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With
the transcontinental love fest of the World Cup now behind us, take
comfort in the fact that the spirit of global connectedness and urban
inventiveness lives on in the ongoing programmes of the Bag Factory,
which continue apace into the second half of 2010. Welcome to the Bag
Factory’s July/August newsletter, in which we keep you
updated on what’s been happening in the Fordsburg Studios and
their surrounding networks. |
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Nadine Hutton was selected as one of the Mail & Guardian’s Top 200 Young South Africans to take to lunch. She recently documented the X-Homes project for the Goethe Institute. For this international project, curated by Christoph Gurk of the Hebbel Am Ufer (HAU) Theatre in Berlin, 13 homes in Hillbrow, the inner city, and Kliptown were turned into theatres and performance installations for four days, with each home hosting one work by an artist or a crew of artists. X Homes featured local and international artists, including Tracey Rose, Athi-Patra Ruga, German filmmaker Harun Farocki and Canadian artist and filmmaker Bruce LaBruce. The project aimed to ‘change the perception of urban spaces… and to produce images beyond the projection of violence and fear ever present in this country.’ Hutton also explored the underground passages of Joburg’s Park Station in search of 50-year-old advertising posters as part of a feature written by Nechama Brodie and published in the Mail & Guardian. To read the story, click here and to see the images go here. Hutton is currently working with Jackie McInnes on an exhibition called A Brick Wall: rape and the criminal justice system for Women’s Day (9 August 2010). Hosted by the Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Centre, the exhibition will be opened by the Public Protector, Advocate Thuli Madonsela, on 5 August at 6pm at the Rampart Rooms at Constitution Hill. ‘It is a shocking reality that only six of every 100 reported rapes will result in a conviction,’ reads the exhibition’s release. Comprising a photographic and video installation featuring material gathered ‘in the field’ and, in some instances, supplied by the affected women themselves, the exhibition seeks to represent the ongoing difficulties faced by women seeking legal redress after a sexual offence. It also marks the launch of the Shukumisa Campaign, which aims to shake up the way sexual offences are dealt with in South Africa. A panel discussion will be hosted on Women’s Day, 9 August at 2pm. Hutton also recently produced Wrap Wrap, an installation work inspired by public art projects to beautify the city of Johannesburg ahead of the football World Cup. For this project, she wrapped a building in Troyeville in cling film – ‘a transparent reflection on dereliction, neglect and poverty at a time when not everything can and should be deodorised’. Volunteers assisted Hutton in wrapping the building, moving and shaping rubble and finding artefacts of people’s lives. ‘The fragile, taught plastic is a see-through reminder of the thin line that separates those with power and the ability to decorate, from those whose lives are harsh as rubble,’ she said. Last week, the City of Johannesburg demolished the site and evicted the resident squatters.
Richard Penn’s first solo show, and to that sea return, runs at Art on Paper gallery from 11 September to 2 October this year, and will feature large-scale pastel drawings, monotypes and digital prints with drawing, as well as pen and ink drawings. For a sneak preview, visit his website: www.richardpenn.co.za. He will also be participating in Art on Paper’s drawing exhibition, Draw Links, from 9 to 30 October this year.
Diana Hyslop's work was featured in the Everard Read Gallery show A View of the South, a collection of paintings and sculpture curated in celebration of the 2010 football world cup, and shown in both Cape Town and Johannesburg.
Lerato Shadi has a video work titled Hema (or six hours of out breathe captured in 792 balloons) on an exhibition in Stavanger, Norway entitled Article 2010: Something is not quite right, curated by Hage Tapio (i/o/lab) and Marcus Neustetter.
Myer Taub will be
presenting a
paper entitled Like a Man Digging on 2 August at
2pm at the Taub’s play Christine’s Room will be read at the Drama for Life conference at the Wits School of the Arts on 27 August 2010 as part of his argument around revoicing text as performance for practice-led research. On 2 September at the Es’kia Mphahlele Colloquium at the Wits School of Literature and Languages, Taub will present In the Skin of Memory in which he will reflect on a project he embarked on at Wits in 2008 along with examples from Steven Cohen and Leora Farber, all involving questions around memory and identity in performance. Interrupting Henry, a play written by Taub, is due to be produced at Artscape Theatre in Cape Town in November. The play, starring Vaneshran Arumugam, is set in a high school in Cape Town, and is to be directed by Matthew Wilde and designed by Angela Nemov. The production marks a return to realist drama for Taub, although he describes it as a ‘comedy of sorts’. Taub recently performed in Stanimir Stoykov’s short film, Whatever Happened to Baby Britney?, which was screened at the Balkanology party in Johannesburg in June. Taub and
Nadine Hutton’s video art work Nora
Leaves A Dolls House is due to be screened at Nuit Blanche
Festival in Toronto in November. The video was filmed at the Masonic
Lodge in Hillbrow along with actors Mbali Bloom and Steven Pillemer,
and was originally part of Taub’s Cape
Town project, Christine’s Room, an
adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s A Dolls House
performed by members of the Monkey Biz HIV/AIDS Wellness Clinic and The
Rooster Collective.
