Creative Feel July 2016

9

771607

519004

07016

SA R36,90 (incl. VAT) - July 2016

Henri Matisse STANDARD BANK GALLERY JOBURG 13 JULY - 17 SEP 2016

FINDING NEW ART SPACES FOR A NEW GENERATION:

TAF 2016

AIR FRANCE TRANSPORTS THE PRECIOUS ARTWORK

WALTER BATTISS “THE BUSHMAN PAINTER” WITS ART MUSEUM 5 JULY - 9 OCTOBER

Carrier of the Matisse Exhibition to South Africa

– MATISSE MADE HIS OWN RULES –

WIN Creative Feel 07016 519004 771607 9

JULY 2016

SA R36,90 (incl. VAT) - July 2016

www.creativefeel.co.za

IN CELEBRATION OF THE MATISSE EXHIBITION AT THE STANDARD BANK GALLERY...

Henri Matisse STANDARD BANK GALLERY JOBURG 13 JULY - 17 SEP 2016

FINDING NEW ART SPACES FOR A NEW GENERATION:

TAF 2016

AIR FRANCE TRANSPORTS THE PRECIOUS ARTWORK

WALTER BATTISS “THE BUSHMAN PAINTER” WITS ART MUSEUM 5 JULY - 9 OCTOBER

Get creative...

Visit www.creativefeel.co.za or find us on our various social media platforms for entry information, competition details and T’s &C’s.

WIN You can win a trip for two to experience the life and art of Henri Matisse in France.

Visit www.creativefeel.co.za or find us on Facebook by searching ‘Creative Feel’ or to find out how to stand the chance to win a trip for two to France to explore some of the most beautiful (and creative!) spots that the country has to offer.

FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Creative Feel

@CreativeFeel

@creative_feel

Stay up to date with competition details on www.creativefeel.co.za

Cover image:

44

‘THE BUSHMAN PAINTER’ COMES TO BRAAMFONTEIN

I Invented Myself, the much anticipated exhibition

of art collector, Jack Ginsberg’s private Walter

Battiss collection, will show at the Wits Art Museum

cover story

(WAM) from 5 July to 9 October 2016. Following

the exhibition, WAM will be endowed with this

extraordinary selection of artworks.

This is an extract from the catalogue

accompanying the exhibition Henri Matisse:

46

COMPLEXITIES OF THE AFRICAN IDENTITY

Rhythm and Meaning, edited by Federico Freschi

!Kauru Contemporary African Art Project’s

and published by the Standard Bank Gallery.

Le cheval, l’écuyère et le clown (The Horse, the Rider and the Clown) Henri Matisse, 1947. Reprint from the first plate of the book, Jazz.

Gouache stencil print on Arches paper. 42 x 65cm

28 HENRI MATISSE’S RHYTHMS AND MEANINGS

contents multimedia exhibition Being and Becoming:

Complexities of the African Identity, which was

arts and culture

exhibited at various venues across Gauteng in

26

PRECIOUS CARGO

May and June, played an important role in the

As a partner to the forthcoming exhibition Henri

Department of Arts and Culture’s Africa Day

Matisse: Rhythm and Meaning at the Standard

celebrations. In particular, the exhibition addressed

Bank Gallery, Air France will be bringing the

issues facing all nations on the African continent

majority of the artworks to Johannesburg.

and aimed to further develop relationships between the various countries.

36

TAF16: NEW WORK, NEW TALENT, NEW ART

The Turbine Art Fair, a production of The Forum

50

Company, one of South Africa’s most anticipated art

Brazilian-born dancer and award-winning

UNPACKING (UN)BRIDALED WITH MARINA MAGALHÃES

events, returns to the iconic Turbine Hall in Newtown

choreographer, Marina Magalhães, radiates the

for a fourth year from 14 to 17 July.

confidence of Iansã, a passionate Afro-Brazilian warrior woman and deity of death, rebirth and

42

NEW SPACES FOR A NEW ART GENERATION

tempests, who is explored in (UN)BRIDALED.

Mary Corrigall reflects on an exhibition which

danced in the South African production of the

saw the collaboration of art galleries catering for

piece, spoke to Magalhães about the thinking

art graduates.

behind (UN)BRIDALED.

Creative Feel’s Francesca Matthys, who also

52

SOUTH AFRICA’S NEWEST PROTÉGÉ

Every year, seven highly gifted young artists from

around the world are chosen to join one of the

world’s leading arts philanthropy programmes,

the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative and

this year, Israeli mentor Ohad Naharin selected

South African dancer Londiwe Khoza for the latest

cycle of the programme.

58

THE POLAR MUSIC PRIZE 2016

The Polar Music Prize celebrates the power and

importance of music and is awarded to individuals,

groups or institutions for international recognition

of excellence in the world of music.

lifestyle and entertainment

contents 70 71

BOOK REVIEWS CD REVIEWS

contributors

60

THANDA ISLAND

20

ARTLOOKS & ARTLINES

One of the few truly private tropical islands in the

Artlooks & Artlines is a monthly column

world opened its doors in April 2016. Thanda

by Ismail Mahomed, Artistic Director of the

Island is the magnificent beach residence of the

National Arts Festival.

Swedish entrepreneurial and philanthropist couple

Christin and Dan Olofsson.

22

LITERARY LANDSCAPES

68

THE YEARNING

Literary Landscapes is a monthly column written

by Indra Wussow, a writer, translator and director of

Award-wining singer and songwriter Mohale

the Sylt Foundation.

Mashigo, who goes by the stage name, Black

Porcelain, has added the title of author to her

24

BUSINESS & ARTS

dossier. Creative Feel’s Abigail Phiri spoke to

Business & Arts is a monthly column by

Michelle Constant, CEO of Business and Arts

South Africa (BASA).

Mashigo about her debut novel, The Yearning.

Creative Feel / July 2016 / 7

W

Feeling Blue (& Pink & Yellow)

hat a wonderful Creative Feel cover this month? We had great fun with this issue as we are celebrating the ‘visual arts’ during July. Some amazing exhibitions are happening, with Henri Matisse: Rhythm and Meaning opening at the Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg on 13 July and running for three months until 17 September. As Federico Freschi, the South African co-curator

of the exhibition, said in his essay, ‘Henri Matisse (1869-1954) is probably one of the best-known and most widely appreciated artists of the 20th century. Even in his own lifetime, Matisse enjoyed considerable prestige as one of the undisputed leaders of modernism, nationally and internationally.’

I Invented Myself, the much anticipated exhibition of art collector, Jack Ginsberg’s private Walter Battiss collection, will show at the Wits Art Museum (WAM) from 5 July to 9 October and following the exhibition, WAM will be endowed with this extraordinary selection of artworks. Jack Ginsberg has been a most generous benefactor ever since the museum’s original conception and this endowment will become part of the Wits Arts Museum’s permanent holdings, and form the nucleus of a major Walter Battiss Archive. The collection will be available to scholars by appointment for research.

Of course, in July there is The Turbine Art Fair, one of South Africa’s most admired and successful art events, which will again be held at the iconic Turbine Hall in Newtown, Joburg from 14 to 17 July. TAF16 is the fourth time that the art fair will be held and over 50 galleries and exhibits from across South Africa will be showcasing the finest contemporary and emerging African talent. Here is a chance to acquire great contemporary artwork priced below R40 000 and, most importantly, come and visit the Creative Feel stand to enter our #explorecreativefrance competition. #explorecreativefrance is exclusive to Creative Feel readers and runs concurrently with the three-month long Matisse exhibition at the Standard Bank Gallery. Visit www.creativefeel.co.za or find us on Facebook by searching ‘Creative Feel’ or to find out how to stand the chance to win a trip for two to France to explore some of the most beautiful (and creative!) spots that the country has to offer.

Stop press: as we went to print I was invited to be part of an evocative event at the Market Theatre as part of their 40 Years of Storytelling celebration. On Sunday afternoon June 19th, the Market Theatre Foundation honoured Mannie Manim, the co-founder of the theatre, by renaming the Laager Theatre to the Mannie Manim Theatre. Mannie shared his memories of the start of the Market Theatre in a most heart warming way with the audience and an assortment of the early plays showed the great current talent of the theatre. Congratulations Mannie, so very well deserved!

Lore

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PUBLISHER & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Lore Watterson; lore@desklink.co.za COPUBLISHER & PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Chris Watterson; chris@desklink.co.za DEPUTY EDITOR Tamaryn Greer; tammy@desklink.co.za EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Francesca Matthys DIGITAL CONTENT CURATOR Abigail Phiri ADDITIONAL EDITORIAL CONTENT: Ismail Mahomed Michelle Constant Indra Wussow SALES & MARKETING sales@desklink.co.za sales@creativefeel.co.za SALES & MARKETING COORDINATOR Oupa Sibeko; oupa@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 www.creativefeel.co.za www.desklink.co.za PRINTING ColorPress (Pty) Ltd © Copyright DeskLink™ Media The opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent the views of the publisher.

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

Originally intended as a temporary installation, the Eiffel Tower has become one of the most enduring symbols of France and the industrial age.

(Pictured is the Eiffel Tower on 18 July 2013, celebrating Mandela’s birthday in the colours of the South African flag as part of the SA Season in France.)

12 / Creative Feel / July 2016

2016 SAMRO Overseas Scholarships Competition for Instrumentalists

Semi​-finals:​​Thursday 18 August Finals:​​Saturday 20 August Linder Auditorium, Johannesburg

For further information or to book a ticket please contact samrofoundation@samro.org.za or call 011 712 8417 www.samrofoundation.org.za

SAMRO Foundation

@SAMROFoundation

2016 SASOL NEW SIGNATURES The aptly titled ‘New Signatures’ was founded as a competition symbolic of the notion that artists entering the competition are undiscovered, and aiming to make their artistic signatures known.

Since its inception, the competition has served as a platform for emerging artists to apply their skills, to express their creative talent and to enter into the professional arts world. Competitions offer emerging contemporary artists the opportunity to become a part of a national and global art fraternity, and have their work celebrated by art critics and lovers alike. With the advancement of technology, new digitised multimedia and performance art pieces became a vastly emerging trend. The impressive selection of work and exquisite digital manipulations as well as performance art, led to the inclusion of these types of entries.

“The tagline for this year’s Sasol New Signatures art competition is, ‘the chemistry behind creativity’. We chose this tagline deliberately as it speaks to who we are as Sasol – an international integrated chemicals and energy company that leverages creativity and chemistry to produce products that add value in everyday life,” said Richard

Association of Arts Pretoria

The chemistry behind creativity

Hughes, Group Manager for Sponsorships at Sasol. In South Africa, with our rich history and diverse cultural heritage, art has played a vital role in expressing and recording the notions and attitudes towards societal hardships.

During the last quarter century, the Sasol New Signatures art competition has harvested a magnificent assortment of collected works, which depict a story of the occurrences within South African society at that given time period. In order to further solidify the support of visual arts in South Africa, the competition will now also offer feedback sessions at the various selection points countrywide. The Sasol New Signatures National Chairperson will be available, along with the selectors, after the selection process to discuss why certain entries were accepted and others not. The feedback sessions are intended to further assist artists in launching sustainable careers in the arts.

Regional judging sessions for the 2016 competition have been held and final judging takes place at the end of July. The competition culminates in the prize giving and exhibition at the Pretoria Art Museum. Dates are Thursday 8 September to Saturday 8 October 2016. Running concurrently will be the Solo Exhibition by 2015 winner Nelmarie du Preez.

For more information on Sasol New Signatures, visit www.sasolnewsignatures.co.za

Nelmarie DU PREEZ (Pretoria) to shout 2013 Single-channel video with sound 71 seconds

Sasol New Signatures 2015 Merit Award Winner, Bronwyn Katz’s ‘Grond Herinnering’ reflects the artist’s nostalgic childhood memory. In the video we see the artist wash her feet with the soil from the land from which she originates. There is a deep sense of nostalgia in the work with Katz attempting to preserve history by taking a walk down memory lane to portray some of her most treasured childhood memories.

Originally from Kimberley in Northern Cape, Katz can be described as a dynamic artist whose ability to think out the box enables her to create mind blowing sculptural pieces using wire, steel, bronze, and cement.

2015 Runner Up, Mareli Janse van Rensburg’s work “’The final moments of Immanuel Sithole’ explored the brutal attack and subsequent death of the Mozambican national, and how the images of his death that were circulated by the media influenced her as an individual,” she explained.

“I took the images of his death that were published in the newspapers and used them to weave a mask. I then took ‘selfies’ wearing the mask. The ‘selfies’ are representative of how the media possesses the ability to construct the view of the public and how they desensitize the public to traumatizing images. This mask shows me as an individual shielding myself against these images by totally embracing myself in them so they no longer have an effect on me. ”

Bronwyn Merlistee KATZ (Cape Town) Grond herinnering (2015) Video 228 seconds

Mareli JANSE VAN RENSBURG (Stellenbosch) The final moments of Immanuel Sithole Photography 54 cm x 102 cm

Colleen WINTER (Johannesburg) PUPA Paper and pins 13 cm x 35 cm x 13 cm

Rory Lance EMMETT (Cape Town) Transcending Single channel video 180 seconds

Nazeerah JACUB (Johannesburg) Identity origins Paint on fabric 195 cm x 95 cm

Sethembile MSEZANE (Cape Town) Untitled (Youth Day), 2014 Photography 70 cm x 50 cm

All images: Courtesy SMAC Gallery

Join the conversation:

Mongezi Ncaphayi Untitled I & Untitled II, 2016 Acrylic on Paper, 200 x 140 cm

Bright young things Please don’t take this personally…

SMAC Gallery presents Nothing Personal, a group exhibition featuring a selection of young and emerging artists from Southern Africa, currently practicing within the region.

The term ‘nothing personal’ implies many things, but inseparable from its use, is the knowledge that the speaker is aware of the discomfort caused by the ensuing statement and yet, will speak the words anyway.

