A taste of what’s to come. Cassette.
Represents good friend, Andrew Wessels and his group South African pop/rock band Cassette have been hard at it putting together their latest album together for their adoring fans. We’re delighted and wish them all the best – come on dudes, let’s blow it up. Watch the video below that gives a taste of what’s to come… Look out for the new single, “Who Do You Trust” on radio’s everywhere! Look out for a huge South African tour coming March. Look out for the huge international tour coming in April/May In the meantime, here is some...
Self/Not Self – A collective of artists explore the Self
Brodie/Stevenson presents Self/Not-Self, the second curated exhibition that explores modes of self-representation across a range of contemporary art practices. Self/Not-Self 26 March – 25 April 2009 Opening on Thursday 26 March at 6pm The exhibition as a whole considers concepts of self-portraiture and the role of the artist/author. While it is undoubtedly reductive to interpret all work as autobiographical, the significance of how artists ‘write themselves into’ their work is fundamental to contemporary art practice. This ‘writing in’ may occur in various ways including performance, the gestural mark, the trace, the alter-ego, autobiography (both real and fictitious), confession and absence. This exhibition will look at indirect or ‘absent’ self-representational approaches, where strategies of surrogacy, projection and alternative personae are employed. Aspects of this approach include the object as stand-in for the self, self as alter-ego, self as artwork, as another’s body, and as text. These approaches contain an inherent sense of remove, and allow for a mode of autobiography through a third-person or object. In their ‘looking outwards’ to the world, these artists offer a challenge to the very idea of a coherent or contained self. Artists on the upcoming show include Avant Car Guard, Conrad Botes, Wim Botha, Reshma Chhiba, Simon Gush, Nicholas Hlobo, Lawrence Lemaoana, Michael MacGarry, Richard Penn, Wilhelm Saayman, Penny Siopis and Sober and Lonely. Brodie/Stevenson is located on the ground floor, 373 Jan Smuts Avenue, Craighall, Johannesburg. Hours are Tuesday to Friday, 10.30am to 5.30pm, and Saturday from 9.30am to 3pm. Email info@brodiestevenson.com. Telephone +27 (0)11 326 0034. Fax +27 (0)11 326 0041. Image: Lunga Kama – Ubuntu libhongo...
jozi art:lab presents Guard on Shift in Kliptown
We’ve been rooting for the potential of Kliptown for a while now and are delighted to see that inroads are being made into communicating around the disparity of the tourism developments and the local community that feels largely side-lined. Bravo jozi art:lab. After its great success in October 2008 the interdisciplinary art installation Guard on Shift by Sue Pam – Grant and Xoli Norman will be staged again – this time at the Battery Center in Kliptown as an open-air performance. It will be part of Kliptown Art Project, founded and curated by the foundation jozi art:lab. “ jozi art:lab is solely focused on curating thought-provoking work. We realised the challenge that the lack of resources poses on art consumption and hope that this showcase of Guard on Shift will bring theatre to people who hardly have the opportunity to indulge…” explains Indra Wussow, curator and founder of jozi art:lab. Guard on Shift explores an all too familiar fixture in surburbia – the guard’s hut and the presence of the black guard who is posted there to guard the neighbourhood. He is somewhat a contradiction: he represents a superhero and protector yet at most times he is unarmed and ill – equipped to respond to any real danger – the funny this; people still trust and feel safe knowing he’s on shift. The artist and director Sue Pam – Grant and music composer Xoli Norman investigate the tenuous and visceral areas that occupy these physical and mental territories. This allows for a scrutiny of our collective paranoia – a critical boundary between our physical fences and the space occupied inside the walls of our minds. jozi art:lab anticipates an interesting response to this installation considering that it will take place within the context of a community where some of its inhabitants leave their homes to protect other peoples’ homes in the suburbs. This particular performance and its reception will inspire the interrogation of this phenomenon further through a documentary film and the project will be spearheaded by Indra Wussow and Wonderboy Peters. Battery Center, Kliptown, Soweto Saturday, 28th March 2009 @ 6:30pm Guard on Shift completely lacks self-indulgence – or even articulated (patronising) pity for these peripheral people. It’s a bare brutal portrayal of intransigent values that pepper and coddle us into a complacency of security. A lucid, wise piece that glosses the incompetence in the running of our country by pointing fingers within, not without. Robyn Sassen –...
Represent Review: H2O- More than just a jol
10:00 Am. And unusually quiet for what can only be described as a milestone event. Ten years of the biggest dance party in Africa. Yet this time around, strangely the people hadn’t camped outside waiting to be allowed in. This time, there was no queue extending down the street for people waiting to park nor an equal mass of people walking in and lining up, waiting to get in. What was going on? Upon entering the venue I felt the energy begin to heat up as the music had already started to fill the air. The crowd was small, but growing by the minute and you could feel the twinklings that today was going to be unforgettable. The sun was beating down on us as the African tempos started blaring out the speakers filling our bodies with the energy to make it through the next few hours. This was going to be insane. We milled around, checking out all the floors and getting a feel for each one. Each dancefloor provided it’s own unique flavour to the day – each perfectly located so as not to drown out one another in terms of sound and crowd. I grabbed myself a drink from one of the tents and relaxed to take in all of my surroundings. Before I knew it, the party had really begun. The crowd started getting their ankles wet and so began the cheers and whistles as the DJ began to drop some insane mixes. The next time I turned around to check out the scene, I saw thousands of people with their hands lifted jubilantly up in the air, accepting the music, letting the rhythms take control of their bodies. This was it, this is what we live for. United by music, united by one energy. This is who we are and this is our message. We are South Africans and we know how to party! One hour after the next, swaying the amassed sea of people, the music just kept coming. It didn’t let up, not even for a second. Even when the lines weren’t connected for Fresh to begin his set the crowd was entertained by a beatboxer who not only had the crowd jumping and screaming for more, he even had the one and only Vernon in the background doing his signature move. Only in South Africa can we make a party happen even when there is no sound. The rhythm is in our blood. Ironically, being a party called H2O, we were blessed by Mother Africa raining down on us. The crowds started to dwindle down which was disappointing as there was...
UJU live at House of Nsako this Friday
It’s been a long time since we’ve hear the sweet rocking soulful sounds of UJU… here’s your chance to catch them live in Brixton, Jozi this Friday at the House of Nsako . Friday 13th March 09 8pm 101 High Street, Brixton, Jozi Town. Take the Smit Str offramp from the N1 south. Turn right at the T-junction. Drive past the Garden City Hospital and the Brixton Fire Department. Just past the Pick and Pay Centre look out for ABSA on the lft and the house is on the right. Call 072 2232 648 for more...