Australia and New Zealand,
Montecasino before moving to Cape Town.
and a Korean production opens in Seoul this autumn. We are
Matilda The Musical is the multi-award-winning musical
from the Royal Shakespeare Company, inspired by the
delighted that this production is opening in South Africa and wish the show every success.’
beloved book by the incomparable Roald Dahl. With book by Matilda The Musical PHOTO Manuel Harlan
Dennis Kelly and original songs by Tim Minchin, Matilda The Musical is the story of an extraordinary little girl who, armed with a vivid imagination and a sharp mind, dares to take a stand and change her own destiny. Winner of over 85 international awards, including 16 for Best Musical, Matilda The Musical is now in its seventh year in London where it continues to delight audiences of all ages. Matilda The Musical was commissioned by the RSC and played to sold-out audiences at the RSC’s The Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon for twelve weeks from November 2010 to January 2011. It transferred to London’s West End on Tuesday 25 October 2011 where it opened to rave reviews. Sweeping the board at the 2012 Laurence Olivier Awards, winning a record-breaking seven awards, Matilda The Musical has gone on to take Broadway by storm, winning four Tony Awards® and a Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theater for each of the four girls sharing the title role. Matilda The Musical is directed by Tony Award® winner Matthew Warchus (God of Carnage), and sets and costumes are designed by Tony Award® winner Rob Howell, with choreography by Tony Award® winner Peter Darling, orchestrations, additional music and musical supervision by Christopher Nightingale, lighting by Tony Award® winner Hugh Vanstone, and sound by Simon Baker. Producers, Pieter Toerien and Paul Warwick Griffin (GWB), say: ‘We remember standing outside the Cambridge
Johannesburg – The Teatro at Montecasino
Theatre in London nearly seven years ago, having seen
17 October – 2 December
Matilda The Musical for the first time and plotting as to how
Performances: Tuesday – Friday at 20:00, Saturday at 15:00
we might get this rather brilliant creation to South Africa.
and 20:00, Sunday at 13:30 and 18:00
We are absolutely thrilled to announce that day has finally arrived! We are positive that South African audiences will
Cape Town – Artscape
fall in love with the heroic tale of Matilda in this anarchically
9 December – 13 January
joyous and ingenious musical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s classic story.’ Catherine Mallyon, Executive Director, RSC says: ‘Matilda The Musical has thrilled audiences across the world, with
18 / Creative Feel / September 2018
Bookings now open at Computicket For detailed background information on the show and the characters, please visit: www.matildathemusical.com
The National Arts Council welcomes a new dawn
T
he National Arts Council (NAC) launched its new strategic approach to funding recently at an event held at Constitution Hill. The event was attended by arts stakeholders, influencers and various thought leaders.
Central to its new strategic realignment is an imperative to
be adaptable and relevant in an ever-changing environment and sector, to create an approach to funding that allows the NAC to Fund For Impact. Over the years, the NAC has been gradually shifting its strategic focus towards finding ways to position itself, in line with its full mandate, as a national government agency that traverses the arbitrary boundaries that exist between financial and non-financial support, and those that exist between the various artistic disciplines. The new approach is underpinned by a renewed engagement with stakeholders and rediscovering the true meaning of the agency’s legislative mandate, and guiding policies and principles. The NAC’s new strategic realignment is guided by new goals aimed at addressing the country’s imperatives and the funding needs of the arts sector. The new programmatic alignment will allow the NAC to move away from a discipline-based approach to funding and introduce a programmatic focus aimed at ‘funding for impact’. This approach will allocate funding and support to beneficiaries located within specified programmes. This means moving forward, calls for funding will focus on programmes that advance priorities such as Social Cohesion and Nation Building, Innovation, Design and Creation, Arts Platforms/Showcases/ Exhibitions Festivals, Strategic Initiatives and Capacity Building. ‘The new programmes encompass not only the various artistic disciplines in an interdisciplinary and transversal way, they speak to the national government’s broader country imperatives, as set out in the National Development Plan’s vision 2030, of creating a sustainable future for all South Africans. They are guided by a vision to unlock the potential of our new enhanced five-year strategy and structure towards maximising efficiency and ensuring that performance targets are exceeded. Our eyes are also set on strategic goals that speak to the NDP’s imperatives such as transformation and inclusivity,’ says Rosemary Mangope CEO of the NAC. The NAC recently embarked on national workshops and hosted roundtables to present the new strategy to provincial artists and art organisations. CF
20 / Creative Feel / September 2018
NAC CEO Rosemary Mangope
The MTN Foundation and the University of Johannesburg Art Gallery will once again partner to host an exhibition titled Continuing Conversations, from 17 October to 21 November 2018. Curated by Annali Dempsey from the UJ Art Gallery and Niel NortjĂŠ from the MTN Foundation, the works on display will primarily be drawn from the collections of these organisations; and focus on portraiture, which is well-represented in both. For more information see arts.uj.ac.za/show/MTN/
An Emerging Artists Portrait Development Programme will run alongside the Continuing Conversations exhibition, which enables ten selected works by ten emerging artists to be incorporated into the exhibition and catalogue. Nine of the ten selected artists will each receive R3 000, with one of the ten artists awarded R30 000, as a cash grant towards the development of their artistic practice. Artists were invited to submit an artwork in response to, or in conversation with, modern and contemporary South African Portraiture.
EXHIBITION CURATED BY ANNALI DEMPSEY AND NIEL NORTJÉ
BUSKAID WITH MELVYN TA N LINDER AUDITORIUM
SAT 29
SEPTEMBER
7:30 PM Farina, Mozart, van Bree, Saint-Saëns, songs and Township Kwela Enter Buskaid’s 21st Anniversary Raffle on www.inspirecharity.co.za and win fabulous prizes!
“The action of making and sharing great music is one of the most profound and uplifting experiences known to humanity. It is the surest way of bringing people of diverse ages and cultural backgrounds together in a spirit of harmony, goodwill and understanding.”
World Symphony Series 2018
Early Spring Season
BONGANI TEMBE - CHIEF EXECUTIVE AND DIRECTOR 22 AUGUST - 13ARTISTIC SEPTEMBER 2018, LINDER AUDITORIUM, PARKTOWN, JOHANNESBURG
Concert 13 Concert
05-06 22-23 SEPTEMBER 2018| |20H00 20H00 AUGUST 2018
PROGRAMME PROGRAMME Bedřich Smetana: Ludwig van Beethoven: The Bartered Bride Overture Coriolan Overture, Op. 62 Felix Mendelssohn: Robert Schumann: Concerto for Violin in e minor, Op. 64 Concerto for Cello in a minor, Op. 129 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Antonín Dvořák: Symphony No. 6 in b minor, Op. 74, Symphony No. 7 in d minor, Op. 70 “Pathétique”
Alissa Margulis Estelle Revaz
VIOLIN CELLO
Alissa Margulis studied in Cologne with Estelle Revaz studied the cello in Paris at Zakhar Bron, in Brussels with Augustin the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Dumay and in Vienna with Pavel Paris with Jérôme Pernoo as well as in Köln Vernikov. Her first public appearance at the Musikhochschule with Maria Kliegel. at the age of seven with the Budapest Her performances have been highly Soloists launched a career that has acclaimed by reviewers and audiences in included performances at the Berlin Europe and South America.Estelle Revaz Philharmony and Carnegie Hall. She has has signed a long-term recording contract won numerous prizes at international with the German label Solo Musica violin competitions and was awarded (Munich).. the “Pro Europa” prize by the European Arts Foundation.
So Daniel Perry Raiskin
CONDUCTOR CONDUCTOR
Born in Hong Kong, Perry So received A son of a prominent musicologist, the First and Special Prizes at the Fifth Daniel Raiskin grew up in St Petersburg. International Prokofiev Conducting He is the recently appointed Principal Competition in St Petersburg. He is known Guest Conductor of the Belgrade for his wide-ranging programming, Philharmonic Orchestra and from the including numerous world premières 2017-18 season onward will also take on on four continents and works from the his roles as Principal Guest Conductor Renaissance and the Baroque. of Orquesta Sinfonica de Tenerife and Artistic Partner of St Michael Strings in Finland.
Concert 24 Concert
12-13 29-30
SEPTEMBER 2018 | 20H00 AUGUST 2018 | 20H00
Vitaly Pisarenko Bryan Wallick
PIANO PIANO
Pisarenko is the First Prize winner of Bryan Wallick is gaining recognition th International Franz Liszt Piano the 8 as one of the great American virtuoso Felix Mendelssohn: Gioachino Rossini: Competition in Utrecht. His worldpianists of his generation. Gold A Midsummer Dream La gazza ladraNight’s (The Thieving wide engagements included medalist of the 1997have Vladimir Horowitz Overture, Op. 21 an appearance at Amsterdam’s Magpie) Overture International Piano Competition in Ludwig van Beethoven: Concertgebouw with the Netherlands Sergei Rachmaninoff: Kiev, he has performed throughout the Piano Concerto No. 3 in c minor, Op. 37 Radio Philharmonic Orchestra under the Rhapsody on a Theme of United States, Europe, and South Africa. Franz Schubert: baton of Damian Iorio, performances Paganini, Op. 43 He made his New York debut in 1998 in Wigmore HallWeill and St James’s Symphony in b minor, D. 759, “Unfinished” at Carnegie’s Recital HallPiccadilly and his Dmitri Shostakovich: in London and recitals in Poland, Wigmore Hall debut in London in Italy, 2003. Symphony No. 5 in d minor, Op. 47 Germany, Mexico, South Africa, France and Cyprus. PROGRAMME PROGRAMME
VISIT JPO.CO.ZA FOR MORE INFO
So Daniel Perry Raiskin
CONDUCTOR CONDUCTOR
Perry Raiskin’s So maderegular his European operatic Daniel appearances in debut at the Royal Danish Opera opera houses have featured Carmenand at the has conducted around Raiskin the world. He has Koblenzer Stadttheater. conducted recorded extensively with the BBC the Minsk Orchestra in an acclaimed National Orchestra of of Mozart’s Wales and the production Don Giovanni at the BBC Concert Orchestra. St Margarethen Opernfestspiele 2011 in Austria.
WELCOME TO FNB
JoburgArtFair
2018
24 / Creative Feel / September 2018
FNB
The FNB JoburgArtFair, the continent’s premium visual art event, is going for round eleven this year and it’s looking stronger than ever. From 6 to 9 September,
JoburgArtFair
Messages from the Atlantic Passage took the 2017 visitors of Art Basel, Switzerland, by storm with its powerful narrative of the movements of slaves across the Atlantic ocean. It is critical that this work is also viewed and spoken about on the African continent and it is a triumph for
Johannesburg’s Sandton Convention
visitors to the Fair to be able to interact with the piece.
Centre will be abuzz with collectors,
will be presenting a new large-scale work elaborating on
curators, artists and art patrons from
many themes of his practice, specifically how Zimbabweans
around the globe.
T
For the curator’s feature, Takunda Regis Billiat (Zimbabwe)
can reconcile with their current political, economic and social realities. The installation will investigate how knowledge passed down from the ancestors, a once reassuring guidance, now is
his year, the FNB JoburgArtFair will feature
becoming less and less of a comfort with the complex problems
exhibitions within four categories, including
the country faces while navigating historical upheavals.
contemporary galleries, solo presentations, limited editions and art platforms, as well as this
This year, 45 galleries from 14 countries across Africa, Europe and the United States will participate in the Fair,
year’s featured artist Billie Zangewa, FNB Art Prize winner
creating an all-in-one showcase of fresh perspectives and
Haroon Gunn-Salie, Sue Williamson’s large-scale installation
sought-after content on contemporary African art. There is a
Messages from the Atlantic Passage, a talks programme, the
particularly strong representation of exhibitors from Angola,
curator’s feature: Takunda Regis Billiat, and a brand new
Ethiopia, Ghana, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South
initiative designed to uncover the new and exciting talent on
Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe. New exhibitors from the
the African continent – #FNBJAF20.
continent include Namibian artist collective, NJE Collective
With #FNBJAF20, the FNB JoburgArtFair has invited
(based out of Windhoek); and Arte de Gema Contemporary
the public to participate in recognising artists who are, or
Gallery from Maputo; while This is Not a Whitecube
could in the future be, shaping and inspiring the global art
will make their Johannesburg debut as the third Luanda
scene. A selection of artists has been nominated by a group
gallery in the line-up (after ELA – Espaço Luanda Arte and
of curators, collectors, gallerists and art platforms. The
MOV’ART Gallery).
public can vote for their favourites on the FNB JoburgArtFair website until 4 September, and the top 20 will be announced during the week of the FNB JoburgArtFair. ‘There has been a significant increase of interest in
There is a strong offering from South African galleries within the contemporary category. MJ Turpin and Matthew Dean Dowdle’s Kalashnikovv Gallery will be showing works by rising star Jake Michael
contemporary African art over the past decade since we first
Singer; and Mxolisi Vusimuzi Beauchamp, a comic artist and
launched the FNB JoburgArtFair,’ says Director of Artlogic,
an accomplished artist in the broader visual and cultural
Cobi Labuscagne. ‘In turn, this has resulted in an increase
sector, among others.
in the number of galleries representing artists, foundations,
Singer is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores
museums, art fairs, installations in urban precincts and
the connection between sculpture, image, and architecture.
exploratory projects – in general, more excitement and energy.
Using materials related to the built environment such
Through this process, some African artists will emerge with
as concrete, steel, glass, silicone, and plastic, he creates
stronger voices than others – and we’d like the public to help
disoriented architectural forms. Dystopian landscapes are a
us find out who they are. Ultimately, it is the public’s voice that
recurring theme in Singer’s work. His recent exhibition, But a
counts in terms of a more profound and lasting influence.’
storm is blowing from paradise, was a meditation on the idea
Sue Williamson’s Messages from the Atlantic Passage
of progress and comprises sculpture and photography. ‘By
is a large-scale installation based on the accumulated
using symbols such as the wheel, the wing and the staircase
records from both sides of the Atlantic of the late history of
as metaphors for futurist idealism, I transport the viewer from
slavery in the 19th century. This new work is an extension
chaos to transcendence, from violence to unity,’ he says.
of Williamson’s acclaimed Messages from Moat (1987), first
Beauchamp’s paintings are created by using various
exhibited on Okwui Enwezor’s 2nd Johannesburg Biennale,
methods, including spray painting and stencilling,
which listed the slaves brought to the Cape of Good Hope by
working with materials such as crayons and acrylic paints.
the Dutch East India Company between 1658 and 1762.
His work comments on social issues, politics and events
Jake Michael Singer, from But a storm is blowing from paradise exhibition, 2018. Photography
Creative Feel / September 2018 / 25
Amy Lin, Linking, 2014. Coloured pencil
The ever-controversial Ed Young and the contrasting patterns and vivacious colours of Jody Paulsen’s work are highlights on SMAC Gallery’s stand. The solo presentations at the FNB JoburgArtFair are one of their most exciting offerings. Here, visitors can experience a body or work by one single artist in order to better understand their full practice. The solo selection in 2018 will present a diverse range of artists, artistic practice and subject matter, representing South Africa, Senegal, Ethiopia, the USA and the Netherlands. Alida Anderson Art Projects will present work by Amy Lin. Through her drawing/sculpture hybrids, Lin explores the Jody Paulsen, The Socialite, 2018. Felt collage
idea of being an outsider. Parts of each drawing are obscured or hidden by layers of cut paper, requiring the viewer to move around and peer into the openings to see the drawing
that make up the current South African social landscape.
underneath. But just as with any outsider, the viewer can’t
His works are the artistic version of satirical journalism
fully understand or see the whole picture and can only infer
and social critique, often controversial. Humour is an
what is happening beneath, based on the tiny glimpses that
important ingredient, and is heightened through the
are visible from the surface.
typical ‘stereotyping’ by the media of our country’s politics and politicians. In celebration of Yinka Shonibare’s first exhibition on
Unleashed by Roger Ballen and Hans Lemmen will be presented by ARTCO Gallery. Described as unsettling, even brutal, this exhibition is Roger Ballen as never seen
the African continent in 15 years, Goodman Gallery will be
before, revisiting the depths of the human psyche in a
showing his work Planets in My Head, Music II at the FNB
project together with Hans Lemmen; a project remarkable
JoburgArtFair. Shonibare’s Ruins Decorated will show at
in every respect. Living thousands of miles apart, the two
the Goodman Gallery during September and October and
artists have worked on each other’s works over a period
consists of sculptures, staged photographs and paintings,
of months. Photos and drawings have been exchanged
film and installation. He will also be participating in
and re-exchanged, dissected, made into collages, in part
the talks programme, which takes place on Saturday 8
re-photographed and drawn over; an intense dialogue
September at the Auto & General Theatre on the Square
involving a camera, scissors, charcoal and pen. The result
from 11:00 to 18:00, as well as in a series of talks at the
is spectacular, transcending the boundaries across these
Centre for the Less Good Idea.
several genres.
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Ed Young, Puppies, 2018. Oil on canvas Aida Muluneh, The Diversity Visa - Passport Photo Series Image courtesy of the artist and David Krut Projects David Krut will exhibit a solo show by Ethiopian artist
enlightenment are more valuable than the results. In this,
Aida Muluneh. The project is a continuation of her series
Lawrence suggests, an artist must be more like an amateur
addressing issues of perception relating to Africa that
than a professional – the task of the professional being
commenced with The World is 9.
to deliver with efficiency and consistency; the task of the
Young, emerging artist Ofentse Seshabela will be given a solo showing by Eclectica Contemporary. Born in 1995 in
amateur to pursue with wonder and enthusiasm. A solo project of new works by Zander Blom will be
Pretoria, Seshabela creates work that is largely politically
presented by Stevenson. This body of work is born from
motivated. His work explores collage, painting and drawing
Blom’s growing disillusionment with the limitations
to articulate concepts of both global and local politics.
of abstract painting. Figurative elements traditionally
Senegalese artist Mamady Seydi will be presented by
associated with the artist’s drawing practice dominate his
Galerie GALEA. By illustrating Wolog proverbs, Seyedi
recent canvases, reflecting his desire for a new pictorial
creates mythological half-animal, half-human characters
language that articulates concerns with art history from a
that highlight the weaknesses and faults of human beings.
simultaneously personal and cerebral standpoint.
