What we talk about when we talk about love

Page 1



CURATED BY FEDERICA ANGELUCCI 1 DECEMBER 2011 – 14 JANUARY 2012



CONTENTS

THE IMPOSSIBLE REALITY OF LOVE FEDERICA ANGELUCCI 5 10 SIMON GUSH 12 MESCHAC GABA 20 LYNETTE YIADOM-BOAKYE 30 VIVIANE SASSEN 34 DINEO SESHEE BOPAPE 42 ANTON KANNEMEYER 50 ZANELE MUHOLI

<> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> 60 FRANCIS AL타S <> 70 GLENN LIGON <>

NICHOLAS HLOBO 16 ZINA SARO-WIWA 28 WIM BOTHA 32 CLAUDETTE SCHREUDERS 38 ERNESTO NETO 48 PENNY SIOPIS 54 DEBORAH POYNTON 58 IGSHAAN ADAMS 66 PIETER HUGO 72 ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES 76



THE IMPOSSIBLE REALITY OF LOVE FEDERICA ANGELUCCI

In Raymond Carver’s short story What we talk about when we talk about love, two couples sit drinking and conversing. Soon, different opinions emerge as to what love is: according to the cardiologist, real love can only be spiritual love; his wife describes the abuses, threats and suicide of her former boyfriend as acts of love. The narrator maintains that love is never an absolute, while his wife of 18 months dwells on the ‘honeymoon feeling’ they still share. They toast to true love, but doubt lingers among the four characters as they become drunker and, we perceive, increasingly sad. From their conversations, the carnal impulse, day-to-day caring and sentimental love all seem to be manifestations of true love, yet eventually they pale or mutate. We leave the four in the dark, in silence so deep they can hear Installation view with Claudette Schreuders' Great Expectations and Dineo Seshee Bopape's love strung

their hearts beating. The question expressed in the title is unanswered.

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THE IMPOSSIBLE REALITY OF LOVE

Of all the mythologies and

search is about because of the many

traditional fables surrounding the origin

different meanings of love in different

of romantic love, the one narrated in

times: passion, tenderness, care, courtly

Plato’s Symposium is probably the most

love, social contract, sacrifice, friendship,

renowned. In the dialogue, the genesis

mystical rapture, parental love, elective

of the sentiment is traced back to an

affinities, attraction of opposites,

age in which humans were composed

domestic intimacy, words, silence.

of two people, with two faces and eight

The feeling has multiple

limbs. Zeus, jealous of their perfect

manifestations, but the question is

balance, divided them in half, mutilating

what constitutes its kernel. Would it

them. Since then, individuals have been

be possible to state that there is no

constantly striving to find their ‘other

such thing as love but only people

half’ and to recreate the wholeness of

who love? As each individual has his

the original creature. The power of Eros,

or her values and personal history, so

god of sensual love, resides in his capacity

each will love in a different way and will

to heal the mutilation and reconcile

colour the expressions of the sentiment

the separation through physical union;

with different incidental attributes.

however, an emotional connection seems

Furthermore, the object of desire, the

to be equally desired.

missing element on which fulfilment

The allegory suggests the existence of a being once made of our very essence, whose destiny is inextricably

depends, is also profoundly mutable and subjective. It might be more appropriate to talk

intertwined with ours. Popular culture’s

about subjects of desire than objects

idea of romantic love, manifest in movies

of desire because, ultimately, it is what

and songs, is derived from this myth.

the object evokes in the individual that

Often the excitement of the encounter is

matters and not its attributes per se.

described as a ‘fall’, a free flow of mutual

The object, whether another sentient

recognition and understanding so intense

being, an activity or a state of mind,

as to be almost intoxicating. Subsequently,

will be perceived according to the

the communion weakens; it might slowly

individual’s projection, as it is arduous,

fade into estrangement. In the final stage

if not impossible, to behold the other

of a relationship the partner is often

for what it is, with no prejudice. Thus,

unrecognisable: the saviour has turned

maybe, the sense of completion and

into a betrayer. A new search begins.

wholeness, the thread binding us to our

Each time, one wonders what the

Platonic other half, can be provided by


anyone or anything to which we attribute

in an email, ‘According to Lacan, “truth

the manifestation of pain controlled and

such a capacity.

has the structure of fiction”. This reveals

sober. In Sarogua Mourning, her head

the most beautiful characteristic of love:

shaved as a sign of withdrawal from the

hypothesis that the missing element we

that it is both impossible and yet very

world, the artist confronts the camera

so deeply desire can actually be found

real.’ Paradoxically, it is in rejecting the

with alternating waves of desperation

within; that every relationship, with

influence of illusion in our life that we

and meditative wailing; gradually

people and situations alike, is moulded

cling most tightly to the false idea of

laughter finds its way through the tears.

and shaped by the relationship we have

stable, endlessly perfect love: we are the

One wonders whether the choreography

with ourselves. If this is the case, to

first to fail ourselves.

of pain is a necessary phase of the

This perspective prompts the

interact fully and satisfactorily with the

The artists of What we talk about

cathartic process.

‘other’, one has to first acknowledge and

when we talk about love observe

interact fully with one’s self. The ancient

the ‘illusion’ from different angles,

duality and connectedness between

Greek aphorism ‘Know thyself’ could be

investigating some of the forms assumed

opposites. Nicholas Hlobo’s Sukundipha

interpreted in this sense. It was inscribed

by the search for wholeness and what lies

Intlenge (loosely translated as ‘Don’t give

on the forecourt of the temple of Apollo

beyond it.

me the “gunge”’) exposes the hidden,

at Delphi, one of the most powerful

The public dimension of love and

Several works explore themes of

unromantic side of relationships. We shy

oracles of antiquity, who would answer

its associated feelings has its rituals.

away from dull and humble endeavours in

pilgrims’ questions with ambiguous

Meschac Gaba canonised them as a

favour of glamour, excitement and climax.

statements that could be interpreted in

performance celebrating his wedding

Yet fullness cannot be experienced

various ways. This is perhaps a further

in a museum space as part of his

through smoothness only, and in Hlobo’s

indicator that the ‘key’ is not what lies

monumental work, the Museum of

diptych it is a watery underworld of

ahead, but how one responds to this. It is hazardous to state that love is just a fantasy; yet it is elusive, always needing a symbol through which it

IT IS HAZARDOUS TO STATE THAT LOVE IS JUST A FANTASY; YET IT IS ELUSIVE, ALWAYS NEEDING A SYMBOL THROUGH WHICH IT CAN BE EXPRESSED AND MADE TANGIBLE

can be expressed and made tangible. It would be easy to cynically dismiss it

Contemporary African Art. Eleven years

strange ribbon creatures that fertilises

as an illusion and in so doing miss its

later, the Marriage Room displays in

the pretty life above the ground. Ernesto

efficacy. Perhaps the illusion is part

detail the visual documentation, the

Neto distills the endless oscillation of

of the equation, and imagination and

objects and memories of the event. In

connected layers of the same feeling

projection are functioning necessities

her video performance, Zina Saro-Wiwa

into an abstracted sculpture, suggesting

of love. This assumption does not make

reflects on the maieutic quality of crying.

a sensual and tactile experience.

feelings or emotions less real, it simply

Professional mourners are familiar

Two spheres of semiprecious stones

acknowledges the fictional element

figures in many cultures, although

enveloped in silky and thick crochet

intrinsic to them. As Simon Gush put it

nowadays there is a tendency to keep

seem to orbit in synchronicity: they

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THE IMPOSSIBLE REALITY OF LOVE

are distant yet never fully apart. Glenn

precedent and textual sources in her

Ligon’s Studies for Negro Sunshine

disquieting paintings that perturb our

drawings are titled after an expression

ideas about family, nurturing and caritas,

used by Gertrude Stein in the short novel

suggesting interspecies filial relationships.