Sam Nhlengethwa is working on a show inspired by Miles Davis’s legendary jazz album, Kind of Blue, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year. Opening at the Goodman Gallery on 26 August, this exhibition will feature large-scale mixed media works on paper, a triptych backdrop on paper in conjunction with some light wood and paper sculpture installations, vinyl cover-sized collages, ten black-and-white lithographs, as well as etchings. ‘In my studio in downtown Johannesburg, a week never passes without me listening to Kind of Blue,’ says Nhlengethwa. ‘Quincy Jones says he “plays Kind of Blue everyday. It sounds like it was made yesterday. It is my orange juice.” To that I can I can add, it is my glass of water.’
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BALLOON
HEAD: Nadine Hutton’s image of Athi Patra
Ruga’s
intervention for the X-Homes project
CATEGORY
BLUR: In this combined drawing and digital print by Richard
Penn the
large black smudge is a single dot made with a 0.13mm Rotring pen,
magnified and printed digitally
TRUMPETING
MILES (left):
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The Bag Factory’s residency programme has relocated from its old residential premises in suburban Parktown to three single studio spaces at Main Street Life. A residential/studio development on the corner of Main, Maritzburg and Fox Streets, Main Street Life was designed to inspire creativity and innovation, and also incorporates an indie cinema, shops, a rooftop events venue and a boutique hotel. This new urban locale is better suited to our profile as an urban arts organisation and offers our visiting international artists an inspiring, connected urban base, with easy access to events and happenings in and around the city. Each artist now has his/her own apartment with shower and kitchen. To read more about Main Street Life, visit: http://www.mainstreetlife.co.za/ |
After exhibiting at the Bag Factory in June, residency artists, Ruben Abels and Iris Vetter (Netherlands), and Pamela Phatismo Sunstrum (Botswana/USA) exhibited elements of the work they did during their residency in a one-day exhibition at the Point Blank Gallery at the Drill Hall in Joubert Park on 30 June 2010. Abels presented Part of Joburg, a research project about the impact and potential of social participation in permanent public artworks, Vetter presented a series of photographs entitled Still and Moving, and Phatismo Sunstrum presented a series of in-situ drawings entitled Glassheart. They exhibited alongside visiting Cameroonian artist Hervé Youmbi, whose show was called Totems. All three previous residency artists (Vetter, Abels and Sunstrum) prolonged their stay in Johannesburg by three weeks to work with Opa Morare in his new residency space in Soweto. |
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We are currently hosting Vincent WJ van Gerven Oei and Jonas Staal (Netherlands), and Vaughn Sadie (Durban). Artist Jonas Staal (1981) and writer Vincent WJ van Gerven Oei (1983) have been working together since 2007, focusing on ‘the meaning of ideology today, specifically within the framework of so-called democracies’. Through interventions in public space and governmental documents they provoke and redesign our view of democracy today. In Johannesburg, Staal and Van Gerven Oei have been working on several projects, researching the role of the security industry (Bullet Proof Artist) as well as the role of capitalism in South African society as a ‘sophisticated continuation of apartheid ideology’ (The Missing Link). They presented their research project, The Missing Link, at the opening of the Bag Factory’s May Contain Nuts group exhibition on 22 July.
Meanwhile, Vaughn Sadie has been working on a project that will culminate in the building of a website featuring an archive of photographs of streetlamps, with the GPS positions, collected from three major cities in South Africa. The site will include a Google map that allows people to download (to cellphone or GPS) walking or driving tours of each city, exploring the history, culture and geography of each place through its streetlamps. It will also give people an opportunity to actively design their own experiences of cities with which they are familiar. During his
Bag Factory residency, Sadie has been mapping
Johannesburg via its streetlamps. Over the next two to three years,
Cape Town and Durban will be mapped making possible comparisons across
the three major cities. [See ‘About Art’ below for the associated light intervention and performance workshops being run in tandem with this project.]
During our fourth quarter, starting 23 September,
we will be
hosting Austrian curator Claudia Marion Stemberger,
as well as Min Kim and Moon
Choi from South Korea who work together as Mioon. |
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INTERRUPTING
ASSUMPTIONS: 
CO-ORDINATED
POINTS: Via images like these of streetlamps at 26,12.3081S
28,1.6887E and 26,12.368S 28,1.678E, artist Vaughn
Sadie is creating downloadable online maps of three major South African
cities, examining their differing spatial politics
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Launched in an aptly festive spirit on 22 July, this group show celebrating the 20-year legacy and ongoing fresh spirit of the Bag Factory, features work by artists including David Koloane, Sam Nlengethwa, Kagiso Pat Mautloa, Diana Hyslop, Lerato Shadi, Nadine Hutton, Myer Taub, Thenji Nkosi, Reshma Chiba, Lester Adams, Richard Penn and Mary Wafer.