His works are a combination of metal and raw materials such as sackcloth and wood. SMITH will showcase the work of Dale Lawrence. In
And there is so much more… the FNB JoburgArtFair brings the largest collection of African contemporary art under one roof, and in 2018 will once again fulfil a function
this presentation, Lawrence questions the sovereignty of
beyond that of traditional art fairs. For more information,
professionalism and the commercial product, and suggests
visit www.fnbjoburgartfair.co.za and don’t forget to book
that the earnest pursuit of beauty, understanding and
your tickets! CF
Creative Feel / September 2018 / 27
British-Nigerian artist, Yinka Shonibare, MBE, will return to the African continent for his first solo exhibition in 15 years. Ruins Decorated, a new body of work that sparks a state of charged curiosity, will be on show at the Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg from 1 September to 6 October 2018. In addition to Ruins Decorated at the Goodman Gallery, he will be participating in the FNB JoburgArtFair on their talks programme and his artwork Planets in My Head, Music II will be shown on the Goodman Gallery’s stand, Shonibare will have a solo show in South Korea, be participating in group shows from the US to the UK, and will be heavily involved, as usual, in the Royal Academy’s summer programme.
Can the seemingly RUINED BE REMADE
in the inclusive colours of the excluded?
Y
inka Shonibare MBE is one of a few people of African descent to be decorated as a ‘Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire’, which he officially attaches to his name – a decision which writer Jeffrey Kastner describes as ‘a wry acknowledgement of his own
state of perpetual betweenness’. Shonibare was born in London in 1962 and moved to Lagos, Nigeria at age three. He returned to London to study Fine Art at Byam Shaw School of Art (now Central Saint Martins College) and at Goldsmiths College, where he received his MFA. In 2004 he was nominated for the Turner Prize. Over the past decade, Shonibare has become known for his exploration of colonialism and post-colonialism within the contemporary context of globalisation. Working in painting, sculpture, photography, film and installation, his work examines race, class and the construction of cultural identity through sharp political commentary of the tangled interrelationship between Africa and Europe and their respective economic and political histories. Yinka Shonibare MBE, Post-Colonial Globe Man, 2018. Fibreglass sculpture, hand painted with Batik pattern, and steelbase plate or plinth
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Through beguiling sculptures, staged photographs and paintings, film and installation, Yinka Shonibare’s Ruins Decorated considers narratives of power and reinvention in relation to the rise and fall of Western empires and the struggles for African independence. The works raise questions – and possible solutions – such as: Can a historically dominant culture ever empathise with another culture? What happens then when former subjects of the British Empire become cultural hybrids themselves? To what culture do they show alliance? Can the hybridisation of icons of power be the solution to breaking down binaries required by dictatorship and prejudice? ‘What I do is create a kind of mongrel,’ says Shonibare. ‘In reality, most people’s cultures have evolved out of this mongrelisation, but people don’t acknowledge that.’ Part one of the exhibition presents ruined historical symbols of Roman and British Empires embellished in Dutch wax Indonesian Batik / ‘African’ textiles. Shonibare transforms the classical white marble body into colourful sculptures – the decoration of power in the wrong colours.
“What I do is create a kind of mongrel. In reality, most people’s cultures have evolved out of this mongrelisation, but people don’t acknowledge that” ‘Some might say the right colours, as the classical sculptures would have been painted in bright colours,’ Shonibare points out. ‘That is before Johann Winckelmann, the 19th-century historian, created his fallacy of the superiority of the white, classical marble sculpture. ‘The fabrics I use are a signifier of the identity of people from Africa and the African diaspora, but more importantly, how they encounter Europe. The textiles I use were actually produced by the Dutch and then sold to West Africans, yet they’re now known as markers of African identity. I’m very interested in the colonial relationships between Africa and Europe, and the fabrics have become a metaphor for that. ‘I’m looking at the legacy of classical sculpture. Remaking well-known classical sculptures in my signature Yinka Shonibare MBE, Julio-Claudian, A Marble Torso of Emperor, 2018. Fibreglass sculpture, hand-painted with Batik pattern, and steelbase plate or plinth Creative Feel / September 2018 / 29
Yinka Shonibare MBE Clementia 2018 Fibreglass sculpture, hand-painted with Batik pattern, and steelbase plate or plinth
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textile patterns. It’s a way of deconstructing them because historically, classical sculpture was assumed to be white. But they weren’t... And then the white classical sculptures became symbols of Western superiority.’ Even more questions surface: Can the seemingly ruined be remade in the inclusive colours of the excluded? Can the power of collusion and hybridisation create a third ideal that transcends prejudice? This exploration of hyphenated or ‘mongrelised’ selves prompts ways for expanding dialogues on cultural ‘appropriation’, teasing out possibilities for re-imagining
“The fabrics I use are a signifier of the identity of people from Africa and the African diaspora, but more importantly, how they encounter Europe”
modern African identities that complicate essentialist constructs of race and nationality. Part two of Ruins Decorated juxtaposes Addio Del Passato (2011), a film about a colonial hero’s betrayal of his wife and his eventual decline, alongside a series of photographs
Europeans. The African Library is to be presented in this iteration for the first time. Ruins Decorated is Shonibare’s first solo exhibition with
in which Admiral Nelson’s death is reimagined through the
Goodman Gallery. While the exhibition marks a rare moment
depiction of death in historical paintings. Nelson’s demise
of visibility for the artist on the African continent, it also
is re-enacted and his image (donning a uniform made out of
forms part of an increasing momentum to engage with
‘African’ textiles) is transformed through its decoration.
Shonibare’s practice in South Africa, following Addio Del
Part three – the sculpture Post-Colonial Globe Man
Passato on Zeitz MOCAA’s inaugural exhibition in 2017 and
– presents a man wearing Victorian clothes made out of
soon to be followed by the Norval Foundation’s exhibition of
another variation of ‘African’ pattern, balancing precariously
Wind Sculpture (SG) III in February 2019.
on a large globe. The globe shows a map of the British
Shonibare’s swirling, brightly printed Wind Sculptures
Empire before the first world war. The man’s head is replaced
are also installed outside the Smithsonian National Museum
with another globe, depicting a post-colonial map of the
of African Art in Washington D.C., and in Central Park, New
world as it looks today.
York City. Wind Sculpture (SG) I replaced the 19th-century
He uses the globes for heads because, he says,
statue of gynaecologist James Marion Sims – who conducted
‘throughout history, cultures have influenced each other.
unanaesthetised experiments on enslaved women – in
The Romans got from the Greeks and so on.’
Central Park earlier this year. And the contrast couldn’t
For Shonibare, influence and borrowing are an important part of artistic practice. ‘Artists should feel free to use whatever they want to use. I parody European heritage all of
be bigger. ‘My piece is about the different backgrounds of people coming together,’ says Shonibare. In addition to Ruins Decorated at the Goodman Gallery,
the time. Picasso relied heavily on African imagery. I don’t
he will be participating in the FNB JoburgArtFair on their
see the problem. Restricting yourself and feeling like you
talks programme and his artwork Planets in My Head,
can’t use images from other cultures is the most uncreative
Music II will be shown on the Goodman Gallery’s stand.
thing that you can do. As long as you’re not insulting people,
During the rest of 2018, Shonibare will have a solo show
you should have the freedom to borrow. Artists do that
in South Korea, be participating in group shows from
all the time. Without this, you wouldn’t be able to create
the US to the UK, and will be heavily involved, as usual,
anything – you wouldn’t be able to make films or fashion –
in the Royal Academy’s summer programme. He is also
because you’d be stuck in your own, restricted heritage and
busy building an artist residence space in Lagos, Nigeria,
imagery. That doesn’t make for very interesting art.’
from scratch. ‘It’s an exciting project where international
Part four, The African Library, considers the contributions
artists will be able to go and do residencies. So that’s
of people like Kwame Nkrumah and Nelson Mandela to
really occupying my mind at the moment. We’re building
African independence struggles following the second world
a gallery and rooms for artists to use.’ In all of this,
war. For this installation, 5 000 books have been covered in
Shonibare continues the approach that has made him
‘African’ textiles and bear the names of post-independence
an exceptional, stand-out artist: opening international
African presidents and famous Africans in literature, science,
dialogues, exploring and exposing cultures to one another,
music, art, engineering and theatre as well as pro-African
and interrogating how we see this exchange. CF
Creative Feel / September 2018 / 31
Augustus Casely-Hayford, OBE PHOTO Franko Khoury, EEPA, Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art
This year, the FNB JoburgArtFair has invited British curator, cultural historian and Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C., Augustus Casely-Hayford, OBE to participate in a panel discussion on public art museums.
Public art galleries:
? e l b a t n u o c are we ac
C
hief Curator of the Johannesburg Art Gallery
just of our space, but also of our relationships. We must
(JAG), Khwezi Gule, and Deputy Director of the
work more closely with artists, experts and communities
Johannesburg Contemporary Art Foundation
across the continent, to engage in open and dynamic
Molemo Moiloa, will join Augustus Casely-Hayford
conversations about our discipline.
in a discussion that focuses on JAG. The Gallery’s importance in contemporary South African art has unfortunately been mired
CF: You are a guest of the FNB JoburgArtFair this year
by its location and physical decay over the past few years. The
and are participating in a talk about the Johannesburg Art
panel, while focusing on JAG, will respond to different models
Gallery. As a specialist in African art operating in the UK and
and discuss the accountability of the museum to its public,
USA, how do you feel you can bring a different perspective to
particularly at this moment of political upheaval.
curators/museum directors operating in South Africa? AC-H: It might be that I can’t – the global art market feels
Creative Feel: A belated congratulations on your
increasingly intimate. Those of us who focus on Africa are
appointment as the director of the Smithsonian’s National
part of a wonderfully supportive and tight community. I
Museum of African Art. What are your current plans at the
often speak to colleagues in Africa, the Caribbean or Europe
Museum and what is your vision for the future?
and we seem to be having the same conversations with
Augustus Casely-Hayford: The National Museum of
colleagues, separated only by distance. And now as parts
African Art is more than half a century old, and we have
of the African art sector enjoy an unprecedented period of
operated from our present home on the National Mall
sustained growth, I sense a burgeoning momentum that I
in Washington, D.C. for a generation and over that time
hope will grow to benefit everyone. And my conundrum is
Africa, African art and our audience expectations have
how to find ways to best reflect a sector that is shifting and
changed profoundly. We must change too to become an
changing with such speed.
institution that better reflects the dynamic, complex contemporary Africa that I know and love, but that also
CF: What role do you feel public galleries and museums
capture the continent’s diversity and long historical
should play and how should they be interacting with
narrative. We want to engage in a process of renewal not
the public?
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AC-H: The Smithsonian was set up with a mission to share knowledge. And the ambient deficit of knowledge in relation to African culture is not ideal. I would love to see us shift that. I am hoping that we can use the digital arena to convene conversations that will help to shift that. I believe that American audiences want to engage with a new Africa, we must give them what they crave. CF: Do you feel that public galleries/museums can/should play a role in current social and political discourses and how do they do so? AC-H: We have a duty as publicly-funded agencies to speak to everyone, to weave narratives that work to bind us, to open dialogues and, where possible, to help to heal wounds. That might sound hyperbolic, but the very best art, and the very finest museums, on their proudest days deliver programmes that speak in ways that defy difference.
Yinka Shonibare’s Wind Sculpture (SG) I outside the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art need to work together to ensure that we can grow together
CF: Government funding in South Africa, in general, is on
and in ways that benefit artists, makers and communities.
the decline and the arts are particularly hard hit. How do you suggest institutions like the Johannesburg Art Gallery work
CF: The National Museum of African Art’s mission
around this and ensure that the building is still maintained,
statement is ‘To inspire conversations about the beauty,
artworks are correctly stored and restored when required,
power, and diversity of African arts and cultures worldwide.’
while also ensuring that there are continually interesting
How can we as South Africans contribute?
exhibitions that draw the public in?
AC-H: Well, from Jane Alexander to Marlene Dumas,
AC-H: I would first appeal to government, they should not
from Gavin Jantjes to David Koloane, from Mary Sibande
forget their responsibility – the arts are critical to building
to William Kentridge - South African artists bestride my
social cohesion, great art is wonderful in capturing public
desert island list. The sheer complexity and diversity of
mood and easing us through trauma. It is, in my mind,
this nation’s cultural output defies description. But it is
after healthcare and schools, critical to our well-being.
also supported by some of the continent’s best gallerists,
But I would say to state-funded galleries: South African
museums and historians who, through foresight and
contemporary art is some of the most sought after in the
strategic vision, have helped shape this country’s visual arts
world! Those individuals who are buying that art globally
into the formidable thing that it is. This is a place that has
should be your targets. Investing in you, is investing in
always found ways to inspire, amaze, shock and enthral. It’s
securing what they love.
a difficult, complex and beautiful history that has been best documented by artists.
CF: Do you feel that the physical placement of a public gallery/museum plays a role in its success?
CF: Do you have any plans for relationships/partnerships
AC-H: Geography is critical – galleries need to feel like they
with SA/South African institutions for the future?
are part of communities. That is not just about placement,
AC-H: Absolutely – I love, adore, this country. I have visited
but it is also about how their location is managed by staff
as a student, as a tourist and as a filmmaker and fallen in
and local government. In my mind, without ongoing local
love with it more each time. It’s utterly beguiling beauty
buy-in, public museums cannot really claim success.
is addictive. To build partnerships here will be one of my personal measures of success. We would love to develop new
CF: Do you feel that it is important for public galleries/
relationships with arts institutions in the region. We have a
museums to collaborate with each other nationally,
long, wonderful history of projects and programmes that we
throughout the continent and globally?
have developed with colleagues on the continent. And we will
AC-H: It is critical that museums working in the area of
reinvest and redouble those relationships. I see a continent
African art collaborate. We have spent decades marginalised
blessed with a golden generation of artists, galleries and arts
and now that the world is beginning to pay attention, we
academics and we want to be part of that thrilling growth. CF
Creative Feel / September 2018 / 33
A temporary Temporary Reprieve, 2017 Silk collage 102 x 104 cm
reprieve
‘A
fter many years of celebrating great artists
Malawian-born Billie Zangewa has been
announced as the Featured Artist for the 2018 edition of the FNB JoburgArtFair. Her figurative compositions, depicting a woman going
who reside elsewhere in the world as featured
about her every-day domestic life, explore how women are
artists, the FNB JoburgArtFair team felt it was
so often disadvantaged by multiple sources of oppression:
time to focus on an artist who lives and works in
race, class and gender identity. She sensitively illustrates
Johannesburg and expresses lives lived here. Billie Zangewa’s
this intersectional identity in a contemporary context and
quiet work has been included in many prestigious collections
challenges the historical stereotyping, objectification and
and exhibition worldwide, and we are excited to, this year,
exploitation of the black female body.
present a large-scale work to our FNB JoburgArtFair audience,’ comments Mandla Sibeko, Fair Director.
Her narratives are concerned with experience – both personal and universal. Almost always the protagonist in
Zangewa – who lives and works in Johannesburg –
her own works, the artist becomes a heroine whose daily
primarily uses raw silk offcuts to create intricate hand-
life is revealed through the scenes she illustrates. Rather
stitched collages in a flat, colourful style.
than making grand gestures or overt political statements,
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Return to Paradise, 2017 Silk collage 149 x 138 cm
Copyright Billie Zangewa | All photos courtesy of blank projects | Photos Jurie Potgieter
Great Expectations, 2017 Silk collage 102 x 94.5 cm
they focus on mundane domestic preoccupations, exploring universal themes that connect women to each other. Over the past year, when much of the world’s discourse has centred on gender inequality and violation of women’s rights, Zangewa’s work represents the historical narrative of women and the implications of inhabiting a female form – the struggles and strengths as well as the perseverance, triumphs, potency and majesty. ‘Zangewa’s vision of Johannesburg exceeds the steel, glass and concrete infrastructure that constitute this hurried, agitated metropolis,’ comments Sean O’Toole, respected art critic and writer. ‘What is most striking about her mature work is Zangewa’s consistent focus on the social rituals and verdant abundance obscured by her hometown’s suburban walls.’ Born in 1973 in Blantyre, Zangewa has exhibited extensively at institutions both locally and internationally, including at the MASS MoCA (2017), Stedelijk Museum (2017), Studio Museum Harlem (2016), Iziko South African National Gallery (2016), Johannesburg Art Gallery (2016), Guggenheim Bilbao (2015), WIELS (2015), La Maison Rouge (2013) and the Menil Collection (2012). Her work is represented in several notable private and public collections, including the Tate Modern, Stedelijk Museum and the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art collections. ‘I’m thrilled to be selected as this year’s featured artist for the FNB JoburgArtFair,’ Zangewa says. ‘It is a great honour and I’m proud to be in the company of the other artists chosen before me. Sincere thanks to FNB, Artlogic and my gallery, blank projects, for their support.’ CF
Creative Feel / September 2018 / 35
Haroon Gunn-Salie’s
reflection space
Accomplished young artist, Haroon GunnSalie has been announced as the 2018 winner of the FNB Art Prize.