Melanctha. The novel’s balanced cyclical

Zanele Muholi asserts the right to same-

structure and obsessive repetitions

gender love and rejects the notion of

draw the reader through the internal

homosexuality as aberration. In text

torments and emotional tensions of the

paintings using her own menstrual blood,

protagonist, towards a dramatic climax.

she exposes the ostracism and hate

Much like Stein’s writing, the drawings

crimes inflicted on black lesbians. Anton

are both accessible and impenetrable:

Kannemeyer’s sharp irony takes aim at

their cyclical structure and obsessive

the aura of hypocrisy surrounding sex in

repetitions are a visual litany. The choice

the media and pop culture, while paying

of inclusion or exclusion, of a way out or a

homage to DH Lawrence. Conundrums'

way in, is left to the viewer.

pure domestic scenes seem unreal,

Some forms of love are less accepted

their perfection almost difficult to look

than others, vehemently debated or

at. His drawings depicting sex explicitly

utterly opposed. In the famous anecdote

and unapologetically are the artist’s

by Latin writer Valerius Maximus, a

provocative response to the reduction of

daughter breastfeeds her own mother

the erotic to artificial soft porn. The fantasy of love is often entertained in our minds long before

THIS DANGEROUS AND APPARENTLY MEANINGLESS TASK CAN BE SEEN AS THE PARADOX OF REACHING PEACE THROUGH CHAOS, AS A METAPHOR FOR THE PROCESS OF PASSING THROUGH THE STORMS OF OUR OWN PROJECTIONS TO REACH AN INNER STILLNESS

the actual experience; our likes and dislikes take shape influenced by fairy tales and songs, setting the tone for our relationship with what we will long for, or fear. Great Expectations by Claudette Schreuders embodies the passivity of

to save her from starvation; the author

the heroine waiting for her saviour. Yet

questions whether this should be

the sculpture’s eyes are alert, and her

considered an act against nature or

clenched fist contradicts the abandon of

one of great piety and filial love. The

the lying figure: the waiting is conscious

breastfeeding scene has touched the

rather than oblivious. Dineo Seshee

imagination of many writers and painters,

Bopape’s drawings evoke waves of

and Penny Siopis draws on art historical

swirling thoughts and feelings, ranging


through disparate emotions with their

paintings on exhibition. Only the red dress

at the roots of the life he leads, looking

dreamy narratives of love blooming and

and controlled sway of Clamour for a

incessantly for his true birth line: in so

disappearing from existence.

Grip hint at movement. The characters

doing he finds ruin according to human

are ghostly creatures that appear to

values, but is blessed by the gods. His

emerges in Pieter Hugo’s There’s a

own the key to themselves; the fact

daughter Antigone symbolically buries

Place in Hell for Me and My Friends. The

that they don’t exist casts doubt on the

her brother in obedience to unwritten

portraits of the artist’s close friends

possibility of transcending the dualities

laws, an act of piety which is necessary

are the antithesis of the airbrushed

of love. Floating above the turmoil of

only to her and will cost her her life.

images that determine the canons of

relationships, the naked figure of Deborah

Perhaps in Tornado Alÿs questions how

beauty in movies and magazines. The

Poynton’s Land of Cockaigne I seems to

we live, suggesting obstinate counter-

sitters’ appearance is heavily marked by

have chosen the isolation of the void.

ways: they might not necessarily be

blemishes and sun damage; as vanity is

The pose suggests she is turning away

acknowledged, nor bring us to the centre

mortified a more unique attractiveness

from the world, drowning in the fabric, in

of the storm, but as few things are more

emanates from the faces. Viviane

a silence disallowing of residual echoes.

mutable and unstable than love, breaking

Sassen’s sophisticated photographs of

While Poynton’s painting offers no way

the mould that holds our beliefs can bring

faceless figures, on the other hand, erase

out, the spiritual search for wholeness is

us to interesting new places.

the individuality of their subjects. They

the theme touched on by Igshaan Adams.

could be a couple but look away from

I Am You is a circular maze of fabric

love letter) proposes an intervention in

each other, their features in deep shadow.

veils; the multiple layers do not isolate

the relationship between the curator and

The other is a simulacrum of the self, a

the viewer who enters but gently set him

the artworks in the exhibition space. In

blank canvas onto which we can project

apart, offering a symbolic path towards

this catalogue such engagement is made

our own desires. A perturbing beauty is

the search for an inner light.

tangible in the list of contents and the flow

The question of what is desirable

Finally Simon Gush’s Instructions (a

embodied in Wim Botha’s Fuse. Carved

In Tornado, Francis Alÿs is filmed

from one artist to the next. The choice of

from common construction timber, the

(and films himself) repeatedly attempting

whether to follow the pairings or find an

bust has no pretensions of refinement

to run towards the peaceful eye of the

alternative path to wander through the

or nobility, yet copper-chromium-arsenic

storm. This dangerous and apparently

matters of love is left up to you.

treated wood is enduring even in adverse

meaningless task can be seen as the

conditions. Unified and fragmented, the

paradox of reaching peace through

passionate embrace is at once stark

chaos, as a metaphor for the process

and sensuous, tender and destructive,

of passing through the storms of our

consuming and enduring.

own projections to reach an inner

At the other end of the spectrum of

stillness. There is also a tragic quality to

passions, the Olympian calm of Lynette

this enterprise: as in Greek mythology,

Yiadom-Boakye’s enigmatic subjects is

things are never what they seem.

palpable in the muted palette of the five

Oedipus insists on uncovering what lies

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Re: Instructions (a love letter)

SIMON GUSH

From: Federica Angelucci To: Simon Gush Dear Simon

Instructions (a love letter) 2011 Intervention

When entrusted with your instructions I began to list the characteristics of the artworks, looking for those conceptual elements that could be compatible, in affinity or disparity. As any experienced matchmaker would know though, the real success of a couple often has very little to do with the attributes of its members. It became clear to me that the strongest bonding element is disguised in the qualities that provoke attraction and interaction, and ultimately is independent from them. The bond resides in the willingness of the parties to be a couple, while keeping their respective individualities. The initial connection is powerless if not followed by a mutual decision. Human beings decide to share an emotional space; the works have been paired according to their willingness to share a physical one, or to point at an adjacent room where the discourse could take a different direction. It is the shared space that stands for love and makes it tangible: it is an analogue of love. Federica


InstructIons (a love letter) From: Simon Gush To: Federica Angelucci 1. All the artworks must be hung in pairs. 2. Artworks need not be hung on the same wall or even in the same room, especially in the case of video projections, but must be easily read as situated in direct relation to their counterpart. 3. All artworks must be partnered with other artworks; however, the following exceptions may be permitted: a) The artwork resists pairing with another artwork and rather is drawn towards pairing with a context, space, concept or ‘non-artwork’ (book, furniture, etc). b) An artwork demands to hang on its own by its concept. This should be avoided as much as possible. c) There is an odd number of artworks in the exhibition, in which case an artwork’s pairing may be resolved as suggested in a or b. 4. Series may be treated as singular or individual artworks – this decision must be made based on the way in which the artwork is best read. 5. No work may be paired with another work by the same artist. 6. Pairings should be conceptual rather than thematic, and never formal.

