Represent Recommends: Waiting for Thandiwe
If you didn’t catch our interview with up-and-coming theatre director/producer Kgauza Dube, then make sure you catch her show “Waiting for Thandiwe” on at the Civic NOW! It’s warm, charming and entertaining, a great break from the stresses of life and an affordable but fulfilling night out. Support our young and full of promise artists – Go Go Go! Dates: 10-13th October 2007 – 8pm 14th October 2007 – 2pm Tickets available from Computicket @ R47 “Waiting for Thandiwe” is a witty and original South African story; the first production of the newly launched theatre company, black curtain theatre movement which aims to introduce theatre and the appreciation thereof to the demographic that represents the majority of South Africa’s population. The play is set in King William’s Town in the Eastern Cape. The main character, Lulu, is a young man who studies drama at UCT drama school in Cape Town. He is home for the school holidays and things are exactly the same as they were. Everyone thinks he is the hope of the neighbourhood…just like bra Steve (Biko) – who lived in the same street as Lulu and also went to university. No one quite understands how anyone could make a living out of “making sketches” a la Gibson Kente and Lulu ‘s mom is still the “ghetto economist” … the queen of stretching the budget! Lulu has a new girlfriend he met in Cape Town. Thandiwe is an “exile baby” who doesn’t speak a stitch of any African language. She is a well-travelled, cosmopolitan woman of the world. Despite their stark cultural differences, Lulu is smitten and itching to propose. Today, she will be making her way to Lulu’s hometown for a visit… Lulu is in a huge panic. How is he to present himself within these surroundings? Their relationship has always had an urban and sophisticated backdrop. Does he adopt the “pantsula” persona since he is in the township, is he the holy rasta, is he the sonnet-spewing intellectual or the Xhosa traditionalist? This play highlights everyday identity issues that will strike a chord with anyone. Lulama Masimini, a UCT graduate morphs into the frenzied Lulu superbly. He is no stranger to the theatre circuit, with past performances in Big Dada and Medea (Brett Bailey) amongst others. The play premiered on the fringe at the National Arts Festival, Grahamstown to a great response, it had a short run at the Wits 969 Theatre Festival....
Represent is Loving: Bill Sullivan’s pics
Just wanted to share this awesome photographer with you all, Bill Sullivan is based in New York and takes photo’s of ordinary people doing fairly ordinary NY things like coming through the metro/underground ticket turnstiles, exiting from a lift etc…. He seems to catch them at the exact same moment, his work somehow catching humans at their most real and untouched… just getting through the day. What’s amazing is how similar vacant tired expressions can look. Enjoy. Daily Ink /Utata fills us in: “He calls it “situational photography” and describes it as “as a combination of street photography and portrait photography.” In essence, it involves the photographer visibly loitering in a specific, clearly identifiable location, taking candid surreptitious photographs of ordinary people engaged in an ordinary situation. New York photographer Bill Sullivan has compared his photographic approach to wildlife photography. He establishes a likely location, waits until the subject arrives, takes the photograph. Instead of deer or rare bird species or crocodiles, Sullivan photographs people in their natural...
CATCH THIS QUICK! Kathryn Smith
We have been wanting to catch this exhibition since it started but have been too busy – you only have two days to catch brilliant young artist and ex-Durbanite Kathryn Smith’s work “In Camera” at the Goodman on Jan Smuts – so Go Go Go. We’ll do our best! The Goodman Gallery presents Kathryn Smith’s In Camera, opening on September 15 at 18h00. This is her first solo exhibition since her Standard Bank Young Artist touring exhibition Euphemism (2004-2005). The exhibition closes 6 October, 2007. In Camera is a Latin phrase literally meaning ‘in private’ or ‘in secret’. It is most commonly used in legal cases where testimony is presented in private chambers instead of in open court. In camera testimony is most often facilitated where reliving the experience of a violent and traumatic event through verbal narration would be aggravated by having to do this in public. This opportunity is often given to victims of sexual assaults and children involved in criminal cases. Kathryn Smith’s In Camera presents a controlled, immersive environment featuring a series of portrait drawings, sourced from a range of print and online media photographs and processed so as to blur the distinction between the handmade and the mass-produced. Her subjects are the victims and perpetrators of violent acts, the circumstances of which remain almost incomprehensible in their extremity, even if the facts surrounding tabloid revelations of these cruel private desires are known. Smith is particularly interested in how, through repetition, certain photographic images get detached from their subjects and the representation of a person becomes emblematic of ‘victimhood’, ‘the missing’, ‘monstrosity’ or ‘evil’. This kind of rhetoric functions as a means to situate the perpetrators outside the realm of human behaviour and does not allow us to dwell on the particular circumstances of each violent interaction. Smith’s drawings have been made with ultraviolet-sensitive inks, invisible to the naked eye. As an artist known to work with performance and photo-based media, the choice of ink, brush and paper presents another way of processing the photographic image, particularly these images mediated and re-mediated such that they become like a retinal afterimage, a trace of something we have seen or experienced but which remains beyond our grasp. In setting up a relationship between the spectrum and the spectral, In Camera is an exhibition of ghosts, an attempt to reclaim that which eludes cognitive and emotional capture and retention. The installation comprises audio and lighting components, making use of both the Goodman Gallery’s public façade and display windows to accommodate aspects of the exhibition for evening...