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Haroon Gunn-Salie with his work Senzenina, 2018 Sculptural installation with sound element, 17 life-size crouching figures. Courtesy Goodman Gallery
S
JoburgArtFair
ince its establishment in 2011, the FNB Art Prize
absolved key political figures accused of having a hand in
has celebrated and recognised groundbreaking
the events leading to the massacre, with families of the slain
artists from across the African continent. This
miners still seeking reparations, attesting to the irreparable
coveted award includes a cash prize as well as an
damage caused but not atoned for by the South African
opportunity to showcase their work in a dedicated space at the FNB JoburgArtFair.
government or the company responsible. Inside a sparsely lit and acoustically treated booth,
Haroon Gunn-Salie graduated with a BA Hons in
three benches are laid out in pews and an immersive
Sculpture from the University of Cape Town’s Michaelis
7.2-channel surround-soundscape transports viewers
School of Fine Art in 2012 and has since established a
to the fateful day. A schematic recreation of the scene
collaborative art practice that translates community oral
from archival audio, including calls for the mineworkers
histories into artistic interventions and installations.
to disassemble peacefully; the fortification of the
With the title of social activist often attached to his
surrounding area and entrapment of the workers by
name, Gunn-Salie has tackled subjects like the forced
police; an anti-apartheid freedom song ‘Senzenina’
removals under apartheid (with a focus on District Six), slave
lamented by the mineworkers moments before live
trading in the Cape and the current Eurocentric historical
ammunition was discharged; and blasts from the mine
narrative, and the intersecting histories of Islam and the
recalled by low-frequency sonic vibrations of the
resistance to colonialism and apartheid in South Africa, to
surrounding landscape emanating from an outcrop
name a few. He has a multidisciplinary approach, in which he
of granite boulders on the site. The 14-minute long
regularly makes use of sculpture and soundscapes to create
soundscape loops every 15 minutes to draw in key
installations that evoke dialogue and exchange around
elements in the build-up and provide time-space for
topics that are often consigned to the margins.
metaphoric and literal catharsis within and at the end.
For the FNB JoburgArtFair, Gunn-Salie has created a special extension of his ongoing project, Senzenina – reflection space. Senzenina was originally showcased at the New Museum in New York as part of Songs for Sabotage, and is part of an elite group of works shown as part of the Frieze Sculpture exhibition in London’s Regent’s Park until mid-October. ‘The most valuable aspect of the FNB Art Prize is the opportunity to further the ongoing collaborative aspects of the Senzenina project as I will dedicate it to deepening the work,’ says Gunn-Salie. ‘Furthermore, the dedicated booth at the FNB JoburgArtFair allows a homecoming of sort for this
“We are extending the original composition and presenting it as a listening environment that will hopefully engage critical and reflective responses from the local audience”
work, which so far has only been appreciated abroard. ‘We are extending the original composition and presenting it as a listening environment that will hopefully
As a collaborative artist, Gunn-Salie worked with a team
engage critical and reflective responses from the local
to create the installation, which includes Jannous Aukema,
audience,’ says Gunn-Salie.
Simon Elvis Bonase, Moreblessing Chaiwatura, Herbert
In Senzenina, Gunn-Salie raises questions of multinational and police complicity in the Marikana massacre, the most lethal use of force by South African security forces against civilians
Dube, Gavan Eckhart, Shirley Gunn, Setlamorago Mashilo and Aline Xavier. ‘The toughest part of working on projects of this scale is
since the 1960s. The mass catastrophe took place on August 16,
finding partners, funding and resources to make it possible,’
2012, when the South African Police Service opened fire on a
says Gunn-Salie. ‘I am appreciative of the FNB Art Prize
crowd of striking mineworkers in the Wonderkop sub-district
for its support, and will use it as a springboard to deeper
of Marikana. Unionised miners demanded a wage increase at
engagement, in the hope of exhibiting the project locally and
the Lonmin platinum mine and had been protesting for a week
in its entirety next year.’
prior to the incident, with several casualties occurring even before the massacre occurred. In total, police shot and killed 34, left 78 seriously injured, and arrested 250 mineworkers. The state inquiry
The FNB Art Prize works on a nomination basis – all galleries participating at the FNB JoburgArtFair are given the opportunity to put forward one of their artists for consideration by the jury. CF
Creative Feel / September 2018 / 37
Telling the story of a life
Monty Mahobe, A Road Preparing. Woodcut carving
through art
In February 2017, 84-year-old Monty Mahobe walked into Artist Proof Studio (APS) with over 40 years’ worth of art that he had created – an astonishing collection of plates ranging from linocuts to wood relief carvings on the back of cupboard doors. APS’s pro-shop printers immediately took this on as a special outreach project.
T
o ensure that the legacy and history of Monty
will be launched at the Artist Proof Studio stand at FNB
Mahobe was not lost, APS sought a writer to
JoburgArtFair ahead of a comprehensive exhibition of prints
interview and document the stories behind the
and carvings in October 2018.
images. A series of mid-morning conversations over
In this limited-edition publication, Mahobe leads us
a period of five weeks took place in the APS gallery between
through his life, in a non-linear narrative that immediately
Barbara Adair and Mahobe, giving rise to an insightful and
brings his art to life and endears him to the reader. His
intimate account of the life and times of Mahobe.
artworks are all created mostly from memory – ‘I remember
Brenton Maart came on board in June 2018 and has since, with great creativity and energy, woven together
the picture, it’s like a photograph in my head and then I put it on the canvas or the wood,’ he says.
text, image and photographic documentation to create a
Born in Graaff Reinet in the Eastern Cape, Mahobe grew
book that reaches all ages and genres encapsulating the
up in Sophiatown and then later Western Native Township.
vitality of the artist himself. The limited-edition publication
He attended St Peter’s College (now St Martin’s School) in
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Rosettenville, a school that had been set up by Father Trevor Huddleston – ‘a good man,’ says Mahobe, ‘who believed in the artist.’ He studied art at school, creating watercolours and pastel drawings. He got his supplies from an art store run by Matthew Whipman near the Metro Bioscope where his father worked. An artist himself, Whipman encouraged Mahobe to pursue his artistic talent, and often gave him supplies at a substantial discount or for free. Whipman, seeing potential in the young teenager, organised a mini exhibition for Mahobe. ‘Afterwards, Mr Whipman gave me the money. I can’t remember how much, but it was a lot. I went with my father to the post office and opened an account,’ he says. ‘Mr Whipman gave me this break. I think I gained a lot of confidence from this exhibition. It made me realise even though I was so young, that I had a talent and would always be an artist.’ Around this time, he was also attending the Polly Street Art Centre. At the encouragement of Father Huddleston, Mahobe also started to play double bass in a trio. He left art behind
Monty Mahobe, Trio. Woodcut carving
and continued to play music, from his teens until his early twenties, aspiring to the American dream like so many
‘But I never forgot that I was an artist, and although I never
others in Sophiatown at the time. He played with the African
made art, I never forgot that this was my path. I knew that
Follies, and a couple of times with Hugh Masekela, before
someday I would go back to it,’ says Mahobe.
deciding that the life of a musician wasn’t for him. He got married, found a job in Wadeville in a spring factory, worked there for 20 years, and had four children.
When he was retrenched in the early 1980s, he knew that it was time to go back to art. It wasn’t easy at first – he had forgotten so much – but his sister encouraged him to go to the Mofolo Art Centre. There, she said, he would be able to learn as well as connect to other artists, to relate. ‘It was the best thing for me to have done. They helped me, these artists, and I helped them. We supported each other and shared ideas,’ he says. At Mofolo Art Centre he learnt how to make linocuts, and eventually began working with soft wood as it was much cheaper than painting and he was always able to find scraps of wood. His artworks tell his life story, his memories and all of the many political changes he has lived through. These stories have been captured in this limited-edition book by APS in such an organic way that it feels as if Mahobe is sitting next to you, slowly walking you through his life and passionately describing each artwork. ‘There is so much that I can say. These pictures always bring so much back when I look at them. There is so much in my mind that I can’t tell you all the stories, they get jumbled up and I get confused. But I know that the ones I can tell, these stories and the pictures that I am talking about are important to me. They tell you about my art and they tell you about me. They are my life; the story of my life.’ Make sure you visit the APS stand at the FNB JoburgArtFair to see Mahobe’s work and purchase this special limited-edition publication. CF
Monty Mahobe, Zulu Warrior. Woodcut carving
Creative Feel / September 2018 / 39
FNB
JoburgArtFair
Ensuring the future of art in Africa Every year, the FNB JoburgArtFair provides a platform for those galleries and project spaces that are ensuring the future of art in Africa and developing the next generation of artistic talent.
T
Carolyn Parton, Allegory. Courtesy SAFFCA
aking part in this year’s Art Platforms category is
Africa, and holds about 9 000 works of art, displayed in 15
Artist Proof Studio – Joburg; Bag Factory Artists
exhibition halls and sculpture gardens.
Studios – Joburg; The Department of Small Business Development; Javett Art Centre at the
The Javett Art Centre at the University of Pretoria has been established to create an environment where the legacy
University of Pretoria – Pretoria; Johannesburg Art Gallery
of art and creativity in South Africa can be researched,
– Joburg; Kuenyehia Trust for Contemporary Art – Accra;
studied and explored in ways that will set new levels of
Lalela – Joburg, Cape Town; National Gallery of Zimbabwe
quality in art curation, conservation and education.
– Harare; NJE Collective – Windhoek; South African Mint
The aim of the Southern African Foundation For
– Joburg; SAFFCA – Joburg and Saint-Émilion (France); the
Contemporary Art (SAFFCA) is to give art exposure through
project space – Joburg and Village Unhu – Harare.
passion and love. They support, nurture and promote the
Artist Proof Studio (APS) is fuelled by innovation in
visual art and artists of the southern part of the African
their development, and is recognised as one of South
continent. SAFFCA associates with and includes the Bag
Africa’s best printmaking centre with an exceptional
Factory when possible at its small events and visits to
calibre. APS was founded in the sense of shared humanity
encourage and grow the awareness of the Fordsburg Artists’
and it continues to pride itself on being highly active
Studios initiative. Furthermore, SAFFCA welcomes artists
in the community of printmaking by encouraging
from the Bag Factory in its residency programme in Knysna
people with talent and passion to reach their fullest
or Saint-Émilion in the space of AFSACSA, the association
potential in art-making in order for them to achieve self-
created in France in the heart of Europe to facilitate
sustainability.
multicultural artistic encounters and conversations.
Founded in 1991 by David Koloane, Pat Mautloa, Sam
the project space is a non-profit institutional platform
Nhlengethwa and Robert Loder, The Bag Factory continues
established in 2016 by Ugandan-born artist Benon
to focus on the development of a programme that has a
Lutaaya. It is focused on creating spaces and improving
standpoint of inclusion and diversity, built on an idea of
opportunities for female African artists from the African
open access. The Bag Factory offers artists the opportunity
continent and the diaspora. the project space embodies
to spearhead unmapped territory and test their limits in a
the values of patronage as a context and framework to
spirit of trade and global affinity.
encourage creativity, innovation and cultural production
The Johannesburg Art Gallery houses a magnificent
among contemporary African female artists.
historical art collection consisting of 17th-century Dutch
Make sure to stop past the Art Platforms at the FNB
paintings, 18th- and 19th-century European artworks and
JoburgArtFair to witness the exciting developments that are
South African art from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.
happening in African contemporary art. CF
It is recognised as the biggest art gallery in sub-Saharan
40 / Creative Feel / September 2018
Everard Read is internationally recognised as the dealer for important contemporary sculpture. Supported by world-class foundries, South African sculptors have created works of art ranging from intimate smaller works to monumental bronzes that are powerful comments on the human condition. Truly, we inhabit a golden era of South African sculpture. Some years ago the curatorial directors of Everard Read decided to celebrate the work of our most eminent artists working in 3-dimensional art with an exhibition dedicated to their work at the Johannesburg Art Fair. We are thrilled that this ambition has come to fruition in 2018. It is a much anticipated event – one that we suspect will be long remembered as a visual feast that delighted the eye of all visitors who relish fine works of art.
Monday to Friday 9:00 – 18:00 and Saturday 9:00 – 13:00 2 & 6 Jellicoe Avenue, Rosebank +27 (0)11 788 4805 gallery@everard.co.za Brett Murray Visionary: Portrait/Self-Portrait bronze Edition of 5 157 x 113 x 147,5 cm image courtesy of mike hall
WORDS: DAVE MANN
SCRATCHING AT THE SURFACE Vhils leaves his mark in Maboneng Towards the end of July in Johannesburg’s Maboneng Precinct, Hennessy presented to us urban art phenomenon, Alexandre Farto – aka ‘Vhils’, whom they collaborated with for the 2018 Very Special Limited Edition bottle design. As part of his worldwide tour with Hennessy to celebrate the collaboration he brought to live a portrait of an icon. It all took shape on the side of the multi-storeyed building. The image was not applied to the wall, it was brought to life, piece-bypiece, using hammers, chisels, and drills to carve away at its façade. The portrait is of singer-songwriter Yvonne Chaka Chaka and the artist behind it is none other than Vhils. 42 / Creative Feel / September 2018
B
orn in Libson, Portugal, Vhils is an internationally renowned artist who is best known for his inventive take on street art – creating arresting portraits and images on old walls and buildings through
carving, drilling, chipping, and even the occasional bit of explosive etching. He’s down in Johannesburg for the third instalment of a series of portraits he’s doing in collaboration with the world’s best-selling cognac, Hennessy, under the collective title ‘Make the Invisible Visible’. The project, which comes after the design of a signature bottle for Hennessy’s Very Special Limited Edition, involves a series of mural
“Here we are making the invisible visible by uncovering a portrait of someone – paying homage to their work and their contributions… it’s all about highlighting the histories visually and going beyond the surface”
installations in cities across the globe, each one a tribute to a local icon who’s pushing boundaries in their field. On-site at The Cosmopolitan building, Vhils – real name
walls themselves were holding stories. It was like the city
Alexandre Manuel Dias Farto – is taking a break. He’s tired,
was growing fatter over the years, condensing all this
but he’s happy with the progress he and his team are making
information that was kind of forgotten inside those walls.’
on the wall. Having already completed murals of TJ Mizell
Through scratching at the surface, peeling back these
and Joe Fresh in New York and Chicago respectively, Yvonne
layers and chipping away at what lies beneath, Vhils is
Chaka Chaka is the icon he’s chosen to represent during his
essentially creating a narrative that’s born from, and also
South African stop, and already, a striking portrait of her is
celebrates, the many stories that came before.
beginning to take shape. Chaka Chaka, who is popularly known as the Princess
‘Here we are making the invisible visible by uncovering a portrait of someone – paying homage to their work and
of Africa, is a singer, songwriter, entrepreneur and
their contributions… it’s all about highlighting the histories
humanitarian who’s become known across the world for both
visually and going beyond the surface.’
her music and her commitment to community and social
Through the collaboration with Hennessy, he’s able to
charity work. Born in Soweto, she started singing at the age
take his craft to places across the globe. Vhils is the latest
of 19 and soon became a pop and dance icon.
in a string of renowned artists who’ve partnered with
‘I wanted someone who was known for really pushing
Hennessy Very Special. Over the past few years, the brand
the boundaries,’ says Vhils on his decision to portray Chaka
has partnered with world-renowned street artist Shepard
Chaka. ‘Someone who has never stopped pushing the limits
Fairey; graffiti artist Futura; Harlem-born, internationally
or the expectations that people have put on them in terms
renowned graffiti artist JonOne; and tattooist and visual
of creativity.’
artist Scott Campbell.
Vhils explains his process of sketching out a design from
‘I’ve known about the history of their collaborations and
a series of images, narrowing it down to a duotone image,
the artists they’ve worked with in the past,’ explains Vhils.
and tracing it onto the wall before beginning to chip away at
‘So I was really honoured just to be asked to take part.’
the building in order to bring the portrait to life. But how did Vhils start working with such an innovative technique? ‘Since I was 12 or 13, I’ve been into graffiti,’ he explains.
The new portrait of Chaka Chaka takes the place of a mural of Jan van Riebeeck done by American artist Gaia and SA-based Freddy Sam and looks out over The Cosmopolitan
‘I was born in Lisbon in the late ‘80s, but I grew up seeing
into Maboneng and beyond. Stepping outside again, Vhils
a lot of the murals that were created during the revolution
looks up at the work.
we had in ‘74. Eventually, advertisers covered the murals,
‘It’s still an ongoing dialogue, you know? Because I have
followed by graffiti. Then the council painted everything
an image in my mind of what it’s going to be, but you never
white, which, of course, became covered with more graffiti.
know how it’ll end up looking,’ he explains. ‘It’s really a
By watching the city change like this, I realised that the
dialogue between me, the wall, and the many layers.’ CF
Creative Feel / September 2018 / 43
STELLEN BOS C H
SASOL
STU D E NT
WINS
new signatures
Stellenbosch-based artist, Jessica Storm Kapp, 22, has been announced as the winner of the 2018 Sasol New Signatures Art Competition.
Overall winner
Jessica Storm Kapp – University of Stellenbosch Mapping Time Rammed earth columns and embedded object 150 x 250 x 250 cm
44 / Creative Feel / September 2018
Runner-up
Peter Mikael Campbell – Cape Town Kaisen Pencil 102,5 x 73,5 cm
J
essica Storm Kapp won the coveted award for
As the winner of Sasol New Signatures, Kapp walks away
her rammed earth columns and embedded object
with a cash prize of R100 000 and the opportunity to have a
installation piece titled Mapping Time. The artwork
solo exhibition at the Pretoria Art Museum in 2019, which
investigates whether fine art can evoke multisensory
will mark Sasol’s thirtieth year sponsoring South Africa’s
experiences of home through the use of retrieved objects and materials. These objects have value both because of the site
longest running art competition. Acclaimed artist, judge and Sasol New Signatures
from which they were taken as well as their intrinsic value
Chairperson, Prof. Pieter Binsbergen, says, ‘Regarding the
as traces of dwelling – reconstructing fragments of retrieved
pressing issues of land, including pre/post, and de-colonial
objects and materials in an attempt to illustrate concepts such
struggles, the work’s ability to ambiguously navigate
as loss, trace, place attachment and reflection.
through and around these sensitive issues makes it worthy
Being a collector of things, the action of retrieval, as well as the histories attached to found objects, are central themes
of being the winning artwork.’ Coming in second place was Cape Town artist Peter Mikael
in Kapp’s investigations into home, following the event of
Campbell. He wins for his work in pencil titled, Kaisen, which
the Knysna Fires in 2017. Kapp is currently completing her
means ‘change for better’ in Japanese. In this work, Campbell
undergraduate degree in Fine Art at Stellenbosch University.
aims to evoke a quiet meditation regarding the balance of
Through various printmaking techniques, photography,
opposites – in this case between simplicity and complexity
sculpture and installation, Kapp strives to create immersive
– as well as the value of aesthetic beauty as a meaningful
moments in which viewers can experience the essence of a
pursuit. For the artist, the ultimate purpose for creating this
place through their multiple senses.
work is to evoke a buffer against the tragedy woven into life.