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Inventory

MESCHAC GABA

- stone sculpture of kissing couple, heart Wedding dress Wedding shoes Wedding pictures

Marriage Room From the Museum of Contemporary African Art 2000-9 Installation (see inventory) Dimensions variable

shaped - ceramic salt and pepper shakers in shape of crocodiles

- in gold frames: 16

- small jug

- in silver frames: 9

- cups, white outside, gold inside: 2

- in wooden frames: 15

- cigar boxes with souvenirs from India: 2

White guest book

- metal treasure chest with hippo piggy

Golden purse

bank inside

Black bag with wedding rings

- large glass with stand: 2

Wedding document

- empty bottle of ‘Bruidstranen’

Gifts

- plastic bouquet

- big pot with card signs

- nest with stone egg

- mirror/silver-coloured vase

- small wooden square

- golden vase

- ‘Homeless Megastore: emballé par JB

- straw bowls: 2

Koeman’

- grey vase with two ears

- book: Love

- metal strainers: 2

- frame with text by Picasso and picture of

- box of cutlery

chessboard

- wooden sculpture of kissing couple

- book with small paper planes

- plastic bag with card attached

- picture of stairway on wooden board

- mobile phone

- painting with geometric forms on

- small blue glitter purse, with two hacky sacks

wooden board - LP: ‘Ja, ik wil’

- present wrapped in gold paper

- painting of steam boat in silver frame

- card with picture of Alexandra as a

- CD by Oliver Mtukudzi

bridesmaid

- card game: ‘Happy Families’

- Keith Haring china cups and saucers: 4

Photos of wedding gifts on Plexiglas: 2

- old pottery from Africa: 3 pieces

Caricatures of Alexandra and Meschac: 1

- leather string with stoneware

each

- ‘Ja/Nee’ metal plates: 2

Abstract painting on paper

- small sculpture of Buddha and child

Picture of a frog made with fabric by

hugging - cork from champagne bottle

NICHOLAS HLOBO >

- jar of honey

Remy Jungermann DVD with fragments from the wedding



MESCHAC GABA



NICHOLAS HLOBO

No city is more inclined than Eusapia

else has access to the Eusapia of the dead

to enjoy life and flee care. And to make

and everything known about it has been

the leap from life to death less abrupt,

learned from them.

the inhabitants have constructed an

Sukundipha Intlenge 2011 Diptych, ribbon on tea-stained paper 75 x 105cm each

They say that the same confraternity

identical copy of their city, underground.

exists among the dead and that it never

All corpses, dried in such a way that the

fails to lend a hand; the hooded brothers,

skeleton remains sheathed in yellow skin,

after death, will perform the same job

are carried down there, to continue their

in the other Eusapia; rumour has it that

former activities. And, of these activities,

some of them are already dead but

it is their carefree moments that take

continue going up and down. In any

first place: most of the corpses are seated

case, this confraternity’s authority in the

around laden tables, or placed in dancing

Eusapia of the living is vast.

positions, or made to play little trumpets.

They say that every time they go

But all the trades and professions of the

below they find something changed in the

living Eusapia are also at work below

lower Eusapia; the dead make innovations

ground, or at least those that the living

in their city; not many, but surely the

performed with more contentment than

fruit of sober reflection, not passing

irritation: the clockmaker, amid all the

whims. From one year to the next, they

stopped clocks of his shop, places his

say, the Eusapia of the dead becomes

parchment ear against an out-of-tune

unrecognizable. And the living, to keep

grandfather’s clock; a barber, with dry

up with them, also want to do everything

brush, lathers the cheekbones of an actor

that the hooded brothers tell them about

learning his role, studying the script with

the novelties of the dead. So the Eusapia

hollow sockets; a girl with a laughing skull

of the living has taken to copying its

milks the carcass of a heifer.

underground copy.

To be sure, many of the living want a

They say that this has not just now

fate after death different from their lot

begun to happen: actually it was the

in life: the necropolis is crowded with big-

dead who built the upper Eusapia, in the

game hunters, mezzo-sopranos, bankers,

image of their city. They say that in the

violinists, duchesses, courtesans, generals

twin cities there is no longer any way of

– more than the living city ever contained.

knowing who is alive and who is dead.

The job of accompanying the dead down below and arranging them in the desired place is assigned to a confraternity of hooded brothers. No one

< MESCHAC GABA

Italo Calvino, ‘Cities and the Dead 3’, from Invisible Cities (1972)



NICHOLAS HLOBO


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A Voice in the Morning

LYNETTE YIADOM-BOAKYE

would get on the bus to his workplace in the city. The tube was quicker, but the bus

Carter Blackwell had little time for airs

ride allowed him to sit and read through

and graces, politeness, love, good nature

his itinerary, make notes in his diary

or sentimentality.

and, if there was time, read through the financial newspapers.

Much in Keeping 2011 Oil on canvas 70 x 60cm p23 Wishes Above Needs 2011 Oil on canvas 80.5 x 65.5cm p25 8pm Zaragoza 2011 Oil on canvas 200 x 120cm p26 Clamour for a Grip 2011 Oil on canvas 200 x 180cm p27 The Reason For 2011 Oil on canvas 30.5 x 25.5cm

He had little time for his wife or her laughable quest for self-fulfillment

It was on such a morning, a foggy grey

through pottery, drama, interpretive dance

day in November, that Carter Blackwell

or any of the other similarly pointless

bustled, shoved and pushed his way onto

activities with which she busied herself at

the bus and slipped into the last available

his expense.

seat, just ahead of a young man with a

He had no time for his mistress either,

limp who looked utterly defeated and

who berated him regularly for his failure

sank back against the window, steadying

to find time for her.

himself on the handrail.

Carter Blackwell had an incredibly

Carter Blackwell was very pleased with

busy and important job which involved

himself, and took out his diary and

wearing an excellent suit, attending

papers to read, apparently unaware of

many meetings, conferences and

a visibly pregnant girl and an extremely

seminars and travelling to foreign cities

old woman, neither of whom had a seat.

to talk very seriously with equally busy

The young man with the limp was busy

and important people.

trying to stay vertical. So engrossed was

However, nobody who knew Carter

Carter Blackwell with his papers that

Blackwell could actually tell you exactly

he didn’t notice the woman next to him

what he did for a living.

offer her seat to the pregnant girl who

And it is unlikely that he could either.

perched on it immediately. Neither did

But he made a lot of money doing it,

he see the boy in front of him stand

which somewhat removed the necessity to describe or define his occupation.

and give his seat to the old lady. The bus rolled and jolted onwards.

Courtesy of the artist and Corvi-Mora, London

ZINA SARO-WIWA >

Every morning, Carter Blackwell left his

Carter Blackwell sighed as he looked

Kensington home, his wife safely occupied

through his packed schedule. Such a busy

for the day with painting, tai chi, bird-

day ahead. The boy with the bad leg took a

watching or some such nonsense. He

novel out of his satchel and began to read.


Carter Blackwell made copious notes in readiness for a board meeting later that day. The bearded man sat next to him very nearly tripped over Carter’s briefcase as he got up to leave the bus. The man apologised to Carter, as the English always do when they are clearly not at fault, and Carter glanced up momentarily from his papers in irritation. Carter Blackwell let out a loud and hearty guffaw at the cartoon in the financial pages of his newspaper. The old lady in front of him jumped with fright and turned to find the source of the noise. Carter Blackwell did not look up at her. The boy with the bad leg alighted from the bus at the next stop. The driver had to wait a good thirty seconds for him, but did so patiently and the boy turned and whimpered a warm ’thank you‘ from the pavement. The passengers watched him hobble along, their eyes filled with sympathy and concern. Still, Carter Blackwell did not look up. Invisible rays of hatred, resentment and irritation flooded towards the oblivious Carter Blackwell from every passenger around him. But nobody said anything. For this was London, after all, where the greater the travesty, the louder the silence. So when the bus pulled up close to Carter Blackwell’s office and he, having gathered

20 <> 21


LYNETTE YIADOM-BOAKYE

his papers and made his way to the door,

trying very hard not to draw attention

don’t you find?’ The man’s footsteps were

felt hot breath on the back of his neck

to himself, the butt of the pistol never

as crisp and elegant as his voice. Most

and something rather like the end of a

shifting from its position in the small

likely Oxford brogues with leather soles.

stick poking into the small of his back, he

of his back. He could feel someone

He took in the cold morning air noisily

thought little of it.

behind him, smell a familiar and

through his nostrils breathing out through

At first.

expensive cologne, but he didn’t dare

his mouth. Carter Blackwell felt the warm

It was only when he heard a man’s

turn around to face his tormentor. He

breath hit the back of his neck.

voice say, ‘If you turn around, speak, or

felt sure that someone would soon

draw any kind of attention to yourself,

see what was happening and call the

then I will be obliged to kill you,’ that

police. They crossed the busy junction

Carter Blackwell realised that something

next to Waterloo Bridge, onto Aldwych

was amiss. The voice was posh, clipped

and carried on up to Fleet Street in the

and icy.

direction of St Paul’s Cathedral.

