Jackson Hlungwani in Cape Town…
Cape Townians, don’t miss one of South Africa’s most revered and respected artists – Jackson Hlungwani at Blank – 198 Buitengracht Street in Cape Town (Bo-Kaap).
JACKSON HLUNGWANI AT blank projects
EXHIBITION OPENS: Wednesday 1 November 2006 at 18h00
(ends Friday 10 November 2006)
JACKSON (Jekiseni) HLUNGWANI lives in Mbhokota in Limpopo Province. Hlungwani still works on a…
daily basis producing woodcarvings which are dedicated to God. Deeply religious, Hlungwani is also the founder of an independent church called ‘Yesu Geleliya One Apostle in Sayoni Alt and Omega’.
Although Hlungwani spent his earlier years working in a mine near Polokwane (then Pietersburg) as well as in Johannesburg (like many migrant labourers from former Gazankulu), he returned to his home at Mbhokota to pursue his religious ministry to which his woodcarvings are devoted. His works are often quirky representations of the divine on earth and references to his own versions of biblical imagery such as a mermaid with long-haired representing Eva (Eve) and Christ Playing Football, both on exhibition.
Other works on the exhibition are sambals (carved bowls) walking sticks and staffs and of course the fish which are most closely symbolic of Hlungwani’s works and his Christian beliefs.
Although it is clear that Hlungwani has produced prolific works since his emergence in the mid-1980’s when he exhibited in both Tributaries (a BMW sponsored exhibition which travelled to Germany, curated by Ricky Burnett) and The Neglected Tradition (Johannesburg Art Gallery, curated by Steven Sack) and has works in many collections in South Africa and abroad, it is clear that the artist struggles to survive and support his growing extended family. He feels abandoned by the art world who has often exploited him.
This exhibition aims to revive Hlungwani’s spirit in Cape Town by recognizing our greatest living treasure from the North, and to give much needed support.
(Kathy Coates October 2006)
open on Wednesdays from 16h00-19h00 and by appointment
blankprojects 198 buitengracht street (Bo-Kaap), Cape Town, blankprojects@gmail.com , contact Liza 083 256 1170 or Jonathan 072 198 9221
NEXT AT blank projects: CAMERON PLATTER (opening on Wednesday 15 November 2006)
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July 2006
Ok… sounds like the mice are out to play while the cats are away…. If you’re into MORSE CODE there’s a night-time flicker at the Blank gallery in the BoKaap… confused?….. We’ll let them explain:
James Webb at blank projects
In his new untitled work, James Webb has used the blank projects space to create a winter intervention in the neighbourhood. While the gallerists are away for 6-weeks, the empty space will be haunted by faulty electricity resulting in the gallery lights flickering in Morse code. The unspoken message, known only to the artist, will glimmer continuously, though is best viewed at night through the space’s shop front window.
James Webb has exhibited, broadcast and performed in South Africa and other
parts of the world. Operating in a variety of media and contexts, his work
explores, amongst other things, the realms of magick, sex, exoticism and
alienation, and impossible environmental phenomena through the languages of
installation, live action and intervention.
7 June – 15 July 2006
Work viewable between the hours of sunset to sunrise.
There will be no opening function
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March
There’s a fascinating exhibit coming up in April at Blank Projects in the BO KAAP . A group of rent boys were given a quick course in photography and given an instamatic camera to capture their Saturday nights. Curator Pierre Fouche tells us all about it:
a group show of alternative domestic snapshots by Cape Town male sex-workers
curated by Pierre Fouche
A series of two snapshot photography workshops involving Cape town male sex-workers revealed the shady underworld of Cape Town Rent to be filled with light and hope.
Facilitated by Greatmore Studios resident Pierre Fouche and funded by the Greatmore trust, this workshop was conceived as an experiment in self-representation of the grey areas of sexuality and an attempt to interrogate the traditional domestic snapshot. Seven male sex-workers from a prominent agency were introduced to the world of photography through Instant camera lenses on two Saturdays during the month of February 2006. Each participant was donated a Fuji-instax camera and, after a basic demonstration and presentation of essential camera and composition basics, was given an open brief to snap their environment and themselves.
The results of the workshop revealed a surprising sensitivity of keen observation in some, and a delightful and playful portrait of Cape Town and surrounds in others, while a select few made direct reference to the participant’s working environment. As a whole the results are a realistic affirmation of life: filled with light, beaches, sand and leisure time on one hand, counter-pointed by a darker interior side on the other. The world revealed through the eyes of individual rent boys seems not much different from any Capetownian’s world, indeed, everyone who experiences life as a paradoxical combination of joy in equal amounts to the cloudy days of the soul, where possibility and hope occupy the same space as a sense of entrapment and loss of agency.