Creative Feel / September 2018 / 45
The five Merit Award Winners are:
Debbie Fann – Port Elizabeth Cheque or Savings? Acrylic and digital print on paper Kelly Crouse – Port Elizabeth Medication: C23H27N3O7 Mixed media
Pierre Henri Le Riche – Cape Town Ap(peal) I & Ap(peal) II Porcelain, Egyptian cotton, yellowwood, plywood, glass
Megan Serfontein – University of Stellenbosch Untitled Monitor, webcam, personal computer programme
Each Merit Award winner received a R10 000 cash prize. It is often said that art has no limits. This is because a true artist’s imagination has no boundaries; it is limitless. It is this distinctive feature of South African contemporary art that this year’s Sasol New Signatures art competition celebrates. ‘On behalf of Sasol, we congratulate all the winners and wish them all the best. May you continue to be fearless in your artistry, challenging society to evaluate the lenses through which it views the world. It is by doing so that Mulatedzi Simon Moshapo – Polokwane The leader shall govern Wood
46 / Creative Feel / September 2018
you unconsciously give others the permission to be boundless in their pursuit of their happiness and purpose. Be limitless,’ says Charlotte Mokoena, Sasol Executive Vice President for Human Resources and Corporate Affairs.
Lebohang Kganye, the 2017 winner, will hold her first solo
2017 winner
exhibition, titled Mohlokomedi wa Tora (Lighthouse Keeper), which will run in conjunction with the 2018 Sasol New
The Pretoria Art Museum can be found at Corner Francis
Signatures exhibition from 30 August until 7 October, at
Baard (previously Schoeman) and Wessels St, Arcadia Park
the Pretoria Art Museum. The exhibition will also feature
and is open Tuesday to Sunday: 10:00 to 17:00 (Closed on
the 2018 winner, runner-up and five merit award winners as
Mondays and Public Holidays).
well as 87 finalists, all of whom are included in the highly respected competition catalogue.
For more information on the exhibition and works for sale, visit: www.sasolsignatures.co.za
Creative Feel / September 2018 / 47
Exciting new ventures for
Stephan Welz & Co. For half a century, Stephan Welz & Co. has been a meeting place for connoisseurs and collectors of antiques, collectables and fine art. We pride ourselves in providing professional advice and service through the specialist departments we handle, which include fine art and sculpture, antique furniture, silverware and stamps.
H
aving established ourselves in Johannesburg
In conjunction with the new platform, we are launching
and Cape Town over the past 50 years, it’s
our Stephan Welz & Co. online application, which will be
with great excitement that we have expanded
available for both Android and Apple users, everywhere.
our services and knowledge to the capital.
The registration and subscription process has also
We recently opened our doors at the Association of
become so much more accessible and readily available. It is
Arts, Pretoria, where our specialist focus will be on fine
now possible to sit with your phone and register to bid or
art and sculpture. Along with this new era for Stephan
subscribe to our mailing list at the click of a button. Gone
Welz & Co., we are also proud to announce that we have
are the days of needing to click through pages and pages in
ventured into the realm of online auctioneering with
search of information.
our new online platform, which makes consignment and
We are currently consigning for our forthcoming October
live auction bidding so much more user-friendly. This
and November auctions. Visit our website
venture, which was brought on by popular demand, will be
www.stephanwelzandco.co.za and register to consign or
launched in September 2018 and will enable us to conduct
supply information for an obligation-free valuation with
more regular auctions.
one of our specialists or to make an appointment with us to
The focus of our online platform is multi-pronged. It allows us to accommodate a collector who starts out as a
come and value your collectables. Stephan Welz and Co. – Home of the collector.
‘new buyer’ within the auction world, as well enable us to offer works that may not be suitable for our live auctions,
CONTACT DETAILS:
thus increasing the service we are able to offer our clients.
www.stephanwelzandco.co.za
Clients will also be able to consign via the website, making
Johannesburg | 011 880 3125 | jhb@stephanwelzandco.co.za
bidding, buying, valuing and consigning possible from
Cape Town | 021 794 6461 | ct@stephanwelzandco.co.za
anywhere in the world.
Pretoria | 078 074 2721 | pta@stephanwelzandco.co.za
48 / Creative Feel / September 2018
Welcome to our new beginning.
w w w. s t e p h a n we l z a n d c o.c o. z a Register | Consign | Bid Anywhere & Anytime
TM
Creative Feel / September 2018 / 49 D ow nl o ad the Ste pha n Welz & Co. a pp for even greater a ccessa bility, ava ila ble on:
Christo Coetzee, Forma Decorum, Mixed media with Perspex, 122 x 122 cm
Christo Coetzee, Waterspout, Mixed media, 195 x 129 cm
REDISCOVERING THE CUTTING EDGE:
A retrospective of Christo Coetzee
AT STANDARD BANK GA LLERY
Despite Christo Coetzee’s vibrant and multi-faceted career as an artist, his work has all but disappeared from a generation’s public imagination. A new retrospective exhibition at Standard Bank Gallery is hoping to change that.
T
itled The Safest Place is the Knife’s Edge: Christo
experiment with new forms and methods of art. While the
Coetzee (1929 – 2000) the exhibition, which is
former may have made it difficult for Coetzee to fit into the
curated by Wilhelm van Rensburg and Shonisani
market, the latter saw him remaining firmly on the cutting
Netshia, will provide a look at the rich and far-
edge of the contemporary art world, globally. ‘The point
reaching works of the late South African artist whose career
I’m trying to make,’ explains van Rensburg, ‘is that Christo
spanned both countries and genres. Ahead of the exhibition,
Coetzee was already a world-class artist in the 1950s.’
van Rensburg explains that Coetzee’s work didn’t fit easily
Coetzee’s career is, fortunately, an easy one to trace
into the South African art market at the time, and that the
and this is due in part to the various places he lived and
artist’s aim was always to provoke.
worked, and how it influenced his art. Having enrolled at the
‘He was very controversial and sensational – that was really
University of Witwatersrand in the 1940s on a scholarship
what drove him: to provoke, to tease,’ explains van Rensburg. ‘I
after the second World War, Coetzee formed part of a group
came across an interview he did in a book published in 1978. In
of artists now known as the Wits Group. The group, which
the interview, he was discussing society and the role of the artist
included the likes of Larry Scully, Cecil Skotnes, Gordon
and so on, and he said: “I think the safest place for an artist to be
Vorster, Nel Erasmus, Anna Vorster and Esmé Berman, largely
is on the knife’s edge”. That’s when I knew we had a title.’
‘shifted the focus from naturalistic landscape and still-life
The knife’s edge here refers to both Coetzee’s flirtatious relationship with provocative works, as well as his desire to
50 / Creative Feel / September 2018
to pure abstract art,’ says van Rensburg. It was also at Wits where Coetzee would meet his first wife (and former lecturer),
Marjorie Long, who he’d travel with to London and study British Modernism before returning to South Africa. From there, he moved to Italy where he’d meet Alberto
Excitingly, the influence of the Gutai group on Coetzee’s work will also form part of the exhibition through a number of drawings by the group that Coetzee collected in Japan
Burri and experiment with the rudimentary forms of
before donating them to the University of Johannesburg.
assemblage work, as well as make the acquaintance of art
Van Rensburg, who’s curated retrospectives on artists such
critic Michel Tapié who’d introduce Coetzee to the idea of
as Irma Stern, Judith Mason, and JH Pierneef over the years,
Art Informel – the European reaction to American abstract
says that much of the work from this exhibition has been
expressionism. With the help of his friend and patron
sourced from local universities.
Anthony Denney, Coetzee would then move to Japan to live
‘When you’re putting together a retrospective
and study. It was here that he met the Gutai group, a radical
exhibition, the usual challenge is finding the works. In
post-war art collective he would spend much of his time
Coetzee’s case, he had the foresight to donate his larger
with in Japan.
works to local universities before he passed,’ he explains.
Years later, in 1975, the influence of the Gutai group on his work would make itself apparent at one of Coetzee’s most controversial shows. ‘He had a solo exhibition in Cape Town where he
‘I’m taking about eight works from each university, but I really was spoiled for choice.’ Whether you’re a fan of Coetzee’s early abstract works, his well-known assemblage works, or his later Hermetic
exhibited a number of paintings,’ says van Rensburg. ‘The
paintings, pieces from across the artist’s long and far-
next morning, he walked in and slashed his paintings – 23 of
reaching career will be on exhibit at The Safest Place is the
them. It was spectacular! Shocking! To Coetzee it was an act
Knife’s Edge. And for those who’ve never heard of Coetzee’s
of renewal – loosely based on a performance he saw by the
work at all, this exhibition is the perfect place to start. CF
Gutai group’s Saburo Murakami… This led to what I believe was his best work, because then he began to repair the works
The Safest Place is the Knife’s Edge: Christo Coetzee (1929
by sewing them back together with bits of string, leather,
– 2000) runs from 5 October to 1 December at the Standard
and shoelaces.’
Bank Gallery.
Christo Coetzee, Athene/Diana, Oil on board with Perspex 185 x 122 cm
Christo Coetzee, Baron I, Mixed media, 86 x 60 cm
Creative Feel / September 2018 / 51
Robert Hodgins, Predators, signed, dated 2005, oil on canvas, 90 x 90cm
Matthew Hindley, #seascape, signed and dated 2016 on the reverse, oil and oilstick on canvas, 190 x 209,5cm
Strauss Art Hub on Keyes Art Mile Strauss & Co is delighted to announce its participation in the form of an Art Hub at the Trumpet Building, located on the Keyes Art Mile in Johannesburg, to coincide with the FNB JoburgArtFair (6 – 9 September 2018).
T
his partnership, which is spearheaded by the
Dr Meredith, who recently completed his doctoral project
Keyes Art Mile and coordinated by respected
on painter Jan Juta, will provide a unique insight into the
curator Lucy McGarry, includes an extensive
world of auctions, focusing on the intricacies of consigning,
education and hospitality programme.
selling and buying on the secondary market. Van Rensburg,
Visitors to the Hub will be able to view a selection
a seasoned curator and academic, will discuss his upcoming
of works consigned for Strauss & Co’s upcoming sales
retrospective exhibition on Christo Coetzee, due to be held
in October (Cape Town) and November (Johannesburg).
at the Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, in October.
The exhibition will also include highlights from the
‘This partnership, and our participation in the Strauss
company’s second standalone Contemporary Art
Art Hub, form part of our company’s commitment to the
Auction, scheduled to take place in February 2019 in
growth of the contemporary art market, education and
Cape Town. Strauss & Co specialists, Alastair Meredith
developing new collectors,’ says Susie Goodman, executive
and Wilhelm van Rensburg, are scheduled to present
director, Johannesburg. Strauss & Co is South Africa’s
talks at the Strauss Art Hub in the Trumpet Building (21
leading auction house and the global leader in the market
Keyes Avenue, Rosebank).
for South African art. www.straussart.co.za. CF
52 / Creative Feel / September 2018
Ephraim Ngatane, Township Scene, signed and dated 69, oil on board, 49,5 by 75cm
Gerard Sekoto, Two Women, signed, oil on canvas, 35,5 by 25,5cm
Creative Feel / September 2018 / 53
Thoughts on Stompie Selibe’s
art of abstraction Music and images are key features in Stompie Selibe’s works of art – most of which are concerned with a desire to discover the ‘unknown’ and the possibility to express, if not touch, that which resides in the remote realm of a human’s ‘inner being’.
W
hat seems to be at the centre of Stompie Selibe’s quest is a creative investigation of mystery – he is after the potentiality of a curative wonderment. Stompie Selibe’s
work sensibly speaks about healing through art, where the subjective undertaking of art-making is considered as an eternal mission necessary – not only to discover, but most importantly – to excavate and liberate the obscure interiority in the life experience of being human in the world. The art of abstraction in the form of musical sounds and visual images seems to afford Selibe the expressive means to
WORDS: THEMBINKOSI GONIWE
uncover human depths – tapping into those sensitive areas of unexplainable emotions or psychic energies. It is these energies that so many people find impossible to identify,
54 / Creative Feel / September 2018
comprehend or appreciate. Here, the ‘inner being’ and the
areas of thinking, feeling and acting – instead of illustrating,
‘unknown’ perhaps reside in what Selibe calls the ‘sacred self’.
demonstrating or representing the already-known properties
The challenge to tap into this ‘sacred self’ – what
of our (discernable) world. I am also thinking of an artistic
could be a repository of (unfamiliar though charged)
imagination whose potential is the way in which one is able
emotional, psychic and intuitive attributes of being human
to bring to life that which is known anew; if not anew, at least,
– supposedly owing to the perversity of the violence,
it should posit refreshing configurations that are enabled by
trauma and depression that most people experience in our
a consciously effective manipulation of aesthetics, contents,
overwhelmingly materialistic world – one which is never
mediums and materials. This is Selibe’s strive.
without tension, conflict and uproar. It would seem we live in a world absent of harmony,
After many years of exploration and experimentation, Selibe has developed a resourceful method of
calm, amity or serenity, but certainly we are familiar
‘deconstructing and reconstructing musical sounds’ that are
with chaos, madness, clamour and pandemonium – the
translated into visual constructs and forms. He pays close
consequences of which include the impossibility to attend to
attention to his surroundings and allows his various senses
our inner-selves, to listen to our internal beings, or to hear
to respond by absorbing and transmitting what he hears,
the whisper of our interior voices.
sees, touches and feels into expressive imageries. Though we
How is it possible to do so in what Guy Debord once
encounter these artworks in their externalised objecthood,
called ‘the society of the spectacle’, which, in our immediate
they should be understood as imaginative expressions of
context, Njabulo Ndebele dubbed ‘mind-bogglingly
his inner soul. For they speak to Selibe’s desires that are
spectacular’? Many South African artists, both young and
constitutive of an inextricable play between yearning and
established, tend to make artworks that reproduce – if not
the need to express the inexpressible.
reinforce and thus render normative – this spectacular
Enabling him such a possibility is the art of abstraction,
society of ‘social absurdity’, further critiqued by Ndebele as
which also somewhat affords him to explore what Ndebele
‘the emptying out of interiority to the benefit of its exterior
refers to as the ‘interiority of self’ instead of a preoccupation
signs’. Notwithstanding the limitations of these types of
with the ‘exteriority surface’ of social life. An undertaking of
artworks, let alone their imaginative deficiency, they fail in
this nature is noteworthy as it also recalls Steve Biko’s Black
effecting a different understanding – novel knowledge about
Consciousness philosophy – one of whose central precepts is
our complex world where creative engagement in visual
the criticality of introspection that requires ‘an inward-looking
representations, for example, cannot be constricted within
process’ so necessary for an outward-looking reflection in a
the threshold of the real. Not to say these subject themes
world read by Frantz Fanon as ‘wretched’ and ‘anti-black’.
are not important, but the problem is their constancy, as if nothing other than objective representation matters. To hear Selibe speak about the ‘unknown’, the
When Selibe speaks about his work and experience in creative arts and therapeutic education, integrating music and visual learning, it is important to read them in the
‘inner being’, the ‘sacred self’ or ‘sacred transactions’ is
context of the ‘wretched’ and ‘anti-black’ world – one which
encouraging, precisely because he reminds us of other
needs not only healing but transformation that takes into
subjects’ themes. And to look at his abstract artworks is
account the psycho-emotional interiority of people who
also an important reminder that there are other creative
continue to suffer from the devastation of colonial apartheid
procedures to engage society, to invite us into an abstract
and its afterlife in democratic South Africa. For people
universe of different and novel visual content, form and
are not only physically affected; they are also psycho-
character. For his art of abstraction affords us a minute into
emotionally damaged.
a world not populated by subjects, objects and places that are known or knowable. Even if not persuasive enough, Selibe’s body of abstract
Selibe is quite correct to say ‘we are engaged in a sacred transaction that we know only a little, the shadow not the shape’ of what it means to be human, to be alive in the
artworks partakes in the curious search for a creative means
world. Such shadow and the sacred self are the unknown
to unearth and discover the ‘unknown’. In such an effort, his
inner being, which he tackles through abstraction – even if
work brings into existence something fresh. His aspiration
some of his artworks are wanting in their visual grammar,
is not a definitive quest for originality or authenticity, but
refinement of artistic form, innovative language and
rather a potential mission premised on shifting perceptions
experimentation of the medium and material. Yet, such
– opening up unusual paths that might lead us to strange
defect does not take away Selibe’s curious art of abstraction,
destinations where there await discoveries of unknown
which enables him a proximity to engage with the realm
phenomena and experiences.
of human introspection, through a creative manoeuvering
Here, I am neither talking about the key attributes of art as a practice of initiating and introducing unfamiliar
whose resultant is a body of artworks inviting our engagement and appreciation. CF
Creative Feel / September 2018 / 55
COLLECTING FOR THE FUTURE |
RUARC PEFFERS
Athi-Patra Rug,a Uzukile the Elder, 2013
THE NEW COLLECTORS:
Investing in art and heritage
S
o you’ve made it. You’ve hustled, and worked, and
and buy what you feel that you like. Savvy art collectors
networked, and worked some more, and now you’re
around the world think this way – and they are proven right
thinking: ‘I haven’t made it to the very top yet, but
when the global art trade has been outperforming many
I can take some time out to enjoy where I am. I can
more conventional asset classes. But investment in art is
spend some money, and start living the life I want.’ So what do
also about heritage and cultural value – if we understand
you spend on? Where do you invest your hard-earned money?
that our national artistic or cultural identity is a crucial
How about buying some art? Cars, clothes and bling are out there, but everyone has those. Art is the lifeblood of
national resource. With the global art sector currently worth around $50
South Africa’s culture – it’s our way of looking at ourselves
billion, and earning well over R1 billion per annum in South
as a society. But art, especially now, is also a pretty savvy
Africa alone, there are real financial stakes in understanding
investment for someone like you with some cash to spend,
what to invest in and how to collect art that will appreciate
who’s looking for some returns.
in value over time.
