Once you've seen an exhibition, you've seen it ... right? Wrong! At Spier Contemporary 2010, there is always a different way to see the art on exhibition, and there is always something different to see, or do.
Here are four irresistible reasons (besides the art) to re-visit City Hall.
The Imagine City Hall Concert Series continues on the 27th April from 8pm (tickets R50 at the door) with the Akoustik Knot with Sixteen Reasons String Quartet. Expect an intricate fusion of experimental jazz and contemporary classic music – this is a must see. Acoustic Knot is led by SAMA award winner Mark Fransman on the Sax. Strings are a string quartet from the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra.
On the 30th April at 8pm is the VANDALIZIM concert featuring major talents Zim Ngqawana and Kyle Shepherd. Tickets are R70 (at the door)or R50 (pre-sold at Africa Centre).
Spier Contemporary curatorial team member, Farzanah Badsha continues her tours of the exhibition at the City Hall every Wednesday at 11am and every Saturday at 2pm until the 14 May 2010.
The weekend performance sessions continues at Spier Contemporary 2010. With two live performance weekends before the Exhibition closes on the 14th May. The performance weekends are:
* 24 and 25 April; and
* 8 and 9 May.
Performances will run from 11am to 12pm and 3pm to 4pm on the Saturday, and 3pm to 4pm on the Sunday.
On the 24 & 25 April the performance schedule will include:
* Voices by Maurice Mbiyaki
* Lullaby: A hair dance to the music of ‘Kalimba Lullaby’ by Mr. Cat and the Jackal by Lean Coetze
* Newspaper Persona by Phillipe Wayumba Wa-Yafolo
* Elcarim: Turning Wine Into Water by Nina Liebenberg
* Walking Together by Philippe Kayumba Wa- Yafolo
For more information on the actual performances, click on the links above, or visit the Exhibition page of the Spier Contemporary website.
Spier Contemporary is open from 10am to 6pm every day until the 14th May 2010 (including public holidays). Admission is Free.
www.spiercontemporary2010.co.za • 0860 111 458 • join the facebook group and follow us on twitter.com/spiercontmp2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
Danger for Art? Is it Art?
Sometimes you have to seize the moment. Take the initiative. Live a little.
On the 21st April two thousand and ten at 1pm sharp, put down whatever you're doing, and pick up a pair of scissors and come join us at Greenmarket Square. We're defying our parents. We're running with scissors.
Making art means taking great personal, emotional and creative risks. The 101 artists at Spier Contemporary 2010 have bared their creative souls. We are staging this audacious and dangerous performance piece in solidarity with all artists around the world. Bring your friends, colleagues and your sense of daring as we run (walk / jump / dance / crawl) a short distance to break the rules in the name of art.
For more information join us on Facebook - search for Running with Scissors.
But is it art?
On the 21st April two thousand and ten at 1pm sharp, put down whatever you're doing, and pick up a pair of scissors and come join us at Greenmarket Square. We're defying our parents. We're running with scissors.
Making art means taking great personal, emotional and creative risks. The 101 artists at Spier Contemporary 2010 have bared their creative souls. We are staging this audacious and dangerous performance piece in solidarity with all artists around the world. Bring your friends, colleagues and your sense of daring as we run (walk / jump / dance / crawl) a short distance to break the rules in the name of art.
For more information join us on Facebook - search for Running with Scissors.
But is it art?
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Slow Art
In ABC of Reading, Ezra Pound stresses the importance of approaching poetry through a "careful first-hand examination of the matter." He illustrates his point with the anecdote of Agassiz and the fish:
A post-graduate student equipped with honors and diplomas went to Agassiz to receive the final and finishing touches. The great man offered him a small fish and told him to describe it.
Post-Graduate Student: 'That's only a sunfish.'
Agassiz: 'I know that. Write a description of it.'
After a few minutes the student returned with the description of the Ichthus Heliodiplodokus, or whatever term is used to conceal the common sunfish from vulgar knowledge, family of Heliichtherinkus, etc., as found in textbooks of the subject.
Agassiz again told the student to describe the fish.
