Hugh Upsher is a Michaelis Graduate who lives with his parents in the suburbs. He is curretnly studying desktop publishing.

What the hell would you do with a computer that you couldn't view porn with? Nerds from the late eighties found a way.
It turns out naked girls have been on computers pretty much since computers have exsisted.
There is a fantastic online gallery that displays some of the classic artworks from this golden era of innovation.

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Geez, is it just me or did the Cape Town art contingent come charging out of the 2010 gates en masse with uncharacteristic zeal? Openings, openings everywhere. Whatever happened to being the lazy laid back part of the country? I’d better get scribing, starting with that which is conveniently located in rolling-down-the-hill proximity to my flat. Which in this case is the Kunst House with Uwe Pfaff’s ‘Sculptures’...
Read more on Its Not a Tumor

Dropped by the Alexis Preller show at SANG last night. I'll leave the historians and connoisseurs to comment on the importance of the show (Though, having seen the recent survey show, South African Art 1938-1958 I think it was called, and seeing the prevalance of poo brown, muted ochre and dirty shoe, one can see why Preller was so popular)

What struck me was the absence of the Sir Abe Bailey Bequest and the craft shop. Ladies and Gentlemen, changes are underfoot. Apparently the whole gallery is going to be closed and the entire Permanent collection rehung. With respect to our illustrious colonial past, I say about fucking time.

Tash over at Mixtape gives us a (belated) review of the Michaelis Graduate show.
Read more at Mixtape

Hugh Upsher is a Michaelis Graduate who lives with his parents in the Suburbs. He is currently studying Desktop Publishing.

Few things are worse than checking your e-mail account only to find you have no fucking e-mails. This is captured perfectly in David Shrigley’s drawing. However, an artwork that deals with this phenomenon in a far more dynamic and cruel way was created by an online marketer. These advertising banners (see below) that are strategically placed around your favourite websites are designed to continuously give you false glimmers of hope. Nothing brightens my day quicker than to see I have new messages waiting for me. Unfortunately marketers have realized this and turned it against me in a cruel game. The invasive nature of the work only adds to its effectiveness. Obviously one would not fall for this lie over and over again but it does succeed in teasing you with its ever presence, reminding you of something you can’t always get.

Jonathan Hamilton committed suicide on August 12 2008, by ingesting yew berries from a nearby graveyard. His father Mr Reckless, who he was living with at the time described Jonathan Hamilton thus:

“He was a ball of fire, full of ideas and energy, but was going through horrific turmoil inside. His death is in keeping with his character. He would have wanted to do something spectacular.”

Read more on Work in Progress

Hlungwani died at his home in Mbokhota on Wednesday, aged 87. Jackson Hlungwani will be well remembered as a pioneer of South African art, bridging the gap between art and spirituality in a unique way. His legacy will live on.

I've never seen this image before, but I think it is amusing.

ArtHeat is proud to launch a new blog Its Not a Tumor. Its a blog by artist, writer and death metal musician Tim Leibbrandt about art. Mostly.
It can be found at artheat.net/itsnot/atumor.html

Welcome Tim!

It's incredibly sad that a young gallery with so much promise has to close its doors. The UCA Gallery which recently had good shows like History(n) and No|Thing will be closing from the 1st of February. We wish all those involved the best of luck for future endeavours

Hugh Upsher is a recent Michaelis graduate who lives in the suburbs with his parents. He loves booze, art, chicks, skating and rock n roll.

If you love the original Star Trek series, if you love Kirk and Spock in particular, if you love fantasizing about a homoerotic relationship between these characters and if you enjoy making non-erotic “All Ages” art and poetry around this particular theme… there is a place for you. The Internet has a place for everyone. It is the definition of inclusiveness. The case study I will use to prove my theory is Thyla.com, The All-Ages Kirk/Spock love Archive. The contributors can now embrace their Kirk/Spock Love fantasies without feeling like creepy perverts. The philosophy of Farfalla (current chief editor) is simple “There's nothing pornographic about being gay, and nothing obscene about love between men. There are no links to sites with explicit content here; no pictures of naked men; no sex scenes. Rather, it is a celebration of the love between Kirk and Spock that is accessible for a wider audience.”