For a collector starting out, buying art can be
Since 2000, the global art market has grown by 36%,
intimidating. But like any other business, investing in art can
calculated on the basis of sales and returns, or volume and
work for you if you study the industry, gain some knowledge,
values – the same method by which conventional asset classes
56 / Creative Feel / September 2018
are calculated on stock exchanges. In comparison, the S&P 500 has gained 86% over the same period, the FTSE 100 is up 2% and France’s CAC 40 is down 19%. The art market is, therefore, a competitive asset class like any other – and offers good returns for people making the right investment choices, informed by a good knowledge of both the art they wish to collect, and the market structure as a whole. One of the main areas that attracts many people to the art world is the spectacular prices achieved for individual works, or individual artists. Last year saw plenty of examples of exceptional capital gains on the international stage. Near the top is US-based artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, whose prices have risen exponentially. In 2017, a work called Jim Crow, from 1986, sold for $17 680 936, having first sold in 1992 for $136 367 – a multiplication in value of 130 times! Sydney Kumalo, Leopard, front view
“How about buying some art? Cars, clothes and bling are out there, but everyone has those. Art is the lifeblood of South Africa’s culture – it’s our way of looking at ourselves as a society” The same principle holds true for much of the art in
Motau, for example, was one of the pre-eminent
the South African market. Investing in and collecting art
chroniclers of life under apartheid, sketching fanatically
serves a double purpose: it can offer substantial financial
from life on night sojourns in Alexandra in the late 1960s.
returns, but an art collection reflects aspirational and higher
His early death by misadventure, aged only 20, robbed South
social goals. This is especially the case given South Africa’s
Africa of one of its potentially greatest artists.
contested political history. Many black artists were denied
This reappraisal goes along with the strong identities
the opportunities given to white artists throughout the 20th
already established in the contemporary market by artists
century, especially with regard to formal arts education
like Mary Sibande, Athi-Patra Ruga and artist-activist
and access to galleries, social and cultural networks and
Zanele Muholi.
even materials. One of South Africa’s greatest artists from
Young professionals and new art collectors should,
this time, albeit in exile, Gerard Sekoto, had to be gifted oil
therefore, treat investing in art as a long-term business
paints by a white benefactor in the 1930s to start his career.
prospect. As more new collectors enter the market for
Sekoto’s top works now sell internationally for multimillion-
underrepresented black artists in South Africa, the value
rand prices.
systems begin to change, and the way in which South African
This picture is now slowly changing as a new generation of collectors begins to understand the market, the possible
art presents itself internationally also changes. These changes are in the hands of the new collectors. CF
returns, and begins to express a wish to redress the skewed political history of art collecting in the country. A whole generation of artists who were shunned and ignored by the South African art establishment in the latter half of the
Every month, the MD of Aspire Art Auctions,
last century are now being reassessed and are becoming
RUARC PEFFERS, contributes a
more attractive to collectors who are investing in their
column on the business of collecting and
work. As a result, artists like Dumile Feni, Julian Motau,
investing in art.
Sydney Kumalo, Durant Sihlali and Sekoto are gaining new audiences and markets.
Creative Feel / September 2018 / 57
Gerard Benghu (1910 - 1990), Zululand Landscape, circa 1948, watercolour on paper
Readjusting history through
100-year art collection If you had to tell the story of South African art over the last 100 years, what kind of twists and turns would it take? Where would you begin? WORDS: MARY CORRIGALL
T
hese questions are plagued by all sorts of
last local curator to tackle it. The title to his opening (and
pertinent historical and social quandaries
almost closing) salvo exhibition at this public art museum
and gaps that can’t always be bridged
revealed the bookends he had chosen; 1910 – 2010: From
retrospectively. Perhaps this is why so few
Pierneef to Gugulective. Naidoo, of course, had to fight his
curators have tried to narrate this kind of grand, century-
way out of a corner, so to speak, as he could only really
long story. During his short-lived and contentious tenure
tell the ‘story’ via the museum’s collection, though loans
at the Iziko SA National Gallery, Riason Naidoo was the
were arranged where possible.
58 / Creative Feel / September 2018
“A large proportion of the works are contemporary and reveal what this term might denote in relation to historical works. Confronting the nitty-gritty of reality seems to be one of the defining features” Stefan Hundt, the curator of the Sanlam Art Collection and Gallery, may be in the same position. His current exhibition, Centennial: A Century of South African Art from the Sanlam Art Collection 1918 – 2018, which has just completed a showing at the company headquarters in Cape Town and is on its way to the Sanlam Art Lounge in Johannesburg, is, as the title suggests, limited to the artworks owned by the insurance and finance giant. So, like Naidoo, he has to fashion something cohesive with a limited vocabulary. Pierneef makes an appearance again, but this narrative loosely (there are no arrows pointing this out) ‘begins’ unconventionally with Pieter Willem Frederick Wenning. Refreshingly, instead of a landscape painting, his 1917 painting of Keerom Street, Cape Town figures an urban conurbation in the making. Hundt seems to be suggesting that, while we associate early Western-style art tradition in our country with romantic African landscapes, people were experiencing and capturing urban lifestyles. Zululand Landscape (1948) by Gerard Bhengu is displayed alongside a Pierneef landscape, serving as a reminder that black artists were equally interested in and had an affinity for landscape painting, and ruminating on rural idylls. While works by black artists might not outnumber that by their white contemporaries, they enjoy a strong presence through good examples of works by George Pemba, Gerard Sekoto, Cyprian Shilakoe, David Koloane, Sydney Kumalo, Ezrom Legae and Helen Sebidi. In a way, it almost seems that the inequality that persisted (and persists) in this sphere didn’t hamper their development. For Hundt no doubt, it is more a matter of writing a more balanced art history and showing the connections between artists despite prejudice and other barriers. For example, the motif of hard physical
Penny Siopis (1953 -), Salon, 1987, pastel on paper
labour, as a metaphor for exploitation and social inequalities, runs through works by Dorothy Kay, Pemba and Sekoto. In theory, this sets the stage for the modernist African-driven languages that define works by Edoardo Villa, Alexis Preller and Cecil Skotnes that are hung together. Hundt has grouped the artists’ works in such a way as to advance discrete sub-plots in the 100-year tale of art development. Abstract artists such as Kenneth Bakker and Christo Coetzee serve as markers for a mode currently experiencing a revival. It is equally interesting to observe which artists can’t be neatly ‘contained’, such as Gladys Nomfanekiso Mgudlandlu and her gouache of Birds. She was, after all, an anomaly (black female painters were unheard of, though they no doubt existed) and appears to have operated in isolation. A large proportion of the works are contemporary and reveal what this term might denote in relation to historical
Pauline Gutter (1980 - ), Their Last Supper, 2007, oil on canvas
works. Confronting the nitty-gritty of reality seems to be one of the defining features, even if it is through a layered
and Fall of Apartheid, which summed up a century-long tale
veil of impasto paint. Pauline Gutter’s large painting of a
of SA expression.
spread of food on a dinner table in Their Last Supper (2007)
Ultimately, given that there are over 2 000 works in the
and Penny Siopis’ Salon (1987) present consumption of food,
Sanlam Art Collection, Hundt could tell a different visual
leisure activities as the means through which historical lines
perspective on the country and its expression. Or, perhaps,
of privilege, betrayal and violence can be confronted.
our history is immovable no matter how we shift the pieces
Aside from Tracey Rose’s l’Annunciazione (After Fra Angelico) (2004), which is a collage photographic work,
of the puzzle around. Centennial: A Century of South African Art from the Sanlam
there is a notable absence of photographic works and the
Art Collection 1918 – 2018 will be on view at the Sanlam
documentary mode. Curators such as Rory Bester and Okwui
Art Lounge at 11 Alice Lane, Sandton, Johannesburg from
Enwezor used these as the mode through which to come to
5 September to 15 December 2018. Sponsored text. Mary
grips with our political and social history in the seminal Rise
Corrigall is an art consultant. Visit www.corrigall.org CF
60 / Creative Feel / September 2018
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W W W. C R E AT I V E F E E L . C O. Z A
Ashraf Jamal
ART IN THE TIME OF
AFRICA
Art in the Time of Africa: A post-colonial gaze on contemporary African art practice, criticism, publishing, theory and philosophy of art, within a Pan-African context, is a oneday colloquium taking place on 13 September 2018 at the Chinua Achebe Auditorium, APK Library, University of Johannesburg.
A
rt in the Time of Africa is hosted by the University
of post-colonial discourse in the Pan-African context. The
of Johannesburg (UJ) Faculty of Arts, Design
timing too is pertinent with regard to the Absa L’Atelier
and Architecture (FADA) and UJ Arts & Culture
Competition and the FNB JoburgArtFair, which will have
in association with the South African National
taken place the week before.
Association for the Visual Arts (SANAVA) and Absa. Financial
A line-up of internationally reputable speakers has been
support is provided by the UJ Division for Internationalisation
invited for the colloquium, with the aim to offer a forum
and Absa.
for interaction and exchange of information within the
In line with Absa’s constant strive to ensure that
post-colonial discourse. The chairperson for the day will be
L’Atelier contestants receive as much exposure and
Gordon Froud, senior lecturer (FADA, UJ), artist and curator.
education in their industry as possible, the top ten
Johannesburg-based artist and curator, Usha Seejarim
contestants, who are from all over Africa, will be included
will present ‘Impressions of the Dakar Art Biennale as
in the audience at the colloquium.
a winner of the Laureate du Prix sculpture award’. She
The conveners, Annali Dempsey and Gordon Froud,
will show a short trajectory of the process that led to the
say, ‘We are excited at the prospect of the colloquium and
sculptural artwork exhibited at the Dakar Art Biennale and
see it as a necessary and relevant event in relation to our
further share insights around what it means to be an artist
role as art educators and practitioners and timely in terms
on the African continent at this point in time. Thoughts
62 / Creative Feel / September 2018
Alicia Knock
Usha Seejarim
Alicia Knock, Curator – Contemporary Art and Prospective Department, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France, will look at ‘Collecting for Africa’. Starting from a Ernestine White-Mefetu
chronological survey of the acquisition policy of the Centre Pompidou regarding Africa, including the impact of the two iconic shows Magiciens de la Terre (1989) and Africa Remix (2006), Knock will share her recent involvement in the shift towards a more consistent strategy for African acquisitions.
reflecting the role of prizes and awards in the career of an
This analysis will naturally lead her to stress the close links
artist will be touched on.
between the acquisition strategy and the exhibition program
Director of The Showroom, London, Elvira Dyangani
she tries to implement, aiming at rooting African works into
Ose will talk on the topic ‘About Being Together’. Ose’s
an inclusive history that challenges the Western modernist
theoretical work has focused on the evolution of artists
paradigm, still widely dominant in the collection.
within new forms of environment, in the absence of
Cultural analyst and writer, Ashraf Jamal’s talk examines
conventional institutions and contexts as for within many
‘Authorship and the Art Book in Africa’. What does it
cities in Africa. The pursuit of common space in the public
mean to write on behalf of art? Whom does this enterprise
and private sphere as well as sound and performance of
reach? What is the basis for this enterprise – is it designed
tradition, together make up an affective context that is
for a closed market? Does it merely speak to a critical
communal rather than concretely spatial. Ose is the Absa
cognoscenti? Who and what is the ‘African artist’ and
L’Atelier 2018 lead adjudicator, nominated by SANAVA
‘contemporary African art and culture’ on whose behalf the
‘Post-colonialism as reflected in the arts of Africa’ will be presented by Thabang Monoa (a PhD candidate in Art
writer writes? ‘Platforms of Possibility: The relevance of art competitions
History, FADA, UJ), using the Absa L’Atelier as a starting
in Africa’ will be explored by Ernestine White-Mefetu, Curator
point. The uniqueness of the Absa L’Atelier presents an
of Contemporary Art: Iziko South African National Gallery.
opportunity to evaluate and perhaps even renew our
This talk will attempt to interrogate the relevance of art
understandings of the various, and often, intersecting issues
competitions on the African continent and to identify the
affecting Africa. What is the current state of this postcolony?
possible short and long-term effects of entering or winning on
This presentation examines these issues, some of which
the artists’ personal and professional development. CF
are interrogated in certain artworks submitted for this competition, and hopes to attain some illumination on the
To attend the colloquium, please RSVP to Annali Dempsey
state of Africa in this post-colonial epoch.
at aedempsey@uj.ac.za before 6 September 2018.
Creative Feel / September 2018 / 63
Shisa nyama, lobola and ‘clazzy’ sounds add up to a Kind of Cool SA music jamboree Original South African music that forms the ‘soundtrack to our lives’ was the star attraction at the 2018 SAMRO Overseas Scholarships Competition, where Andrew Hoole (Jazz) and Conrad Asman (Western Art Music) were crowned the country’s most promising young composers.
A
fter a gala concert filled with memorable performances at Johannesburg’s Linder Auditorium on 18 August, University of Cape Town graduate Andrew Hoole (originally from
Port Elizabeth) and current UCT student Conrad Asman (from Johannesburg) each walked away with a R200 000 scholarship from the SAMRO Foundation. These cash awards will enable the two young South African composers to further their postgraduate music studies, or undertake master classes or other forms of professional development, abroad. A new award for composers, in recognition of South Africa’s diverse and vibrant indigenous cultures, was also unveiled by SAMRO on the night: the Indigenous African Music Awards, for candidates who create the best work in each genre that incorporates indigenous styles and instruments.
64 / Creative Feel / September 2018
Riley Giandhari (Runner-up – Jazz) Ndabo Zulu (Winner – IAM award), Conrad Asman (Winner – Western Art Music), Andrew Hoole (Winner – Jazz) and Lise Morrison (Runner-up – Western Art Music)
The composers’ round of the SAMRO Overseas Scholarships Competition alternates on a four-yearly cycle with the awards for singers, instrumentalists and keyboard players. It is a vitally important award, said SAMRO Foundation Managing Director André le Roux, because composers ‘create from nothing… take us to new worlds… weave dreams and manifest them in music.’ He noted that composers are responsible for creating songs that capture the social and political zeitgeist of the times; songs ‘that touch some deep part of us and form the soundtrack to our lives… that take us to happy, emotional, beautiful and sometimes scary places. ‘We are celebrating young people who are embarking on an important journey to compose songs that resonate with something deep inside our souls… and are paying tribute to the essence of what makes us and our country tick.’
“These cash awards will enable the two young South African composers to further their postgraduate music studies, or undertake master classes or other forms of professional development, abroad”
Five gifted young South African composers saw their works brought to life by accomplished local musicians such as Marcus Wyatt and the ZAR Jazz Orchestra, and members of the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Kutlwano Masote. These included Hoole’s winning compositions ‘Bombero Suite’ (a big band piece inspired by the soundtrack he wrote for the fire-fighting video game Flash Point: Fire Rescue) and ‘Kind of Cool’ (a tribute to the ‘cool jazz’ period and the crossover jazz/classical quality epitomised by Miles Davis and Gil Evans). The 29-yearold intends to travel to the United States to study under ‘masters of composition’ with his prize.
Creative Feel / September 2018 / 65
“The scholarships evening included a special focus on Nelson Mandela to mark the 100th year of the late statesman’s birth, as part of the SAMRO Foundation’s new partnership with the Nelson Mandela Foundation”
The idea for Asman’s victorious composition ‘shisa nyama’ came about after the 22-year-old contemplated how a South African braai brings people from all backgrounds together to share in a fun, festive feast. ‘It’s a smorgasbord of flavours of South African music styles and tastes,’ from kwela to pop, he noted. Asman also received the R10 000 Surendran Reddy clazz award for Western Art Music, for his ability to expertly meld elements of different musical styles in the spirit of the influential late South African composer and pianist. Reddy, who passed away in 2010 aged 47, coined the term ‘clazz’ to describe his signature crossover musical style and his concept of composition and improvisation – a seamless fusion of classical, jazz, traditional African and other styles of world music. University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) alumnus Riley Giandhari was named the runner-up as well as the clazz award winner in the Jazz category, winning a total of R80 000, for his composition ‘Answer the Call’. The composer says the piece was partly inspired after he once heard a cell phone ringing incessantly in a restaurant, prompting him to put his sense of annoyance into 7/4 time. Stellenbosch University graduate Lise Morrison was the runner-up in the Western Art Music category, receiving a R70 000 prize. Her work ‘Dololo’ (for flute, guitar, percussion and string trio) was composed with the mbira in mind, using the rhythm of the word dololo (meaning ‘nothing’) as a starting point. In addition, her ‘Trio in Five Movements’ was inspired by the contrasts between the
66 / Creative Feel / September 2018
Award winners (back) with Mr Jerry Mnisi (Chair – SAMRO Board), Sibongile Khumalo (Vice-chair – SAMRO Board), Nomfundo Xaluva (Vice-chair – SAMRO Foundation), Kutlwano Masote (Chair – SAMRO Foundation)
Ndabo Zulu and Nomfundo Xaluva
different landscapes and soundscapes she has experienced during her travels. Morrison, who is currently based in The Hague, in the Netherlands, also walked off with the R30 000 SAMRO special award for Indigenous African Music in her category. In addition to showcasing the works of these four finalists, the gala concert gave another exceptional young jazz composer and competition semi-finalist, Ndabo Zulu, a platform on which to shine. The audience was blown away by the jazz orchestra’s performance of his work ‘Umgidi’, dedicated to the Nguni nation. UKZN graduate Zulu, who is currently completing his master’s degree at the Norwegian Music Academy in Oslo, received the R30 000 Indigenous African Music Award in the
Sibongile Khumalo with Conrad Asman and André le Roux
Jazz category. Joe Makhanza, a Giyani musician, ethnomusicologist and player and manufacturer of African instruments such
Concord Nkabinde and his band performed two tracks
as the kora and the mbira, gave the audience an authentic
as part of their ongoing Nelson Mandela: The Song Lives On
taste of indigenous music on the night. He performed
project: ‘An Ideal to Die For’ and ‘Time to Build’, drawn from
his compositions ‘Mangwani mpulele’, a Sotho folk song
Madiba’s own speeches and words.
about lobola, and ‘Mbilu yi ri tukutuku’, dedicated to all victims of crime. The scholarships evening included a special focus
The audience was also treated to 2012 SAMRO scholarship winner Darren English performing his ‘Pledge for Peace’, which earned this stellar young
on Nelson Mandela to mark the 100th year of the late
trumpeter the 2018 Global Peace Song Award and forms
statesman’s birth, as part of the SAMRO Foundation’s
part of a suite of three songs that English composed to
new partnership with the Nelson Mandela Foundation to
pay homage to Mandela. CF
‘improve policies that affect our people, and promote our living cultural heritage.’