The student produced a four-page essay. Agassiz then told him to look at the fish. At the end of three weeks the fish was in an advanced state of decomposition, but the student knew something about it.
Phil Terry at A Reading Odyssey advocates a similar approach to looking at art, and he has organized the Slow Art initiative to encourage museum visitors to take the time to really look at art and see it in a new way.
There were Slow Art events at sixteen museums in the U.S. and Europe on October 17. Participants were invited to look - really look - at a number of artworks (ten minutes minimum per piece) and then gather afterwards to discuss the experience.
From: http://blog.openmuseum.org/2009/10/learning-to-look-with-slow-art.html
A post-graduate student equipped with honors and diplomas went to Agassiz to receive the final and finishing touches. The great man offered him a small fish and told him to describe it.
Post-Graduate Student: 'That's only a sunfish.'
Agassiz: 'I know that. Write a description of it.'
After a few minutes the student returned with the description of the Ichthus Heliodiplodokus, or whatever term is used to conceal the common sunfish from vulgar knowledge, family of Heliichtherinkus, etc., as found in textbooks of the subject.
Agassiz again told the student to describe the fish.
The student produced a four-page essay. Agassiz then told him to look at the fish. At the end of three weeks the fish was in an advanced state of decomposition, but the student knew something about it.
Phil Terry at A Reading Odyssey advocates a similar approach to looking at art, and he has organized the Slow Art initiative to encourage museum visitors to take the time to really look at art and see it in a new way.
There were Slow Art events at sixteen museums in the U.S. and Europe on October 17. Participants were invited to look - really look - at a number of artworks (ten minutes minimum per piece) and then gather afterwards to discuss the experience.
From: http://blog.openmuseum.org/2009/10/learning-to-look-with-slow-art.html
Friday, April 9, 2010
Art in bite sized portions
101 artist's perspectives should be savoured in delicious, bite-sized portions. Throughout its residence at Cape Town's City Hall, the Spier Contemporary continues to offer different ways of seeing the artwork.
Farzanah Badsha – a Spier Contemporary curatorial team member - is conducting free tours at the City Hall every Wednesday at 11am and every Saturday at 2pm until the 14 May 2010.
Live performance art sessions will be held on the following weekends before the Exhibition closes on the 14th May. The performance weekends are:
* 10 and 11 April;
* 24 and 25 April; and
* 8 and 9 May.
Performances will run from 11am to 12pm and 3pm to 4pm on the Saturday, and 3pm to 4pm on the Sunday.
On the 10 & 11 April the performance schedule will include:
* Newspaper Persona by Phillipe Wayumba Wa-Yafolo;
* Shift by Mamela Nyamza;
* Elcarim: Turning Wine Into Water by Nina Liebenberg; and
* Walking Together by Philippe Kayumba Wa- Yafolo.
For more information on the actual performances, click on the links above, or visit the Exhibition page of the Spier Contemporary website.
Spier Contemporary is open from 10am to 6pm every day until the 14th May 2010 (including Easter and public holidays). Admission is Free.
www.spiercontemporary2010.co.za • 0860 111 458 • join the facebook group and follow us on twitter.com/spiercontmp2010
Farzanah Badsha – a Spier Contemporary curatorial team member - is conducting free tours at the City Hall every Wednesday at 11am and every Saturday at 2pm until the 14 May 2010.
Live performance art sessions will be held on the following weekends before the Exhibition closes on the 14th May. The performance weekends are:
* 10 and 11 April;
* 24 and 25 April; and
* 8 and 9 May.
Performances will run from 11am to 12pm and 3pm to 4pm on the Saturday, and 3pm to 4pm on the Sunday.
On the 10 & 11 April the performance schedule will include:
* Newspaper Persona by Phillipe Wayumba Wa-Yafolo;
* Shift by Mamela Nyamza;
* Elcarim: Turning Wine Into Water by Nina Liebenberg; and
* Walking Together by Philippe Kayumba Wa- Yafolo.
For more information on the actual performances, click on the links above, or visit the Exhibition page of the Spier Contemporary website.