‘What the...’ he began to splutter as

They passed dozens of people:

‘Y...yes, quite... who are you?’ he whispered. ‘Oh, just a concerned citizen,’ the voice replied. At that point, a barrister rushed past them with his briefcase. Of course,

he felt himself being pushed onto the

commuters, tourists, three nuns, a jogger

thought Carter, the Royal Courts of

pavement. The other passengers got off

and a troupe of schoolchildren with their

Justice two minutes ahead of them! There

around him and disappeared into the city

teacher. He stared at them all imploringly

were always police and guards outside. It

fog. Nobody seemed to have noticed what

but none reacted. The teacher even

was their job to protect him, they couldn’t

was happening.

smiled at him, seemingly unperturbed

turn a blind eye like everyone else. He felt

at having just walked her charges past a

suddenly relieved. He would be rescued

around,’ said the voice with a coldness

gun-toting madman. There was something

presently. He just had to keep this lunatic

that made Carter Blackwell turn rigid and

wrong with Londoners, thought Carter.

happy for a few more steps and then it

break out in a sweat. He was terrified.

People here would sooner watch you get

would all be over.

Instinctively, he put his hands up. ‘What

killed like a dog in the street than risk the

do you want with me? Take my wallet, it’s

embarrassment of social interaction. He

in my pocket here...’

didn’t expect heroics, he himself certainly

‘I’m very serious sir, do not turn

‘I suppose you’re wondering why I’m doing this,’ said the voice. ‘The thought had crossed my mind,

‘I said do not draw attention to

wouldn’t challenge a gunman to save a

yourself, you may put your hands down,

stranger (or his wife for that matter) but

this is most definitely not a stick-up.

just to alert the police would be enough.

of Economics. A young Indian woman

Although I am prepared to kill you, should

The man behind him was whistling Blue

rushed inside, her arms laden with books

you happen to necessitate such drastic

Monk as calmly as though they were two

and folders. She didn’t look at him.

action. Walk a while with me, Mr Blackwell.

lovers taking a stroll.

It is a lovely morning.’ Carter Blackwell began to walk stiffly,

yes.’ Carter Blackwell’s voice was shaky. They passed the London School

‘Your conduct on the bus really was most ungentlemanly,’ the voice said

‘I simply adore these brisk winter

softly. ‘I felt that I simply had to discuss it

mornings,’ said the voice. ‘Invigorating,

with you.’


‘My conduct? What do you...’ Carter Blackwell trailed off as a bus thundered by. They had reached the courthouse. There were two policemen standing sentry by the entrance. Carter Blackwell looked over at them with an expression of sheer desperation. He winked. They looked at him strangely, muttered a few words between them, looked at him again and laughed. They didn’t move. This was it, thought Carter, England had finally gone mad. If he got out of this alive he would leave, move to a village in southern Italy or Spain, where everybody knew everybody, where people still helped one another. ‘My darling Carter, there really is no point in trying to alert them. They can’t help you because they can’t see me. Just as you couldn’t help that poor boy with the bad leg.’ Carter Blackwell was flummoxed. ‘Can’t see you? … Boy with the bad leg? And how do you know my name?’ The voice went on, ‘Or the old lady, or the pregnant girl...’ Carter Blackwell had no recollection of these people and no idea what he was supposed to have done to them. ‘You could have offered one of them your seat. It would have been the correct way to behave.’ Carter Blackwell could hear the gun being cocked, ready to shoot.

22 <> 23


LYNETTE YIADOM-BOAKYE

‘Please, you can’t kill me for not giving up my seat on the bus, that’s absurd!’ ‘You think that I am being absurd? You find me ridiculous?’ ‘N…no! I didn’t say that, I simply meant…’ ‘I assure you, my dear Mr Blackwell,

‘Not to me! To your victims. The boy

one there in the first place. But that was

with the limp, the expectant mother and

impossible since Carter had heard him.

the old lady.’

Even though no one else had. Carter felt

‘But I won’t ever see them again. And how do you expect me to find them?’ ‘They get the bus with you every day!

too exhausted to ponder the impossibility of this in any depth but resolved not to go to the police.

You have simply never condescended to

that there is nothing absurd in the

notice them. They will be there tomorrow.

And, as promised, when he got on the bus

expectation of common courtesy from

As will I, to ensure that you do say sorry.

the following day, Carter Blackwell made a

others.’

Or else we will need to walk together

simpering and very public apology to the

again tomorrow morning. And as much

boy with the limp, the pregnant girl and

‘surely you can appreciate that it might be

as I’ve enjoyed speaking with you today, I

the old lady. They were all very confused

seen as something of an overreaction to

might not be so understanding then. Do I

by this but accepted it graciously anyway.

execute me for not giving up my seat on

make myself clear?’

Following his announcement, he looked

‘With all due respect,’ Carter trembled,

the bus!’ ‘I’m sure that your victims would disagree. And I happen to believe that

‘Absolutely, it won’t happen again,

about furtively, checking all of the other

really! Just please let me go, I’ll say sorry

passengers’ faces for some sign, reaction

tomorrow, you’ll see!’

or clue from his would-be murderer.

politeness is of the utmost importance.

Carter Blackwell blustered tearfully.

Society would collapse if everyone were

Suddenly he could no longer feel

distracted, reading, chatting, knitting or

like you. I only want to help.’

But everyone was somehow

anything poking him in the back. He was

just staring blankly out of the window or

‘By murdering me in broad daylight?’

stood across the road from the cathedral.

into the middle distance. No smiles or

A black priest in a dark blue overcoat

Very slowly he turned to check his

grimaces were directed at him. After a

looked at him, shook his head in pity and

reflection in an adjacent shop window. He

slow progress through to the city, Carter

hurried past them. What was wrong with

was relieved to find himself completely,

Blackwell alighted at Aldwych and went

everyone? Couldn’t they see that he was

blissfully alone. Carter Blackwell fell to his

about his way through the grey fog,

pleading for his life?

knees and gave thanks to God for his life.

hardly a changed man but certainly a

Passers-by glanced at him, tutted, shook

more wary one.

‘Murder is such a strong word, an ugly word,’ said the voice. They were now at the end of Fleet

their heads in pity and kept walking. It takes rather a lot to shock the good

Street. Carter could see St Paul’s in the

people of London. Carter looked about

distance. He had no religion but prayed

him wondering where his attacker had

anyway.

gone. But there was no sign of anyone

‘In any case I don’t have to kill you. Just apologise.’ ‘I’m so sorry, really, I didn’t mean to...’

running off or acting at all suspiciously. The man had simply disappeared into thin air. It was almost as if there had been no

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye


24 <> 25


LYNETTE YIADOM-BOAKYE


26 <> 27


i have to talk.

ZINA SARO-WIWA

it’s about the idea of hanging on to pain. sometimes i think when i get upset about some guy or whatever, it’s because i am trying to hang on to a kind of pain.