For more information, visit www.samrofoundation.org.za
Creative Feel / September 2018 / 67
Tshepang Drawing by Gerhard Marx
Tshepang CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED SOUTH AFRICAN PLAY,
The Third Testament
W
hits The Joburg Theatre this October!
orld-renowned playwright, director and
her latest play The Inconvenience of Wings and restaged two of
producer, Lara Foot, was named the 2016
her previous multi-award-winning works, Karoo Moose and
Featured Artist at the 43rd National Arts
Tshepang: The Third Testament.
Festival, leading the charge on the Main
Based on the true story that rocked the nation and
programme, 80% of which was made up of work written,
shocked the world, Foot’s critically acclaimed Tshepang: The
directed, curated or headlined by women. As the Featured
Third Testament stars the original cast. Mncedisi Shabangu
Artist, she staged three productions – the world premiere of
reprises his role as narrator and sculptor Simon, and
68 / Creative Feel / September 2018
Mncedisi Shabangu, Nonceba Constance Didi in Tshepang PHOTO Andrew Brown Nonceba Constance Didi plays Ruth, in this haunting and
African sense of magic realism while cleverly and sensitively
uplifting masterpiece of redemption. Shabangu, renowned
layering the story with complex psychological and personal
for his unique style of physical theatre, received the 2003
issues. Although the topic may be brutal, the way it is handled
Fleur du Cap Best Actor Award for his performance.
is sensitive, even poetic, earning the production praise from
While the content of the play is influenced or motivated by factual evidence, the story is purely fictional, weaving
audiences and critics around the globe. The production has played in New York, London, Brisbane,
together 20 000 stories – the number of reported child rapes
Stockholm and Amsterdam, and toured Germany and
in South Africa per year. Tshepang: The Third Testament is
Switzerland. The Stage in London described it as a ‘searing
ultimately a story of love, forgiveness and coming to terms
and compassionate, powerfully acted play… a committed act
with a devastation of this magnitude.
of remembrance’, while the South African Sunday Independent
Foot responded to the desperate situation by starting
encouraged, ‘If you only see one show this year, Tshepang: The
to write the play in 2002, based on extensive research
Third Testament demands to be the one… superbly written and
from media articles and related material and a deeper
performed’, and What’s On, London, said ‘Deeply moving’.
investigation into both the physical and socio-economic
A literary expert best described it as ‘a play rich with
landscape where events such as these occur. Rather than
meanings and subtexts,’ and said, ‘Although an infamous
pointing fingers and finding unsubstantiated answers,
incident in South African society is highlighted in this play,
the play draws the viewer into the complexities and
it is done in such a manner that it does have universal effect
contradictions that surround these events.
and resonance.’
She explains, ‘While searching for meaning in the
The simplicity and symbolism of Gerhard Marx’s
incomprehensible brutality of this heinous and senseless
award-winning scenography and design create a visual and
act of brutality, I wanted the play to bring insight to the
evocative backdrop for the story.
audience and, perhaps, in its small way, even offer some sort of healing as well.’ The play has garnered several awards and accolades
Tshepang: The Third Testament will have a season run at The Joburg Theatre’s Fringe Theatre from 16 to 28 October 2018. To secure your tickets now before they sell
and has been translated into Zulu, Afrikaans and Croatian.
out, you can call 0861 670 670, go online at
It has been published in English and Zulu and has been
www.joburgtheatre.com or book in person at the Joburg
performed in prisons and rural settlements throughout
Theatre box office. Theatre patrons can also book online
South Africa.
and pay at selected Pick N Pay stores.
Tshepang: The Third Testament became an international
For discounts and school group bookings contact Joburg
success as it presented a rare and necessary foray into a world
Theatre ticketing office: Happiness Mnyandu 011 877 6853
that few have seen before. It draws on a South African style
happiness@joburgtheatre.com or Tlhopiso Sera
of storytelling, combining striking visual imagery with an
011 877 6817 thlopiso@joburgtheatre.com CF
Creative Feel / September 2018 / 69
Enchanting romantic comedy
Shakespeare in Love returns to the Fugard by popular demand!
The award-winning South African premier production of the enchanting romantic comedy Shakespeare in Love returns to the Fugard Theatre due to overwhelming demand. It is currently showing at the Fugard Theatre.
E
Daniel Mpilo Richards and Roxane Hayward
ric Abraham presents this Fugard Theatre production of Shakespeare in Love, which was a runaway success last year, playing to sold-out houses and critical acclaim from reviewers and audiences alike. Praise included comments
such as ‘FIVE STARS… Superlative theatre’, ‘Blackadder meets the Bard in this extremely entertaining adaptation’ and ‘romantic, dramatic, comedic, exaggerated fun... a fun night out at the theatre’. Written by Lee Hall and adapted from the 1999 Academy Award-winning screenplay by Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman, the comedy ran for an extended sold-out season at the West End’s Noel Coward Theatre in London in 2014. Shakespeare in Love features a stellar cast of 21 actors, including the return of the loveable fur-actor Bogart as Spot the Dog, who captured the hearts of all who saw the show. The play is directed by the Fugard Theatre’s resident director Greg Karvellas (The Road to Mecca, The Father, Clybourne Park, Bad Jews, Champ). Stepping into the role of Will Shakespeare is Daniel Mpilo Richards who has dazzled audiences as Bernardo the leader of the Sharks in the Fugard Theatre’s West Side Story (also Aunty Merle the Musical, State Fracture, Pay Back the Curry); with the return of Roxane Hayward (Accident, Blood Drive, Saints and Strangers) as Viola de Lesseps and Cape Talk’s John Maytham as Fennyman.
70 / Creative Feel / September 2018
Roxane Hayward
Robyn Scott recently won the Fleur du Cap Theatre Award for Best Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Play for her role as Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love. The production was also nominated for Best Performance by an Ensemble, Best Lighting Design for Wolf Britz and Best Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Play for Darron Araujo as Henslowe. Multiple award-winner Robyn Scott (London Road, Elizabeth 1– Almost By Chance a Woman) stars as Queen Elizabeth I; Jason K. Ralph (The Phantom of the Opera (World Tour), Chicago) as Lord Wessex; Nicholas Pauling (The Father, A Steady Rain, Clybourne Park) as Ned Allen; Sven Ruygrok (The Mother, Epstein, Spud) as Sam; and Mark Elderkin (Twelfth Night, Champ) as Burbage. Darron Araujo (Champ, The Taming of the Shrew) performs the role of Henslowe; Armand Aucamp (Knapsekêrels, Krotoa) as Marlowe; Adrian Collins (Bench, King Lear) as Ralph; Walter van Dyk (Arms and the Man [Watford Palace Theatre UK], A Flea in her Ear [Old Vic Theatre UK]) as Tilney; Pierre Malherbe (Champ, The Kingmakers) as Nol; Lucy Tops (Funny Girl, The Rocky Horror Show, Bar None) as Nurse; Dean Balie (Orpheus in Africa, Kat and the Kings) as John Webster; and Louis Viljoen (The Play That Goes Wrong, The Frontiersmen) as Mr Wabash. Completing the ensemble are Alex Tops (The Rocky Horror Show, Bar None) as Robin; Kathleen Stephens (The Taming of the Shrew, Nasty Womxn) as Mistress Quickly; Rendani Mufamadi (Confession Sessions, Footloose the Musical) as Lambert; and Rachel Mertens who returns to the ensemble. Set Design is by Paul Wills (King Kong, A Human Being Died That Night), Costume Sourcing and Styling is by Birrie le Roux (King Kong, West Side Story) and Widaad Albertus (The Demon Bride, The Eulogists) with Lighting Design by Wolf Britz (Die Seemeeu, Wie’s Bang vir Virginia Woolf?). Sound Design is by David Classen (District Six Kanala) with Resident Musical Director of the Fugard Theatre Charl Johan Lingenfelder (West Side Story, King Kong, Funny Girl, Cabaret). Choreography is by Kristin Wilson (Salome, Midsummer Night’s Dream) with Fight Choreography by Jon Keevy (Othello, Hamlet). The story: Young Will Shakespeare has writer’s block... the deadline for his new play is fast approaching but he is in desperate need of inspiration. That is, until he finds his muse – Viola. This beautiful young woman is Will’s greatest admirer and will stop at nothing (including breaking the law) to appear in his next play. Against a bustling background of mistaken identity, ruthless scheming and backstage theatrics, Will’s love for Viola quickly blossoms and inspires him to write his greatest masterpiece. Shakespeare in Love will be performed from Tuesday to Saturday at 20:00 with a 15:00 matinee on Saturdays. Sunday matinees at 3pm on 16, 23 and 30 September 2018. Tickets from R150 to R350 can be booked through the Fugard Theatre box office on 021 461 4554 or through the Fugard Theatre’s website at www.thefugard.com. There is a 15% discount available for the Friends of The Fugard members. CF Robyn Scott
Creative Feel / September 2018 / 71
Janice Honeyman:
the doyenne of theatre in South Africa
Every play that Janice Honeyman directs is a complete success, and her latest, Fool for Love, is no exception. With this production, she returned to her theatrical roots: the Market Theatre. Creative Feel caught up with her to get an update on her busy creative schedule.
72 / Creative Feel / September 2018
Kate Liquorish, Langley Kirkwood and Zane Meas in Fool for Love PHOTO Brett Rubin
W
e find Janice Honeyman in a rehearsal room
‘I did Shirley, Goodness and Mercy in Cape Town and
upstairs at the Market Theatre Foundation
here in Riverlea, which was a coloured township in Joburg,
building. It’s Friday, lunchtime, and the
and the people from there did the same thing. They used
actors are still getting changed and ready
to queue around the block – it was completely full. People
for the weekend. They leave with a hug, a smile and a real
came and saw it three, four or five times because they could
sense of camaraderie. ‘For me, it’s an absolutely crucial
absolutely relate to it. It was about them. It’s great when one
part of the rehearsal process – that they relate, they create
can find moments like that.
a team and that they are happy,’ comments Honeyman.
‘We put on Driving Miss Daisy, a play that crossed the
‘Theatre is like an infection. If you pass on a bad germ,
colour bar, in 1989 when it was still not allowed. Staging
the last place that it stops at is the audience. But if you
a play about a black man (John Kani) who drives a white
are passing on a good germ, it is positive and comes out of
woman (Annabel Linder) around… there’s such a different
teamwork.’ The team that she refers to is the cast of Sam
angle that we have to approach theatre from in this country,
Shepard’s Fool for Love. Zane Meas makes a comeback to
and there always was. I think living in South Africa is a bit
the stage, playing the Old Man alongside award-winning
like living on quicksand – you never know what’s going to be
actress Kate Liquorish’s May. Langley Kirkwood returns
happening tomorrow.
to the Market Theatre after 20 years as Eddie, and Paka
‘The Market Theatre was always way ahead of its time
Zwedala completes this incredibly talented cast as Martin,
and was integrated – and that’s why we started it. If you
May’s suitor.
look at the Market Theatre today, it is a theatre for everyone
For Honeyman, it is a return to a place where she
and that is exactly what we wanted to achieve. I just wish
celebrated some of her most memorable successes. With
white people weren’t too frightened to come to it. It’s such a
Zane Meas, she explored Chris van Wyk’s wonderful story of
reflection of how people still think.’
childhood innocence, Shirley, Goodness and Mercy. When she
And, of course, talking about the early years, we also
directed John Kani’s Nothing But The Truth, people travelled
touch on Honeyman’s artistic relationship and long-
all the way from the Eastern Cape to come to the Market
standing friendship with Mannie Manim. They are working
Theatre. They stood outside crying, remembering their
together again on Fool for Love where he will be doing the
own brothers. This story, which runs deep into the veins of
lighting. She says, ‘That’s one of the longest relationships
apartheid, touched them deeply. ‘We took the play to New
I have in theatre, it started even before the Market. He was
Brighton, right into the township that it was written in, and
still working with PACT (The Performing Arts Council of
it was astounding,’ says Honeyman. ‘Theatre is meaningful
the Transvaal) at the time, and I was a student. We went to
for people when it reflects their own lives.
the very first Grahamstown Festival (it wasn’t even called
Creative Feel / September 2018 / 73
the National Arts Festival yet) and I heard Nadine Gordimer
Of course, the question is, ‘Why this play now?’
speaking, Alan Paton did a reading, and one night was the
Honeyman explains: ‘James Ngcobo chose it, but I love it
world premiere of Boesman and Lena.
and I think it’s great. I think because of the cultural boycott
‘Mannie took us to an amazing party. Don Mattera, Jack
all those years ago, and because theatre became very
Cope, Athol Fugard, Alan Paton, André Brink were all there
workshopped and there was a lot of protest theatre, the
and we drank red wine (which was quite daring). Barney
public missed out on these plays – we couldn’t do them. In
Simon was there too, I met him as well. It was such a great
fact, when I was at the Market, I was sort of responsible for
start, that is when Mannie and my friendship began.’
doing most of the overseas plays that we could get through
Two years later, Honeyman finished university and Manim employed her at PACT. ‘He was a manager at PACT at that
the cultural boycott. ‘Shepard gives us a masculinised landscape but, in this
time and Carel Trichardt was the artistic director... There
play, I think he wrote, for the first time, a very detailed
were incidents at PACT that no one was happy about. It was a
part for a woman. Previously, he wrote many male-male
segregated theatre and it continued to be segregated theatre
relationships, father-son, brothers, and so on. But in this
and there were never mixed casts. I remember playing the
play, there is a very damaged and very difficult relationship.
coloured character Adriana, which I loved playing, in Andre
He paints a really detailed picture of the woman as well as
Brink’s Kinkels innie Kabel. Later, when they wanted to do
of the man. That, for me, makes it very interesting because
it again, I suggested they offer it to a wonderful actress in
of my particular interest in feminism – that seems like such
Eersterust. She was coloured and a fantastic actress, why
an old-fashioned word – in women, and the psychological
should I, as a white actress, do it again? I was trying to make
problems that the woman goes through. It’s a lovely play. So,
“If you are doing it right, theatre can be so close to life. When it’s honest and truthful audiences can’t help getting involved, which I think is what we have been working for”
a political point. And they said, “oh, well thank you, then you
when James said Fool for Love, I already loved the play. I had
needn’t be in the play” and they cast someone else who was
never seen the film, I had never seen a production of it, but
white. We just wanted to be in a place where every South
had read it many years ago.
African had the right to see good theatre. I loved my time here, at the Market Theatre, I just loved it.’ Honeyman is, of course, renowned for having worked,
‘It is definitely relevant to family situations today. It’s about relationships and it’s a human play. I think that, no matter what, there is always room for those plays – for
either as an actress or as a director, on almost all of Athol
personal recognition and identification with a subject in a
Fugard’s plays. She directed Hello and Goodbye at the
play for an audience. They must be able to identify, and they
Market Theatre, the Civic Theatre and even in London with
must be able to say: “oh my god, I have said that myself” or
the Royal Shakespeare Company after Fugard himself had
“I have seen that myself”.
recommended her. ‘It was so great that I could do that. It
‘It’s a play about imprisonment in a way and being
was during the time of the cultural boycott but, because of
trapped in a relationship. It’s a small set, a grungy motel
my association with the Market Theatre, I was able to get a
room, and it’s in the intimate Mannie Manim Theatre at
permit to break the cultural boycott.
the Market.’ CF
‘I have a long history with Fugard and I love putting
(We also talked to Janice Honeyman about her yearly
on his work. It’s funny, doing this play, Fool for Love, Sam
pantomime and she is busy at the moment with her thirty-
Shepard is like the American Fugard.’
first panto, Snow White. So watch this space in Creative Feel).
74 / Creative Feel / September 2018
Roseline Wilkens PHOTO Marijke Willems
Our lives,
our stories
‘M
y heart is aware, my soul is accepting, my spirit is willing, my being is ready and God is in control, yet I find myself in a constant tug of war with myself,’ Thabang Mojapelo
explains the inspiration to her solo piece Tug of War, which Roseline Keppler, a senior dancer in
she will perform at Vuyani Dance Theatre’s development
the Vuyani stable, will also be presenting
showcase on 27 September 2018.