An informal prefix to insulting or offensive statements, whilst dragging a silent ‘but’ behind itself, the use of the term ‘nothing personal but….’ has come to be recognised as some kind of thunderous set-up, before a storm-like punch line. The peddler of such a phrase cloaks their statement in such a glaringly transparent manner that their attempt at diplomacy is often more vexing than their intended blow.

The meaning of the word ‘personal’ is best understood in terms of ‘self’ and ‘other’ – both of which rest, almost solely, on context. This exhibition is therefore thematically placed at the intersection between the private and the public, or the personal and the political – respectively and interchangeably. The artists featured in this exhibition each engage with context (as a concept) through direct reference or complete negation, both manners speak volumes to those that choose to listen.

The phrase ‘nothing personal but…’ is frequently used in a local context to express criticism that will certainly offend, whilst implying that one either cannot, or has not, applied time and forethought to the delivery. The manner in which each of the artists in this exhibition silently apply this statement to their work, is based on audience understanding, context, and the artist’s own interpretation of ‘self’ and ‘other’.

Featured artists include Lhola Amira, Ruann Coleman, Katharien de Villiers, Euridice Kala, Bronwyn Katz, Alexandra Karakashian, Olivié Keck, Wallen Mapondera, Siwa Mgoboza, Miranda Moss, Sethembile Msezane, Mongezi Ncaphayi, Ruby Swinney, Katlego Tlabela and Christiaan van Eeden. The exhibition runs until 30 July.

For more information, please contact: Astrid Gebhardt (astrid@smacgallery.com) or Amy Lyn Eveleigh (amylyn@smacgallery.com) SMAC Stellenbosch: +27(0)21 887 3607 / info@smacgallery.com Visit: www.smacgallery.com

UJ CHOIR

CONDUCTED BY RENETTE BOUWER AND SIDUMO JACOBS

2 + 3 JULY

Guy Butler Theatre, National Arts Festival, Grahamstown

FOR COLORED GIRLS

BY NTOZAKE SHANGE . DIRECTED BY KHUTJO GREEN

5 – 9 JULY

Centenary Hall, National Arts Festival, Grahamstown

25 – 27, 30 + 31 AUGUST; 1– 3 SEPTEMBER

UJ Con Cowan Theatre, Bunting Rd Campus

SCORCHED

BY WAJDI MOUAWAD . TRANSLATED BY LINDA GABORIAU DIRECTED BY JADE BOWERS

8 – 10 JULY

Rhodes Box Theatre, National Arts Festival, Grahamstown

27 JULY – 6 AUGUST

UJ Arts Centre, Kingsway Campus

UJ ARTS & CULTURE (www.uj.ac.za/arts | @UJArtCentre) , a division of the Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture (FADA) at the University of Johannesburg, produces and presents world-class student and professional arts programmes aligned to the UJ vision of an international university of choice, anchored in Africa, dynamically shaping the future. A robust range of arts platforms is offered on all four UJ campuses for students, staff, alumni and the general public to experience and engage with emerging and established Pan-African and international artists drawn from the full spectrum of the arts.

In addition to UJ Arts & Culture, FADA (www.uj.ac.za/fada) offers programmes in eight creative disciplines in art, design and architecture, as well as being home to the NRF SARChI Chair in South African Art and Visual Culture, and the Visual Identities in Art & Design Research Centre. The Faculty has a strong focus on sustainability and relevance, and engages actively with the dynamism, creativity and diversity of Johannesburg in imagining new approaches to art and design education. Equipped with state-of-the art, custom-built facilities, the Faculty is staffed by highly regarded academics, architects, artists and designers.

SHE WEPT COLOUR

A

tremendous new play that effortlessly offers the opportunity to travel back to a time when shoulder pads were considered fashionable, and the state of emergency was at the tip of

everyone’s tongue. The era when the country’s great leader walked down the dusty streets of South Africa for the first time in decades. Casta Diva Vissi d’Arte Theatre heartily brings She Wept Colour.

Set in Gelvandale, Port Elizabeth in 1990, She Wept Colour is a story about four sisters who are brought together by tragedy – their father’s passing. Rage! Sadness! Secrets!

Envy! Isolation! One’s true colours come out during funerals, when emotions are high, and this play is a mirror of what happens when untold truths come to light. Add to that hair and skin-colour politics and a recipe for disaster is guaranteed. Join the Johnson family as their story unfolds in a riveting, unexpected manner.

Directed by exciting new playwright, Zanele Nondzimba, and Ntombi Ntanzi with a captivating cast starring Merlyn Dunn, Tracy Daniels, Miquel Brookstein and Iefke Worst.

Born in Port Elizabeth, Nondzimba started writing short stories from the age of ten and has written and had published articles and short stories for South African newspapers and magazines – including her debut novel, From the First Kiss.

She Wept Colour will be showing at the beautiful Casta Diva Vissi d’Arte Theatre, located in the City of Tshwane along the slopes of the magnificent Magaliesberg mountain range, on 22 and 23 July 2016 at 19:00.

Pre-booked tickets are available online from Quicket at R80, or at the door for R100. CF

Gauteng Opera transports

to the Mandela Stage During August, Gauteng Opera will present one of the most charming and mostperformed comic bel canto operas ever written: L’elisir d’amore (The Elixir of Love), proudly funded by the National Lottery Commission and supported by the Joburg Theatre and Creative Feel.

F

rom 2 to 7 August 2016, Gauteng’s

and it has remained continually in the international opera

most vibrant opera company will

repertory. Today, it is one of the most frequently performed

present this comic, two-act opera

of all Donizetti’s operas. Donizetti insisted on a number of

by composer Gaetano Donizetti and

changes from the original Scribe libretto. The most well-

lyricist Felice Romani, at the Mandela of the

known of these was the insertion of ‘Una furtiva lagrima’

Joburg Theatre. The opera is based on Eugène

and the duet between Adina and Nemorino in the first act,

Scribe’s libretto for Daniel Auber’s Le Philtre

‘Chiedi all’aura lusinghiera’.

(1831) and premiered on 12 May 1832 at the Teatro della Canobbiana in Milan.

Gauteng Opera is proud and honoured to

In general, under Donizetti’s hands, the subject became more romantic than in the Auber version and there is also personal history in this opera. Donizetti’s military service

bring back the two stars of 2015’s La Traviata in Concert

was bought by a rich woman, so that, unlike his brother

– Arjan Tien will conduct the production and Bronwen

Giuseppe (also a well-known composer) he did not have to

Forbay will sing the female lead, Adina. Other cast

serve in the Austrian army. CF

members include Luthando Qave as Belcore, and sharing the role of Nemorino will be Thabiso Masemene and

Performances of L’elisir d’amore will take place on

Gauteng Opera tenor, Kagiso Boroko. We are also happy

Tuesday, 2 August at 20:00; Thursday, 4 August at 20:00;

to have ex-Gauteng Opera soprano Caroline Nkwe singing

Saturday, 6 August at 20:00 and Sunday, 7 August at 15:00.

the role of Gianetta. Lastly, the elixir seller Dulcamara will

Tickets range from R200 – R500 and are available online at

be sung by Thato Machona. Gauteng Opera CEO, Marcus

www.joburgtheatre.com or 011 877 6853 / 011 877 6917.

Tebogo Desando, directs and London-based South African, Declan Randall, will design the lighting.

Written in haste in a six-week period, L’elisir d’amore was the most performed opera in Italy between 1838 and 1848,

20 / Creative Feel / July 2016

For more information, go to www.gautengopera.org, visit Gauteng Opera’s Facebook page or follow @GautengOpera on Twitter.

In this fourth and final reflection on the Market Theatre, Ismail Mahomed, outgoing Artistic Director of the National Arts Festival and incoming CEO of the Market Theatre, takes a walk down his own memory lane.

I

t was the 1980s. We were living through one of the most

Just before I left Newtown to plan for the company’s

repressive States of Emergency. These were volatile

tour to Lenasia, I took one final walk through the Market

times. A legislation that was intended to instil fear in

Theatre’s foyers. I looked at the donor plaques on its walls. It

us had instead made us more defiant. It was during this

made me understand the power of partnerships.

time that I met John Ledwaba, a young, angry playwright. He

As I sat on the bus, riding home from Newtown to

was working on his production, Township Boy, in an empty

Lenasia, I scribbled a list of potential local partners that

space at the Market Theatre in what later became the famed

I could attract to assist me to present John Ledwaba’s

Gramadoelas Restaurant.

Township Boy for high school youth. I listed the names of

John invited me to watch a work-in-progress

small businesses who could sponsor the venue, posters,

performance. It was a powerful production that resonated

programmes, printing of tickets and even cold drinks and

deeply with me. After the performance, John and his director,

samoosas for the visiting company.

Christo Leach and I went to have a cup of coffee and a chat.

Businesses in Lenasia were philanthropic. They opened

I wanted to know more about the work. I wanted to see this

their purse strings even more if projects were aimed at

work-in-progress play go places. I listened attentively but

supporting the education of local youth. I had no difficulty

with immense empathy as John and Christo talked about the

explaining to any of them why John Ledwaba’s Township Boy

enormous financial challenges under which the work was

needed to be seen by local youth.

being developed.

‘I want to present the work-in-progress production for

Within two days I had all my costs covered. Now it was on to devising an audience development strategy.

school youth in Lenasia. We can sell them a ticket at R10

I sent word to every school through Lenasia’s well-

each,’ I said to John and Christo as we took the last sips of

networked student bodies. I flagged that this was an

our strong coffee.

opportunity to see a production even before it premiered

There was a moment of silence. John and Christo looked at each other, waiting for the other to respond to my

at the Market Theatre.

The Saturday had arrived. I waited at the Gandhi Hall.

suggestion. I had never before promoted a show so I could

On one side of the foyer, the Gandhi Hall’s volunteer staff

understand their reluctance. They needed the money to grow

were already preparing its ‘tuck shop’ for popcorn and cold

the work and so I pushed forward with some sales talk.

drink sales. At the other end of the foyer, there was the tall

‘There’s the 1 000-seater Gandhi Hall in Lenasia. If you

imposing statue of Mahatma Gandhi. I walked up to the

sell tickets at R10 you’ll have R10 000 and the school youth

statue and whispered to it, ‘this show is for you, buddy.

of Lenasia get to see a play before it even opens at the

You’re not going to let me down!’

Market Theatre,’ I said.

We sealed that conversation with a handshake and I thus

When the bakkie with John Ledwaba’s set pulled in, the show was now on the road. The company’s stage

took my first step towards becoming an impresario. I offered

manager, Michelle Lowry, was blown away by the size of

them a guaranteed full house and a walk away from Lenasia

the auditorium.

with R10 000. What I hadn’t calculated was the cost of hiring

‘It’s 1 000 seats,’ I said.

the venue, the cost of printing posters and the hospitality

‘And you’re planning to fill it?’ she asked.

snacks for the company who were going to come all the way

‘Sold-out show already!’ I replied.

from Newtown to Lenasia.

At 14:00 the curtains went up. The auditorium reeked of

22 / Creative Feel / July 2016

John Ledwaba and Christo Leach’s Township Boy poster, 1987. SOURCE sahistory.org.za

fresh popcorn. The enthusiastic students applauded after

that evening, I could hear my inner voice calling me to the

every political song in the play. The sad note on which the

theatre. I made a mental list of several other shows that I

play ended was broken by the rousing standing ovation from

could bring to Lenasia. And so the journey began ...

the full-house audience in the Gandhi Hall.

The Company left Lenasia with the promised pot of

On 1 August 2016, I will be taking up the position of CEO at the Market Theatre. As I walk through its foyers, I have

funding to develop the work a little more. I stayed a while

no doubt that the sign-board that alerted me to the power of

in the empty foyer spending a little more time with the

partnerships will come flashing back to me.

statue of Gandhi.

For the past 30 years of working in the arts, I’ve built

‘So, you didn’t let me down, buddy,’ I said to the old man.

all my success through the power of partnerships. My

As I walked home from the Gandhi Hall, I felt an

hand is outstretched once again. I’m looking forward to

enormous sense of accomplishment. As I rested on my bed

many more handshakes. CF

Creative Feel / July 2016 / 23

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

M

yanmar is a country best known for its fierce

established their own structures, events and ideas. Their

dictatorship and the heroic fight of Nobel

poetry events and initiatives are highly successful, especially

Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi to liberate

among the young people. As, according to official numbers,

her country.

more than 55 per cent of the population are under 30 years

After the dark years of oppression this multi-ethnic

country, with its 52 million people, is in a transition to something new. Even though the parameters of this new

old, one can imagine what potential these young people hold for creating a future where the arts can flourish.

Times of transition are characterised by many

dispensation are not yet clear, a more just and democratic

uncertainties, dramatic changes and social disintegrations.

state is still under threat.

They form an experimental playground for artists who can

Aung San Suu Kyi, whose National League of Democracy

no longer rely on the dissolving structures of the ancient

won the last election, once said, ‘It is not power that

regime. There is the necessity to build new structures, new

corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who

platforms and open up to new ideas.

wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.’

And the fear of violence, of revenge of the oppressed,

Han Lynn and his three Burmese colleagues were very aware that relying on the old publishing sector in Myanmar was not possible, and understood that the way out of

is a topic of major importance in the country’s path to a

isolation would mean introducing the work of Burmese

peaceful transition.

writers on an international platform.

The arts will be an important sector to influence how

‘To start an English online literary journal had been our

society will deal with the change and the different aspects

dream for a long time. It was what we were always talking

of liberation, reconciliation and the departure to new

about. Since it was so difficult to start one in Burma, we

ideas of life.

were not able to do anything for it for some time,’ says

After so many years of censorship and the fear of

Han Lynn about the difficult beginning of their highly

imprisonment for any form of criticism, the arts need a

appreciated new online magazine, Be Untexed. The first

renaissance to become a motor to introduce ideas, topics and

edition was launched in February 2016 and is a milestone

artistic experiments to a broader audience.

in offering young writers and poets from Myanmar the

The change in Myanmar also brought about a bigger international interest in the country and therewith a broader interest in its art and literary scenes and how their

possibility of publishing their works and sharing them with readers in the country and abroad.