Bright Young Thing: Musa Hlatshwayo
You know we love to share all things bright and beautiful with you across all artistic genres including dance – celebrate one of KZN’s true movers and shakers Musa Hlatshwayo, who’s choreography has been chosen to tour 10 countries across the African Continent. Some of you will remember the recent call for entries for Dance! Africa Dance! – Musa represented SA in Paris in 2006 and his star continues to rise – see below. ‘Umthombi’ – South African Dance on continental tour Musa Hlatshwayo, South African dancer and choreographer is going on tour in 10 countries on the continent to present the dance piece Umthombi. The dance theatre duet is the narrative of a male adolescent who is in search of his traditional identity and manhood. In his quest, the young boy undergoes the rites of passage as set out by the traditions of his people. He learns accountability and responsibility, means that he applies as survival tools in the grazing fields. Aesthetically, the work explores creative movement, contemporary dance, sound and music in an attempt to explore the future of a uniquely African aesthetic in story telling. Umthombi premiered at the Jomba! Contemporary Dance Festival in 2004, the year when Hlatshwayo was awarded the KZN Young Choreographer’s Commission by the Centre for Creative Arts (UKZN) and the Jomba! Festival to create a dance piece for the festival. Umthombi also featured in the Dance Umbrella Festival in 2007. Umthombi is not the first piece where Hlatshwayo incorporates tradition, at the FNB Dance Umbrella Festival in 2006; he presented a dance piece on Ukuqiniswa, the traditional practise of strengthening or safeguarding oneself from man-made evil forces such as witchcraft. Hlatshwayo is an internationally recognised dance professional who represented South Africa in the Danse! L’Afrique Danse! competition in Paris in 2006. (Applications for the 2008 edition of the competition which will be held in Tunisia can be downloaded from the French Institute website www.ifas.org.za/culture Deadline: 15 Nov) The tour was organized by the French cultural network. Umthombi will be hosted in the following countries Kenya, Mauritius, Madagascar, Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Malawi and Mozambique from Sept to Nov this year. See schedule below: DATE City/Country Sept 2007 Nairobi, Kenya Sept 2007 Mauritius Oct 2007 Windhoek, Namibia Oct 2007 Lusaka, Zambia Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Djibouti Addis, Ethiopia Blantyre, Malawi Maputo, Mozambique Nov 2007 Antanarivo, Madagascar. Here’s Musa’s backstory from the Centre for Creative Arts in KZN – pic by Val Adamson: Born and raised in Maphumulo, KwaZulu-Natal, Musa Hlatshwayo holds a BA (Hons) in Performance Studies (UKZN), a Dance & Choreography Diploma from the Copenhagen School o fModern Dance (Denmark), a Postgraduate Certificate in...