Sarogua Mourning 2011 Digital video, 11 min 37 sec, colour, sound Edition of 3

and that’s what i’ve been looking for… i’m looking for pain. so i look for these guys that are in pain or that cause me pain. my emotional juices need something to masticate on, you know? and release themselves on. because the other stuff’s too hard. the other stuff is never-ending. so you’re actually seeking catharsis, small arcs through these guys who you will get over. but your family member dying you might not get over. so you need something smaller to work through it and joy is hard you know? letting go and releasing is really hard. and having nothing, especially if you’re used to pain, is really hard. that’s what this session is teaching me… how to have joy. Zina Saro-Wiwa

< LYNETTE YIADOM-BOAKYE



VIVIANE SASSEN

Weru Weru and Kinee 2011 C-prints Diptych, 80 x 65cm each Edition of 5 + 2AP

Paul: … The aura about this book [JD

take us into the real world. I believe the

Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye] – which

imagination is merely another phrase

perhaps should be read by everyone

for what is most uniquely us. Jung says,

but young men – is this. It mirrors like

‘The greatest sin is to be unconscious.’

a funhouse mirror and amplifies like

Holden says, ‘What scares me most is the

a distorted speaker one of the great

other guy’s face. It wouldn’t be so bad

tragedies our time: the death of the

if you both could be blindfolded.’ Most

imagination. Because what else is

of the time the faces that we face are

paralysis? The imagination has been

not the other guy’s but our own faces.

so debased that imagination, being

And it is the worst kind of yellowness to

imaginative rather than being the

be so scared of yourself that you would

lynchpin of our existence, now stands

put blindfolds on rather than deal with

for a synonym for something outside

yourself. To face ourselves, that’s the

ourselves. Like science fiction or some

hard thing. The imagination, that’s God’s

new use for tangerine slices on raw pork

gift: to make the act of self-examination

chops. What an imaginative summer

bearable.

recipe! And Star Wars, so imaginative! And Star Trek, so imaginative! And Lord of the Rings, all those dwarves, so imaginative! The imagination has moved out of the realm of being our link, I mean our most personal link, with our inner lives. The world outside that world, this world we share. What is schizophrenia but a horrifying state where what’s in here doesn’t match up with what’s out there? Why has imagination become a synonym for style? I believe the imagination is the passport that we create to help

WIM BOTHA >

From the play Six Degrees of Separation by John Guare, 1990


30 <> 31


WIM BOTHA

Fuse 2011 Burnt CCA-treated pine, wood, lacquer 204 x 61 x 54cm

< VIVIANE SASSEN



DINEO SESHEE BOPAPE love strung 2008-11 Installation of 110 drawings, mixed media on paper Dimensions variable

CLAUDETTE SCHREUDERS >



DINEO SESHEE BOPAPE



CLAUDETTE SCHREUDERS Great Expectations 2011 Jelutong, enamel and oil 28 x 46 x 125cm

As a young girl I liked to think about my own future love. Before I fell asleep I liked to position myself on my pillow just so, as I imagined Sleeping Beauty lay, and I would look most attractive when he finally appeared. Pip, a film version of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, was the first ‘grown-up’ movie I was allowed to watch as a child. I never saw the movie again but I still remember vividly the image of old Miss Havisham rotting away in her wedding dress, waiting for her betrothed who never appeared. Claudette Schreuders

< DINEO SESHEE BOPAPE


38 <> 39


CLAUDETTE SCHREUDERS


40 <> 41


ANTON KANNEMEYER Immoral Man 2011 Black ink and acrylic on paper 20 x 29cm p44-45 Conundrums by DH Lawrence 2011 Black ink and acrylic on paper Diptych, 68 x 50cm each p46 Beware! Oh My Dear Young Men 2009 Black ink and acrylic on paper 22 x 29cm ‘Gross, Coarse, Hideous’ 2009 Black ink and acrylic on paper 22 x 29cm p47 I Will Enjoy My Heart with No One 2003 Black ink and acrylic on paper 29 x 20cm The Risen Lord 2011 Black ink and acrylic on paper 29 x 20cm

ERNESTO NETO >

‘Sex isn’t sin, ah no! sex isn’t sin, nor is it dirty, not until the dirty mind pokes in.’ DH Lawrence, Sex Isn’t Sin


42 <> 43


ANTON KANNEMEYER


44 <> 45


ANTON KANNEMEYER


46 <> 47


ERNESTO NETO

Untitled 2011 Crochet, sodalite ball and dolomite ball 20 x 70 x 40cm Courtesy of the artist and Galeria Fortes Vilaça, São Paulo

Quantum mechanics implies that the

falling into the black hole can be

whole of space is filled with pairs of

regarded as a particle coming out of

‘virtual’ particles and antiparticles that

the black hole but travelling backward

are constantly materializing in pairs,

in time. When the particle reaches the

separating and then coming together

point at which the particle-antiparticle

again and annihilating each other. These

pair originally materialized, it is scattered

particles are called virtual because, unlike

by the gravitational field so that it travels

‘real’ particles, they cannot be observed

forward in time. Quantum mechanics has

directly with a particle detector. Their

therefore allowed a particle to escape

indirect effects can nonetheless be

from inside a black hole, something that

measured and their existence has been

is not allowed in classical mechanics.

confirmed by a small shift (the ‘Lamb

There are, however, many other

shift’) they produce in the spectrum

situations in atomic and nuclear physics

of light from excited hydrogen atoms.

where there is some kind of barrier that

Now, in the presence of a black hole one

particles should not be able to penetrate

member of a pair of virtual particles

on classical principles but that they are

may fall into the hole, leaving the other

able to tunnel through on quantum-

member without a partner with which

mechanical principles.

to annihilate. The forsaken particle or antiparticle may fall into the black hole after its partner, but it may also escape to infinity, where it appears to be radiation emitted by the black hole. Another way of looking at the process is to regard the member of the pair of particles that falls into the black hole – the antiparticle, say – as being really a particle that is travelling backward in time. Thus the antiparticle

< ANTON KANNEMEYER

Stephen W Hawking, ‘The quantum mechanics of black holes’, Scientific American Vol 236, No 1 (January 1977), 34-40.


48 <> 49


ZANELE MUHOLI

No Title III 2011 Blood on fabric 220 x 119 cm

I sat with no direction, like a cow stuck

p52 No Title II 2011 Blood on fabric 137 x 120.5cm

hairy legs and waited for the bloed clot

in the middle of the road. Then I realised, I am bleeding. Took the piece of white paper, opened my to drop. I shot the damn thing. My menstrual blood is used as a medium

p53 No Title I 2011 Blood on fabric 142.5 x 124cm

to begin to bridge what I feel as I become witness to the pain of rape experienced by many of the girls and women in my black lesbian community. We bleed from our vaginas and our minds. Zanele Muholi

PENNY SIOPIS >


50 <> 51


ZANELE MUHOLI


52 <> 53


PENNY SIOPIS

Memorable Acts of Piety 2011 Ink and glue on canvas 61 x 50.5cm p56 How Do I Love Thee? 2011 Ink and glue on canvas 200 x 125cm p57 Let Me Count the Ways 2011 Ink and glue on canvas 200 x 125cm

4.7. […] A freeborn woman appeared

4.ext.1. The same consideration should

before the praetor’s court and was found

apply to the dutiful actions of Pero. Her

guilty of a capital offense. The praetor

father, Mycon, when he was a very old

handed her over to the prison manager

man, suffered the same misfortune and

to be jailed and executed. When she

was likewise sent to jail. Pero took his

arrived there, the man in charge of the

head to her breast and nursed him, as if

prison was moved by pity for her and did

he were a baby. When people look at a

not strangle her immediately. He also

painting of this deed, they are amazed

allowed her daughter to visit her, but

and cannot take their eyes away. As they

the daughter was carefully searched to

admire the representation in front of

make sure she was not bringing any food

them, the reality of what happened so

with her. He imagined that his prisoner

long ago is brought back to life. In the

would eventually die of starvation. When

silent depiction of those human forms,

several days went by, however, he started

they believe they can see living and

to wonder how it was that the mother

breathing bodies. But the human mind

was surviving for so long. He observed

will inevitably have the same experience

the daughter more carefully, and he

if the even more effective art of painting

realized that she was taking out her

in words stimulates it to visualize such

breast and lessening the pangs of her

ancient deeds as if they had just occurred.

mother’s hunger with her own milk. He was amazed at this strange spectacle, so he reported it to the prison manager, the prison manager reported it to the praetor,

Valerius Maximus: Memorable Doings and Sayings, Vol I Books 1-5, trans DR Shackleton Bailey (Loeb Classical Library)

the praetor reported it to the committee of jurymen, and her sentence was

< ZANELE MUHOLI

commuted. Where does the sense of duty

In 1988 the Utne Reader published

not penetrate? What does it not think

Rosalind Soloman’s photograph of a

up? Even in jail, it invented a novel way of

Peruvian woman, Catalin Valentin, breast-

saving a mother’s life. What could be so

feeding a lamb. This photograph provoked

extraordinary, what could be so unheard

an extreme response from the readership.

of, as the tale of a mother being breast-

Some saw an image of peace, nurturance,

fed by her own daughter? Someone

and harmony between species. Others

might think that this action was against

found the picture shocking, even

the laws of nature; but in fact, to honour

grotesque, a gross and indecent violation

one’s parents is the greatest law of nature.

of a natural boundary between species.