Cry the Beloved Eldos, a piece she has
This showcase forms part of the trainee programme’s
created. In this piece, she reaffirms that
assessments, where all trainees create a ten-minute solo piece to present to invited industry influencers and
our lives matter through the rights, the wrongs and
their peers in similar programmes in the performing arts
the stigmas we carry. She asks humanity to reflect on who
space. The training programme is focused on dance skills,
we are, what our purpose is in life and what role we play in
technique and choreography with the aim to give youth
building a better society.
from diverse backgrounds an opportunity to hone in on their
The showcase is also a step toward curating an
natural dance talent and excel in the African contemporary
enthralling programme for the annual Vuyani Week, which
dance aesthetic. The one-year programme gives Vuyani
was created for VDT dancers, trainees in the programme
Dance Theatre the opportunity to develop future dancers,
and protégés at the various outreach stations we work with
dance teachers and choreographers with the latitude of
as a platform to stage the set piece that had been taught at
giving the trainees access to other skills, such as costume,
the stations throughout the year. Vuyani Week also offers
lighting, sound and set design. Through this training, we
emerging choreographers an opportunity to mount their
are able to have a consistent supply of exceptional
choreographic work on professional dancers.
dancers, dance teachers and choreographers
Otto Nhlapo speaks about the work he is developing
who are exposed to external exponents that
for the showcase: ‘Each dancer in the Vuyani studio has a
enhance the trainees’ skills inherent to the larger
unique story to tell and the company emphasises that we
contemporary dance discipline.
are not just a dance company but storytellers. I want to tell a story about the triumphs of black South Africans who were relegated to townships in the apartheid government as a way to decapitate our progress. Through all of those struggles, we found ourselves building our own inherent culture which has become a source of strength.’ Vuyani’s founding objective, using dance in a provocative and ambitious way as a vehicle to create sustainable arts jobs, is entrenched in making sure that the trainees that come into our programme walk away with as much skill and experience that the company can possibly offer them. CF Otto Nhlapo PHOTO Marijke Willems Creative Feel / September 2018 / 75
ARTLOOKS & ARTLINES |
ISMAIL MAHOMED
Dead White Woman Walking… From the Johannesburg Art Gallery to the Market Theatre
Leila Henriques in Florence
W
ith a proud reputation as South Africa’s home
locations in London, including the Tabard Theatre, which
of protest theatre and artistic work that has
specialised in new writing. On returning to South Africa, she
been celebratory of South Africa’s political
joined the Loft Theatre Company in Durban before settling in
liberation icons, it is quite surprising to find
Johannesburg. Apart from performing in roles that have won
the wife of a mining magnate and politician – a dead white
her awards, Henriques also teaches at the Market Theatre
colonial figure today whose legacy and value is both contested
Laboratory where her students walked away with the Standard
and forgotten – taking centre stage in the Barney Simon
Bank Gold Ovation Award for their production Hani: The
Theatre. Just what would Barney say?
Legacy when it was staged at the National Arts Festival
Barney would probably not raise an eyebrow because
In her current role in Florence, a new play by Myer Taub,
the actress playing Lady Phillips (a woman of exceptional
Leila Henriques gives a superb performance that highlights
strength, passion, and character who promoted and
the contributions and impact that Lady Florence Phillips
celebrated local and international artists and who
had in building a greater understanding of art with early
persevered in building them a home at the Johannesburg
Johannesburg and its contemporary society. It was Florence’s
Art Gallery (JAG)) is celebrated South African actress, Leila
philanthropic nature that endeared her to both the world of
Henriques, who did some of her most exciting work at the
artists and public alike.
Market Theatre with Barney Simon. She even co-edited a
A press release issued by the Market Theatre reads,
book with Irene Stefanou about Barney Simon, titled The
‘Too often women like Florence were unsung heroes and
World in an Orange.
sometimes their contributions went unnoticed. But the
After leaving school, Henriques trained at the Oxford School of Drama, and spent two years working at various
76 / Creative Feel / September 2018
achievements, leadership, courage, and strength they possessed created indispensable heritage from which we can
work he has written that places Florence Phillips as a ghost at the Joubert Park fence outside the Johannesburg Art Gallery. Playwright Myer Taub playfully experiments with time, place, language, and form to explore our contemporary moment. The world-of-the-play moves across over 100 years of Johannesburg history, revealing a city that captures a struggle for recognition, renewal, unrequited love, hope, and prosperity. ‘The politics of staging a play today that centres on the life of a white colonial figure is a complicated business, but that’s exactly what makes this play appealing to me – the playwright is not trying to place anyone on a pedestal, rather Taub is asking questions about what we value, how we think about history, and what we see as relevant or not,’ says Greg Homann. Homann is an accomplished director, academic and author. His book, The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary South African Theatre, is a definitive book that looks at the history, status and context of South African contemporary theatre. It offers a comprehensive introduction and survey of South African plays with a weighting towards work from approximately 1990 to the present. Homann is also a holder of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award. His production of Florence at the Market Theatre is supported by Johannesburg-based sculptor, Richard Forbes, who designed the set for the production with lighting by award-winning lighting designer, Nomvula Molepo. The Johannesburg Art Gallery
Costumes are designed by Karabo Legoabe Mtshali and
draw pride, comfort, courage, and long-range vision from.
is by Ntuthuko Mbuyazi.
Nthabiseng Mokone. The sound design from the production
The story of our early pioneers can be used in a creative
Watching Leila Henriques’ performance in Florence will
way to engage and inspire the public, including the next
whet anyone’s appetite to visit the Johannesburg Art Gallery.
generation of woman pioneers.’
There couldn’t be a better way for Johannesburg’s citizens
Lady Phillips was born Dorothea Sarah Florence
who fear to come into the city to take an Uber that would
Alexandra in Cape Town in 1863. In 1885, she married
drop them off right at the Gallery’s doorstep. Who knows?
Sir Lionel Phillips, 1st Baronet, a mining magnate and
Florence’s ghost might even be there to personally welcome
politician, after they met on the diamond-diggings. They
them and show them around the Gallery.
moved to Johannesburg in 1889. She travelled extensively
The dead white woman certainly did take a night walk
from 1887, but returned hurriedly to be with her husband
from Joubert Park to see Leila Henriques playing her at the
during his trial following the Jameson Raid.
Market Theatre during August 2018. CF
It was in London where Florence acquired a keen interest in art and bought numerous works by artists of the time, including William Orpen, William Rothenstein, Walter Sickert, Philip Wilson Steer, Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet and Alfred Sisley. She presented many of these works to the Johannesburg Art Gallery, which she actively helped to establish. In the world-premiere of Florence, a one-person play
Artlooks & Artlines is a monthly column written by ISMAIL
MAHOMED,
CEO of the Market Theatre Foundation.
directed by Greg Homann, a disgruntled actress meets over lunch in a fancy restaurant with a playwright about the new
Creative Feel / September 2018 / 77
BUSINESS & ARTS |
MICHELLE CONSTANT
The Queen of Johannesburg
Villa Arcadia
O
ver the years, I’ve had the good fortune of
Henriques plays a variety of characters, in Brechtian style
attending many BASA events and others, including
– she is Florence, she is the actress who plays Florence; she
my own birthday, at Hollard’s Villa Arcadia. The
references the author, and even plays herself at one point.
house, which overlooks Johannesburg, is one of
Through the conversation with the ‘missing’ author Taub, we
grace and grandeur, harking back to a long past South Africa.
are introduced to some of the debates that are colonialism,
Owned and built by Lionel and Florence Phillips, it was the
the arts, and the brute force of our city – past and present.
latter who also commissioned the Johannesburg Art Gallery, or JAG as it is more commonly known. Myer Taub’s play Florence, which ran at the Market
Design on all levels is critical for a production of this nature. While the set is challenging for the audience (the artist is fenced in at all times) it is the sound design and
Theatre in August, was a total surprise and one that provided
costume design that deserve kudos. Ntuthuko Mbuyazi has
many threads of conversation among my colleagues in the
designed for Gregory Maqoma’s superb Cion, and in Florence,
creative sector. Beautifully performed by Leila Henriques,
he masterfully created the constant backdrop of the city in
and directed by Greg Homann, we expected a linear story
2018, the sound of an electric fence ticking, cars, distant
about the woman who was once referred to as the ‘Queen of
music, dogs, sirens (perhaps the only thing I missed was a
Johannesburg’, surveying her kingdom from the house on
hadeda or two). The soundscape to Jozi acts as a metronome
the hill.
and counterpoint to the historical descriptions by Lady
And yet the piece is far more complex and complicated
Florence, and her passion to build the Johannesburg Art
– investigating the rifts and fissures that are Johannesburg,
Gallery. With the concept of fences, we are also reminded of
her colonial history and the role of the artist in the city.
the stories historically told by photographer and artist, Jo
78 / Creative Feel / September 2018
Leila Henriques in Florence
character (the actress) questions whether this is the time to tell this story of colonialism, we are reminded that yes, our country, is made up of many stories, and yes, these stories should be told. It is stories, as author Sisonke Msimang says, that are important in our search for identity and even, courage and bravery. Now is the perfect time for a play of this nature. As Msimang recently said at a talk I attended, we need to negotiate the tension between the world as we want it to be, and the world as it is, through a diversity of female voices; we need to tell our stories ‘from our scars and not our wounds’. And so Florence asks what the role of the artist is? To lay bare his or her feelings, to be skewered on the very fences of societal beliefs? And yet, without the artist, we cannot, or perhaps just do not, open our minds to different perspectives. Florence, a multifaceted rendering of our history and our ‘scars’, naming those that are stripped from Ratcliffe and Terry Kurgan. Questions of who has access to art,
their podiums and from the history books. But in their wake,
and who is the other, are all raised again in this production.
Johannesburg still has ‘Florence’s Gallery’, and an impressive
I mentioned the design – both the fence and the sound – but the costume design too is a wonderful evocation of the
collection of artworks that belong to all the city dwellers, not just those on the one side of the fence. CF
past. At one point, Florence puts on the frame of a bustle. Instead of wearing the full skirt, she simply wears the ‘bones’ of it – history stripped bare, emotions laid bare, an evocation of a body shape that belonged to Sara Baartman, but was ‘captured’ and worn by the colonials. Actress, and director, Leila Henriques is a gift to the
Business & Arts is a monthly column by
MICHELLE CONSTANT,
CEO of Business and Arts South Africa (BASA).
sector (her recent directorial work of the ensemble piece Hani: The Legacy was superb). Now she goes back to performance and she is once again riveting. Even as her one
Creative Feel / September 2018 / 79
THE ART OF PERFORMANCE |
DAVE MANN
Documenting the past and present
F
rom the outset, the Goodman Gallery’s On Common Ground seemed like an exhibition that you should be interested in. The joint photographic exhibition, which featured the work of internationally renowned
photographers David Goldblatt and Peter Magubane, presented itself as an important showcase of South African images, taken in varying settings, across various decades. In short, it was a show that would ideally help you view the history of apartheid South Africa and all of its complexities through a retrospective lens. But, as much as the past can provide a clearer view of what the future holds, Magubane and Goldblatt’s photographs remain striking examples of the contemporary injustices that exist in the country. On Common Ground is a vast exhibition in terms of both the amount of work that’s been curated into a single show, and the many stories and versions of history that are being portrayed in these works. The exhibition is curated by Paul Weinberg, another prominent South African photographer who was active during apartheid South Africa. Weinberg knew Magubane and Goldblatt well and it shows in the exhibition through the works he chose to include as well as the key pieces of text he borrowed from various interviews and artist statements over the years. The exhibition title takes its name from the similarities at work in both photographers’ images. To draw just a few
Photograph by David Goldblatt. Cup final, Orlando Stadium, Soweto. 1972 (2_14218), 1972. Silver gelatin photograph on fibrebased paper. Paper: 33 x 33 cm. Image: 30 x 30 cm. Frame: 46 x 46 cm. Edition of 2 But there are differences, too. Magubane’s work
thematic lines between Goldblatt and Magubane’s work
may be at home in gallery spaces, but he was always a
would already see you delving deep into Johannesburg’s
photojournalist through and through. Many of his images
mines, traversing the busy streets of the city, navigating
– particularly his documentation of uprisings and protest
South Africa’s many informal settlements, and documenting
action – take place on the front lines. As Weinberg puts it:
various protests and moments of unrest.
‘Peter comes from the “if you’re not close enough, you’re
Certain images seem familiar, such as Goldblatt’s image
not good enough” school.’ Magubane often referred to his
of the cup final at Orlando Stadium where a car rolls by
camera as his weapon during the struggle. He rarely asked
an energetic crowd, a waving hand sticking out from the
subjects for their names and, back then, he never asked for
passenger side as a police dog bares its teeth. Perhaps, like
permission. His primary concern was to document what was
me, you’d never seen the image before, but you’d come
happening in front of him, in the truest way possible.
across Magubane’s image of the notorious green car rolling
Goldblatt’s work was always a little more withdrawn
through the streets of Soweto, a policeman’s arm sticking
and, often, was carried out from the margins. As the late
out of the driver’s side and brandishing a gun.
photographer said of his own work: ‘I was very interested in
Both photographers became completely immersed in the
the events that were taking place in the country as a citizen
realities of the apartheid regime – Magubane through his work
but, as a photographer, I’m not particularly interested, and I
as a journalist, but also through a desire to document resistance,
wasn’t then, in photographing the moment that something
struggle and injustice, and Goldblatt through a profound interest
happens. I’m interested in the conditions that give rise to
in what pathologies gave rise to such a regime.
events.’ This approach resulted in some of Goldblatt’s more
80 / Creative Feel / September 2018
For Magubane, a black photographer in South Africa, access was a constant issue. Magubane hailed from Soweto and would travel into the city to work. He was constantly harassed by police, had his nose broken, and was sentenced to 586 days in solitary confinement after photographing protesters outside a prison where Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and other political prisoners appeared. ‘For the police, assaulting the black press was a way of intimidating them, of trying to make them stop telling the truth,’ reads another quote by Magubane. Similarly, while neither photographer actively sought Photograph by Peter Magubane. The notorious green car, contained police driving around Soweto taking pot shots at people in the street. Magubane followed behind them in car and took the picture through the windscreen of the car in which he was travelling, June 1976. Silver gelatin print. Work: 29.5 x 44 cm. Frame: 47.5 x 61.5 cm STD 1/10
a career as an artist, according to Weinberg, Goldblatt’s
powerful work, such as his photographs highlighting racial
Goodman’s Director, Liza Essers, in the exhibition statement.
tensions among Afrikaners and black South Africans. ‘There
‘Through this exhibition, we hope to address the historical
was this strong sense of earth, a kind of spiritual generosity
oversight that Magubane has, in his lifetime, received such
and, at the same time, a fundamental racist attitude,’ reads
limited visibility in a contemporary art context.’
a quote by Goldblatt beneath a series of jarring images featuring white Afrikaners with their black employees. And if Goldblatt’s work provides an archive of small
work accrued countless awards, and was exhibited across the globe, while Magubane’s work circulated mostly among educational institutions. ‘On Common Ground also marks one of a small handful of exhibitions for Magubane in a gallery setting,’ states
Ultimately, this reads like something of a guilty afterthought. ‘Historical oversight’ is addressed, yes, but what does it achieve? If anything, the works on display in
moments that contributed to larger events in the country,
On Common Ground, as well as the interview and biography
then Magubane’s lens captured those events as they
excerpts tenderly sourced by Weinberg, show us that
happened. Not only that, but Magubane’s images seem to
inequality persists and that documentation and visibility
go beyond the very immediate context in which they were
are crucial, but that they are not everything. Magubane
taken. Captions are crucial to his works in this regard, as they
and Goldblatt were very much contemporaries, and their
often continue the story he’s told through photography. An
careers intersected at many points over the years, but due to
image of a woman sitting in the back of a van with an armed
structural inequalities, the two were rarely on equal footing.
soldier becomes somewhat less definitive when you discover
Here’s a quote by Magubane that possibly sums it up
that she’s pregnant and receiving police assistance during a
better: ‘I was being recognised for my skill as a photographer.
riot. Then there is the image of a young man using a dustbin
The first time was in 1958, when I was still [working] on Drum
lid as a shield in one hand and gripping a rock in the other.
and Tom Hopkinson helped me choose an entry for the South
As everyone around him moves away, he is headed straight
African Best Pictures of the Year. I got two prizes, first and
towards whatever commotion or opposition is outside of the
third prizes. Then in 1963, I was the first black man to have an
frame. It’s an image that tells a triumphant story, and then a
exhibit in South Africa, at an art gallery in Johannesburg, and
dreadful one as you read the caption and discover that he was
the next year I went to London and Germany to exhibit my
murdered shortly after the image was taken.
pictures. These shows were a success and then I went to New
‘In my profession, if you don’t forgive, you would not be
York where Look magazine gave to Nat Nakasa (then in exile)
able to portray your subject properly,’ reads a poignant quote
and me an assignment to shoot a story on the South. I was
beneath two of Magubane’s quieter images. ‘Because you
never able to do it; my friend committed suicide.’ CF
would be walking around with hatred.’ Then there are the other differences between the two photographers. For Goldblatt, a white photographer in South Africa, access was never an issue. Quotes beneath some of his works detail how he would often travel to Soweto with
DAVE MANN is an editor and
poet and novelist Sipho Sepamla and ask to photograph
award-winning arts journalist.
people in their homes. Later, he’d work with a local gang member to gain further access and build up what would become an expansive archive of portraits in the area.
Creative Feel / September 2018 / 81
SUBMERGENCE DIRECTOR: Wim Wenders STARRING: James McAvoy, Alicia Vikander In a room with no windows on the eastern coast of Africa, a Scotsman, James More (James McAvoy), is held captive by jihadist fighters. Thousands of miles away in the Greenland Sea, Danielle ‘Danny’ Flinders (Alicia Vikander) prepares to dive in a submersible to the ocean floor. It is at this time that the two are drawn back to the Christmas of the previous year. Submergence takes on the love story of two captivating protagonists, Danny and James, with contrasting backgrounds and life trajectories. Their love affair begins when the two meet by chance in a remote hotel in Normandy where they both prepare for dangerous missions. They fall in love almost against their will, but soon recognise in each other the love of their lives. When they have to separate, we find out that James works for the British Secret Service. He’s involved in a mission in Somalia to track down a source of the suicide bombers currently infiltrating Europe. Danny Flinders is a bio-mathematician working on a deep-sea diving project to support her theory about the origin of life on our planet. Soon, they are worlds apart. James is taken hostage and has no way of contacting Danny, and she must go down to the bottom of the ocean in her submersible, not even knowing if James is still alive… Submergence releases in select cinemas on 14 September 2018.
