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A festival of contradictions: NAF 2014
Baker's Wrecking at Private Siding 661 (2010-2011) pic by Paul GreenwayIn the dark and damp underbelly of the Settler’s Monument, an austere face-brick landmark set in the mountain overlooking...
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Monumental Experiences: Kukama at NAF
Donna Kukama buries my monument pic by Bongiwe MchunuI’M NOT going to forget this scene. It’s raining and Donna Kukama is on the ground digging a hole with a pair of scissors. The hole or quasi-grave...
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Debunking that old myth that art is more "accessible" at art fairs
ARE ART fairs worth writing about? It's a nagging thought that, for some reason, I can't shake as I stroll through the aisles of the Turbine Art Fair (TAF) on its preview evening. I have a glass of...
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Road show of colonial horrors shocks at Edinburgh Festival
A scene from Bailey's Exhibit BIt takes a lot to shock the worldly art lovers that congregate in Edinburgh, Scotland, for the annual arts festivals that take place here. There are plays without...
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Déjà vu: FNB Joburg Art Fair
Ed Young's scripto-visual workpicture by Mary Corrigall‘WHERE’S the art?” exclaims Simon Njami, throwing his arms into the air. For some observers this remark would seem strange, given the France-based...
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It's A-Live thing!
Raphael Christian Etongo's Quartier Sud at the Live Art Festpic by Ashley WaltersI’VE BEEN disparaging about Marina Abramovic for years but can’t resist a face-to-face encounter with the Serbian...
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An Abstract Idea
World News by Tom CullbergIf you didn’t know any better you might think that Tom Cullberg and I are locked in a staring competition. Neither of us has spoken for awhile, as we stand facing each other...
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The Virtual Exhibit
My Facebook newsfeed is still aflutter with commentary about Exhibit B. Perhaps this isn’t surprising given the profile of most of my “Friends” (I haven’t met half of them in the real world), who are...
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Beyond Borders: Marcus Neustetter
Proximity I - IVWithin the last month, Marcus Neustetter has put on one solo exhibition, a joint show with Stephen Hobbs at the Rubixcube Gallery, a performance/installation at the Rocket Factory in...
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The Bespectacled Spectacle
Ray-Ban Wayfarers were coveted in the ’80s. Worn by Tom Cruise in Risky Business and Matthew Broderick in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – both films that charted the shenanigans of young men who break free...
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Triangulated
It could be a Roman banquet. Huge rounds of exotic cheeses are arranged on wooden boards among breads of different shapes and sizes, grapes, patés, olives, macarons and strawberries. Among the spread...
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Resistance is Futile
Urban Art inside the Joburg Art GalleryI MET the graffiti or urban artist (as they like to be called these days) Curio a few blocks down from the Maboneng precinct and he wasn’t that keen to chat to...
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Weighing up the Costs
Kentridge always figures himself in his art; confronting the wayhe can be held "accountable"Art can be quantified, Professor Johannes Fedderke says during a talk at the Strauss & Co offices in...
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Best of 2014
AS ALWAYS the artworks that grabbed the headlines in 2014 were those that were "rejected" or opposed by a segment of society. Brett Bailey's Exhibit B, which showed at the Edinburgh International Arts...
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Popping the Abstraction Bubble
Chloë Hugo-Hamman’s Cultural Village‘I used to be a conceptual artist, but I am okay now,” read a slogan that Cape Town-based artist Barend de Wet posted on Facebook recently.The seventysomething...
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Aspiring to be "international"
Spare change anyone? (not the title) Ed Young's work at the Smac stand at theCape Town Art Fair. pic by Mary CorrigallIt appears as if we are in the grip of an age of expositions. Well, at least this...
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Let artists loose on our historical artefacts
Doung Anwar Jahangeer's intervention witha statue in Grahamstown in 2012During the National Arts Festival in 2012 a number of statues in Grahamstown were toppled. Figuratively speaking, that is -...
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Has Brett Murray censored himself?
During the backlash Brett Murray’s derisive portrait of president Jacob Zuma, the infamous Spear, provoked many wondered whether Murray would continue producing art or art with a political bent. Would...
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Robin Rhode's great "escape" plan
Robin Rhode is fixated with breathing life into objects. Even his own creations; such as his filmic-cum-installation Recycled Matter. On the day of the press launch for it at the Stevenson Gallery in...
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Been there, done that but left with a different T-shirt.
Painting is a bit like art criticism. Well, not really. But it is a good opening line, and I wish it were true because while both art criticism and painting have survived several well-publicised...
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Jenner: a sexist in women's clothing?
So, Bruce Jenner is a woman. I wish I could say I swallowed my TV remote when I heard, but I didn't. After eight years of Kardashiana I have come to expect anything from this limelight-seeking family....
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An Artist's work is never done
This is an installation shot I took Gush refused to supply images of his images. Read into thatwhat you will. It is hard returning to the office after perusing an exhibition by Simon Gush. His ongoing...
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Breaking the cycle of "national chauvinism"
Dana Whabira's installation at Museum AfricaAfrican sushi. It sounds like an oxymoron and is more enticing in theory than it is when you are faced with trays of it. Instead of sushi rice, the base is...
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When history is broken
As with all the new works created by the recipients of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award (SBYAA) who make their debut at the National Arts Festival, the visual arts winner’s exhibition is always...
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We Have Moved
Finally, Incorrigible Corrigall has found a new lovely little home in another interhood: http://www.corrigall.org/It is a pretty place, which you should visit if you want to continue reading this blog
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