One woman saw perversion: ‘The photo mimics the innocent gesture of the mother/child images of our traditions yet it presents the perverted usage of a woman’s body to feed the appetites of an animal.’ Others felt it was an ‘exquisitely tender photo,’ a ‘beautiful image – lyrical, erotic, peaceful’ and ‘nothing short of “real-world” holy’. Brian Luke, Brutal: Manhood and the Exploitation of Animals (Urbana and Chicago, University of Illinois Press, 2007), 27.

54 <> 55


PENNY SIOPIS


56 <> 57


DEBORAH POYNTON Land of Cockaigne I 2011 Oil on canvas 200 x 250cm

‘A poor life this if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare.’ WH Davies, Leisure, 1911

I want to fold myself up in paintings and not think or even feel. I was entranced by François Boucher’s paintings when I saw them earlier this year in Paris, so I have used one of his favourite poses. His paintings are sensual worlds to be savoured. Shallowness, surface loveliness and perfection in painting ease my mind. The subject doesn’t matter, as long as it can deliver this sense of relief: the chatter of anxiety in my head is calmed, and my eyes have time to stare. Deborah Poynton


58 <> 59


FRANCIS AL타S

p62-63 Tornado In collaboration with Julien Devaux 2000-2010 Single-channel video projection, 39 min, colour, surround sound Courtesy of David Zwirner, New York p64-65 Untitled 2005-2011 Series of 8 drawings, oil, pencil on tracing paper 37.5 x 31cm each, framed Courtesy of Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich

IGSHAAN ADAMS >

The Meaning of Things is Never Stable

Deception

Anything Can Mean Anything

Defection Deflagration

Abandon

Destabilization

Absorption

Destruction

Absurd

Disarray

Accident

Disarticulation

Action

Disgrace

Aleatory

Disintegration

Anarchy

Disorder

Anger

Dispersal

Anomie

Disruption

Apathy

Dissemination

Arbitrary

Distortion

Atrophy

Ecstasy

Attraction

Elements

Attrition

Enlightenment

Barrage

Entropy

Calmness

Equation

Catastrophe

Erosion

Catharsis

Excess

Chance

Explosion

Chaos

Failure

Coincidence

Fear

Collapse

Fermentation

Compulsion

Fission

Confusion

Flux

Constriction

Fluxus

Contagion

Friction

Contention

Frustration

Contingency

Fusion

Control

Grace

Corruption

Harmony

Counter Information

Hemorrhage

Crisis

Impasse


Implosion

Senselessness

Indeterminate

Silence

Inertia

Simulacrum

Intelligence

Simultaneity

Intolerance

Spectacle

Laughter

Stagnation

Lethargy

Stasis

Loss

Strategy

Marasmus

Sublime

Mediation

Suspension

Mimesis

Symbiosis

Negotiation

Tactics

Noise

Terror

Norm

Time

Order

Tolerance

Outburst

Torpor

Pathos

Transformation

Pause

Transgression

Power

Trauma

Pretense

Truce

Procrastination

Turbulence

Quiescence

Turmoil

Random

Uncertainty

Reaction

Uncontrolled

Rebellion

Violence

Recovery

Wrath

Representation Repulsion

In a given situation

Resilience Resistance Reversion

Francis Al每s, In a Given Situation (S茫o Paulo: Cosac Naify, 2010)

Revolution Ridicule Sabotage Sclerosis

60 <> 61


FRANCIS AL타S



FRANCIS AL타S


64 <> 65


IGSHAAN ADAMS

p67, 69 I Am You 2011 Fabric, wood, metal hooks, light, crochet pillow 300 x 350 x 350cm p68 I Am You 2011 Bronze 13 x 14 x 13cm Edition of 5 + 2 AP

< FRANCIS AL타S



IGSHAAN ADAMS



GLENN LIGON

Study for Negro Sunshine II #26 2011 Oil stick and gesso on paper 24 x 19cm Courtesy of the artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles

Melanctha Herbert had not yet been

Melanctha Herbert had not loved herself

really married.

in her childhood.

Melanctha Herbert was a graceful, pale

Melanctha Herbert had always had a

yellow, intelligent, attractive negress.

break neck courage.

Melanctha Herbert had not come yet

Melanctha all her life was very keen in her

to know how to use religion. Still too

sense for real experience.

complex with desire.

Melanctha always loved and wanted peace

Melanctha had not found it easy with

and gentleness and goodness and all her

herself to make her wants and what she

life for herself poor Melanctha could only

had, agree.

find new ways to be in trouble.

Melanctha Herbert was always losing

what she had in wanting all the things

Melanctha Herbert had always been old

she saw. Melanctha was always being left

in all her ways and she knew very early

when she was not leaving others.

how to use her power as a woman, and

Melanctha Herbert always loved too

yet Melanctha with all her inborn intense

hard and much too often. She was always

wisdom was really very ignorant of evil.

full with mystery and subtle movements

and denials and vague distrust and

Melanctha had a strong respect for any

complicated disillusions. Then Melanctha

kind of successful power.

would be sudden and impulsive and

unbounded in some faith, and then

Melanctha Herbert wanted very much to

she would suffer and be strong in her

know and yet she feared the knowledge.

repression. Melanctha Herbert was always seeking rest and quiet, and always she could only find new ways to be in trouble. Melanctha wondered often how it was she did not kill herself when she was so blue. Often she thought this would be really the best way for her to do. …

PIETER HUGO >

Gertrude Stein, Melanctha, from Three Lives (New York: Penguin, 1990)


70 <> 71


There is a place

PIETER HUGO

Reserved For me and my friends And when we go We all will go So you see

There’s a Place in Hell for Me and My Friends 2011 Series of prints, archival pigment ink on semi-matte fibre paper Paper size 56 x 47cm Image size 46 x 37cm Editions of 5 + 2 AP

I’m never alone There is a place With a bit more time And a few more Gentler words And looking back We will forgive (We had no choice We always did) All that we hope Is when we go Our skin And our blood And our bones Don’t get in your way Making you ill The way they did When we lived Oh, there is a place A place in hell Reserved For me and my friends And if ever I Just wanted to cry Then I will Because I can Morrissey, There’s a Place in Hell for Me and My Friends, from the album 'Kill Uncle', 1991

< GLENN LIGON


Ashleigh McLean, Cape Town, 2011 David Scholtz, Cape Town, 2011

Themba Tshabalala, Cape Town, 2011 Oliver Kruger, Cape Town, 2011

Federica Angelucci, Cape Town, 2011 Rob van Vuuren, Cape Town, 2011

72 <> 73


PIETER HUGO

Sarah Raymond, Cape Town, 2011 Carl Wessels, Cape Town, 2011

Yasser Booley, Cape Town, 2011 Ulrica Knutsdotter, Cape Town, 2011

Matthew Blackman, Cape Town, 2011 Pieter Hugo, Cape Town, 2011


Stacy Hardy, Cape Town, 2011 John Day, Cape Town, 2011

Tamsyn Reynolds, Cape Town, 2011 Toby Newsome, Cape Town, 2011

74 <> 75


ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

IGSHAAN ADAMS (born 1982 in Bonteheuwel,

Ateliers in Amsterdam and in 2010

Cape Town) graduated from the Ruth

completed an MFA at Columbia University,

Prowse School of Art and is a resident

New York. She was the winner of the 2008

artist at Greatmore Studios in Cape Town.

