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...
Design meets Art at Momo
WOW – Gallery Momo just keeps blowing us away with their vision and work. Up next is an awesome furniture exhibit featuring some of SA’s top furniture designers such as Gregor Jenkin. Buzzing, inviting and full of promise and inspiration, the “Design meets Art” kicks off on the 16 August. Go Go GO. PHILIP NEL EGG DESIGN TONIC DESIGN GREGOR JENKIN & STEVEN TANCHEL OPENING THURSDAY 16 AUGUST @ 18H30 52 7th Avenue Parktown North Johannesburg T: + 27 11 327...
Celebrate Women Artists in Aug – do it girls!
If you have not been to the awesome ConHill in Braamfontein/Parktown yet, here is your chance, ladies and guys get your friends together and go and celebrate some of our most prolific female artists in SA. If you go on Sunday the 11 August, you get to meet the artists’s and chat to them about their work – a rare opportunity indeed. Go Go Go. To celebrate National Women’s Month in August, an exhibition of contemporary photography and poetry by 14 South African women is being held at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg. Titled Isis X, this exhibition seeks to evoke the spirit of the mythological Egyptian goddess and, at the same time, pays tribute to the creativity of her modern-day earth-bound counterparts. The exhibition, which can be viewed from now to the 31 August 2007, is being presented by Botsotso, a grouping of South African poets, writers and artists that has been in existence for 13 years. The four female photographers taking part in the Isis X exhibition are Neo Ntsoma, Suzy Bernstein, Riana Wiechers and Anna Varney. The latter two women will also be displaying their poetic prowess, and joining them are fellow poets elsbeth e, Sumeera Dawood, Lisemelo Tlale, Elizabeth Trew, Anet Kemp, Baitse Mokiti, Myesha Jenkins, Arja Salafranca, Makhosazana Xaba and Bongekile Mbanjwa. On display are 50 photographs and poems taken from the book Isis X, edited by Allan Kolski Horwitz and available through Botsotso Publishing. “Such an openly women-only venture might attract projections of stereotyped feminism or effeminate style,” commented poet Eva Kowalski of the book, “[but] neither is valid concerning this intelligent, varied, yet ultimately coherent anthology.” Similarly, the Isis X exhibition aims to reflect the humorous personal insights, poignant social observations and spirited expressions of anger and hope reflected by the female contributors in the book. It is hoped that visitors to the exhibition will conclude that a female artist’s pen and lens are, indeed, mightier than the sword. The opening will take place at 6pm for 6.30pm on 2 August, in the atrium of the exhibition space at the Women’s Jail at the Constitution Hill Complex in Kotzé Street, Hillbrow. Keketso Semoko (Isidingo actress and women’s rights activist) and Odette Geldenhuys (legal rights activist and documentary film maker) are the guest speakers, and several of the poets will also give readings of their work. There will be a walkabout for the public on Saturday, 11 August at 11am, during which the photographers and poets will be present to discuss their work. In addition, there will be an evening of women’s poetry at the same venue at 6pm on Friday, 24 August. This will feature...
Lolo Veleko @ the Goodman
Catch moving and shaking “street photographer” and artist Nontsikelelo “Lolo” Veleko at one of our favourite galleries, the Goodman in Jan Smuts avenue, closing on the 11 August. You can read more about Lolo in an interview on AfricanColours where they describe Lolo’s backstory as: Nontsikelelo Veleko started photography as a part time study course at the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg. Her first major photographic exhibition was “Seeing Women”, which took place at the Market Photo Workshop in 2005. This year she was selected to represent the Market Photo Workshop as participant at the Bieler Fototage, a Swiss photographic encounter. She was born in Bodibe, North West Province, South Africa and studied graphic design at Cape Technicon. In 1999 she enrolled at the Market Photo Workshop. Focusing on issues of the identity, Mute!Scream!Mute! examines how people present themselves to the outside world and thus construct their identities. Through the use fashion and clothing Nontsikelelo Veleko questions perceived notions of beauty. She focuses her lens on those around her, but at times she also turns the lens towards herself, posing both in guises of various identities and representing herself in self-portraiture. Focusing on issues of the identity, Mute!Scream!Mute! examines how people present themselves to the outside world and thus construct their identities. Through the use fashion and clothing Nontsikelelo Veleko questions perceived notions of beauty. She focuses her lens on those around her, but at times she also turns the lens towards herself, posing both in guises of various identities and representing herself in self-portraiture.The exhibition comprises three series of photographs. http://www.notblackenough.lolo/, a project that emerged out of Nontsikelelo Veleko’s early interests in issues surrounding identity in 2002. In this series of photographs she uses the self to explore South Africa’s mixed cultural heritage, assuming other peoples identities by donning different clothes and props. Her images challenge perceptions about identity that are based on appearances and historical assumptions (Murinik 2007). http://www.notblackenough.lolo/ explores Veleko’s identity in terms of the way other black people view her. Placed in the context of urban life, Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder, continues Veleko’s exploration of identity. Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder is a study, documentation and constructing of urban street fashion culture in Johannesburg, South Africa. It specifically looks at urban fashion around Johannesburg’s city centers and surrounding townships. Veleko uses this series of photographs to examine how people present themselves to the outside world and construct their identities. These portraits challenge perceptions of beauty, examining the very act of judging others in terms of the external identities that they project. A new photographic series of Self Portraits will also be exhibited...
Frances Goodman @ the Goodman
Catch one of our finest young artists Frances Goodman at one of our finest galleries, the Goodman in Rosebank. We have to ask… is she related? Or is that a dumb question? Frances Goodman Wishful Thinking 23rd June to 14th July 2007 Goodman Gallery In her new solo exhibition, titled “Wishful Thinking”, Frances Goodman continues her exploration into character-construction through language and narrative. She examines how people present themselves to the outside world and how words manage to ‘perform’ and expose people’s anxieties and vulnerabilities. How people use words and language can as easily reveal personal fictions and desires, as they can divulge tastes, biases and predilections. The exhibition comprises three new sound installations and two sculptural series. “Young Guns” is a large-scale video/sound installation that accompanies two young bodybuilders on their quest for perfection, success and ideal beauty. As the narrative unfolds, the viewer becomes aware of a blurring of boundaries between scrupulous preparation and raw narcissism. This slip between definition of self and judgment by others raises questions around contemporary versions of ideal beauty and the limits to achieving them. “I know what you’re thinking…” is a sound installation that examines the very act of judging others. From the endless comments and quips on any number of topics, to the anonymous protagonists in the work, all expose society’s dual fascination and revulsion with others. When people are not constrained by expected politeness and sensitivity, we are all, potentially, the subject of someone else’s prejudice. Goodman’s new sculptures are an extension of her interest in language, and focus on how we ‘read’ objects. There is a play between text and texture, surface and content, sincerity and irony. The obsessively worked and highly decorative sequined surfaces declare a gaudy shallowness, which seems at odds with the sincerity of the bodybuilder’s life affirmations. This exhibition will open on Saturday 23rd June from 18:00 – 20:00, and closes on the 14th July...
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