Farfalla raises some important issues relating to gay culture. The word gay is too often unfairly associated with eroticism. In saying that, this community must be a minority of minorities. All Ages? Are there people out there under the age of 18 who are fans of the original TV show that ran from 1966-1969? Who happens to have fantasies about a homoerotic relationship between Kirk and Spock? Who would want to browse (or even contribute) this very particular content without the shame of having to hide it from their parents? As I wrote earlier, The Internet has a place for everyone. What an incredibly beautiful concept.

I would like to make it clear that my intentions are not to victimize or ridicule this community but use it as an example of how the Internet celebrates diversity.

Linda Stupart tells of her favourite songs of the Naughties over at Mixtape...

Admittedly I am still a youngster, but I think looking back over the decade, Dada South? will prove to be the most significant of the big South African blockbuster shows, at least from a local context.
While Africa Remix made waves around the world, and was probably the biggest, most significant show of African art we'll see even in the next ten years, and Picasso in Africa got the hinges on the National Gallery's door swinging and the Tropics: Views from the middle of the globe unfortunately did not (am I forgetting anything important here? Cape 07?), Dada South? has two factors which I think will prove impactful. Firstly, it was an examination of how local production was affected by Western art in a positive way, by a movement which is increasingly seen to hold the roots of most contemporary art production. Secondly, it revisited a chunk of 80's South African art. This second is important. As we drift through our second decade of democracy, looking back is becoming both easier and more necessary. A little distance gives us the leeway to reinterpret and revision (as this show does), but also the opportunity to look critically at where we come from.

Another factor which makes this show a hit is the pure awesomeness of seeing some of these works. Who thought they'd ever see a Hannah Hoch, a Hans Arp, a Man Ray. Or some of the artifacts, like the original R. Mutt article, the old journals and Caberet Voltaire invites. Even local stuff I'd read about but never seen (Fook Island stuff, old Willem Boshoff's). On the downside though, this show really needed to open with a catalogue, a guide through the sometimes obscure bits and pieces and an entry point into some of the narratives and histories.
There are some seminars coming up, and I think they are vital to attend. This show will expose its significance through discussion. I look forward to writing a second piece after that.

Also, while the graphic design clearly wanted be subversive in the spirit of Dada, I really wanted to spit on the supid red and green explanatory texts. I think we have to accept that Dada has been commodified and intellectualised. But that of course is a whole other article.

Also, my work was the best on the show.

Hugh Upsher is a recent Michaelis graduate who lives with his parents in the suburbs. He loves rock n roll, skating, art, booze and chicks.

"The LOLCat Bible Translation Project is a wiki-based website set up in July 2007 by Martin Grondin, where editors aim to adapt the entire Bible into "LOLspeak", the pidgin popularized by the LOLcat Internet phenomenon." (Thank you Jimmy Wales, and fuck you Harvard referencing). I have known about the project for a while now and was extremely excited to find out that the Bible is not only finished in it's entirety (Old and New Testaments with images) but about to be published. Pre-orders are now available from amazon.com. A massive collective effort over a period of more than three years has led to this astonishing achievement. The entire project is essentially based on a single meme called ceiling cat and the parallels one could draw between this particular image and God.

It is easy to disregard this ridiculous concept as pure Internet trash on face value but seeing it as a well executed, completed book really did change my initial reading of it. This project is not only a testament to the "If you build it, they will come" misquote but a loving tribute to people's need to dumb themselves down.

While we are on the topic, here is Wikipedia in book form (Artist unknown).

Labels: bible, cats, god

Its been fun... communing with nature, having multiple holidays and showing the liver who's boss. But it's back to work time. You can expect regular posting to continue from later today.