‘When I came back to Yangon from my residency in

contribution might also change the foreign perception of

Johannesburg, I contacted my poet friends: web developer

what is happening in the country.

Nyan Lynn, graphic designer Nyi Sane, and writer/translator

Last year, the young Burmese (the Burmese are the

Phyu Hnin Phway. We bought a domain, made the site,

biggest ethnic group in Myanmar) poet, Han Lynn was

collected the local and oversea works, and finally published

writer-in-residence of the Sylt Foundation in Johannesburg

the journal. Only we are the founders. We made the journal

and explained, in a literary event at the Goethe Institut, it

on our own. Contributors are much appreciated. And as

is still difficult for a writer to be heard and to be published.

far as we know, Be Untexed is the very first English online

Lynn also said that many art institutions are still very much

literary and visual art journal of Burma.’

formed and influenced by the old structures.

The four editors of the magazine have a clear idea about

Han Lynn is just 28 years old and belongs to a new

their important project. ‘Burmese literature foremost deals

group of young and dynamic poets and writers who have

with the language barrier. Sans networks. Sans platforms.’

24 / Creative Feel / July 2016

“To start an English online literary journal had been our dream for a long time” This language barrier led them to choose English as the language of the magazine. This opens the publication to international readers, writers and allows them to learn more about writing in the languages of Myanmar.

It also offers local poets and writers the important chance to be heard by an international audience.

‘Our intention is quite simple. Burmese literature and visual arts deserve more and more international recognition.

We would like to make a platform for writers and artists here, especially youths. It will be good for overseas writers too. If the journal didn’t exist, only a handful of Burmese work would have been seen by the international literary world. Network is extremely important.’

And, the networking that is happening through this magazine is the perfect chance to reach out to other literary worlds and make them part of the Myanmar experience.

The first edition saw works by South African poet Phillippa Yaa de Villiers, whom Han Lynn met during his time in South Africa, and Chilean poet Enrique Winter. The second issue of this exciting quarterly was launched in May with contributions by South African writers Niq Mhlongo and Charl Pierre Naudé; South African painter Jaco van Schalkwyk contributed artworks.

Be Untexed is an incredibly experimental and crucial discussion platform that enables a long term conversation of artists and writers with each other and a new audience.

It will be exciting to see how this network is growing and changing literary and artistic perceptions.

South African pianist Jill Richards will be the first artistin-residence in Yangon and will travel to Yangon in July to work together with local poets and musicians.

We can be sure that an amazing project will be born that also finds its way into this new magazine and further to the stages in Yangon, Johannesburg and elsewhere. CF www.beuntexed.com

Creative Feel / July 2016 / 25

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

‘W

hat was not to like about the clean-

rough, the hard and the bad? As Botsford describes it, it

cut kid, George Foreman? … but in

was Ali’s patience and resilience, using the ropes to bolster

Kinshasa, he was the vanquished. Yet

support against the thunderous and ferocious pounding

the smart money had been on him…

by Foreman, for eight rounds, that helped him ‘stand’ his

I was so close to the action, I had Muhammad’s blood

ground. That he could absorb blows to his sides, kidneys

on my shirt to show for it: from the round after round

and particularly brutal – to his head, and still come back

in which he rested on the ropes and invited Foreman to

with the ‘sucker’ punch that knocked Foreman out, is

do his worst, until, in round eight, he suckered a weary

testament to his focus, strength and training. Who do

Foreman and knocked him out.’ The words are those of

we use as our ‘ropes’ in the current climate – is it only

sports columnist Keith Botsford. It was Botsford who

business, or do we rely on friends and family to support us?

covered the ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ in what was then Zaire,

Is it a strong sense of corporate governance that bolsters

for the Sunday Times in the UK.

us, ethics and teamwork that supports our organisation

“For the arts sector, in particular the not-for-profit sector, it’s the concepts of resilience, absorption, and agility which are forefronted in the fight in Zaire” There are many learnings that one can take from the

in the current economic climate? Is it mentorship that

boxer Muhammad Ali, who passed away recently, and these

allows for focus and training; is our organisation a fit and

have been covered in the eulogies and obituaries around the

strong one that is able to absorb the waves of blows that

world. For the arts sector, in particular the not-for-profit

may come our way? And when we get to round 8 (or round

sector, it’s the concepts of resilience, absorption, and agility

80!) will we have the energy, and the agility, to force our

that are forefronted in the fight in Zaire. Best to watch an

way back into the game. What gives us the agility? Is it that

amazing documentary called When We Were Kings (1996),

we are fighting fit as an organisation, are we prepared to

which covers the fight in mesmerising black and white detail.

change rapidly, knowing that the only constant is change?

Then go on and read an extraordinary book called Dark

Indeed, are we a team of change makers, a change gang, so

Trade by South African born Donald McRae. Both the book

to speak? How we answer these questions will be testament

and the film talk to a sport, which strangely enough, offers

to the boxer’s teachings.

great learnings for the creative sector.

How do we enter into a challenging and difficult economy with a resilience that will take us through the

26 / Creative Feel / July 2016

It is with this in mind that I say my own goodbyes to the butterfly and the bee. He truly was, in a variety of ways, an inspirational being. CF

Creative Feel

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Creative Feel / July 2016 / 27

An Air France Airbus 380 plane

PRECIOUS CARGO As a partner to the forthcoming exhibition, Henri Matisse: Rhythm and Meaning at the Standard Bank Gallery, Air France will be bringing the majority of the artworks to Johannesburg.

H

enri Matisse: Rhythm and Meaning is a

‘It is the mission of the Matisse Museum to show

collaboration between Standard Bank; Air France;

the works of Matisse all over the world,’ says co-curator

the Embassy of France in South Africa; the French

Patrice Deparpe. ‘Bringing a Matisse exhibition to South

Institute of South Africa and the Musée Matisse

Africa, and indeed to Africa, for the first time, is an

in Le Cateau Cambrésis (France), and will be co-curated by

important part of the artist’s legacy, as he worked all

Patrice Deparpe, Director of the Musée Matisse, and Prof

his life to create art that can be understood by anyone,

Federico Freschi, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Art, Design

whatever their cultural background.’

and Architecture at the University of Johannesburg.

The exhibition will include a number of paintings,

Domingo De Cola, General Manager of Air France in Southern Africa, comments on the significance

drawings, collages and prints covering all the dominant

and logistics of transporting this valuable and unique

themes in the artist’s body of work, from his early Fauvist

exhibition to South African audiences, ‘A lot of

years, through his interest in exoticism and Orientalism,

coordination from everyone is involved, not only the

to the paper cutouts that he produced in the last years of

organiser but the museum; they have to appoint a

his life.

curator for the exhibition and go over every single aspect

28 / Creative Feel / July 2016

“We, at Air France, have a specialised team of experts that know how to treat the valuable shipment and, of course, there is a lot of planning right from the beginning in terms of how many pieces, weight and how they are going to assemble it” Domingo De Cola, General Manager of Air France in Southern Africa

of the operation. We, at Air France, have a specialised

While elaborating on Air France’s other international

team of experts that know how to treat the valuable

cultural partnerships, De Cola clarifies: ‘We do it worldwide,

shipment and, of course, there is a lot of planning right

always keeping the cultural integrity of both nations in

from the beginning in terms of how many pieces, weight

mind. We select, together with the local partnerships, what

and how they are going to assemble it.

to present in each specific country. In this case, it was not

‘We use crates to transport the paintings and store

only with Standard Bank; the initiative also came from the

them in the aircraft. Careful planning needs to go into

French Embassy, the French Chamber of Commerce and,

putting the paintings in the crates and then placing them

of course, Air France. Once the idea is in place, there is a

into the cargo hold: they cannot be flat and one cannot put

long journey of preparation and fine-tuning of details – it

anything on top of that crate. We also have other important

took about a year since I came into this position as General

infrastructures that are necessary for projects like this,

Manager in September.’

these include a secure space where we can store the valuables until they are loaded into the aircraft.

‘We operate daily flights between Paris and Johannesburg

While comparing notes about the value, the security of the precious cargo and the French ownership of the artworks in the Matisse exhibition, De Cola set the record straight while

with two different types of passenger planes, both of which

mentioning that ‘although France is the owner and custodian

have large cargo capacity – the Airbus 380 and the Boeing 777.

of the Matisse works, at a higher level, the art does not belong

Although the Boeing 777-300 is smaller, the cargo capacity

only to France, Matisse’s artworks belong to all of humanity.

space is actually more efficient.

France owns it and holds it, but the work is for everybody, that’s

‘The cargo sections in these planes are pressurised at the same level as that of the passenger cabins and this will ensure that the Matisse artworks are protected

why we make exhibitions available to everybody. In general, art doesn’t have a nationality, it is appreciated internationally.

‘This art will be exposed to schools and to children, a

with optimum care during the flight between France and

first Matisse exhibition for this country and Africa, and Air

South Africa.’

France is privileged to play a part in it.’ CF

Creative Feel / July 2016 / 29

30 / Creative Feel / July 2016

Marguerite au chapeau de cuir (Marguerite in a Leather Hat). Henri Matisse, 1914.

Oil on canvas, 82 x 65 cm. Musée départemental Matisse, Le Cateau-Cambrésis

Rhythms and Meanings This is an extract from the catalogue accompanying the exhibition Henri Matisse: Rhythm and Meaning, edited by Federico Freschi and published by the Standard Bank Gallery, 2016. Federico Freschi is Executive Dean of the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture at the University of Johannesburg. An art historian, he has published widely on modern art and architecture.

H

enri Matisse (1869-1954) is probably one of the

mystique of his mastery increased substantially in the decades

best-known and most widely appreciated artists

following his death, and today we are likely to encounter at

of the 20th century. Even in his own lifetime,

least one major exhibition of the artist’s work somewhere

Matisse enjoyed considerable prestige as one

in the world every year. A quick Google search reveals that

of the undisputed leaders of modernism, nationally and

in 2016 alone, in addition to the Johannesburg exhibition,

internationally. Indeed, by the 1940s, he was considered

there are exhibitions devoted to Matisse at the Oklahoma

something of a ‘national treasure’ in France, a status that

City Museum of Art, the Morgan Library and Museum in New

was officially confirmed by his designation, in 1947, as

York, and the Palazzo Chiablese in Turin, with a host of other

Commander of the Legion of Honour.

important museums – from the Royal Academy in London to

In the same year, the influential American critic Clement Greenberg declared Matisse ‘the greatest painter of the day’, and in 1950 he was awarded the Grand Prize at the

the Art Gallery New South Wales to the Hermitage Amsterdam – featuring Matisse in the titles of their main exhibitions.

The blockbuster exhibition, Matisse: the Cut-Outs, held

25th Venice Biennale. Between 1933 and 1954, no fewer

at the Tate Modern in London in 2014, was the most popular

than ten monographs on the artist were published in France

exhibition ever held there, receiving 562 622 visitors.

and elsewhere. By the time of his death in 1954, Matisse’s

Although the version of the cut-outs exhibition shown at

international prestige was second only to Picasso’s.

the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2015 did not

Time has most certainly not diminished Matisse’s status and reputation. Indeed, the allure of his work and the

break the 1 021 000 attendance record for a 1980 Picasso retrospective, the museum was nonetheless compelled

Creative Feel / July 2016 / 31

Grande tête de Katia Henri Matisse, 1950-51 Aquatint, on BFK Rives wove paper.

Sheet: 645 x 500 mm; Print: 538 x 417 mm

Portrait de Madame Matisse (Portrait of Madame Matisse) Henri Matisse, Collioure, 1905 Oil on canvas, 46 x 38 cm

to extend the run and the viewing hours – including 24-

The current exhibition proceeds from the understanding

hour opening on the last weekend – to accommodate the

that Matisse’s art continues to have wide appeal across cultures.

substantial crowds that came to see it.

It also provides an opportunity to consider the expanded scope

Against this backdrop, an exhibition devoted to Matisse

of his early interest in ‘primitivism’, and particularly in African

in Johannesburg is not an insignificant event. Not only does

art objects: the interest in non-traditional and ephemeral

it expand, in a general sense, the geographical scope of

material, the interest in pattern and rhythm, and the interest

locations associated with viewing the artist’s work, it is also

in the conceptual rather than the perceptual as the primary

the first time that an exhibition of Matisse’s work has been

principle governing art-making. These are all elements that

held on the African continent. This is despite Matisse’s early

animated Matisse’s art throughout his career, and left an

interest in African art and its enduring legacy in the ‘mask’

indelible mark on 20th-century art history.

drawings and cutouts, as well as the long shadows cast by his visits to North Africa in the early years of the 20th century.

While this is not the first time that Matisse works have

The celebrated Jazz suite, presented in its entirety, is a key work in the exhibition. Not only are its images among the most recognisable in Matisse’s extensive oeuvre, the work

been exhibited in Johannesburg, bringing a full-scale

itself was a seminal turning point for the artist. In a 1952

Matisse exhibition to Johannesburg (and, by extension, to

interview with the artist André Verdet, Matisse declared that

Africa) for the first time creates an opportunity to reflect on

‘It’s not enough to place colours, however beautiful, one

a number of questions that would not necessarily be brought

beside the other; colours must also react on one another.

to the fore in exhibitions in more obvious locales. Not least,

Otherwise, you have cacophony. Jazz is rhythm and meaning.’

this exhibition asks us to consider the influence of African (and other non-Western) cultures in a very direct way.

32 / Creative Feel / July 2016

This exhibition takes this notion of ‘rhythm and meaning’ to introduce Matisse to a South African audience

“It’s not enough to place colours, however beautiful, one beside the other; colours must also react on one another.