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16V
AT CINEMAS 14 SEPTEMBER Creative Feel / September 2018 / 83
LITERARY LANDSCAPES |
INDRA WUSSOW
On family and fur coats
M
y grandmother’s old, grey Persian lamb coat, her mother’s fur shawl. Luxury possessions that seemingly belonged to another life. So alien
and yet so much part of our family story, but as disconnected as the moon. The innocent village girl played with piglets and puppies, helped during the hay harvest and refused to eat meat as it was a product of killing. A killing that came naturally to the village people. I still remember the smell of blood, the still-warm black pudding – a delicacy that was the centrepiece of the Schlachtfest (ritual or ceremonial slaughter of an animal, which is often followed by a feast). The meat of the Schlachtfest and the fur coats were closely interlinked in the girl’s fantasy, the dead animals a sacrifice offered to the gods to combat the existential loneliness these human beings suffered from. Once in a while, my grandmother took the coat out of her cupboard and told my sister and me stories about her other life, the life before this coat helped her to survive during her escape over the frozen Baltic Sea. When it was just what a fur coat was meant to be: a status symbol of the urban wealthy. How it was quickly taken off and thrown to the waiting-maid after a visit to the wintery city. The images of the never-ending line of refugees traversing the Baltic Sea in 1945 do not depict the complete foreignness of this coat and yet it could not tell more precisely how wise the decision was to not leave it behind. It kept the family warm and could have been bartered or pawned later to survive the hunger years. When my grandmother put on this coat, she changed into the cosmopolitan woman she had been before the war. Before she was forced out of her life into a humble existence in a German provincial town full of enviers who treated my family as outsiders even decades after their arrival.
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The family story and the paradise lost were interlinked with the horrors of the Nazi times, the terror and the bloodlands of Nazi superelevation that devastated Europe and claimed more victims than any war before. The fur coat of the refugee was interlinked with the fur coat of the deported. Shocking images of absolutely terrified Jewish women in their fur coats at the ramp of the concentration camp in Auschwitz. Piles of these coats were later the only reminder that these dehumanised women existed and became part of the Nazi’s cruel valueadded chain. Witnesses later talked about the infamous Ilse Koch,
“Stories have the power to liberate us and, beyond the idea of the slain animal, the fur became a symbol of survival. Silver and jewellery were sewn into the fur coat to survive the dark hours of an uncertain escape, to start again in a foreign environment”
wife of the Buchenwald concentration camp commander, and how she walked around the camp in the fur coats of
fled and the concessions had been ceded to the Japanese,
their victims. The terror reveals itself in a banality that
bringing Shanghai’s 101 years as a treaty port to a close.
lost all sense of humanity. In this awful example, the
Despite the war’s end, fighting continued as Nationalists
fur coat epitomises the ambivalent amalgam of erotic
and Communists fought a three-year civil war for control
attraction and icy dreadfulness. A dreadfulness that was
of China. The Communists declared victory in 1949 and
deeply embedded in the structures of a terrorist system
established the People’s Republic of China. With no need
that allowed perpetrators to relentlessly act out even their
for capitalists, this family of bankers had to escape to Hong
crudest needs.
Kong with the few possessions they could take with onto the
Growing up with the overloaded silence of the perpetrators, I often wondered whose fur coat was once
plane that brought them to the safe haven. As Hong Kong felt too close to communist China, the
stolen from a victim of the Nazi regime. I wondered whose
Wong family later travelled further to Singapore where
upper-class snobbism was an unlawful act never punished
they started again in Cable Road in the heart of town. The
legally. Even though the way the woman wore the fur coat
precious fur coats they took with all the way proved useless
clearly showed the illegal appropriation. Stories are told
in the humid climate of the tropics and all the fur just fell
even when no word is spoken.
out with the time gone by. The family later started an ice
Stories have the power to liberate us and, beyond the idea of the slain animal, the fur became a symbol of survival. Silver and jewellery were sewn into the fur coat to survive
cream business and proved to have a wonderful ability to adapt to their new home. Today, I do not know what happened with my
the dark hours of an uncertain escape, to start again in a
grandmother’s grey Persian lamb coat. After her death, it
foreign environment.
disappeared, as if the alienness of the stranger could be
My Singaporean friend Terrence told me the story of his mother’s friend, Elizabeth, who had to escape
undone when its disturbing objects of ambivalence have been seized. CF
Shanghai in 1949. In its heyday before World War II, Shanghai was the place to be – it had the best art, the greatest architecture, and the strongest business in Asia. The Paris of the East became known as a place of vice and indulgence. Amid this
Literary Landscapes is a monthly column by
glamour and degradation, the Communist Party held its first
INDRA WUSSOW, a writer, translator
meeting in 1921. In the 1930s and ‘40s, the city weathered
and director of the Sylt Foundation.
raids, invasions, then the occupation by the Japanese. By 1943, at the height of World War II, most foreigners had
Creative Feel / September 2018 / 85
BOOK REVIEWS |
R E C E N T LY P U B L I S H E D
21 LESSONS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY By Yuval Noah Harari | Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa | ISBN: 9781787330870 Sapiens showed us where we came from. 21 Lessons guides us through the here and now. Yuval Noah Harari returns with 21 Lessons For The 21st Century. In bringing his focus to the here and now, Harari will help us to grapple with a world that is increasingly hard to comprehend, encouraging us to focus our minds on the essential questions we should be asking ourselves today. Employing his trademark entertaining and lucid style, Harari will examine some of the world’s most urgent issues, including terrorism, fake news and immigration, as well as turning to more individual concerns, from resilience and humility to meditation. Dr Yuval Noah Harari has a PhD in History from the University of Oxford and now lectures at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, specialising in World History. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, published in 2014, has become an international phenomenon and is published in nearly 40 languages worldwide.
WILD KAROO By Mitch Reardon | Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa | ISBN: 9781775843269 After centuries of relative isolation, the Karoo – South Africa’s parched heartland – is a latecomer to the tourist industry. What was once viewed as a harsh and desolate place of limited attraction is rapidly gaining popularity with visitors who now make the Karoo their destination, keen to partake of its legendary charm, its extraordinary flora and the resurgence of wildlife that once again populates its plains. Wild Karoo documents Mitch Reardon’s 4 000-kilometre journey of discovery through the region. Beautifully written, and illustrated with evocative photographs, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in travel, wildlife and the environment. Mitch Reardon worked as a ranger in South Africa and Namibia before becoming a wildlife photographer and writer. He is the author and photographer of five books, including the bestselling Etosha: Life and Death on an African Plain and has also written dozens of articles for Australian Geographic.
KAROO FOOD By Gordon Wright | Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa | ISBN: 9781432308797 Following on the success of Veld to Fork, Gordon Wright’s first book, Karoo Food is bigger, better and tastier than ever, with more recipes, stories and anecdotes about life and food in the Karoo. Once again, Wright takes you on a Slow Food journey, via your taste buds, to ‘foodie nirvana’. Tracing the origins of ingredients and the stories behind the dishes, this is a selection of recipes and inspirations from the important people in his life. It’s a mix of the old and the new and a tribute to all those lovely people and their marvellous food over the generations that have helped foster his love of cooking. This book is a must-have for cooks, foodies and aspiring home chefs. Karoo chef, author, journalist, raconteur and all-around good food activist, Gordon Wright is a pioneer of the Karoo, its food and its people. He has worked, trained and cooked all over the world and plans to never take himself too seriously.
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FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SAPIENS AND HOMO DEUS
Learn. Adapt. Survive.
AVA I L A B L E N O W
Creative Feel / September 2018 / 87
EARLY SPRING SYMPHONY SEASON Making music together. 031 369 9438 • www.kznphil.org.za
WORLD SYMPHONY SERIES OUTSTANDING
THURSDAY, 23 AUGUST 2018, 7:30PM Conductor:
Perry So
Soloist:
Alessandro Taverna, piano
Mozart
Die Entführung aus dem Serail Overture (II Seraglio)
Mozart
Symphony No. 40 in g minor, K. 550
Chopin
Piano Concerto No. 1 in e minor, Op. 11
THURSDAY, 30 AUGUST 2018, 7:30PM
EARLY SPRING SEASON 2018 WITH
CALL 031 369 9438 TO SUBSCRIBE & SAVE UP TO 20%
Conductor:
Perry So
Soloist:
Alissa Margulis, violin
Offenbach
L’ile de Tulipatan: Overture
Mendelssohn
Violin Concerto in e minor, Op. 64
Brahms
Symphony No. 1 in c minor, Op. 68
THURSDAY, 6 SEPTEMBER 2018, 7:30PM Conductor:
Daniel Raiskin
Soloists:
Vitaly Pisarenko, piano Avuya Ngcaweni, soprano
SOLOISTS,
Siphokazi Maphumulo, soprano
STAR CONDUCTORS AND A MASSED
Sizakele Masuku, alto Wayne Mkhize, tenor
CHOIR, THE KZN PHILHARMONIC
Ntuthuko Ziqubu, bass
ORCHESTRA PROUDLY PRESENTS
Choir:
Clermont Community Choir
THE EARLY SPRING SEASON OF ITS
Strauss
Don Juan, Op. 20, TrV 156
Liszt
Piano Concerto No. 2 in A Major, S.125
Smetana
Vltava from Má Vlast (My Homeland)
Bessey
Inkosazane (Princess) Mkabayi: A Symphonic Poem
RENOWNED WORLD SYMPHONY SERIES 2018 FROM 23 AUGUST TO 13 SEPTEMBER.
THURSDAY, 13 SEPTEMBER 2018, 7:30PM
Bongani Tembe, Artistic Director
“The
KZN
Philharmonic
is
committed
to
enriching the cultural life of South Africa’s diverse audiences by presenting world-class concerts and implementing education and community engagement programmes.”
Conductor:
Lykele Temmingh
Soloists:
Various young South African artists
Mozart
Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major, K.219, “Turkish”, mvt. 1
Rossini
‘Cruda Sorte! Amor tiranno!’ From L’Italiana in Algeri
Krommer
Clarinet Concerto No. 1 in E-Flat Major, Op. 36, mvt. 3
Gounod
‘Avant de quitter ces lieux’ from Faust
Mozart
Bassoon Concerto in B-Flat Major, K.191, mvt.1
Dubois
Alto Saxophone Concerto
Saint-Saëns
Violoncello Concerto No. 1 in a minor, Op. 33, mvt.1
Lalo
Symphonie espagnole, Op. 21, mvt.1
Bellini
‘Ah! non credea mirarti’ from La sonnambula
Shostakovich
Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Major, Op. 102, mvt.1
Single tickets priced from R68 – R240 are available at Computicket. All concerts commence at 7:30pm at the Durban City Hall. Pre-concert talks are held from 6pm 6:40pm. The City Hall precinct, including surrounding parking garages, is patrolled by a dedicated security team.
R E C E N T LY R E L E A S E D
| CD REVIEWS
Tony Bennett and Diana Krall celebrate the Gershwins Tony Bennett and Diana Krall celebrate their shared love of the music of George and Ira Gershwin on their new collaborative album, Love Is Here To Stay.
T
ony Bennett, who celebrated his 92nd birthday
command that Bennett and Krall display of the material in
recently, has been friends with Diana Krall for
both their duets and solo tracks makes it appear effortless,
over 20 years. The two toured together in 2000
belying the honed skill of the vocalists. The duet tracks
and recorded duets for two of Bennett’s albums
include ‘Love Is Here to Stay’, ‘S’Wonderful’, ‘They Can’t
(Duets and Playin’ With My Friends), but this marks their first
Take That Away from Me’ and ‘Fascinating Rhythm’, among
full-album project together. Love Is Here To Stay will be out
them. ‘Fascinating Rhythm’ was Tony Bennett’s first physical
just in time for the 120th anniversary of George Gershwin’s
recording, made under his then stage name, Joe Bari, which
birthday on 26 September. Both multi-Grammy winning
he revisits as a duet with Krall for this project. Two of the
and platinum-selling artists, Bennett is the only artist at
duet tracks were never recorded by either artist prior in their
the ages of 85 and 88, respectively, to have an album debut
career: ‘My One and Only’, and ‘I’ve Got A Crush on You’.
at #1 on the Billboard Top 200 and Krall is the only jazz
Tony Bennett’s album Tony Bennett Celebrates 90: The Best
artist to have eight albums debut at #1 on Billboard’s Jazz
Is Yet To Come won a Grammy award this past February and
Albums chart. Danny Bennett, President and CEO of Verve
Diana Krall recently won two Juno awards for her last recording,
Label Group comments, ‘When Tony Bennett and Diana Krall
Turn Up the Quiet, including the prestigious Producer of The
sing the music of the Gershwins, it’s truly the consummate
Year award.
artistic pairing of singers and songwriting. It’s one of those
Love Is Here To
recordings that when you listen to it, you recognise instantly
Stay will be released
that it had to happen – it was just a matter of getting these
on CD, vinyl, digital
two extraordinary performers into a studio and putting the
and streaming
Gershwin songbook in front of them.’
platforms. The Bill
Love Is Here To Stay was recorded with the Grammy
Charlap Trio features
award-winning Bill Charlap Trio and the stunning result
Bill Charlap on piano,
is a subtle, sophisticated and beautifully rendered love
Peter Washington
letter to the Gershwins’ music and their standing among
on bass and Kenny
the premier songwriters of the American popular standard.
Washington on
It is a masterclass in vocal delivery and phrasing and the
drums. CF
Creative Feel / September 2018 / 89
ENCORE ANGELA MALAN is a former senior principal ballerina and a founding member of Joburg Ballet. She works internationally as a dancer, coach, choreographer and producer and is currently producing and choreographing Joburg Ballet’s new staging of the classic favourite The Nutcracker.
Name three artworks that you love and why.
What is your most treasured possession?
As a child, we watched a lot of musicals at home. The Sound of
My daughter. I know I don’t own her – she’s only on loan to
Music must still be one of my favourites, possibly because it
me – but I treasure her every breath.
takes me back. I love Veronica Paeper’s La Traviata, it was my favourite ballet to dance. Manon by Kenneth MacMillan is my
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
favourite ballet of all time, but sadly, I never got to dance it.
Self-doubt.
Name one artist you would love to meet.
What is it that makes you happy?
Ulyana Lopatkina – it’s said there are at least six people in
Red wine!
the world who look exactly like you and there is a nine per cent chance that you’ll meet one of them in your lifetime.
Describe a defining moment in your life.
But, above all, she’s my favourite ballerina.
When I became a mother. Giving birth to my beautiful little girl brought such perspective to my life.
What are you reading at the moment? The Storm Sister by Lucinda Riley – it’s book two in a series
What projects will you be busy with during 2018 and
of five.
into 2019? At the moment, I’m busy choreographing a new production
What is in your car’s CD player?
of The Nutcracker for Joburg Ballet that opens at the
Tchaikovsky’s score for The Nutcracker, of course!
Joburg Theatre in October. It’s probably one of the most popular classical ballets in the world, so it’s a wonderful
If you could change one thing about yourself, what
opportunity to work with the company to create a sparkling
would it be?
new version, while still remaining faithful to the original
I would enjoy the journey more. I’m an instant gratification
19th-century classic.
girl who always wants to get there as fast as possible.
After that, I’ll fill the shoes of ballerina again for a season at The Pieter Toerien Theatre at Montecasino in Bengingazi. In
How have the arts industries in South Africa changed
2019, I’ll be working with Tim Podesta and dancer Marlon Dino
over the last ten years?
on a new work, touring to Australia and New Zealand. We hope
I think that, due to this generation, there’s far greater
South African audiences will get a chance to see it too.
freedom to express oneself, which is a real positive. But I do feel that discipline, in terms of work ethic, is on the decline.
Name one goal you would like to achieve in the next twelve months.
Name one thing you think would improve the arts and
I’m fortunate to be in a position where I’m able to work in
culture industry in South Africa.
a number of different countries. Over the next year, I hope
Greater exposure internationally for local work and for
to absorb more knowledge – in SA and internationally – and
individuals via artistic exchanges and residencies.
keep challenging myself to reach greater heights. CF
90 / Creative Feel / September 2018
“
If I had to imagine what it is like to fly, I’d think of singing, full-throttle over an orchestra. That, to me, is the embodiment of freedom. Elza van den Heever
”
“
I am passionate about us as Africans appreciating the plethora of gifted people we have on our home ground.
”
Zoë Modiga
In concert with RMB
In concert with RMB
“ “
I am inspired by African people and our stories, our challenges and our triumphs. Nhlanhla Nciza
I tried to run from it – music, that is. “Do the responsible thing,” they told me. But it wouldn’t let me go. Now, I am home. Unathi Malunga
”
CELEBRATING THE POWERFUL VOICE OF FEMALE TALENT This spring, four exceptionally talented women will take to the stage to celebrate the 20th anniversary of RMB Starlight Classics: Mafikizolo’s multi-award winning Nhlanhla Nciza (herself celebrating 20 years of performing); SAMA-nominated jazz singer Zoë Modiga; internationally-acclaimed soprano Elza van den Heever; and RMB Starlight Classics’ first female conductor, Unathi Malunga. This impressive line-up puts the spotlight on transforming lives through music and celebrating the power of women in the arts. Rand Merchant Bank is a division of FirstRand Bank Limited. An Authorised Financial Service Provider.
Creative Feel / September 2018 / 91
”
92 / Creative Feel / September 2018