This series of workshops has been conceived by Vaughn Sadie and co-facilitated by Jay Pather to explore and respond to the use of artificial light in public space. The workshops will culminate in a series of temporary interventions/performances in the Fordsburg area. The series will conceptually explore issues of security, safety, mobility, access, gentrification and urban renewal as we examine the ways in which artificial light impacts on our experience of public space and how it continually shapes and recreates the environments through which people move. The workshop
will be conducted over three weekends in August
2010: 7-8 August/ 1325 August/ 28-29 August. Those interested in
participating should submit a current CV and biography, along with a
letter of motivation to Vaughn Sadie:
mailto:vaughnsadie@gmail.com
One of the first steps towards realising your creative ideas is finding a way to develop and communicate them in a clear, compelling and professional way. Over the weekend of 17 and 18 July, VANSA (Visual Arts Network of South Africa) held a proposal writing workshop at the Bag Factory. Facilitated by Joseph Gaylard, Marcus Neustetter and Bronwyn Lace, the workshop was well attended and provided practical advice on how to put together a strong and convincing proposal to a gallerist, arts organisation or sponsor.
The workshop
was part of a series of two-day workshops being
convened around the country in the lead up to Two Thousand
and Ten Reasons to Live in a Small Town, an exciting public
art programme that VANSA will be staging (in association with the
National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund) in small rural towns across
the country. Five artists will be selected to realise five projects
that re-imagine the world of small towns through public art
interventions, working with a team of leading art professionals from
around the country. For updates see: www.vansa.co.za
The first session of the En Masse project begins on 2 August 2010. Driven by Bronwyn Lace and Anthea Moys, this project is an attempt to merge the vision of environmental activism and the vitality of experiential art with the intention of attracting and immersing a diverse group of people into one dynamic and extraordinary experience, re-igniting a common sense of purpose and community. The project has two main components; a series of workshop conversations taking place over the month of August culminating in a final concept document towards the creation of the second; a large-scale performance combining aspects of both installation and performance art in which the massed audience (of at least 1 000 people) will function as both viewers and performers. Human movement will generate all of the energy required for the performance. The Bag
Factory is supporting the project’s
conceptualisation phase, with the hope of finding a partner for the
realisation of En Masse. This first phase is an
experiment in whether it is possible to tap the minds and imaginations
of 50 invited participants from different disciplines (dancers,
choreographers, electrical engineers, lighting specialists, digital
artists, civil engineers, film directors…) to create a final
concept, as well as the necessary practical solutions for such an
event. All the workshop sessions will be audio and video recorded and
updated on the Bag Factory website under the 'About Art' tab on a
weekly basis.
Young New York-based curators and art activists Catharine Ahearn and Rebecca Kolsrud will be joining us at the Bag Factory for three weeks and will be holding a discussion panel on 31 August talking about creation of platforms for young and mostly non-commercial contemporary art in New York. Catharine recently ran a gallery in Williamsburg called Charlie Horse: <www.charliehorsegallery.com> Lipi Tayeba, from our sister organisation Britto Art Trust in Bangladesh, will be joining us for two weeks and will be holding a discussion panel in mid-September on her role as artist and founder member of Britto. The focus of the discussion will be the complexity of working both as artist and as co-founder in such an organisation. Watch this space: An exact date will be confirmed in our September/October newsletter. |
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In the first, entitled Beautiful Women and their Children, Marlowe explores the phenomenon that women considered highly desirable in the community often turn out to be the mothers of many children by different fathers. In his second series, Bekeer (which refers to Born-Again Christians),he depicts men and woman of faith whose dress style and behaviour depart from stereotypes of Coloured South Africans.
STRAIGHT LACED: An image from Raymond Marlowe’s Bekeer series, due to be showcased at the Bag Factory on 25 August |
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Launched in collaboration with the Johannesburg Art Gallery, DESIGN>ART is an online publication that focuses on promoting the arts and their relationship to design from South Africa, the African continent and beyond. DESIGN>ART is the latest addition to the DESIGN> stable of publications. Spanning 21 articles and 231 pages, this online magazine is structured to cover four areas – Spotlight, Collections, Pop and Patrons – featuring seminal exhibitions, corporate art collections, popular culture, automotive art, film and music, ensuring a great read for all art lovers and design enthusiasts alike. The latest edition
features articles on the making of Iziko’s Pierneef
to Gugulective show, Space: Currencies in
Contemporary African Art, Zwelethu Mthethwa’s solo
at CIRCA, South Africa’s ‘zef’ Thrash
music scene and more…
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CRACKER
MIX: The crowd enjoyed Afro pop sounds by DJ Ekapi at the
opening of May
Contain Nuts at the Bag Factory Gallery on 22 July
As the
outcome of his three-month internship, Raymond Marlowe will be
showcasing two new series of portraiture inspired by his home town of
Eldorado Park at the Bag Factory on 25 August 2010.