Otherwise, you have cacophony. Jazz is rhythm and meaning”

Femme à la gandoura bleue (Woman with a Blue Gandoura) Henri Matisse, 1951 Oil on canvas, 81 x 65cm

through an exposure to the full range of his work. The works

broadly chronologically, the works are linked thematically

on exhibition come from the Matisse Museum in Le Cateau-

by the notion of the rhythm of line and form that gives

Cambrésis, the town in the North of France where he was

rise to various layers of meaning: the liberation of colour

born in 1869, as well as from the Matisse Museum in Nice,

and form in the early 20th century that engendered

where he died in 1954. In addition, there are works on loan

Fauvism, demonstrated in the important early paintings

from French private collectors, as well as three works from

on exhibition; the near-obsessive interest in line and form,

the collection of the Johannesburg Art Gallery.

evident in the engravings and drawings, and numerous

The exhibition features some of the very first work that

portraits of the 1940s; the ‘drawing with scissors’ of the

Matisse showed publicly (the study of the Nu debout (Standing

paper cutouts; and, not least, in the life-long interest in the

Nude) of 1892, a drawing submitted unsuccessfully to gain

seductive ‘exoticism’ of objects and textiles from Africa, the

admission to the École des Beaux Arts in Paris), to some of

Middle East and Oceania.

the very paper cutouts he made. It also shows some of the

These objects and textiles – some of which are displayed

first paintings in the Fauvist style (Portrait de Madame Matisse

on the exhibition – appeared in Matisse’s work throughout his

(Portrait of Madame Matisse), 1905), as well as one of the very

life, setting up a decorative rhythm that would find expression

last paintings he made (Femme à la gandoura bleue (Woman in

across a wide range of subjects and media, whether directly

Blue Gandurah), 1951), as well as paintings reputedly painted in

quoted or evoked formally as compositional devices. Bringing

Tangier (Coquelicots et iris I and II (Poppies and Irises), 1912).

together the works and the objects that informed them

Between these biographical and artistic bookends, the

enables us to see how what on the surface appears decorative

exhibition shows all the themes and media that preoccupied

and playful is in fact a deep-rooted interest in new forms of

Matisse throughout his long career as an artist. Grouped

signification, both artistic and intellectual.

Creative Feel / July 2016 / 33

Icare (Icarus) Henri Matisse, 1947 Reprint from the first plate of the book, Jazz.

Gouache stencil print on Arches paper.

42 x 65cm

a conservative neo-impressionism. This stylistic shift may be seen as a response to the pervasive political conservatism of post-war France, with its right-wing government’s call for a retour à l’ordre, or return to order, as a means of dealing with the war’s social and political

From an introduction to Matisse’s earliest works, the

consequences. Indeed, many artists, including Picasso,

exhibition moves to his mastery of line, and his obsessive

Braque, Derain and others who had been at the forefront

devotion to drawing. Widely acknowledged even in his

of the avant garde prior to the First World War, abandoned

lifetime as the master of colour, Matisse was quick to

their experimental styles in favour of classicism and

remind us that ‘black is [also] a colour’ and he used it to

figuration during the 1920s.

extraordinary effect, not only in his paintings but in the

From the subtle, sinuous rhythms and Orientalist

untold number of drawings, prints and artist’s books that

aesthetics of Matisse’s drawings and prints, the riotous

he produced throughout his life. The notion of ‘rhythm

colours of Jazz introduce a note of energetic discordance

and meaning’ is perhaps never more present than in these

that is at once as celebratory and playful as its circus

drawings, prints and books. All the grace, spontaneity,

subjects suggest, as it is somewhat ominous and disturbing.

economy of means and seeming effortlessness of his ability

Indeed, given the wartime context in which it was

to manipulate line and form in these works remind us of the

produced, compounded by Matisse’s anxieties over his

astonishing power of drawing to capture the immediacy of

health and the safety of his family, it is not surprising that

visual apprehension.

it contains some sinister and fearful elements.

A number of works produced in the immediate

In the context of this exhibition, the Jazz portfolio thus

post-First World War period – including lithographs of

serves as a central reference point for the notion of ‘rhythm and

odalisques – introduce Matisse’s so-called ‘Nice years’.

meaning’ in a number of ways. In the first instance, the fluid and

The work of this period shows a marked stylistic shift

improvisatory style of the stencilled prints (derived, as they are,

away from the adventurous work of the 1910s towards

from paper cutouts) evokes a sense of rhythm and repetition

34 / Creative Feel / July 2016

disrupted and revitalised by unexpected improvisations, elements that animated Matisse’s work from the outset, but which reach an entirely new level of intensity in Jazz.

On a deeper level, Jazz also serves as a conceptual link between the primitivism of the Fauvist period, with its

Le cheval, l’écuyère et le clown (The Horse, the Rider and the Clown) Henri Matisse, 1947 Reprint from the first plate of the book, Jazz Gouache stencil print on Arches paper.

42 x 65cm

implicit links to Africa, and that of Matisse’s later years, where this primitivism is complicated by nationalism, questions of cultural ‘authenticity’, and Matisse’s

In the final analysis, Matisse remains one of the most

awareness of his own mortality. It was produced, after

original and influential artists of the 20th century. Engaging

all, in a time that he described as his ‘second life, which

his work first-hand, in a context in which he has not

unfortunately can’t be a long one’, the artist having nearly

previously been viewed, is a rare opportunity to find new

succumbed to a post-operative embolism after surgery

rhythms and meanings that can continue to shape and

for duodenal cancer in 1941. The technique of ‘drawing

inform our understanding of his significance across time and

with scissors’, which he invented at this time, was, as his

across cultures. CF

biographer Hilary Spurling puts it, about a whole new process of art-making, a new relation to the viewer, a new

The exhibition Henri Matisse: Rhythm and Meaning, curated by

way of thinking about art.

Federico Freschi and Patrice Deparpe, Director of the Matisse

Although modest in scale and conception, Henri Matisse:

Museum in Le Cateau-Cambrésis, France, will be on display

Rhythm and Meaning engages directly with this extraordinary

at the Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg from 13 July to

legacy. At the same time, by virtue of its context, the

17 September 2016. Henri Matisse: Rhythm and Meaning is

exhibition seeks to prompt a deeper set of questions about

presented by Standard Bank in partnership with the Embassy

the relationship between form and signification, between an

of France in South Africa and the French Institute of South

artist’s work and his biography, as well as interrogating the

Africa, and with the support of Matisse Museum Le Cateau

limits and complexities of cross-cultural influence.

Cambrésis, Air France, Total and Air Liquide.

Creative Feel / July 2016 / 35

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Creative Feel / July 2016 / 37

TAF16 NEW WORK, NEW TALENT, NEW ART: The Turbine Art Fair, a production of The Forum Company and one of South Africa’s most anticipated art events, returns to the iconic Turbine Hall in Newtown for a fourth year from 14 to 17 July.

‘O

ver 50 galleries and exhibits from across

Visitors will also be able to take part in the free, daily,

South Africa will be showcasing the finest

interactive Talks programme sponsored by Artinsure. ‘Our

contemporary and emerging African talent,’

Talks programme is always a highlight for those attending

says Managing Director of The Forum

the Fair, as it gives our visitors an opportunity to learn more

Company, Glynis Hyslop.

about the art world in South Africa, meet some of the great

Galleries exhibiting at TAF2016 include Art

influencers in the world of art, collecting and design, as well

Source South Africa, CIRCA Gallery, David Krut

as some of the respected artists we have in South Africa and

Projects, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Artist Proof Studio

the Turbine Art Fair,’ adds Hyslop.

and Mzansi Gallery.

TAF16 aims to promote new work and talent, and create

Other highlights at TAF16 include: winner of the TASA (TAF and Sylt Emerging Artists Residency Award)

a new art audience and collector base. Exhibitors, whether

for 2015, Sarah Biggs, who will exhibit her work, inspired

galleries, collectives or dealers, have been invited to exhibit

by her residency on Sylt Island. TAF16 is delighted to

contemporary artwork priced below R40 000.

partner with the Sylt Foundation’s generous residency

38 / Creative Feel / July 2016

project, which allows an artist the luxury of space, time and artistic freedom. This residency is awarded annually to an emerging artist living in South Africa, as part of the Turbine Art Fair and the Sylt Foundation’s Residency Programme. The TASA 2016 prize will be officially presented during the Turbine Art Fair.

A series of interesting art installations will be showcased around the venue. These installations will be curated by Suzie Copperthwaite and will showcase some of the exciting talent we have in this art form in South Africa.

TAF16 will also see the return of two exciting exhibitions: Fresh Produce and Emerging Painters: The Graduate Show.

This year’s exhibiting artists for Fresh Produce are a larger group compared to the TAF15 showcase. The showcase is aimed at creating an opportunity for the selected artists, young and emerging, to participate and showcase at a global stage.

Featured artists include Lindokuhle Sobekwa (Photography), Itumeleng Kunene (Drawing) and Sakhile Cebekhulu (Painting), among 15 others. Co-director of Eyethu Gallery, Rolihlahla Mhlanga, curated the exhibition.

“TAF16 aims to promote new work and talent and create a new art audience and collector base. Exhibitors, whether galleries, collectives or dealers, have been invited to exhibit contemporary artwork priced below R40 000”

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Assemblage, in collaboration with VANSA and Turbine

University, Tanya Poole, Emerging Painters: The Graduate

Art Fair, will be running a six-month intensive workshop

Show returns for a second year after a sell-out success at

programme that integrates practical art-making (focusing

TAF15, and is curated especially for the Turbine Art Fair. The

on process and conceptual development) and professional

exhibition performs the role of both following the progress

practice training. The aim is to provide the artists with a

of some of the artists who featured in Emerging Painters 2015

comprehensive programme that encompasses the necessary

(curated by Hentie van der Merwe) and showcasing new

tools to help build and sustain a career in the industry. The

emerging artists. These artists are drawn from the Fine Art

ultimate outcome is to strengthen the artists’ work as a whole

Departments of South African universities and are either

by providing those who participate not only a guide through

currently engaged in painting practice as students or are

the development of their work but, very importantly, the tools

recent graduates.

in order to put their career into action within the industry.

The preparations for the exhibition began in February

With the current international resurgence of interest in painting, as well as the focus of the art world on

2016, with artists signing up for the ‘Artists Career

contemporary African artists, this is a particularly dynamic

Development Course’, facilitated by Assemblage in

and vital time for emerging painters in South and Southern

Newtown. The course is guided by a mentorship programme

Africa, and this exhibition attempts to track some of the

involving mentors David Koloane, Anthea Moys, Usha

conceptual concerns and aesthetic trajectories apparent in

Seejarim and Frances Goodman, who will assist in

the practice right now.

overseeing the development of the artists’ final work for the Turbine Art Fair, as well as to encourage the artists’ growth with regards to professional practice.

Curated by artist and Senior Lecturer and Head of the Painting Section at the Fine Art Department of Rhodes

For new collectors, this is an ideal opportunity to invest in this future generation of painters.

Following on from the enormous success of the JAG’s (Johannesburg Art Gallery) exhibition of their collection of multiples at TAF15, this year’s JAG exhibition, in

BLESSING NGOBENI Song of Chicotte

2 Jellicoe Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg +27 11 788 4805 info@circagallery.co.za www.circagallery.co.za

7 July – 20 August 2016

association with Strauss & Co and Artinsure, will showcase a juxtaposition of the works of Rembrandt and Diane Victor – one of South Africa’s most respected contemporary artists.

TAF16 presents a wonderful opportunity for Strauss & Co to showcase a selection of works from its online-only auction, which will run from 8 to 18 July 2016. The auction will include a wide variety of works, largely by South Africa’s most-loved modern and contemporary artists. ‘TAF16 is the perfect forum for art enthusiasts to see some of the works from Strauss & Co’s online-only auction in the flesh,’ says Susie Goodman, General Manager (JHB), Strauss & Co. ‘Turbine Art Fair is not just an art fair but also a lifestyle event! A fabulous showcase of the talent we have in South Africa and a great way to start collecting art in a unique and undaunting way, bringing the best galleries and artists under one roof. Enjoy great food by The Forum Company, live music, meet new and interesting people, and children can enjoy an art and play area hosted by Staedtler. All in all, a great day out in Jozi!’ says Glynis Hyslop. CF TAF16 opens on 14 July and runs until 17 July 2016.

Tickets range from R100 to R500 and can be purchased on: www.webtickets.co.za. Fore more information, visit www.turbineartfair.co.za.

All images SOURCE Turbine Art Fair

A

r�st Proof Studio (APS) is proud to be one of the leading printmaking studios that also provide a professional printmaking training programme to talented students from South Africa as well as other African countries. Our educa�on programme trains students in a full range of printmaking skills, drawing, visual literacy, and business prac�ce. �e do this through a full �me programme, part �me course and professional intern senior project.

Students who graduate from our programme are featured in various exhibi�ons and art fairs. Ar�st Proof Studio uses the Turbine Art Fair (TAF) to showcase new emerging talent of printmakers, many of whom become established ar�sts both locally and interna�onally. Through these pla�orms and other special events, we aim to develop audiences and inform first-�me buyers about the value of inves�ng in emerging printmakers.

Many of our partners support this inten�on and invest directly in the future of young emerging ar�sts in South Africa.

Since 2004, Fasken Mar�neau has

supported many emerging ar�sts at APS through our patron programme, par�cipate in our senior programme by offering law seminars to ar�sts and extend their support by sponsoring our stand at TAF. For TAF16 we have featured top emerging printmakers from APS which also includes students from our class of 2015. Featured emerging ar�sts include: Kelebogile Masilo, Dzunisani Maluleke, Sifiso Temba, Alex Vosloo, Donald Makola, Jan Tshikhuthula, Sizwe Khoza and Mario Soares.

Dzunisani Maluleke - N'wana A Hiwa Un'we (i)

Jan Tshikhuthula - Winter Study

Donald Makola - One Big Family

Sizwe Khoza - Ndzi Vonile Ntombi Yakuxonga

Kelebogile Masilo - Blooming

For TAF16 we have featured top emerging printmakers from APS

Anti-Sublime I by Io Makandal

Mary Corrigall reflects on an exhibition which saw the collaboration of art galleries catering for art graduates.