MTN New Contemporaries Award, and the

He was included on Greatest Hits of 2009

recipient of a 2010 Columbia University

at the Association for Visual Arts (AVA),

Toby Fund Award. She held solo exhibitions

Cape Town, and held his first solo show

at Stevenson, Johannesburg and Cape

at the AVA in 2010. He showed in the side

Town, in 2011 and 2010. Recent group

gallery at Stevenson, Cape Town, in 2011

shows include Act IX: Let Us Compare

and took part in the Infecting the City

Mythologies at Witte de With, Rotterdam

public arts festival. Group shows include

(2010); Rebelle: Art and Feminism 1969-

Swallow My Pride at blank projects, Cape

2009, Moderne Kunst Museum Arnhem,

Town (2010).

the Netherlands (2009); and The Generational: Younger Than Jesus, New

FRANCIS ALŸS (born 1959 in Antwerp)

Museum, New York (2009).

moved to Mexico City in 1986 and continues to live there. He was the subject

WIM BOTHA (born 1974 in Pretoria; lives in

of a major survey, Francis Alÿs: A Story of

Cape Town) is a graduate of the University

Deception, on view from 2010 to 2011 at

of Pretoria. Recent solo shows have taken

Tate Modern, London; Wiels Centre d’Art

place at Stevenson, Cape Town (2011

Contemporain, Brussels; and the Museum

and 2009), and Galerie Jette Rudolph

of Modern Art and MoMA PS1, New York.

(2008). Group exhibitions include the

Recent solo exhibitions have taken place

Göteborg Biennial (2011); Memories of the

at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin

Future: The Olbricht Collection, La Maison

(2010); The Renaissance Society at the

Rouge, Paris (2011); the 11th Triennale für

University of Chicago (2008); and the

Kleinplastik, Fellbach, Germany (2010);

Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2007).

and Peekaboo: Current South Africa,

He has participated in the biennales of

Tennis Palace Art Museum, Helsinki

São Paulo (2010, 2004 and 1998); Venice

(2010). Botha won the Standard Bank

(2007, 2001 and 1999); Shanghai (2002);

Young Artist award in 2005.

Istanbul (2001 and 1999); and Havana (2000 and 1994).

MESCHAC GABA (born 1961 in Cotonou, Benin; lives in Rotterdam) studied at

DINEO SESHEE BOPAPE (born 1981 in

the Rijksakademie voor Beeldende

Polokwane) is a 2007 graduate of De

Kunsten in Amsterdam. His retrospective


exhibition Museum for Contemporary

NICHOLAS HLOBO (born 1975 in Cape Town;

Rome (2011); the Institute of Modern

African Art & More travelled to the

lives in Johannesburg) was the Rolex

Art, Brisbane (2010); Le Chateau d’Eau,

Museum de Paviljoens in Almere, the

Visual Arts Protégé for 2010/11, with

Toulouse (2010); the Australian Centre

Netherlands; the Kunsthalle Fridericianum

Anish Kapoor as his Mentor. He was

for Photography, Sydney (2009), and

in Kassel, Germany; and the Centro

nominated for the Future Generation

Foam_Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam

Atlántico de Arte Moderno in Las Palmas,

Art Prize in 2010 and won the Standard

(2008). Group exhibitions in 2011 include

Canary Islands, in 2009/10. Recent

Bank Young Artist award in 2009. His

The Global Contemporary: Art Worlds

group exhibitions include The Global

first survey exhibition took place at the

after 1989 at ZKM Center for Art and

Contemporary: Art Worlds after 1989 at

National Museum of Art, Architecture

Media Karlsruhe; ARS 11, Kiasma Museum

ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe,

and Design, Oslo, in 2011; he has held

of Contemporary Art, Helsinki; Figures

Germany (2011); Museum Show: Part

solo shows at the Level 2 Gallery, Tate

and Fictions: Contemporary South

1, Arnolfini, Bristol (2011); Touched, the

Modern, London (2008), and the Boston

African Photography, V&A Museum,

Liverpool Biennial (2010) and the São

ICA as part of the Momentum series

London; Mannheim Photo Festival,

Paulo, Gwangju, Sydney and Havana

(2008). Recent group exhibitions include

Germany, and the Contact Photography

biennales in 2006.

The World Belongs to You at the Palazzo

Festival, Toronto.

Grassi, Venice; Dada South?, South SIMON GUSH (born 1981 in Pietermaritz-

African National Gallery, Cape Town

ANTON KANNEMEYER (born 1967 in Cape

burg) is a graduate of the University of the

(2009); and Flow, The Studio Museum,

Town; lives in Cape Town) is a co-founder

Witwatersrand and the Hoger Instituut van

Harlem, New York (2008), in addition to

and co-editor of the Bitterkomix series,

Schone Kunsten, Ghent, Belgium. He was

the biennales of Venice (2011), Liverpool

which started in 1992; issue #16 is due

a 2011 Fellow at the Gordon Institute for

(2010), Havana (2009) and Guangzhou

out in 2012. His most recent solo show,

Performing and Creative Arts, University of

(2008); he has been selected for the

After the Barbarians, took place at the

Cape Town. He has held solo exhibitions at

Sydney biennale in 2012.

Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, in

Stevenson, Cape Town and Johannesburg,

2011. Recent group exhibitions include

in 2009, 2010 and 2011, and at Galerie West

PIETER HUGO (born 1976, Cape Town;

Impressions from South Africa, 1965

in The Hague, the Netherlands, and SMAK

lives in Cape Town) won the Seydou

to Now at the Museum of Modern Art,

in Ghent in 2010. Recent group exhibitions

Keita Award, the top prize at the

New York (2011); Les Afriques de Papa,

include Connections at the Kunsthalle

9th Rencontres de Bamako African

l’Espace du Collectif Sadi, Kinshasa, DR

Luzern, Switzerland (2011); Halakasha!,

Photography Biennial in 2011, for his

Congo (2010); Peekaboo: Current South

Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg

series Permanent Error; he is shortlisted

Africa, Tennis Palace Art Museum, Helsinki

(2010); the Luleå Summer Biennial,

for the Deutsche Börse photography

(2010); …for those who live in it: Pop

Sweden (2009); Die Keuze van Koen van

prize 2012. A retrospective exhibition

Culture, Politics and Strong Voices, MU

den Broek, Indian Caps, Antwerp (2009);

of his work opens at the Fotomuseum

Eindhoven, The Netherlands (2010); and

and .za: Giovane arte dal Sudafrica, Palazzo

Den Haag in March 2012. Recent solo

The Graphic Unconscious, Philagrafika,

delle Papesse, Siena (2008).

shows have taken place at MAXXI in

Philadelphia (2010).

