Art & Beer with Gugulective @ Blank
On Wednesday 7 November at 18h00, an exciting show by a group of young artists from Guguletu opens at blank in Cape Town. Join us for art and beer! Gugulective include: Unathi Sigenu, Khanyisile Minto Mbongwa, Ziphozenkosi Dayile, Themba Tsotsi, Lonwabo Kilani, Datini Mzayiya, Kemang Wa Lehulere. blank projects 198 Buitengracht Street, Cape Town Tel: 072 198 9221 Email: blankprojects@gmail.com by appointment blank is also expanding: in the adjacent space, we will host a retrospective of the blank projects. The show is simply titled: ‘blank projects: selected work 2005 – 2007’. This exhibition will run concurrently with the Gugulective show . Work by the following artists will be showcased: Nomthunzi Mashalaba, Pierre Fouche, Kerim Seiler, Abrie Fourie/Ella Ziegler, Christian Nerf/Douglas Gimberg, Gabi Ngcobo, Jackson Hlungwani and Barend de Wet. What is Gugulective? Gugulective is an artist collective made up of eight members at present. The name Gugulective derives from the Xhosa word for pride (gugu). Although founded and developed in Gugulethu in 2006, artists from Langa and Khayelitsha have joined the group in the meantime. Due to a number of organisational and financial obstacles, the collective could only take up its practical work in the form of creative projects this year. Two exhibitions were put together in Gugulethu as well as a painting workshop with the local youth. Gugulective is clearly not aiming at reactionary intervention, but is born out of the need for creative projects in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Art is seen as a means to promote development and create social cohesion within communities. Unfortunately, it is often neglected when crime and economic troubles are prevalent in everyday life. Many township schools for instance do not teach art any longer, and extracurricular activities in this field are largely lacking, too. To date, their work have been realised in Gugulethu. Untitled is a group exhibition working in and with the blank projects space to create work which will create a conversation between two locations (blank projects in Cape Town and Kwa Mlamli in Gugulethu). The installation piece will consist of tables and chairs taken from Mlami’s shebeen and installed at blank projects. Along with the chairs and tables, items of clothing will be installed. “We aim to challenge the pre-conceived visual representation of shebeens in institutional and gallery spaces. In recent years, the shebeen has been portrayed as a negative and loud space, covered with wall paper, filled with people sitting on beer crates and lacking aesthetics and recreational values. This piece is symbolic of absence in many ways: the absence of black artists and audience in gallery spaces, and also the fact that mobility structures hinder accessibility...
Catch Meshac Gaba at the JAG
Wonderful Benin artist Meshac Gaba will be exhibiting at the Johannesburg Art Gallery (aka JAG) from the 7th November 2007 through to the 31st January 2008. The public are invited to join Meshac for a walkabout of the exhibition on Wednesday at 2pm – Go go go! Date: Wednesday 7 November 2007 Venue: Johannesburg Art Gallery Time: 14:00 m e s c h a c g a b a Born in Cotonou, Benin, 1961 Lives and works in the Netherlands and Benin EDUCATION 1996-7 Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, Netherlands SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2007 Tresses, Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa 2006 Tresses, inIVA, London, UK Défilé de perruques, Paris, France Glue Me Peace, Nobel Peace Center, Oslo, Norway 2005 Museum of Contemporary African Art: Library of the Museum, BiblioNova, Geleen, Netherlands Glue Me Peace, Tate Modern, London, UK Le Pain Migrateur, Artra Gallery, Milan, Italy Meschac Gaba: Tresses, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, USA Peace Maker, Lumen Travo Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands 2004 Peace Maker, Ernest G Welch School of Art & Design, Gallery of the Georgia State University, Atlanta, USA 2003 Atlantique, Lumen Travo Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands 2002 Museum of Contemporary African Art: Library of the Museum, Falaki Gallery, American University of Cairo, Egypt Museum of Contemporary African Art: Museum Shop for Sale and Museum Living Room for Sale, Artra Gallery, Milan and Genoa, Italy Museum of Contemporary African Art: Music Room, SBK (Stichting Beeldende Kunst) Tramremise, Amsterdam, Netherlands Museum of Contemporary African Art: Living Room of the Museum, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France 2001 Museum of Contemporary African Art: Marriage Room, Inova, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA Museum of Contemporary African Art: Library of the Museum, Witte de With, Rotterdam, Netherlands Der Inforaum/The Info-room, Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland 2000 Museum of Contemporary African Art: Game Room, SMAK, Ghent, Belgium Museum of Contemporary African Art: Game Room, Crown Gallery, Brussels, Belgium Spielregeln/Rules of the Game, Galerie Gebauer, Berlin, Germany 1999 Vente en gros et detaille, Lumen Travo Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands Museum of Contemporary African Art: Summer Collection, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Netherlands Museum of Contemporary African Art: Game Room, Le Pavé Dans La Mare, Besançon, France Museum of Contemporary African Art: Museum Restaurant, W139, Amsterdam, Netherlands 1998 Missing Links/Museum of Contemporary African Art: Draft Room, Praterinsel, Munich, Germany Museum of Contemporary African Art, De Nederlandsche Bank, Amsterdam, Netherlands Museum of Contemporary African Art: Architecture of the Museum, Gate Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands Meschac Gaba, SBK knsm-eiland, Amsterdam, Netherlands 1997 Moneta Exotica. Oorspronkelijk geld uit de hele wereld/Museum of Contemporary African Art: Draft Room, Rijksmuseum Het Koninklijk Penningkabinet, Leiden, Netherlands Bazar Bizar, Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands 1995 Palace of the President of Benin, Pour la...
