If Only Every Night
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Last night I could have sworn I was in Chelsea or something. Three openings in one evening! the art world was out in force. First stop was Andrew's Cape Biennale at Blank, which was a huge success. Loads of interesting artists brought work, which was all piled into the space randomly (it'll be curated properly for the second opening on the 20th). A nice touch was Andrew wearing a post-it saying Sue on it, and his curator Kathy wearing one that said Gavin. And the strange confused woman in a duck mask with an annoying ostrich feather was, apparently, Shirley Cantor. Let's hope she doesn't pull that move again.Second was Lyndi Sales at the Bell-Roberts. I can see some growth in Lindy's work, but all in all it came across as a bit dated. I feel that this particular use of printmaking was acceptable from young lost women in 1995, but should really be stopped now. What the show needed was a bit of a narrative. Rumour had it that the show was about her father who died in the Helderberg plane disaster. Now this would be interesting material, but it was obscured by the randomness of the material use (chinese stickers, matchboxes, playing cards, leaf patterns?), the randomness of the title (11 000 000 in 1? the chances of dying in a plane crash?), and the randomness of the wall-text (gambling? what?). Apparently she has the original sounds from the black box, why wasn't this used? The narrative needn't be a personal acknowledgment of grief or anything too hectic. Just a way in, something from which to access the work.
Lastly was Nicola Grobler's bit about cars at Erdmann. More interesting than most Erdmann shows, I enjoyed it, but I don't know if I really cared. I got some disgusted looks when I wanted to see if the oil on the floor was real, and came up with a fingerful of sump, which was quite funny. I liked all the flashing lights and moving toy cars. But why cars? And also the artist's statement sucked, and I hereby call for all artists to be banned from ever ever writing those awful things.
If only we had this much activity every night we might actually have a Cape Town art scene.
posted by Robert Sloon at 3:49 PM
12 Comments:
The catalogue essay and a proper, concentrated look at the show is a good place to start accessing the work.
Lyndi Sales is a consummate artist and printmaker, and when dealing with close subject matter she is unlikely to stuff around with decorative nonsense. There is significance in the materials, there is significance in the numbers and there is significance in the shapes.
And for the record, the black box recordings were used. I should know; I did the sound design.
And how come Lyndi is told to put more “narrative” in to help people access the work, and Nicola is slapped for doing just that in the form of an artist’s statement;-)
Dear Mr. Sloon.
You spelt "piece" wrong and Razell is actually rozalla, in the article about Dan Halter.
And Mr. Webb. Just because you do the sound design on a project does not make it a good show.
Mr Webb. I don't normally justify my opinions, but I might have written in a hurry, and I'll clarify some things. Firstly, I apologize for the error concerning the black box recordings, it's possible that in the frenzy of galleries that night I didn't pay close enough attention.
When you say there's significance in the numbers, shapes and materials, I can't help but agree... the problem is that I didn't feel the significance was accessible. That's why I imagined some sort of narrative structure in the work (not in a catalogue or artist's statement) might have helped. One can't help but feel lost when objects, numbers and materials of personal significance are used... the metaphors don't have the same significance for me, and I can't read them.
And if it was a slap for Nicola Grobler, then well deserved... any artist who prints out an A4 sheet with writing in 12pt Arial and prestiks it to the wall is not really considering the impact that will have on the show. It's not a narrative, it's an apology.
Ed Young, die plaas wag
Ed is 'n moffie
gelukkig is ed n moffie omdat hy is so cute
maar nou wie is Andrew?
en hoe kry n mens n invite na al hierdie parties?
Mr Webb, When you say that "the catalogue essay and proper, concentrated look at a show" is a good place to start do you mean it in the sense that one should be carrying the catalogue essay in one's arms and wearing a proper, concentrated look while walking around it?
No
I once spotted Brett Kebble wearing a properly concentrated look and carrying a copy of Noseweek. The cover carried a cartoon of Kebble as a rather plump Nero. He sidled into the store, went to the racks and riffled around for further copies, crossed to the cashier and enquired if they had any Noseweeks. It appeared to me that he must of had, at that time, a compulsion to buy up ( and thus remove from circulation) all of this particular edition. As an aside, I wondered if this was not a rather smart tactic on the editor's part, ato feature a wealthy 'collector' on each cover, to boost circulation, or at least to arrange for a quick sell-out.
Now, in tonight's Argus I am shocked to read that Brett allegedly owned the original of Tretchi's "Lost Orchid". Which the police are reportedly looking for? Is there no end to the heartstopping sentiment wrought by the life and passing of these two men?
just so that everyone knows, even if they didnt. Ed is Linda Lovelace
Just so that everyone knows, anonymous is uit sy ma se hol gebore want haar poes was te besig...
ed suig piel
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