76 <> 77


ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

GLENN LIGON (born 1960 in the Bronx;

by Prestel in 2010 and received a

Island School of Design from 1987 to

continues to live in New York City) is a

nomination as best photobook of the year

1989. She has a solo exhibition, Land of

graduate of Wesleyan University and

at the International Photobook Festival

Cockaigne, at Stevenson, Johannesburg,

the Whitney Museum Independent

in Kassel. The series was included on the

in 2012, following Arcadia at the Cape

Study Program. He is best known for

29th São Paulo Biennale (2010), and on

Town gallery in 2011. Her first US solo

his text-based paintings and for his

Face of Our Time at the San Francisco

exhibitions took place at the Savannah

incisive exploration of American history,

Museum of Modern Art (2011). Other

College of Art and Design’s galleries

society and culture. In 2011 the Whitney

group exhibitions include Appropriated

in Savannah and Atlanta in 2009,

Museum in New York staged a mid-career

Landscapes at the Walther Collection,

accompanied by a monograph. Recent

retrospective of his work titled America,

Neu-Ulm/Burlafingen, Germany, and

group exhibitions include A Conversation

touring to Los Angeles County Museum of

Figures and Fictions: Contemporary South

with Bolus at the Michaelis Upper

Art and the Modern Art Museum of Fort

African Photography at the V&A Museum,

Gallery, University of Cape Town (2011);

Worth. In 2009 he received the Studio

London. Her documentary Difficult Love

and Von Liebeslust und Lebenslast - der

Museum’s Joyce Alexander Wein Artist

(2010) has been seen at film festivals

inszenierte Alltag, Corvey Castle, near

Prize. Recent group exhibitions include

around the world.

Höxter, Germany (2009).

the Contemporary Jewish Museum,

ERNESTO NETO (born 1964 in Rio de

ZINA SARO-WIWA (born 1976 in Port

San Francisco, and the National Portrait

Janeiro; lives in Rio de Janeiro) is one of

Harcourt, Nigeria; lives in Brooklyn,

Gallery, Washington, DC (2011); Collecting

the most important contemporary artists

New York) is a filmmaker, video

Biennials, Whitney Museum, New York

to emerge from Brazil, best known for

artist and writer. She has made

(2010); 30 Seconds off an Inch, The

sculptures and installations incorporating

three documentaries; the latest, This

Studio Museum in Harlem, New York

commonplace and organic materials.

is My Africa, was included on the

(2009); Here is Every. Four Decades of

His work has been shown in solo and

FOREX project series at Stevenson,

Contemporary Art, Museum of Modern

group exhibitions around the world, most

Cape Town, in 2009, and has been

Art, New York (2008); and the 2008

recently at venues including the Faena

shown on HBO since 2010. She has

Gwangju Biennial.

Arts Center, Buenos Aires (2011); the

made two experimental Nollywood

Hayward Gallery, London (2010); Astrup

films, Phyllis and The Deliverance of

ZANELE MUHOLI (born 1972 in Umlazi,

Fernley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo

Comfort, and curated an exhibition

Durban; lives in Cape Town) won the

(2010); and the Museu de Arte Moderna

about Nollywood titled Sharon Stone

Casa Africa award at the Rencontres de

MAM, São Paulo (2010). He represented

in Abuja that opened in New York

Bamako biennial of African photography

Brazil, along with Vik Muniz, at the 2001

in 2010. Sarogua Mourning is the

in 2009, and had a solo exhibition,

Venice Biennale.

latest film in her Mourning Class

Seeing Gertrude Stein: Five Stories at

accompanied by a monograph, at Casa

video performance series, and is

Africa, Las Palmas, in 2011. The first part of

DEBORAH POYNTON (born 1970 in Durban,

the first of seven video installations

her Faces and Phases series was published

lives in Cape Town) studied at the Rhode

she is making about her family.


VIVIANE SASSEN (born 1972 in Amsterdam;

United States in 2004/5. Recent group

Her first solo museum exhibition, Any

lives in Amsterdam) first studied fashion

exhibitions include Impressions from

Number of Preoccupations, took place

design followed by photography at

South Africa, 1965 to Now at the Museum

at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New

Hogeschool voor Kunsten Utrecht and

of Modern Art, New York (2011); Peekaboo:

York, in 2010/11. Group shows include

Ateliers Arnhem. She was awarded the

Current South Africa, Tennis Palace Art

Secret Societies: To Know, To Dare, To

Dutch art prize, the Prix de Rome, in 2007,

Museum, Helsinki (2010); and Mami Wata:

Will, To Keep Silence at Schirn Kunsthalle

and in 2011 won the International Center

Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and its

Frankfurt, Germany (2011); Living

of Photography in New York’s Infinity

Diasporas, Cantor Arts Center, Stanford

Together: Towards a Contemporary

Award for Applied/Fashion/Advertising

University, and other venues (2009-2011).

Concept of Community, Centro Cultural

Photography. She was one of six artists

Montehermoso, Vittoria-Gasteiz, Spain

selected for the 2011 New Photography

PENNY SIOPIS (born 1953 in Vryburg; lives

(2009); Flow, the Studio Museum in

exhibition at the Museum of Modern

in Cape Town) is an Honorary Professor at

Harlem, New York (2008); Bloomberg

Art in New York. Solo exhibitions have

Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of

New Contemporaries, Barbican, London

taken place at FORMA in Milan (2009)

Cape Town. Solo exhibitions include Red:

(2004); and the biennales of Lyon (2011),

and FOAM in Amsterdam (2008). Recent

The Iconography of Colour in the Work

Gwangju (2008) and Seville (2006-7).

group shows include No Fashion, Please!

of Penny Siopis at the KZNSA Gallery,

Photography between Gender and

Durban (2009), and Three Essays on

Lifestyle at the Vienna Kunsthalle (2011);

Shame at the Freud Museum, London

Figure and Ground: Dynamic Landscape at

(2005). Recent group exhibitions include

the Museum of Contemporary Canadian

Appropriated Landscapes at the Walther

Art in Toronto as part of the Contact

Collection in Neu-Ulm/Burlafingen,

Photography Festival (2011); and the 2010

Germany (2011), Peekaboo: Current South

Brighton Photo Biennale.

Africa, Tennis Palace Art Museum, Helsinki (2010); and Black Womanhood: Images,

CLAUDETTE SCHREUDERS (born 1973 in

Icons and Ideologies of the African Body,

Pretoria; lives in Cape Town) received

Hood Museum, New Hampshire, and other

her master’s degree from the Michaelis

venues (2008). She has taken part in the

School of Fine Art, University of Cape

biennales of Sydney (2010), Havana (1997

Town, in 1997. In 2011 her first major

and 1994), Johannesburg (1997 and 1995)

monograph was published by Prestel; she

and Venice (1993).

held a solo exhibition, Close, Close, at the Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, and

LYNETTE YIADOM-BOAKYE (born 1977 in

took up an artist’s residency at the Lux

London; lives in London) completed

Art Institute in Encinitas, California. Her

her postgraduate studies at the Royal

first solo museum exhibition toured the

Academy Schools in London in 2003.

78 <> 79


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Federica Angelucci would like to thank all the artists, as well as Gabeba Baderoon, Martin Barnes, Tommaso Corvi-Mora, Salim Currimjee, Joel Fennell, Alexandre Gabriel, Bellatrix Hubert, Antonio Pinto Ribeiro, Shaun Regen, Annemarie Reichen, Stephanie Stockbridge and the staff at Stevenson, Cape Town and Johannesburg. Francis Al每s courtesy of David Zwirner, New York, and Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich. Glenn Ligon courtesy of Regen Projects, Los Angeles. Ernesto Neto courtesy of Galeria Fortes Vila莽a, S茫o Paulo. Lynette Yiadom-Boakye courtesy of Corvi-Mora, London.

CAPE TOWN Buchanan Building 160 Sir Lowry Road Woodstock 7925 PO Box 616 Green Point 8051 T +27 (0)21 462 1500 F +27 (0)21 462 1501 JOHANNESBURG 62 Juta Street Braamfontein 2001 Postnet Suite 281 Private Bag x9 Melville 2109 T +27 (0)11 326 0034/41 F +27 (0)86 275 1918 info@stevenson.info www.stevenson.info Catalogue 61 December 2011 Cover Francis Al每s, Untitled (1/8), 2005-2011, from a series of 8 drawings. Courtesy of Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich Editors Federica Angelucci, Sophie Perryer Design Gabrielle Guy Photography Mario Todeschini Printing Hansa Print, Cape Town




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