Spier Contemporary is open from 10am to 6pm every day until the 14th May 2010 (including Easter and public holidays). Admission is Free.
www.spiercontemporary2010.co.za • 0860 111 458 • join the facebook group and follow us on twitter.com/spiercontmp2010
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Is Photography Art?
The debate about whether photography can be considered as art or as a purely mechanical process has been raging ever since the first permanent, printed photograph was produced by French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1825.
In 1932, a group was founded that believed very firmly that photography should not be defined by any traditional conventions of art and aesthetics. The group, f/64 was founded by US photographers Willard van Dyk and Ansel Adams.
According to their manefesto, quoted on Wikipedia:
“Group f/64 limits its members and invitational names to those workers who are striving to define photography as an art form by simple and direct presentation through purely photographic methods. The Group will show no work at any time that does not conform to its standards of pure photography. Pure photography is defined as possessing no qualities of technique, composition or idea, derivative of any other art form. The production of the "Pictorialist," on the other hand, indicates a devotion to principles of art which are directly related to painting and the graphic arts.
The members of Group f/64 believe that photography, as an art form, must develop along lines defined by the actualities and limitations of the photographic medium, and must always remain independent of ideological conventions of art and aesthetics that are reminiscent of a period and culture antedating the growth of the medium itself.”
We posed the question to a group of local photographers and these are a selection of their responses:
“Anyone can point a camera a take a photograph, but when someone with a creative eye takes the same shot, you can see the difference - it becomes art.”
“A creative photographer often “sees” the pic where most people would simply walk/drive past.”
“Photography in itself is an art form but it depends very much on who is pressing the shutter.”
“Most definitely. Art is a form of expression - and photography can be used as a tool for expression.”
“Not all photography is art, but I know of at least one photographer whose
images I would happily hang on my wall as "art". He uses shape, light and
shadow to create mood; he uses colour; he uses abstraction; he takes the
brain's natural assumptions and turns them on their head. How can someone do
all that and not be called an artist? He can't produce good drawings or
paintings, but he paints with light.”
“I have seen some "art" recently (oil paintings) that I wouldn't give the
time of day. Art is in the heart, not in the tool.”
What's your opinion? Does the f/64 definition of photography have any credibility?
And should the lab where the photograph was developed be credited along with the photographer?
In 1932, a group was founded that believed very firmly that photography should not be defined by any traditional conventions of art and aesthetics. The group, f/64 was founded by US photographers Willard van Dyk and Ansel Adams.
According to their manefesto, quoted on Wikipedia:
“Group f/64 limits its members and invitational names to those workers who are striving to define photography as an art form by simple and direct presentation through purely photographic methods. The Group will show no work at any time that does not conform to its standards of pure photography. Pure photography is defined as possessing no qualities of technique, composition or idea, derivative of any other art form. The production of the "Pictorialist," on the other hand, indicates a devotion to principles of art which are directly related to painting and the graphic arts.
The members of Group f/64 believe that photography, as an art form, must develop along lines defined by the actualities and limitations of the photographic medium, and must always remain independent of ideological conventions of art and aesthetics that are reminiscent of a period and culture antedating the growth of the medium itself.”
We posed the question to a group of local photographers and these are a selection of their responses:
“Anyone can point a camera a take a photograph, but when someone with a creative eye takes the same shot, you can see the difference - it becomes art.”
“A creative photographer often “sees” the pic where most people would simply walk/drive past.”
“Photography in itself is an art form but it depends very much on who is pressing the shutter.”
“Most definitely. Art is a form of expression - and photography can be used as a tool for expression.”
“Not all photography is art, but I know of at least one photographer whose
images I would happily hang on my wall as "art". He uses shape, light and
shadow to create mood; he uses colour; he uses abstraction; he takes the
brain's natural assumptions and turns them on their head. How can someone do
all that and not be called an artist? He can't produce good drawings or
paintings, but he paints with light.”
“I have seen some "art" recently (oil paintings) that I wouldn't give the
time of day. Art is in the heart, not in the tool.”
What's your opinion? Does the f/64 definition of photography have any credibility?
And should the lab where the photograph was developed be credited along with the photographer?
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