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Recent Bag Factory studio artist Johan Thom (1976, Johannesburg) and residency artist Hans Wilschut (1966, Ridderkerk) have just exhibited together in Rotterdam at De Zwarte Ruyter in a show influenced by each other’s work and interests. Wilschut's video work Lemniscate was screened, while, in another area, Thom created a response performance as an extension of their ongoing dialogue. Wilschut's newest book publication, Still Motion, was also available for signing by the artist. De Zwarte Ruyter <http://dezwarteruyter.net/> is a new research and presentation space for contemporary art and visual culture based in Rotterdam. It is also home to BookCase a bookstore for artist books, publications, editions and magazines, which are published by the artist without a publisher. |
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The Bag Factory Artists’ Studios is calling for proposals from curators for an exhibition to be held in the Bag Factory Gallery before the end of 2010. The exhibition would run for three weeks. A budget of R25 000 will be made available to mount the exhibition selected by our organisation’s programming committee. And our database will be made available for the marketing of the show. Please address your queries and/or proposals to info@bagfactoryart.org.za or call (011) 834 9181.
The Saskala ArtRadius, an art centre in Finland, is calling for applications from artists under the age of 35 for the position of artist in residence for the period November 2010 to March 2011. The deadline to send the electronic application form is 31 August 2010. Applications are also welcomed for a special artist-in-residence position whereby you will be required to assist in the maintenance and rebuilding of the centre for at least 10 hours a week. To make your stay in the art centre as productive as possible it is necessary to have a (complete) idea of your plan during that time. For more information email: mail@saksala.org. Please give your name, field of art and your website address together with your request for information. |
The Market Photo Workshop, in association with AngloGold Ashanti, is proud to announce that applications for the 2010 Edward Ruiz Mentorship are now open. The Edward Ruiz Mentorship was established to help launch the career of a promising photographer and is aimed at recognising and developing potential in photographers who have achieved sufficient competence to put together a body of work that is coherent and well conceived. The
mentorship awards the recipient with the financial and
infrastructural support needed to develop a substantial body of
photography work over the course of a year. The body of work will be
exhibited as a solo exhibition at The Photo Workshop Gallery
(conditions apply). Past mentors have included David Goldblatt, Jo Ractliffe, John Fleetwood, Michelle Loudikis and Jean Brundrit.
All applications must be submitted electronically to Molemo Moiloa by 13 August 2010: molemom@marketphotoworkshop.co.za Alternatively,
applications may be delivered to: |
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This award is open to all photographers from ACP (African, Caribbean, Pacific) countries aged 29 or under. Through this award, The Courier – the magazine of Africa, Caribbean, Pacific and European Union cooperation and relations – aims to promote and support young talent from ACP countries in the field of photography, focusing particularly on photojournalism. Theme: African, Caribbean and Pacific countries and development: trade, climate change, culture, science and technology. Photos must be shot in an ACP country. Prize: 1 000 euros, offered by the sponsors of the competition: Africa e Mediterraneo and Grand Angle. The prize will be assigned to the best picture by an international jury of experts. The best photos will be published in a special article in The Courier magazine. For full
details of entry please go to: www.acp-eucourier.info
It might seem a bit early, however Jingle Bells is already playing in the back of the minds of the KZNSA team. They would like to remind artists and crafters who want to participate in their end-of-year gift fair, to please phone Gloria (031 277 1700) to discuss with her what they’ve got lined up. Those who have never supplied them before will need to present physical samples of their goods. This year the KZNSA will also be introducing a new addition: hand made, non-perishable foodstuffs (think Nigella, think Melissa’s…) The KZNSA Gift Fair gets going in mid-November and they are planning a real bonanza. ‘We want it to be the best ever! So we need to get our ducks in a row and would like your response as soon as conveniently possible. |
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The Bag Factory is part of the Triangle Arts Trust, a worldwide network of artists and projects, including artist-led workshops and independent organisations. Through its activities, Triangle encourages experimentation, artist mobility, exchange and fresh thinking, with an emphasis on process and professional development. Since 1982 Triangle Arts Trust has helped organise workshops, studios and galleries in places including: Bangladesh, Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Ghana, India, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Pakistan, South Africa, Trinidad, UK, USA and many others. For
more information on Triangle Arts Trust please see www.trianglearts.org
or contact info@trianglearts.org. |
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Thapong
– Botswana: www.artshost.org/thapong Funding
provided by: the Ford Foundation, the National Lottery Development
Trust Fund, |
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