The exhibition aims to gain visibility for individuals forging an existence in negated realms of gender and sexual identity above giving the participants the opportunity to experience the joys (and tribulations) of putting up an exhibition and seeing their work in a public space. In aid of proposed legislative reforms to the sex-work industry as a whole – an attempt spearheaded by S.W.E.A.T (the Sex Workers Education and Action taskforce) to make South-Africa truly free and safe for all – a percentage of sales will be donated to this organization.
BUT FIRST catch Peter Fegli, the visiting Swiss artist in action.
Here is the info:
Opening: 29 MARCH – 15 APRIL 2006: PETER REGLI (visiting Swiss Artist)
Dust to dust
Opening: 19 APRIL – 28 APRIL 2006: PIERRE FOUCHý
Take it like a man
(photographic group project)
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8 March
There’s s new exhibit at blank projects in the BO-KAAP – stuffed animals… hmmm looks interesting! It’s only open on Wednesday evenings so make sure to put it in your Wed diary.
Kerim Seiler – Creature Comfort
Swiss Artist Kerim Seiler will show a series of “animals” at blank
The exhibition will run until March 22nd
Open wednesdays from 16h00-19h00 or by appointment
blank projects
198 Buitengracht Street, Bo-Kaap, Cape Town
Email blank
For more information please contact Liza:+27 (0)83 256 1170 or Jonathan:
+27 (0)72 198 9221
As a follow-up of his notorious “Clone International” series presented in Guguletu, Cape Town, New York and Hamburg in 2005, blank projects is pleased to announce Swiss artist Kerim Seiler’s latest exhibition – “Creature Comfort”. The exhibition continues through March 22, 2006 and is supported by ProHelvetia, Arts Council of Switzerland. Kerim Seiler was born in 1974 and has exhibited accross Europe as well as in New York and Cairo.
Inspired by some remarkable South African fauna, Seiler proposes a group of ridiculous offspring reminiscent of the inbreeding inherent to South African game-culture. The title “Creature Comfort” does not reflect on South Africa specifically but rather on the recent global phenomenon of denaturalisation. Seiler’s exhibit scrabbles through questions of platonic idealism versus the contemporary traveller’s creature comforts and enhanced iconography. You’ll adore his playful sculptures.
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18 Jan
We’re sure if you’ve been to Slaapstad you have seen the colourful streets of the Bo-Kaap, also known as the Malay Quarter – it’s a multi-cultural but traditionally Muslim area where you can feast on home-cooked meals at home-style restaurants and walk the cobbled streets.
From the Bo-Kaap site: The inhabitants of Bo-Kaap are proud of their rich cultural heritage. They were mostly descendants of slaves which were imported by the Dutch back in the 1700’s. It is a multicultural area, tucked safely into the fold of signal hill. Use the cobble stoned streets as your guide and you will be lead into a lively suburb filled with brightly colored houses from the nineteenth and seventeenth century, Muslim saints shrines (“kramats”) and many beautiful Mosques including the first established Muslim Mosque in South Africa.
There is usually a food fair held in March and over New Year there are various festivals and parades in the Bo-Kaap.
In the last few years the Bo-Kaap has also become a trendy place to live with locals and foreigners snapping up the neat and sweet little houses. You can even find art exhibitions in place there now – check it out:
‘blank projects is an artist-run project space for visual arts. (We’ve been going for 6 months now).
Our next opening is this Wednesday (18th January) …we are open by appointment AND Wednesdays 16h00-19h00
Jeanne Hoffman created a 3-d spatial drawing for this event. (CRAZZEEE!)
We are situated at 198 Buitengracht Street in Cape Town (Bo-Kaap).
Would love to tell you more…
Call Liza Grobler @ 083 256 1170/ Jonathan @072 1989 221
Or Email Blank Projects
Jeanne Hoffman
Long Words on a Hot Afternoon
ARTIST STATEMENT:
Everyone seems very interested to know how I classify myself as an artist. I use paint but I don’t really consider myself a painter, I use tactile materials and yet I cannot call myself ‘sculptor’ either. I prefer to identify my work with drawing. I draw with materials on paper and in three-dimensional space. In this sense drawing is used in a very broad and inclusive sense.
The debris of day-to-day living are the raw materials – today’s newspaper, old clothes, the stuff we use to mend broken things (plaster for our bones, cold glue for the furniture, old stockings to make young trees garden grow straight). Materials become landmarks and by extension artworks become way stations along the path of living/becoming/knowing.
Knowing occurs in doing. It is in the present instant of an action (in moments of total absorption in the act of doing) that one finds glimpses of the unity between ourselves and objects.
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