NEW SPACES FOR A NEW ART GENERATION

N

ot all artists blossom in the first years after

exhibition, which showed at Smith’s Church Street gallery

graduation. In fact, hardly any do and those

in June, functioned as a veritable touchstone for what is

that soar to fame early on in their careers often

occurring in the expression of a new generation of artists.

struggle to sustain the momentum and fall off

Abstract art is the mode du jour, so naturally a number of

the public radar. For this reason, spaces and institutions

them are working in this mode but not always with paint – as

geared for younger artists, offering some kind of incubation

was the case with some of their forerunners like Zander Blom

space for their talents to be nurtured and the ideological

or Jaco van Schalkwyk. A stand-out artist working in this

space for them to drive new aesthetics and articulate the

way is Io Makandal, a Joburg artist who has been very quietly

issues and ideas particular to their generation, are what the

infiltrating the scene via group shows. Her abstract drawings

South African scene had been missing. Fortunately, as the

are distinctive, though the compositions appear quite random.

visual art industry has matured and grown, such places now

The quality of the lines vary, appearing like doodles, scratches

exist. A few newish galleries run by young people offering

lending her works an unfinished, tentative look. Yet when all

art for new audiences have popped up. Such as the Joburg-

these different lines are brought together into a composition,

based Kalashnikovv and, in Cape Town, the Smith gallery,

there is something pleasing about them. The chaos makes

which holds regular group exhibitions, presenting a range of

sense and this is what makes her art so interesting; her ability

expression by a rising group of artists.

to very loosely create order from disorder.

It made sense, therefore, for these two galleries to join

Hand-drawing resonates with a number of young

forces at some point, which they have done with their first

artists. Perhaps this is because it has not been as prized as

collaborative exhibition titled From Whence They Came. This

painting and doesn’t carry the same art historical baggage.

44 / Creative Feel / July 2016

“For many young artists their art is not driven by an obvious subject, but by the process of making art. Art becomes the recording device to document life, thoughts and desires”

Origin by Marsi van de Heuvel

It also, as Makandal’s art demonstrates, allows the artist to express a sense of tentativeness and awkwardness that isn’t typically permitted in art – a space to be uncertain and not just express uncertainty. Jeanne Hoffman uses loose handdrawings to relay complexities related to her experience of

Something is Happening by Michael Linders

travelling and living in Cape Town and Holland, which she connects to historical journeys during the colonial era. She doesn’t depict the journeys via the usual iconographic signs but via abstract lines and compositions that relay the layers

solutions. However, via their titles he fixes the works at the

of time, history, embodying the interconnectedness of the

time they were made, as if they are records of something

past and the present.

else. For him, art allows for an escape from reality, though

Due to drawing being labour-intensive, it also allows for a level of immersion, as is the case with Marsi van de Heuvel’s art: detailed drawings consisting of finely executed

it soon becomes this parallel plane that presents a journey back to the self.

Much of the art from this younger generation appears

lines. The end result isn’t an abstract work but a highly

like design objects in the sense that they present pleasing,

figurative one in the case of Origin, depicting leaves in a

decorative patterns. This is the case with Maaike Bakker and

rainforest. Van de Heuvel may be interested in ancient

David Brits, whose reverse glass drawings mimic traditional

tribes in the Congo that inspired the work, but this isn’t

sign writing. Linders’ art also references graphic iconography

manifested in the work, it forms more of her process.

from South African popular culture of the 1980s and early

For many young artists their art is not driven by an

‘90s. Design has collapsed into the art realm and young

obvious subject, but by the process of making art. Art

artists evince an awareness of this by retrieving the ‘art

becomes the recording device to document life, thoughts

element’ and motivations informing design of the past. They

and desires. This is the case with MJ Turpin’s and Michael

see the art in design. As such, they challenge our perception

Linders’ art. Turpin, who owns and runs Kalashnikovv

of art, which ultimately should be the objective of every new

gallery, makes abstract paintings that appear to be design

generation of artists. CF

Creative Feel / July 2016 / 45

Bathers on Rock, 1978, Watercolour on paper, height 33.4 x length 36cm, Wits Art Museum collection

‘The Bushman Painter’ comes to Braamfontein I Invented Myself, the much anticipated exhibition of art collector, Jack Ginsberg’s private Walter Battiss collection, will show at the Wits Art Museum (WAM) from 5 July to 9 October 2016. Following the exhibition, WAM will be endowed with this extraordinary selection of artworks.

B

orn in Somerset East in 1906 to an English

as Johannesburg Training College where he obtained his

Methodist family, Walter Battiss is now considered

Teacher’s Diploma

one of South Africa’s most significant abstract artists. His conservative ‘hymn-singing’ father

In 1944, Battiss exhibited his copies of rock paintings, becoming the first South African artist ever to represent

wanted him to be a ‘strong man’, while his delicate mother,

rock art from a purely aesthetic point of view. Through his

who he compared to a butterfly, wished for her son to become

research and first book, The Amazing Bushmen, Battiss helped

an artist. To his mother’s delight, gentle anarchist, Walter

to bring rock art to the attention of the public. Throughout

Battiss fell in love with archaeology, specifically rock art, at

his life, he published nine other books and wrote numerous

the age of eleven when his family moved to the Free State.

articles, published both locally and internationally. In 1948,

He pursued his love for art by attending Wits Tech Art School where he studied painting and drawing, as well

46 / Creative Feel / July 2016

he ventured a stay in the Namib Desert where he lived among the indigenous San people. In the same year, Battiss

Sky blue, 1978, oil on canvas, height 90.5 x length 121.5 cm, Jack Ginsberg Collection

was honoured with the bronze medal and diploma, achieved

Siebrits, will be the first time that this collection has

for painting and woodcuts, at the International Olympiad

ever been exhibited.

Exhibition.

Battiss’s work is highly valued by contemporary

The exhibition, which runs from 5 July to 9 October 2016, is accompanied by a 340-page illustrated book (for sale

art lovers and is exhibited on a regular basis. In 2005

at WAM for R1 000), as well as Battiss merchandise such as

through 2006, his work was exhibited at Standard Bank’s

scarves, T-shirts, crockery, wrapping paper and post-cards. A

retrospective and posthumous exhibition. In 2009 and 2010,

screen-print of Battiss’s Fook Script in a numbered edition

Battiss’s artworks formed part of Dada South, a show at the

of 100 will be sold for WAM fund-raising.

South African National Gallery.

In this upcoming exhibition of his worked titled, I

At the end of the exhibition, the collection will become part of the Wits Arts Museum’s permanent holdings, and form

Invented Myself, visitors will experience, step-by-step, the

the nucleus of a major Walter Battiss Archive. The collection

life of ‘The Bushman Painter’, as Battiss became known

will be available to scholars by appointment for research.

in the 1950s. One will gain insight into aspects of this

Running concurrently with I Invented Myself, Origins

artistic innovator’s productions, including his extensive

Centre Museum, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits),

travels, interest in rock painting, calligraphy, exploration of

together with the Rock Art Research Institute (RARI), Wits

multiple media and the Fook Island of his imagination.

University will present a temporary exhibition entitled The

For more than 25 years, well-known art collector

Origins of Walter Battiss: “Another Curious Palimpsest”. This

and philanthropist Jack Ginsberg has assembled an

exhibition, which features more than 80 works on public

extraordinary collection of more than 700 artworks,

display for the first time and focuses on Battiss’s interest

books and collectibles by acclaimed South African artist

in San rock art, opened on 9 June and will run until 30

Walter Battiss. I Invented Myself, curated by Warren

September 2016. CF

Creative Feel / July 2016 / 47

COMPLEXITIES OF THE

African Identity !Kauru Contemporary African Art Project’s multimedia exhibition Being and Becoming: Complexities of the African Identity, which was exhibited at various venues across Gauteng in May and June, played an important role in the Department of Arts and Culture’s Africa Day celebrations. In particular, the exhibition addressed issues facing all nations on the African continent and aimed to further develop relationships between the various countries.

B

eing and Becoming: Complexities of the African Identity was an exhibition of video and photography that examined the material and conceptual complexities of the African identity, with themes interrogating

race, gender, class, access, intersectionality, transformation and transcendence. The themes addressed in the exhibition are topical in the public imagination, not only in the political realm but also within the creative sectors around the continent, engaging the historical and political context of who we are and where we see ourselves going as Africans.

Curated by Paula Nascimento (Angola) and Raphael Chikukwa (Zimbabwe), Being and Becoming: Complexities of the African Identity featured works by some of the most prominent video and photography artists from Africa and the African diaspora, including Kudzanai Chiurai (Zimbabwe), Irineu Destourelles (Cape Verde), Lerato Shadi (South Africa), Helen Zeru Araya (Ethiopia), Ayana V. Jackson (USA/SA), Délio Jasse (Angola), Nástio Mosquito (Angola), Mário Macilau (Angola), Idelio Agnaldo Vilanculo (Mozambique), Edson Chagas (Angola), Mudi Yahaya (Nigeria), David Aguacheiro (Mozambique), Siwa Mgoboza (South Africa), Thando Mama (South Africa) and Louis Kibafika Kakudji (DRC).

‘The exhibition invites us to reflect upon fragments, composite identities, and a range of themes from sustainability to processes of appropriation and re-appropriation, among others, that independently form micro-narratives. When placed

48 / Creative Feel / July 2016

Ayana V. Jackson, Stella (Dear Sarah series), 2016 Archival pigment print on German etching (Ed of 8) 130 x 76cm Courtesy of UNISA Art Gallery

(Above and below): Mario Mรกcilau, The Smoke, 2012-2016, Photography

Creative Feel / July 2016 / 49

Ayana V. Jackson, Tignon, 2015, (Wild as the wind series) Archival pigment print on German etching (Ed of 8) 83 x 107cm Courtesy of UNISA Art Gallery together and confronted with each other, such narratives can

with Stefano Rabolli Pansera) and director of Beyond

help us forge new relations – social, ethical, geographical

Entropy Africa, a research-based studio working in the fields

and examine behaviours and modes of being that reveal

of architecture, urbanism, visual arts and geopolitics; and a

the multiplicity of forces that shape our cultural spaces

regular contributor to various publications and catalogues.

and a conceptualisation of what it is that forms the African

Nascimento is also a founding member of ‘Colectivo Pés

Identities within a context of constant movement and

Descalços’ (Barefoot), a platform for developing arts projects

evolution,’ Paula Nascimento (co-curator) said of Being and

and educational projects in Luanda.

Becoming: Complexities of the African Identity.

Paula Nascimento is a Luanda-based architect,

Raphael Chikukwa was born in Zimbabwe. He was awarded the 2006/2007 Chevening Scholarship and holds

researcher and curator. Nascimento has degrees from

an MA in Curating Contemporary Design from Kingston

the London Southbank University and the Architectural

University, London. Chikukwa worked mainly as an

Association in London. She is a co­founder (in collaboration

independent curator for more than ten years before joining

50 / Creative Feel / July 2016

Délio Jasse, The Face of God, 2015 Photography

the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in mid 2010 as its Chief

that change perceptions of the continent through

Curator. He is the founding curator of the first Zimbabwe

contemporary art. It provides a platform for African

Pavilion, in 2011, and also curated the Zimbabwe Pavilion

contemporary artists and cultural practitioners to engage

2013 and 2015 at the Venice Biennale. Chikukwa was the co-

with a showcase of contemporary art from the continent.

curator for the Basket Case exhibition 2014 and co-curator

The project is focused on dialogue around social and

of Kabbo Ka Muwala: Migration and Mobility in Contemporary

economic cohesion, transformation and access within

Art in Zimbabwe, Uganda and Germany. He is a founding

the creative sectors in South Africa but also across the

staff member of the PUMA funded Creative Africa Network

continent to strengthen engagement and build sustained

and has presented papers on his curatorial practise at the

relationships with creatives in countries around the

Tate Modern Symposium ‘Curating Africa’, and Art Basel

African continent. The project began in 2012 as a project

Miami Conversations in the United States.

of Back2Back Advertising under the guidance and

The !Kauru African Contemporary Art Project aims to promote conversations in Africa and internationally

management of Director Tshepiso Mohlala. Over the past four years, !Kauru has exhibited over 100 artists from over 20 African countries.

In support of the objectives of the African Union (AU) and to foster cooperation between all the African states, !Kauru African Contemporary Art Project is made possible through the generous support of the Department of Arts and Culture­International Relations, with additional support from Pro Helvetia, UNISA Art Gallery, Eyethu Gallery, the Visual Arts Network of South Africa (VANSA), Remy Martin and Kwenta Media. CF

Creative Feel / July 2016 / 51

Yana Seidl in (UN)BRIDALED at the Wits Amphitheatre, 2016. PHOTO Mariola Biela

Brazilian-born dancer and award-winning choreographer, Marina Magalhães, radiates the confidence of Iansã, a passionate Afro-Brazilian warrior woman and deity of death, rebirth and tempests, who is explored in (UN)BRIDALED.

Creative Feel’s Francesca Matthys, who also danced in the South African production of the piece, spoke to Magalhães about the thinking behind (UN)BRIDALED. This dance work formed part of Drama For Life’s Human Rights and Social Justice Season earlier this year.

Unpacking

(UN)BRIDALED with Marina Magalhães

‘A

s far back as I can remember, I’ve always loved dance… dance became almost like a second home, a second family, something to keep me grounded and consistent,’ says Magalhães as she shares her gypsy-like experience, moving from country to country with her family as a child.

She reflects on her upbringing and earnestly declares that dance has been a really strong marker of her identity. She recalls a poignant memory from her childhood, where her cousin insisted that she learn salsa, and in return she proudly began dancing the spicy Latin American dance, with no recollection of how she had learnt it. Her sense of cultural identity has been very closely tied to movement and dance; it has always been integral to who she is.

Magalhães recently showcased her riveting choreographical work, (UN)BRIDALED at The Drama for Life (DFL) Human Rights and Social Justice Season in May 2016.

52 / Creative Feel / July 2016

During her stay in South Africa, she performed her solo work Limbs, choreographed by Maria Bauman, at the My Body My Space Festival (Mpumalanga, South Africa) as well as the Maitisong Festival (Gaborone, Botswana).

