A fair performance
Sunday, April 05, 2009
By Natasha Roux & George Chapman
Saturday has been cash-up day, with money changing hands throughout exhibits and galleries at the art fair – yet a number of the most interesting ‘happenings’ and events have occurred in the project spaces. Artheat assessed some of the art fair’s performance highlights, a medium taking strange form in a fair concerning commercial value.
On Friday evening, Avant Car Guard hosted a performance in Whatiftheworld’s gallery space. Speaking to Jan-Henri Booyens, one-third of the collective, the group aimed to “take the piss” out of the general art fair-going audience. Sitting in a golf cart, sipping on gin and tonics, an awkward interaction took place between the group and their audience. By mimicking the social upper class which typically attends the art fair, the group intended to create a play on capital in the realm of an art fair.
Andrew Lamprecht, on behalf of blank projects, offers to provide an art appreciation course to audiences who purchase 45 minutes of his time. Imitating the modus operandi of a prostitute, the course is priced according to what the average Johannesburg prostitute would charge for 45 minutes of their time. Andrew Lamprecht thereby caters to the needs of his customers, assessing the precise ‘desires’ of his audience – how much gossip, rumour, heresay and misinformation they would like to hear during a personal tour of the art fair. Andrew Lamprecht impeccably delivers his insight and knowledge with all the professionalism of a discourse lecturer, flawlessly intertwining truth and deceit. Andrew Lamprecht was kind enough to take us on a brief taster of his course, enough to give us the gist of what is in store for his customers. Suffice we can say, it is well worth the R250, especially considering the lovely random celebrity-signed certificate each student receives upon completion of the tour. A perfect guide to the art world, which is laden with lies, name-dropping and deceit.
Causing a fair amount of sensation, Barend de Wet’s blank projects performance The difference between life and art: I knit, you not graced the audience with a portrait of his partially covered figure. His semi-disgusted audience felt compelled to compulsively snap photographs of the performer’s gross, leathery genitals as if documenting a car crash happening in slow motion. Due to the unfortunate positioning of the space (directly opposite the children’s art booth) the performance was prematurely cancelled, as a representative of blank projects confirmed with us that shortly after Barend de Wet’s display began a phone call was received by organizers of the fair to cancel the performance. Totalling 9 minutes, Barend de Wet’s display successfully revealed the riskier aspects of performance at the art fair.
Joan Do’s project space offered their auction of ‘requested’ artworks relating to the function of the inner city. Speaking to Anne Historical, the group felt performance constituted a large part of the auction, which took place between the audience and Abdul Rode-La Isse via an online webcam link. While the audience participated within Joan Do’s project space, Rode-La Isse was located within the inner city, selling works of random value and importance.
Sunday is sure to see a few more performance-related works. Watch out for more of these provoking pieces in the project spaces located near the entrance of the fair.
Saturday has been cash-up day, with money changing hands throughout exhibits and galleries at the art fair – yet a number of the most interesting ‘happenings’ and events have occurred in the project spaces. Artheat assessed some of the art fair’s performance highlights, a medium taking strange form in a fair concerning commercial value.
On Friday evening, Avant Car Guard hosted a performance in Whatiftheworld’s gallery space. Speaking to Jan-Henri Booyens, one-third of the collective, the group aimed to “take the piss” out of the general art fair-going audience. Sitting in a golf cart, sipping on gin and tonics, an awkward interaction took place between the group and their audience. By mimicking the social upper class which typically attends the art fair, the group intended to create a play on capital in the realm of an art fair.
Andrew Lamprecht, on behalf of blank projects, offers to provide an art appreciation course to audiences who purchase 45 minutes of his time. Imitating the modus operandi of a prostitute, the course is priced according to what the average Johannesburg prostitute would charge for 45 minutes of their time. Andrew Lamprecht thereby caters to the needs of his customers, assessing the precise ‘desires’ of his audience – how much gossip, rumour, heresay and misinformation they would like to hear during a personal tour of the art fair. Andrew Lamprecht impeccably delivers his insight and knowledge with all the professionalism of a discourse lecturer, flawlessly intertwining truth and deceit. Andrew Lamprecht was kind enough to take us on a brief taster of his course, enough to give us the gist of what is in store for his customers. Suffice we can say, it is well worth the R250, especially considering the lovely random celebrity-signed certificate each student receives upon completion of the tour. A perfect guide to the art world, which is laden with lies, name-dropping and deceit.
Causing a fair amount of sensation, Barend de Wet’s blank projects performance The difference between life and art: I knit, you not graced the audience with a portrait of his partially covered figure. His semi-disgusted audience felt compelled to compulsively snap photographs of the performer’s gross, leathery genitals as if documenting a car crash happening in slow motion. Due to the unfortunate positioning of the space (directly opposite the children’s art booth) the performance was prematurely cancelled, as a representative of blank projects confirmed with us that shortly after Barend de Wet’s display began a phone call was received by organizers of the fair to cancel the performance. Totalling 9 minutes, Barend de Wet’s display successfully revealed the riskier aspects of performance at the art fair.
Joan Do’s project space offered their auction of ‘requested’ artworks relating to the function of the inner city. Speaking to Anne Historical, the group felt performance constituted a large part of the auction, which took place between the audience and Abdul Rode-La Isse via an online webcam link. While the audience participated within Joan Do’s project space, Rode-La Isse was located within the inner city, selling works of random value and importance.
Sunday is sure to see a few more performance-related works. Watch out for more of these provoking pieces in the project spaces located near the entrance of the fair.
posted by Robert Sloon at 11:59 AM
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