Wow. What a good show. It had all the best elements: thoughtful work, funny work, morbid work, witty snappy metaphors, live performance, free wine (no snacks though), interesting themes, bits about utopia, bits about death, bits about middle-class and a good catalogue.
My favourite piece of all was Paradise Lost (see above), a clean, simple sculpture consisting of a rolled up hosepipe fitted with a snake's head, it seemed the ultimate work on suburbia and mid-life crisis. The tempting pull of the freshly-watered lawn, of domesticity, being offered by something so deadly, so biblical. I also really enjoyed the photographs of the intervention OH NO, in which a large billboard sign,"On Show," offering properties on the sprawling outskirts of Pretoria was recontructed to say "Oh No." Simple, but clever.
The live performance at the show by Piet Botha, an aging rock star with a large beard, was interesting. It was that sort of harmonica, bluesy electric-guitar rock, which perfectly matches the dreams of men of a certain now-aging generation. The music blared out of a Fender speaker reshaped into a crucifix, like a Johnny Cash lyric. It spoke of the sacrifice of the rock 'n roll lifestyle, the wild messiahs that absolve the middle-class of their bland lifestyles, but also of the way the rebellion of rock and the safety of faith so easily work together (it reminds me of my father's rebelrock christian biker club: middle-aged men praising Jesus in leather jackets). The rock theme carried through of a few of the other works, like Forever Young, a chopper bmx, and White Blues, a sound piece.

This sort of breadth of content mixed with the accessible visuality of the works, with some nice contemporary and performative edges thrown in, made this show a winner. Would like to see more from Jacques Coetzer