Urbo: The Adventures of Pax Afrika
BoingBoing, everyone’s favourite website of wonderful things, features an article on South African kid’s cartoon URBO – according to wikipedia, “URBO: The Adventures of Pax Afrika is an ongoing science fiction animated television series created by Octagon CSI. It started airing in October 2006. It chronicles the adventures of a gang of teenagers who live in an a futuristic Cape Town, re-named iKapa City, the last known city on the planet, as they fight the evil industrialist overlord Maximilian Malice. Pax Afrika, the son of the missing explorer Zingela Afrika, discovers that he has ancestral powers that allow him to see flashes of the future. Together with his friends, emo mechanic T-Man, hacker girl Keitu, and Una, Malice’s rebellious daughter, Pax plans to find his father and save the city from Malice Industries. But his fate is also tied to the mysterious, hidden city of URBO- an environmental El Dorado located somewhere in the ruins of Africa. SABC3 began airing the first 52 part series on 28th October 2006.” Lauren, the lady that alerted Boingboing to the series, has this to say about URBO: “UPDATE: More info on the show for anyone interested. It’s a sci-fi comedy series (which makes it as much a Star Wars rip-off as South Park, LittleVoice with a smidge of Harry Potter and Futurama in there too). It’s weird and silly and irreverent but we do try to take on big issues relevant to kids. Not, unfortunately youth apathy in politics, which is true of most countries, not just SA, because our target market of 7-11 is a ways away from that. But we have taken on AIDS and why it’s important to take medication as well as eating fruit and veg in an episode when the kids tackle an evil virus monster with a multi-pronged attack. We’ve also done disability, dodgy cell phone videos, acne, celebrity, junk food, the war on terror (really), racism, environmentalism, and now DRM through lunatic plots involving mutant sock monsters, burping apedroids, viciously cute fighting toys, a guy-in-a-bear-suit-in-a-shrimp-suit and the staple prerequisite of any kids’ show: lots of giant robots.” Watch Urbo here: Part 1 of 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4BopbZ—c Part 2 of 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nriFS6mHCH4 Part 3 of 3...
Represent Recommends: Theresa-Anne Mackintosh
Catch MENAGERIE from exciting upcoming young artist Theresa-Anne Mackintosh at the fab Momo gallery – it opens Thursday 8 November @ 18h30 and closes 26 November 2007. Theresa-Anne Mackintosh “Each has his or her own thoughts, as we know daydreams and visions are part of us all. These secret daydreams are revelations known only to the thinker. Everybody deals with something private in his or her head”. After having completed her MA (Fine Arts) degree at the University of Pretoria, Mackintosh joined a broadcast design and animation company in Johannesburg to further explore her interest in animation. Currently she is a full-time artist involved in various projects. Mackintosh works in various media, including painting; sculpture and animation. http://www.gallerymomo.com/ 52 7th Avenue Parktown North Johannesburg T: +27 11 327...
Who’s messing with LOVEJOZI?
We didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when we spotted these “Fongkongs” or ripoffs of local design label Love Jozi being sold blatantly in the streets of Johannesburg at a third of the price of the originals – see our previous LoveJozi article here. The laughing part is that they’ve incorrectly spelt LOVE as LUV and the crying part is the quality of these shirts in no way matches that of the originals – no doubt some cats will scoop them up for the bargain. It’s wack. Oh well, as long as our awesome city is getting lots of Love… or is that LUV. We’ve contacted the LoveJozi team and await their response....
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