Every performer desires to be part of projects that truly nourish their creative soul, that empower artists and remind them of why they’ve ventured into this tumultuous industry in the first place. (UN)BRIDALED is certainly one of these gems. Magalhães and the original Latino cast, in her home base Los Angles, first created this interactive dance theatre experience in 2014. Completing her BA, majoring in World Arts and Cultures (Dance Concentration) with a minor in Women’s Studies at University of California Los Angeles, Magalhães acquired the philosophy to make work that derives from a personal place, and to explore her position in the world. (UN)BRIDALED is no different, and her personal experiences became an entry point into exploring the theme of patriarchy, especially in relation to the bride. ‘To me in my life, no oppression is clearer and more present than patriarchy,’ says Magalhães.

The theme of this year’s DFL Human Rights and Social Justice Season was ‘States of Emergency’, Magalhães chuckles as she says that as woman our entire lives are made up of unremitting states of emergency, constantly worrying about our safety for being a woman. As she says, ‘While men walking down the street are at peril of getting mugged or experiencing violence, for woman there’s an added factor, like our bodies could be used against us.’

Patriarchy is ever present in our society. Young women are constantly confronted with issues pertaining to their bodies, marriage and the role of women; addressing patriarchy’s affect on woman through dance, naturally, was a daunting task. As overwhelming as the subject matter may be, nothing is more relevant in South Africa’s current context with the rise of anti-rape movements in universities, than women taking agency of their bodies. A process such as this not only empowered the performers, but encouraged the entire body of women present in the theatre during the performance to channel Iansã and assert ‘I don’t give a fuck!’ (A very defiant line in the work).

This line is a revelation for women that should go beyond the confines of the theatre and onto the street, into the workplace, with women wherever they are. The ideals that Magalhães strives for are pertinent to the daily survival of women.

Magalhães believes that artists should be integral to a society and that artists should be politically engaged in order to create provocative and relevant work, that critiques the society they live in; a characteristic she admires about South African artists. She does this herself, by fusing her love and appreciation for contemporary dance styles, as well as her immense passion for Afro-Latin dances and the desire to eradicate the bridge between contemporary dance/music in relation to that of the traditional.

(UN)BRIDALED was both a physical and emotional feat, delving into the depths of the performers’ womanhood, into what makes them who they are.

When Magalhães was asked what her wish was for woman across the world, she answered, ‘To allow ourselves to be total contradictions and really complex human beings.’ She continued to subtly inspire as she enthusiastically shared her love for feminism and how, ‘Feminism saved my life! I love feminism…it gave me all this language and context to understand everything I’ve been through…and that’s my other wish for woman, to at least understand feminism and engage with it in a way that doesn’t demonise it.’ CF

Creative Feel / July 2016 / 53

South Africa’s

NEWEST PROTÉGÉ Every year, seven highly gifted young artists from around the world are chosen to join one of the world’s leading arts philanthropy programmes, the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. This year, Israeli mentor Ohad Naharin selected South African dancer Londiwe Khoza for the latest cycle of the programme.

Israeli mentor Ohad Naharin and South African dancer Londiwe Khoza

54 / Creative Feel / July 2016

A

mong the new protégés are a Swiss architect, a writer from Brazil; a Peruvian musician; an Argentinian/Spanish theatre artist; a film-maker

“I want to inspire, to motivate, to make a mark. Art is, at the end of the day, so much greater than the artist”

from India; a Vietnamese visual artist and

Londiwe Khoza, a dancer from South Africa. The spectacular seven will be mentored by some of the most acclaimed figures in the contemporary arts worldwide: British architect Sir David Chipperfield; Mexican film director Alfonso Cuarón; poet and novelist Mia Couto from Mozambique; American

than the artist.’ With her forthcoming collaboration with

composer Philip Glass; Canadian theatre director Robert

Ohad Naharin, she hopes to explore and unlock the potential

Lepage; American performance and video artist Joan Jonas

within herself, under the guidance of one of the world’s most

and Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin.

innovative choreographers.

Every two years, an ‘Arts Weekend’ is held to celebrate

Ohad Naharin, one of today’s pre-eminent and visionary

the achievements of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts

choreographers, is renowned for pioneering some of the

Initiative. The latest ‘Arts Weekend’ was held in December

most inventive and intriguing styles of movement in

2015 in Mexico City and it was evident there that the dance

contemporary dance. His choreography and teaching have

category was one of the most highly contested categories of

drawn a devoted following throughout the dance world,

the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative.

especially in his native Israel. Artistic director of the

It is, therefore, a special honour for South Africa that

Batsheva Dance Company in Tel Aviv since 1990, Naharin

mentor Ohad Naharin selected dancer Londiwe Khoza for

began his training with the troupe in 1974 at age 22. A

the 2016/2017 cycle of the programme. She is a versatile

visit to Israel by dance legend Martha Graham changed

young dancer who, over the past five years, has gained

his life as, impressed by his talent, she invited him to join

recognition for her exceptional talent in neoclassical and

her company in New York. Naharin went on to study at

contemporary dance, as well as for her dramatic skills.

New York’s School of American Ballet, the Juilliard School

While a student at the Cape Academy of Performing Arts

and with various masters before building an international

from January 2012 to December 2014 (where she graduated

career and performing with Israel’s Bat-Dor Dance Company

with Distinction and top honours in multiple disciplines),

and Maurice Bejart’s ballet in Brussels. In 1980, he made

Khoza was also a soloist at the Cape Dance Company, the

his choreographic debut and formed the Ohad Naharin

professional troupe associated with the school. During this

Dance Company. During 26 years with Batsheva, he has

period, both South African and international choreographers

choreographed over 20 works for the company, as well as for

cast her in a variety of ballets, including performances at

its junior division, Batsheva Ensemble.

South Korea’s Busan International Dance Festival. In 2015,

Londiwe Khoza’s excitement was apparent at the time of

she was invited to study at the Central School of Ballet in the

the Rolex announcement ceremony in Cape Town, and she

UK and to dance with the Joburg Ballet, one of South Africa’s

is looking forward to her imminent departure to Israel. Ohad

most prestigious ballet companies. She has recently returned

Naharin, speaking from Tel Aviv, said: ‘My hope is always

to the Cape Dance Company where she will perform until

to encourage a dancer’s ability to interpret – using the

July 2016. ‘I want to be the kind of artist who changes

full scope of sensations – so that new content is given to a

people’s lives,’ says Khoza. ‘I want to inspire, to motivate, to

performance that I (the choreographer) did not “write”. It is

make a mark. Art is, at the end of the day, so much greater

this ability that I cherish and I wish to be able to teach.’ CF

Creative Feel / July 2016 / 55

56 / Creative Feel / July 2016

Arias Among the many South African singers of quite exceptional talent who have risen to international prominence in recent years, none shines with more radiant promise than Pumeza Matshikiza. The following extract was written by Dominic Fyfe, producer of Matshikiza’s latest album, entitled Arias.

V

oice of Hope was, as this Opera review confirmed,

all within the space of three or four hours. The allure of a

an apt name for Pumeza’s first Decca album. Her

beautiful voice would soon tire without total commitment to

new collection of arias and art songs might equally

character and text. With Pumeza, commitment is absolute,

be called ‘Voice of Fulfilment’. The name ‘Pumeza’

one of her most arresting features: ‘In her singing she

derives from the Xhosa verb ‘to fulfil’, and following her debut

always seems to be expressing a whole personality,’ Michael

at La Scala in the world premiere of Giorgio Battistelli’s opera

Tanner wrote, ‘or even two: her own, evidently strong and

Co2, critically acclaimed performances of Dido (‘She’s a killer

interesting; and somehow, simultaneously, in the way that

queen,’ wrote Hugh Canning) and touring the great concert

only certain singers can manage, by dint of having so strong

halls of Europe with Rolando Villazón, the distinctive beauty

a personality, contriving to create a character onstage with

of her voice is now in great demand.

her own life and individuality.’

Once heard, rarely forgotten. As the Opera critic

The characters on this album present roles already in

continued: ‘It’s difficult to imagine that anyone would not

Pumeza’s repertoire and many of those to come; ‘souvenirs

immediately be struck by the sheer, irresistible beauty of

and previews’, to use John Ardoin’s phrase. Puccini is pre-

her vocal instrument. Dusky, overtone-rich, abundantly

eminent among both: Mimì has become a signature role on

sensuous, the timbre has much of the fullness, freshness

stage and Liù, another role with which she closely identifies.

and purity of a Sibongile Khumalo… alloyed to the darker

‘Puccini wrote the words to “Tu che di gel” himself,’ reflects

tones of an almost Callas-like palette.’ Writing in The

Pumeza, ‘and as a singer you feel something especially

Spectator, Michael Tanner, who has followed Pumeza since

personal in Liù’s music, at a level deeper than any other

her Royal College of Music days, goes further: ‘What went

character in the opera.’ Art may have mirrored life in the

on fascinating me was not only the beauty of her singing

Puccini household, as some have speculated, but the music

but also the commitment to the role she was performing.

of Liù’s sacrifice and suicide is so overwhelming it’s hardly

It’s a paradox, but it seems to be the case that some of the

any wonder that the composer couldn’t complete the opera.

most unmistakable singers are also those who bring diverse

Suor Angelica is another role with ‘Puccinian yearning’,

figures most vividly to life, sometimes, even often, by their

as William Weaver described it, in which Pumeza finds

voice alone.’

particular resonance.

On record, ‘voice alone’ is all we hear, and in studio

Ravel’s Concepción in L’Heure espagnole has been a

recording sessions a singer often has to alternate between

standout role since RCM student days (‘Pumeza Matshikiza’s

many different roles. This challenge should never be

long-limbed, sexually rapacious, copper-voiced Concepción

underestimated: Mimì one moment, Rusalka the next and

was outstanding,’ wrote The Independent a decade ago). And,

Concepción to finish; or from Euridice to Susanna to Dido,

perhaps most poignant of all, the words of Catalani’s La

Pumeza Matshikiza PHOTO Simon Fowler Creative Feel / July 2016 / 57

Wally – ‘Ne andrò sola e lontana’ (‘I will go far away alone’) – invite a telling parallel with Pumeza’s own solo journey between continents and cultures.

The role of Rusalka became a passport to further success when it capped Pumeza’s winning performance at the 2010 Veronica Dunne competition and led, in turn, to her joining the ensemble at the Staatsoper Stuttgart. Mozart’s Susanna was one of her earliest roles there, one for which she feels particular affection. Hearing Edith Mathis as Susanna while aimlessly channel-surfing the radio as a teenager was a defining moment: ‘Her legato, the smoothness of the sound of the orchestra. It was a revelation to me, although I had no context in which to place it because our music education was so basic. I didn’t know it was opera.’

Pumeza soon developed a deep love of the great voices of the past, and choosing the repertoire for this disc has taken some intriguing turns: ‘I have Renata Tebaldi to thank for the inclusion of the aria by Sarti,’ she says. ‘During our research for this album, Decca released a complete Tebaldi Edition to commemorate the tenth anniversary of her death. Her LP of 18th-century arias caught my eye, and the

“In her singing she always seems to be expressing a whole personality or even two: her own, evidently strong and interesting; and somehow, simultaneously, in the way that only certain singers can manage, by dint of having so strong a personality, contriving to create a character onstage with her own life and individuality”

arrangement of “Lungi dal caro bene” enchanted my ear with its seamless legato and effortless beauty.’ The arrangement had been specially commissioned by Decca for Tebaldi when

songs not only book-end the belle époque (Fauré’s from

her album was recorded in London in 1973. Richard Bonynge

1878; Tosti’s from 1912), they also share a similar motif of

conducted and thankfully still had a copy of Douglas

regret shadowing a dreamlike reverie. As Tosti’s poet Hélène

Gamley’s original hand-written score in his library.

Vacaresco writes in the last line of ‘Si tu le voulais’: ‘I know

If this arrangement might now be thought of as pastiche Baroque, then Reynaldo Hahn’s ‘À Chloris’ is the genuine article. As Graham Johnson has written ‘“À Chloris” is

songs so sweet to sing that they soothe your soul and lull you to sleep.’

‘La Paloma’ has no shortage of arrangements. There are

beyond doubt the summit of Hahn’s art as a pasticheur and

believed to be more than one thousand versions of this song,

it ranks as perhaps the most successful example of musical

making it to the 1860s what the Beatles’ ‘Yesterday’ was to

time-travelling in the French mélodie repertoire.’ It has,

the 1960s. By pure coincidence, the version we chose for

he says, ‘charm, elegance, gravity and the ability to move

Pumeza ‒ Douglas Gamley’s arrangement for Victoria de los

audiences ‒ what more could one ask of a song, whether or

Ángeles’ LP A World of Song ‒ was first recorded in the same

not it is pastiche?’

year (1965) and the same venue (Abbey Road) as the Beatles

Hahn’s song may glance back nostalgically from 1916

song. ‘La Paloma’ is a habanera, a fusion of Cuban song with

and the embers of the belle époque, but Tosti’s ‘Si tu le

flamenco rhythm, and it seems apt to pair it with the ‘Punto

voulais’ belongs very much to that era of salon music and

de Habanera’, the second of Montsalvatge’s Cinco canciones

joie de vivre. It’s a song that became a recital favourite for

negras. These were commissioned in 1945 by Mercedes

Rosa Ponselle, a singer beloved of Pumeza ever since the

Plantada, the Catalan soprano and teacher of Victoria de

late John Steane, the much-respected author of The Grand

los Ángeles. The ‘Punto’ is an African-derived Cuban folk

Tradition, likened the timbre of their two voices, having

song in a tempo de guajiras, meaning ‘country music’ in

heard Pumeza sing as a young artist at Covent Garden. To

Cuban Spanish. Less well-known than the famous lullaby

arrange the bittersweet charm of the song for orchestra, we

in the cycle (‘Canción de cuna para dormir a un negrito’), or

turned to the Viennese composer and musicologist Michael

the dramatic ‘Chévere’, Pumeza chose the ‘Punto’ to inject

Rot who successfully orchestrated numerous Tosti songs for

some fun into the album: ‘It’s a song to tease with, light and

Ben Heppner’s DG album Ideale. Rot has also made a new

playful, and at the end, the Creole girl brushes the sailors

arrangement of Fauré’s ‘Après un rêve’ for Pumeza. The two

aside, humming as she goes.’ CF

58 / Creative Feel / July 2016

Katherine Jenkins’ gift to The Queen The new Katherine Jenkins album Celebration showcases Jenkins’ patriotic spirit as she pays tribute to Her Majesty The Queen on her 90th birthday.