NewMusic Indaba 2007 @ UNISA 10-13 Oct
Composers, music fundi’s and junkies, get to the NewMusic Indaba 2007 at Unisa’s musicology department from the 10th – 13th October 2007 in Tshwane: NewMusicSA (South African Section of the ISCM) proudly announces its forthcoming New Music Indaba festival. The New Music Indaba has relocated from Grahamstown (in the winter) to Tshwane (in the spring) and the 8th edition of this experimental and innovative festival will take place from 10-13 October 2007 at the University of South Africa (Sunnyside Campus) and the University of Pretoria’s Musaion. The New Music Indaba will consist of four days of masterclasses and workshops for composers, with international artists in residence The Schubert Ensemble of London and South African pianist Jill Richards, and guest composer Stefans Grové. Plus concerts of new works and improvisation, installations and videos, and a mini-conference on composition. Day 1 Wednesday 10 October FORUM: SOUTH AFRICA’S INSTRUMENTAL VOICES 10h00 | AHVAM (Seminar Room) | 2 hrs 30 mins Chair: Chris Walton (University of Pretoria) OPENING OF AUDIOVISUAL INSTALLATION 14h00 | AHVAM (Seminar Room) | 45 mins Aryan Kaganof & Michael Blake Reverie (2003) World Première Gerhard Marx & Clare Loveday The Collision Project (2006) COMPOSERS WORKSHOP 1 15h00 | AHVAM (Seminar Room) | 2 hrs OPENING CONCERT: SONGS OF AFRICA 18h00 | AHVAM (Seminar Room) | 1 hr Max de Vries marimba Peter Klatzow Song for Stephanie Martin Scherzinger Chorale: Afrika South African Première Day 2 Thursday 11 October COMPOSERS MASTERCLASS 1 10h00 | AHVAM (Seminar Room) | 2 hrs 30 mins Schubert Ensemble COMPOSERS WORKSHOP 2 15h00 | AHVAM (Seminar Room) | 2 hrs Day 3 Friday 12 October COMPOSERS MASTERCLASS 2 10h00 | AHVAM (Seminar Room) | 2 hrs 30 mins Schubert Ensemble PIANO RECITAL: STEFANS GROVÉ 85TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION 13h00 | Musaion, University of Pretoria | 1 hr Jill Richards piano Stefans Grové Five Glimpses Robert Fokkens New Work South African Première COMPOSERS MASTERCLASS 3 14h30 | Musaion, University of Pretoria | 2 hrs 30 mins Jill Richards and Stefans Grové SOUNDPAINTING 18h00 | AHVAM (Seminar Room) | 1 hr Ensemble directed by Marc Duby Day 4 Saturday 13 October OPEN REHEARSALS 10h00 | Sunnyside Concert Hall, Unisa | 2 hrs Schubert Ensemble and Selected Composers CHAMBER MUSIC RECITAL 13h00 | Sunnyside Concert Hall, Unisa | 1 hr Schubert Ensemble Programme includes works by participants in the Composers Masterclasses World Première COMPOSERS WORKSHOP 3 15h00 | AHVAM (Seminar Room) | 2 hrs PLEASE NOTE: EVENT: OPENING OF NEWMUSIC INDABA AUDIOVISUAL INSTALLATION VENUE: ART HISTORY, VISUAL ARTS AND MUSICOLOGY DEPT, UNISA DATES: 10 OCTOBER 2007, 14h00 ENQUIRIES: CAMERON HARRIS 076 529 4601 This year’s NewMusic Indaba includes an audiovisual installation...
ABSEIL DOWN PONTE next weekend
Oh yes, developers continue to put their money where their mouths are and the iconic Ponte City Towers is being revamped and sold off as part of the ongoing urban regeneration in Jozi. You, yes you, have the chance to abseil or rap jump down the 173m2 high building. What can we say? Rather you than us…. we’re a little scared of heights but it sounds like a remarkable marketing idea. Enjoy! The Johannesburg Development Agency and Investagain property developers would like to invite you to a once in a lifetime opportunity to abseil or ‘rap jump’ down the side of the tallest residential building in the southern Hemisphere!. On Saturday October 13th, 2007, from 10h00-17h00, you will have the opportunity to be taken to the top of Ponte City and released- face first or feet first- down, down, down the side of the building. A number of ropes and several well-trained, qualified professionals will assist you on the descent- so it’s all perfectly safe and…whoooooosh, what a rush! Refreshments, music and kiddies entertainment will be on offer while your family watches breathlessly as you make your way down the 173 metre high building. There is also secure underground parking and signage so you won’t get lost. (see attached map). Even better than knowing you’ll have an unrivalled experience is the fact that this is a charity event. The R500 fee for each jump will go to the Creative Inner City Initiative, a fantastic organization that works to develop artists in the inner-city. You may have already seen some of their work – the mosaic balls in Harrow road, the Faraday taxi rank mosaic, and the graphics at Drill Hall. The CICI is also the initiators of the Hillbrow carnival and runs a number of art programmes for children in Joubert Park. The event also serves to hi-light a number of new developments happening in the inner-city. This area is being revitalized at an incredible pace- from the conversion of Ponte City into upmarket luxury apartments (see http://www.newponte.co.za/), to the Ellis Park Precinct Development which aims to regenerate the Greater Ellis Park into a secure, safe, vibrant and sustainable leading destination of choice for sports and recreation within Johannesburg. Other great new projects in the environs, includes the new Alhambra theatre, not to mention a plethora of initiatives by the City of Johannesburg including the newly approved JDA-led Hillbrow, Berea and Yeoville Public Environment Upgrade. On the day, we’ll be taking people on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. But we’ll be doing jumps throughout the day so everyone will have a chance. You’ll also get a sneak preview of the much talked...
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