Art South Africa Blog

Democratise you art collection- dump it.

By Brenden Gray.

So on Friday me, Landi Raubenheimer and Paul Cooper will asking people to dump work from their private collections in a rubbish bin.

Please join Empty Office at the Bag Factory on Friday night for a discussion about the role of local contemporary art in a democratic state/neo-liberal economy.

Panelists

Michael Smith (Managing Editor of Artthrob) 

Antoinette Murdoch  (Director of the Joburg Art Bank)

Joseph Gaylard  (Joubert Park  Project)

Gordon Froud  (Owner of Gordart Gallery)

Koulla Xinisteris  (Curator  SABC art collection, and director of Fordsburg Artists Studio)

Chaired by Adrian Ziller 

Facilitated by Empty Office.

Democratise your art collection

Empty Office contends that the intention of much contemporary art to reflect and affect social change is nullified through its commoditization by the privileged classes and should therefore be democratized by recuperating it and inserting it into the public sphere. As the art market increasingly holds sway, many contemporary artists are drawn into producing work for the commercial domain and subsequently future interest in the public domain may wane.  This rift between public and private art practice is already exemplified by the geographical north/south split in Johannesburg art scene – The socialist South (Bag Factory, Drill Hall, JAG) versus the capitalist North art circuit, (Joburg Art Fair, Goodman, Krut, Siebrits, Artspace, Moma, Momo, Gordart, Everard Read, Art Extra). Major South African art is exported without exposure to local audiences, public art museums and initiatives are seriously under-funded and role of the state/government in engaging uninitiated audiences in contemporary art is being gutted by corporate privatization of contemporary art. 

 The Joburg Art Bin attempts to weave a relationship between private and public in the local art scene by encouraging collectors to take an interest in the public sphere, inclusivity and attempts to resuscitate contemporary artists' interest in playing a role in social transformation and change, by taking the radical step of asking for contemporary art to be dumped for recycling at the Bag Factory.  At the heart of the concept is an attempt to revalue work owned by a private collector in a new and unexpected context.  For example an artist may re-imagine a piece donated by Sasol, maybe Penny Siopis's Pinky Pinky series and make a work in a public place on Bree Street about the recent protests against women abuse at the taxi rank, or take a Dumile Feni drawing and reconfigure it as a statement against xenophobic violence at a police station in the inner city. 

 
What are your first impressions on this idea of democratizing art from private collections?  

 
Question one. (the disposal of art)

When is it OK to dispose of art?  What sorts of art, both locally and internationally deserve to be relegated to the trash heap of history? Do some kinds of art (for example kitsch and totalitarian art) have a "sell-by date"?

In other words, what art is "rubbish"?

 
Question two. (patronage and collecting)

Why do individuals collect art?  What do corporations stand to gain from collecting and supporting contemporary art?  Is it possible or sensible to say that collecting critical contemporary art is a form of privatizing culture?

 
Question three. (criticality, consumerism and capitalism)

It has been suggested that there is no "outside" for contemporary art practice- that it is locked into the instrumentalism of a late capitalist economy or the spectacle of consumerism. What are the critical possibilities that exist for artists working in an economy where art is measured in terms of its market/instrumental value? If art loses its critical edge then surely it is rubbish that deserves to be thrown away and recuperated.  What do you think?

 
Question four (appropriation)  

What are the implications of appropriating and dismantling art in terms of authorship?  What happens when original art is the site of artistic intervention? 

 
Question five. (revaluing art)

What are the possibilities of imagining a prominent and established artist's work reconfigured for a street, a park, a hospital, crèche, prison, clinic, a library, a mine workers hostel?  What happens when art that is valued by the art community, and owned by a private collector is made available through creative intervention for public engagement?

Post Comment

Sloon face- to- face

By Brenden Gray.

I asked what Robert Sloon said to his friends about my writing and he said that he would do this face-to-face.  Just before that he told me that having a private debate about the lack of public dialogue in the art world is a bit of a paradox and then proceeds to say that he can only comment on my writing face to face, ie. privately.  Me thinks the bravado if the art world outlaw is somewhat misplaced. I promise, I will just listen.

Post Comment

Armed robbers

By Brenden Gray.

Thanks for the response on my piece on the Everard Read. A lot of people are saying that posting comments on this blog is a mission, so I  will forward you comment to the administrative personel. The aesthetic of this website is completely out of my control.  If I had my way I would go for a text heavy, academic look- no images, no scrolling banners.  I would screen each interested commentator by requesting their CV, proof of income, qualifications and examples of their academic writing and would edit their work beyond recognition. I would insist on a lofty tone and insist on a Times New Roman type face throughout.  None of this slick, minimalist yuppie, cerebral black, grey and white.  So there I agree.  Or, maybe something a little more colourful and expressive. 

I quite enjoy the idea of a gallery that hires securirty to frisk visitors at the entrance, because it could go some way in signalling the value of the art contained in its walls or as in the case of the Chris Offili saga to protect the art against defacement. Something along the lines of what Standard Bank Gallery does at its openings.  Its interesting to note that many of my friends in the art world whose houses have been broken into say that the burglars didn't touch their art collection. They may have taken the Hi fi the CD collection, some clothes and defecated on the floor but they would leave that Norman Catherine above the mantelpiece alone.  I think that some education is in order here. I wonder what armed robbers entering the Everard Read would take, or what they would say about the work? 

Post Comment

Art South Africa

NEWS: Call for Writing and Visuals for ITCH e.02

By Hein Bekker.

Art South Africa's sister publication ITCH is calling for submissions for its next issue, themed " * " (asterisk). Visit itch.co.za for more.

ITCH is a South African born, internationally relevant periodical featuring established and rising literary and visual talent.

Post Comment

NEWS: ITCH online edition now open

By Hein Bekker.

Our sister publication ITCH has a new web site and is calling for submissions for its next issue. ITCH is a South African born, internationally relevant periodical featuring established and rising literary and visual talent.

Please visit itch.co.za for more.

Post Comment

NEW ISSUE: Art South Africa v6.4

Features

The Order of Things
On a cloudy Thursday evening in March, the Joburg Art Fair became an actuality. After months of relentless promotion, clinched in the last few weeks by a billboard campaign featuring the event's distinctive strips of horizontal colour, it was time for Foucault to make way for Fendi. Over the next three days, participating galleries, some foreign, most of them local, chalked up a whopping R25 million in sales.

Half Like a Joke
It's a familiar routine: crap show by crap artist in crap gallery serving crap wine. Robert Sloon pulls up his jeans and braves another dubious Wednesday night opening in Cape Town "Um," I say. I'm wearing my glasses so it passes off as something intelligent anyway. I'm chatting to the gallerist at an exhibition opening in the centre of town, Cape Town that is, and I'm riffing on the centres of art power moving to Woodstock – how art is the vanguard of an insipid gentrification, inner city living, that leaves the poor worse off. The gallerist starts looking around to see who else has arrived. Maybe she's also started contemplating the cheap rent out there....to read more see v6.4

From Here to There
Five senior South African artists were recently asked by an Italian curator to each propose a list of young artists for a show in Siena, Italy. Amy Halliday attended the resulting show and reports on some of the discussions it elicited

Bright Young Things
Art South Africa's fifth and sixth Bright Young Things for 2008, Andrzej Nowicki and Jonah Sack

Exhibition Reviews

Edoardo Villa
Nirox Sculpture Park, Johannesburg, 10 March - 4 May 2008

Order | Subscribe