C

elebration is a joyous collection of the greatest music from the United Kingdom, combining eight new tracks with twelve favourites selected by Jenkins from her hit recordings. It includes such beloved tunes as ‘Rule Britannia’, ‘Jerusalem’, ‘I Vow To

Thee My Country’, ‘Ae Fond Kiss’ and the Welsh national anthem ‘Land Of My Fathers’ – a song very close to Jenkins’ heart. Bursting with patriotic spirit, Jenkins’ album pays tribute to Her Majesty The Queen on her 90th birthday, with such songs as ‘Someone to Watch Over Me’, which was the most popular song in the year the Queen was born, and the rarely-heard three-verse rendition of the national anthem. The album is Jenkins’ first since having a baby, and opens with the newly commissioned song, ‘This Mother’s Heart’, as Jenkins’ gift to the Queen.

The singer is donating her album advance to The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust. Jenkins performed as part of the Queen’s birthday celebrations at Windsor Castle in May and staged her own celebratory

concert at the Royal Albert Hall in June. CF

Creative Feel / July 2016 / 59

The Polar Music Prize 2016 The Polar Music Prize celebrates the power and importance of music and is awarded to individuals, groups or institutions for international recognition of excellence in the world of music.

Cecilia Bartoli. PHOTO Uli Weber

E

very year the Polar Music Prize awards two

The board of the Stig Anderson Music Award Foundation

Laureates in order to celebrate music in all its

includes representatives from the Stig Anderson family,

various forms and to emphasise the original

SKAP (The Swedish Society of Popular Music Composers)

intention of the prize: to break down musical

and STIM (The Swedish Performing Rights Society). The task

boundaries by bringing together people from all the

of scrutinising nominations submitted and selecting the

different worlds of music. The 2016 Laureates are mezzo-

ultimate Laureates is undertaken by an award committee

soprano Cecilia Bartoli from Rome, Italy and Martin

comprising of experienced members of the music industry,

Sandberg from Stockholm, Sweden.

representatives from the Anderson family, musicians and

The Polar Music Prize was founded in 1989 by the late Stig ‘Stikkan’ Anderson, one of the true greats in the

previous Laureates.

With regard to Martin Sandberg, who writes under the

history of popular music. As the publisher, lyricist and

name Max Martin, the official citation for the prize states

manager of ABBA, he played a key role in their enormous

that ‘melodies are like time capsules. Melodies define their

success. Its name stems from Anderson’s legendary

time and are spread from person to person, across borders

record label, Polar Music. The Polar Music Prize is one

and across generations. In the last 20 years, no composer

of the most prestigious and unique music prizes in the

in the world has written melodies as sustainable or as

world, crossing musical boundaries and awarded to

widespread as those of Max Martin. Right now, at this very

individuals, groups and institutions, in recognition of

moment, someone, somewhere in the world will be singing

exceptional achievements.

a hit song written and produced by Max Martin. With his ear

60 / Creative Feel / July 2016

for song melodies, his musical precision and craftsmanship,

is not sufficient. It is said that her throat ‘must hide a

he has refined and developed the world’s popular music.’

nightingale’s nest’ and in fact ‘declarations of love’ are pure

‘If you can somehow influence popular culture, shape

and simply appropriate... The Bartoli phenomenon. It can’t

it in some way, when something becomes bigger than just

be expressed in down-to-earth language or in facts and

a song, that’s the greatest thing for me… this is what I love

figures. However, they prove in their own way how much

about music. You can reach so many people… This prize is a

Cecilia Bartoli moves people with her music.

great honour,’ said Max Martin With a vocal range of three octaves and a unique ability

More than 10 million of her video and sound recordings have been sold worldwide. According to these figures, Bartoli

to live a role with fullness of expression, Cecilia Bartoli

is currently the most successful classical artist. Her recordings

has developed song as an art form. Bartoli has spellbound

have occupied the top positions in the international pop

audiences in the world’s great opera houses, but is not

charts for more than 100 weeks. As these facts show, Cecilia

content with the well-known repertoire. She has also

Bartoli is one of the most popular artists of our time.

dug deeply into the history of music and presented long-

‘I must say, this award is so completely different from

lost music from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries that is

all other prizes and awards I have received until now. It is

completely new to today’s audiences. Bartoli adds new

a great honour to share it with dear colleagues from the

chapters to the history of music, builds bridges between

classical business… to be a Laureate together with my very

centuries and deepens our understanding of Europe’s

huge idols… this is what makes the Polar Music Prize so

cultural heritage. Bartoli shows us that raised voices can

unique,’ said Cecilia Bartoli

change the world.

Many things are different when Cecilia Bartoli sings.

Critics look for new metaphors because everyday vocabulary

Max Martin. SOURCE Polar Music Prize

Max Martin and Cecilia Bartoli received the award on 16 June from the hand of His Majesty, King Carl XVI Gustaf in Stockholm. CF

Creative Feel / July 2016 / 61

Thanda Island One of the few truly private tropical islands in the world opened its doors in April 2016. Thanda Island is the magnificent beach residence of the Swedish entrepreneurial and philanthropist couple Christin and Dan Olofsson.

S

ituated within southern Tanzania’s Shungi Mbili

palette of white has been chosen and combined with soft,

Island Marine Reserve, this private island offers

natural hues and fabrics throughout, complemented by their

absolute exclusivity for families and friends to enjoy

handpicked pieces of furniture and artwork. Leading straight

on a sole-use basis. It is the sister property to their

off from the pristine white sand beach, the fan cooled and

highly acclaimed and multi-award winning private game

air-conditioned suites each feature indoor and outdoor

reserve, Thanda Safari, in Zululand South Africa.

showers. Countless palm trees, indigenous vegetation and

Off-grid and solar-powered, Thanda Island offers guests an environmentally sensitive, fun and restorative Indian Ocean experience in total seclusion. Comprising an

bushes have also been planted to enhance the existing beauty of the Island’s flora.

Encouraging guests to slow down and soak up the relaxed

expansive five-bedroom villa featuring an impressive glass

tempo of island life, they will enjoy long lunches under the

rim-flow swimming pool and a huge indoor aquarium to

veranda, have fun making pizza in the outdoor oven and laugh

rival its outdoor counterpart, it combines casual beach-

late into the starry night around the outdoor cocktail bar.

house living with outdoor ocean adventures. The villa

By day, they may choose to laze on the expansive deck that

accommodates ten adults, with the option of additional

frames the house and the pool or prefer the feel of the white

children sharing.

sand of their own beach between their toes.

Reflecting their own style, the villa has been designed and decorated by Christin and Dan Olofsson personally. A

62 / Creative Feel / July 2016

Eight hectares in size, 1.1kms in circumference and 350m wide, the Island is surrounded by its own private coral

“Encouraging guests to slow down and soak up the relaxed tempo of island life”

turtles occur in Tanzania’s waters, two of which – green and hawksbill, categorised as endangered by the IUCN – have recently returned to nest on the Island. Guests will also be able to learn about the local Swahili sea-faring culture on nearby Mafia Island and picnic on a neighbouring atoll.

Furthermore, Thanda Island seeks to mirror the conservation and community upliftment successes that Thanda Safari has achieved in South Africa by partnering

reef, with a 1km exclusive-use zone, which can be explored

with the Tanzanian Marine Parks and the leading NGO, Sea

with a snorkel and mask straight from the beach. Sailing

Sense, on a range of marine conservation and education

boats, stand-up paddle boards and single as well as double

programmes in the region. These include research and

kayaks are all on hand for the active. The more adventurous

conservation projects on the sea turtles, dugongs, dolphins,

can catch sight of the whale sharks that congregate just

whale sharks, coral reefs and marine reserves. Adding to

south of the Island from October to February, or spot the

this, the team is participating in a range of social upliftment

endangered dugong while scuba diving with qualified

programmes on Mafia Island, which has approximately 60

instructors. Furthermore, a powerboat zone outside the

000 people in the communities. This will be in the form of a

Marine Park to the south of the Island allows for water

commitment to the education of young people in sustainable

skiing, jet-skiing, wake-boarding and tubing. Big game

resource utilisation, fish harvesting, marine conservation,

fishing on a 28-foot reef runner cat off Mafia Island is

and in the development of healthy, sporting activities, such

another available activity.

as football. CF

Depending on the season, guests can watch turtles nesting and their eggs hatching. Five species of marine

www.thandaisland.com

Creative Feel / July 2016 / 63

GENIUS DIRECTOR: Michael Grandage STARRING: Colin Firth, Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Laura Linney Finding fame and critical success at a young age, Wolfe is a blazing talent with a larger-than-life personality to match. Perkins is one of the most respected and well-known literary editors of all time, discovering such iconic novelists as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. Wolfe and Perkins develop a tender, complex friendship. Transformative and irrepressible, this friendship will change the lives of these brilliant, but very different men forever.

10DL

AT CINEMAS 15 JULY

66 / Creative Feel / July 2016

AT SELECT CINEMAS 29 JULY 2016

CAPTAIN FANTASTIC

An unconventional family leaves its wilderness home and tries to adapt to the world outside the forests of the Pacific Northwest in Captain Fantastic, a humorous, challenging and ultimately moving drama from writer and director Matt Ross.

Ben Cash (Viggo Mortensen) and his wife Leslie (Trin Miller) have created an off-the-grid paradise for their family. In a self-sufficient, handcrafted compound, Ben teaches his six children the skills they need to survive in the deep forest, as well as providing them with a rigorous physical and intellectual education. But when a family tragedy forces the Cashes to return to the outside world, Ben’s ideas of what it means to be a parent are challenged and he must confront the price his children are paying for his dream.

Written and directed by Matt Ross, Captain Fantastic stars Viggo Mortensen, Frank Langella, George MacKay, Samantha Isler, Annalise Basso, Nicholas Hamilton, Shree Crooks, Charlie Shotwell, Ann Dowd, Erin Moriarty, Missi Pyle with Kathryn Hahn, and Steve Zahn.

Releasing at cinemas 29 July 2016. For more information, visit Facebook/Times Media Films.

Times Media Films

To book:

Creative Feel / July 2016 / 67

Times Media Films

ACADEMY AWARD ® NOM INEE

ACADEMY AWARD ® WINNER

Michael Shannon

Kevin Spacey

★ Elvis has entered the White House ★

★ The true story you won’t quite believe ★

Alex Pettyfer

Johnny Knoxville

BLOOM PRESENTS AUTUMN PRODUCTIONS, INC. PRESENTS AN ELEVATED FILMS & HOLLY WIERSMA PRODUCTION A JOHNNY MAC AND DAVID HANSEN PRODUCTION IN ASSOCIATION WITH BENAROYA PICTURES A FILM BY LIZA JOHNSON MICHAEL SHANNON KEVIN SPACEY “ELVIS & NIXON” EXECUTIVE ALEX PETTYFER JOHNNY KNOXVILLE COLIN HANKS EVAN PETERS ASHLEY BENSON PRODUCERS JOHNNY MAC DAVID HANSEN LAURA RISTER ROB BARNUM LISA WOLOFSKY MICHAEL BENAROYA BYRON WETZEL MICHAEL SHANNON JASON MICALLEF JERRY SCHILLING PRODUCED HOLLY WIERSMA CASSIAN ELWES CARY ELWES WRITTENBY JOEY SAGAL & HANALA SAGAL AND CARY ELWES DIRECTEDBY LIZA JOHNSON BY © 2016 E&N INVESTMENTS LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

68 / Creative Feel / July 2016

AT SELECT CINEMAS 8 JULY

ELVIS & NIXON

In 1970, Elvis Presley (Michael Shannon) flies to Washington D.C. with the goal of convincing President Richard Nixon (Kevin Spacey) to deputize him as a federal agent-at-large. Showing up unannounced at the Northwest Gate of the White House with his buddy Jerry Schilling (Alex Pettyfer), Presley persuades awe-struck guards to hand deliver a letter to Nixon requesting a secret meeting. White House staffers Egil “Bud” Krogh (Colin Hanks) and Dwight Chapin (Evan Peters) tell the president that a sit-down with Elvis during an election year could generate good PR, but Nixon is in no mood to humour the legendary rocker.

Undeterred, Jerry and Elvis’ sidekick Sonny (Johnny Knoxville) re-group with Krogh and Chapin to hatch a deal: Elvis will sign an autograph for Nixon’s daughter Julie in exchange for face time with the president. Prior to making his grand entrance, Presley is instructed in a litany of White House protocols, which he quickly disregards. To Nixon’s surprise and the astonishment of his nervous aides, the pair bond over their shared contempt of counterculture.

Based on an actual encounter that took place on December 21, 1970, Elvis & Nixon hilariously re-imagines the unlikely meeting between rocker and politician as dramatized by two of America’s finest actors.

Elvis & Nixon releases at select cinemas 8 July 2016.

Visit Facebook/Timesmediafilms for more information on the film.

Times Media Films

To book:

Creative Feel / July 2016 / 69

Times Media Films

Book Reviews Recently published

The Yearning

Publisher: Pan MacMillan South Africa ISBN: 9781770104839

Award-wining singer and songwriter Mohale Mashigo, who goes by the stage name, Black Porcelain, has added the title of author to her dossier. Creative Feel’s Abigail Phiri spoke to Mashigo about her debut novel, The Yearning.

T

he Yearning is a debut fiction novel that narrates

it as something she had initially been doing alone. ‘I don’t

the tale of Marubini, a modern Cape Town woman

think it really lives with me, so it’s not permanent. I told a

and her journey towards uncovering truths about

story and now that [The Yearning] is done, it lives with and

her childhood. The novel eloquently incorporates

belongs to other people,’ she says, recalling how the process

modern lifestyle and language with African traditions,

began, ‘I started writing this story to avoid my colleagues at

customs, spirituality and family values. Filled with intrigue

the advertising agency because I hated my job so much. I had

and lightly glazed with humour, The Yearning, makes for an

no idea of knowing that it would become what it is. It was just

enjoyable read.

a distraction,’ she adds with a hint of a childlike giggle.

Mashigo shared insights into her writing and editing

Mashigo explains the title and overall idea of yearning as

process as a first time novelist, ‘I’ve got nothing to compare

being faced with the question of something missing in life,

it to’ she says. Although Mashigo’s debut album Invincible

‘you know when you’re born and people say, “she’s such a

Summer was bestowed Best Creative Album by the Wawela

stubborn baby”; people are already telling you who you are

Music Awards of 2013, she found the differences between music

and then you have experiences that also shape that image.

and writing to be in the permanence of each creative process.

Then you become an adult and feel “something is definitely

‘Music is collaborative,’ she notes, ‘I start writing a song on the

missing”, not knowing whether you need to change careers

piano and eventually I’m in studio with session musicians and

or whether it’s because you’re not being creative enough. We

producers. Once created, [music] still lives with me because I

all have a yearning and this, specifically, was about Marubini

have to perform it, which feels a little more permanent for me,’

[the main character] finding the yearning that was bothering

she adds with the sturdy voice of experience.

her, the thing that she needed to find out.’

In describing her novel writing process in contrast to music, she says she started The Yearning in 2006 and describes

70 / Creative Feel / July 2016

She continues, ‘when I write a story, I start at “what if?”: What if our parents could fix the things that injured us as

children? What if they tried to fix the things that broke us as children to make us better adults?’ She allows the questions to linger in a pause before adding, ‘a lot of black families just don’t want to talk about that, you’re fine, you’re not broken, continue with your life. Then, I thought her mom could be a psychologist, but I also love magic realism, so I took existing practices and added fiction to them.’ She notes her inclusion of traditional practices that are not liberally shared and adds, ‘you can’t just go to someone and ask about their practices because it’s a spiritual journey for them. So, a lot of what I have written is fiction within something that already exists.’

Delving deeper into her unique depiction of African customs and spirituality, Mashigo reveals that it was not, for her, as difficult a task to integrate these, as it would seem.

‘There are lots of black people in South Africa that have got what’s considered a traditional home while living in a modern world, the two are not mutually exclusive,’ she says, ‘that’s been my life. I’ve got the layers of being at home with older people and learning about traditions and culture.’

Exclaiming animatedly, ‘I never saw it as a challenge to write about it because everyone is multifaceted. You’re not just a woman who writes, you’re also somebody’s lover, somebody’s daughter and somebody’s friend.’

She recalls the gruelling editing process before finally

A new generation speaks Writing what we like: A new generation speaks Edited by Yolisa Qunta Publisher: Tafelberg ISBN: 9780624071808

publishing with Pan Macmillan South Africa, ‘It feels very

‘We still dream, but the innocence of the promise of

personal; like I was being cut open but it was very important

freedom is lost.’

because obviously I was so close to the story that there were things I didn’t see.’ Exuding a sense of fulfilment as

Associate editor at Jucyafrica.com and a columnist at

she adds, ‘It’s part of the growing process, I believe The

allforwomen.co.za, Yolisa Qunta, spent her formative years

Yearning was a baby and I couldn’t see my baby’s flaws until

in Zimbabwe and Botswana as a child to political exiles, and

somebody said, “lets do this, rather” but its now a very nice

returned to South Africa with her family in 1993.

adult, after the editing.’

Now that her novel is published for the world to read, as

She began writing after discovering that her childhood passion, being a flying doctor, did not really combine

a first time author, reading reviews could go either way. For

aviation and medicine. Qunta is currently completing a

Mashigo, ‘I try not to find out how other people feel about it.

BCom in economics through UNISA.

I don’t read reviews for my peace of mind,’ she states frankly

From the serious to the lighthearted, this book presents

and adds, ‘…but I think people like it, my friends like it!’ she

a snapshot of what smart young South Africans think about

punctuates with excited laughter.

living in South Africa today. From black tax, whitesplaining

Mashigo and her acclaimed BFF, Zakes Mda shared a platform at her book launch in Rosebank, Johannesburg, where she explained that the book itself is not a reflection

and colourism, all the way to hip-hop and kinky sex, it is provocative, fearlessly honest and often very funny.

Shaka Sisulu tackles being black and privileged,

of her own life and quipped, ‘…people should give me more

Simphiwe Dana pleads for mother tongue education, Yolisa

credit as a fiction writer,’ to resounding cheers and claps

Qunta shares lessons learnt from taking the taxi, while David

from the guests. She adds, however, that if she had to be

Kau, Loyiso Gola and Sivuyile Ngesi provide comic relief.

any character in the novel, ‘I think Nkgono (Grandmother).

Writing what we like will spark debates in workplaces, in bars,

I think I’m going to be a granny like that. Out of control,

and around the dinner table – both ekasi and in the suburbs

independent and no nonsense!’ CF

– for some time to come. CF

Creative Feel / July 2016 / 71

Book Reviews Recently published

The Prison Book Club | By Ann Walmsley | Publisher: Oneworld | ISBN: 9781780747835 For 18 months Walmsley went to a remote building at Collins Bay, meeting a group of heavily tattooed book club members without the presence of guards or security cameras.

There was no wine and cheese, no plush furnishings. But a book club on the inside proved to be a place to share ideas and regain a sense of humanity. The Prison Book Club follows six of the book club members, who kept journals at Walmsley’s request and participated in candid one-on-one conversations. Graham the biker, Frank the gunman, Ben and Dread the drug dealers, and the robber duo Gaston and Peter come to life as the author reconciles her knowledge of their crimes with the individuals themselves, and follows their lives as they leave prison. Ann Walmsley is a magazine journalist whose work has appeared in The Globe and Mail and Maclean’s. She is the recipient of four National Magazine Awards, a Canadian Business Journalism Award and two International Regional Magazine Awards.

The One-in-a Million Boy | By Monica

Ladivine | By Marie Ndiaye |

My Grandmother Sends Her

Wood | Publisher: Headline Review |

Publisher: MacLehose Press | ISBN:

Regards and Apologises | By Fredrik

ISBN: 9780544617070

9780857053350

Backman | Publisher: Sceptre | ISBN:

Miss Ona Vitkus has, aside from

Clarisse Rivière’s life is shaped by a

9781444775846

three months in the summer of

refusal to admit to her husband Richard

Everyone remembers the smell of

1914, lived unobtrusively, her

and to her daughter Ladivine that her

his or her grandmother’s house.

secrets fiercely protected. The boy,

mother is a poor black housekeeper.

Everyone remembers the stories their

with his passion for world records,

Instead, weighed down by guilt, she

grandmother told them. But does

changes all that. He is eleven. She

pretends to be an orphan, visiting her

everyone remember their grandmother

is 104 years and 133 days old (they

mother in secret and telling no one of

flirting with policemen? Driving

are counting). And he makes her

her real identity as Malinka, daughter

illegally? Breaking into a zoo in the

feel like she might be really special

of Ladivine Sylla. Centred around

middle of the night? Seven-year-old

after all. A friendship that touches

three generations of women, whose

Elsa does. As Christmas draws near,

each member of the boy’s unmoored

seemingly cursed lineage is defined

even the best superhero grandmothers

family. The One-in-a-Million Boy is

by the weight of origins, the pain of

may have one or two things they’d like

a richly layered novel of very real

alienation and the legacy of shame,

to apologise for. Heartbreaking and

hearts broken seemingly beyond

Ladivine is a beguiling story of secrets,

hilarious in equal measure, this new

repair and yet still within reach of a

lies, guilt and forgiveness by one of

novel will charm and delight anyone

stunning act of human devotion.

Europe’s most unique literary voices.

who has ever had a grandmother.

72 / Creative Feel / July 2016

CDs & DVDs The latest releases to suit all tastes

Music at the centre, the revolution Like many artists, Nigerian-born and South Africa-based, Kunle Ayo found his musical roots in the church. Although Ayo only picked up the guitar for the first time at age 20, he is recognised as one of Africa’s greatest guitarists. Among many other awards, Ayo won the Metro FM Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album for Best of Both Worlds in 2001.

Ayo shared that his latest album, A Tunse: The Revolution is inspired by several events that have occurred in his life over the last five years. ‘I’ve always wanted to come up with an album like this because I believe there’s always a message to pass on to somebody else and a need to talk about certain things.’ One of the songs on his album titled ‘Ile’, featuring Oliver Mtukudzi, addresses the notion of going back to the place where culture comes into play.

‘We’ve come to a place where everyone does anything, anyhow. We then put our culture back into play saying, “I am an African, this is how we do things.

We do this with respect, we do things with love.”’

When asked what the highlight of his career has been thus far, he answered, ‘Well, so many highlights, but recently I’ve been working with Bra Hugh Masekela on his new album; producing the album. There’s so much one can tap into, in terms of information, from young people and older people, and that has been a highlight of my career, working with him and, more importantly, learning from him.’

Jazz legends such as Hugh Masekela, Ayobami and Ori Akere, as well as American smooth jazz saxophonist Kirk Whalum are featured on the artists’ sixth album.

A Tunse: The Revolution is available for purchase through iTunes.

RAVEL: COMPLETE ORCHESTRAL WORKS | YUJA WANG | RAY CHEN | DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON | 4795524 This is the first release by celebrated Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, together with young, stellar conductor Lionel Bringuier, who took on the leadership as principal conductor and music director in 2014/15. The box set includes all of Ravel’s orchestral works in one box, including the popular piano concertos and famous ‘Tzigane’, performed by Yuja Wang and Ray Chen. This box grabs the magic of the live performance recorded at the famous Tonhalle Zürich, which is classed as one of the best venues in the world in terms of its acoustics. Piano concertos, ‘Tzigane’ and ‘Fanfare’, were recorded under studio conditions in the Tonhalle venue.

NO JACKET REQUIRED | PHIL COLLINS | ATLANTIC | CDESP 450 No Jacket Required is the third solo studio album by English singer-songwriter Phil Collins, the lead vocalist and drummer for the rock band Genesis. The album was originally released on 18 February 1985 and features guest-backing vocalists, including Helen Terry, Peter Gabriel and Sting. Some of the songs, like ‘Don’t Lose My Number’ and ‘Sussudio’, were based around improvisation. ‘One More Night’, ‘Sussudio’, ‘Don’t Lose My Number’, and ‘Take Me Home’ were top ten hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, with ‘Sussudio’ and ‘One More Night’ reaching number one. The three singles that were released in the UK all reached the top 20 on the UK charts. No Jacket Required was 1985’s GRAMMY winner for Album of the Year.

Creative Feel / July 2016 / 73

encore Federico Freschi is currently the Dean of the Faculty of Art, Design and

Architecture at the University of Johannesburg. He was previously a professor in the History of Art department at Wits. In 2012, Freschi took a break from

academia to head up the Goodman Gallery in Cape Town. In addition to his day job, Freschi may be known to Creative Feel readers in his ‘other’ capacity as an operatic baritone.

Name three artworks that you love and why.

Name one thing you think would improve the arts and

Visual art: Lucio Fontana’s Spatial Concept ‘slashed’ canvases.

culture industry in South Africa.

When I saw one of these for the first time I was transfixed by its

A government that takes it seriously without using it as a

audacity, power and grace.

political weapon.

Music: Verdi’s La Traviata – ravishing musical drama from beginning to end. Bach’s ‘Goldberg Variations’, especially

What is your most treasured possession?

as played by Simone Dinnerstein, for its beauty, complexity

My sense of humour.

and inventiveness.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

Name one artist you would love to meet.

Noise.

I am fortunate in my work, both as an academic and at the Goodman Gallery (as well as a singer) to have met many

What is it that makes you happy?

interesting and important artists in South Africa and abroad.

Being busy.

Nonetheless, I think I would greatly enjoy having lunch with Stephen Fry.

Describe a defining moment in your life.

In my second year as a Fine Arts student at Wits, Paul Stopforth, who

What are you reading at the moment?

was teaching us drawing, looked at a drawing I was working on – and

I’ve just reread Robertson Davies’s The Cunning Man. I haven’t

in which I kept suppressing something that was trying to emerge – and

read Davies for years, and it was a joy to rediscover and be

said, “Why are you holding back? Just go for it!” That moment of giving

thoroughly entertained by his erudition and humour, even if it is

myself permission to trust my creative and intellectual instincts is

somewhat old-fashioned (and just a bit pompous).

probably the basis of whatever success I have enjoyed in my life.

What is in your car’s CD player?

What projects will you be busy with during 2016 and into 2017?

I think my car has a CD player hidden in the glove

I am the editor-in-chief of a set of edited volumes on important

compartment, but I haven’t ever used it as I have discovered

South African modern artists, drawing partly on the previously

the joy of streaming music. The last thing I listened to was a

unpublished archives of the famous South African art historian

fabulous recording of Handel’s Messiah featuring Anne Sofie

Esmé Berman. The first volume will be a biography on Esmé

von Otter.

Berman, and is scheduled to be released at the end of this year, with other volumes to follow over the next few years. I also have various

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

other research projects on the go, as well as focusing on building

Not being so hard on myself.

the profile of the Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture at UJ.

How have the arts industries in South Africa changed over

Name one goal you would like to achieve in the next

the last ten years?

twelve months.

There has been an amazing explosion of talent across all

Working on the Matisse exhibition has meant that I’ve had to

the arts industries, coupled with an increased sense of

revive my French, which I studied at school, and have kept alive

professionalism. South Africans have never wanted for

by singing a lot of French repertoire. I would like to develop

creativity and ingenuity, and the diversity of creative energy in

greater fluency in my spoken French and to this end have been

South Africa today is inspiring.

challenging myself with quite a good online course. CF

e

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