First work in a new series

Some 'sketches'

Small watercolour painting of rock slabs piled onto each other


Small watercolour and fineliner drawings for my sketch-book or creative journal, of a spiderweb with dew drops

Dry Leaves from the garden

Quick watercolour and fineliner sketch made in the garden, in the shade of a tree.

Rethinking and Reviving

For a little while I thought that I need to create art that people want to see, admire and buy. That I need to try and follow a trend, choose my subject matter more wisely or even change the way that I create my artworks.

Change of direction and perception

I have since, however, revived and remembered that I need to stay authentic and true to myself, and follow my heart and passion. The rest will follow. I just need to stay on my own path that makes the most sense to me. Everything is relative in this complex and beautiful world of ours. There will always be people with criticism and cynicism to make you rethink your perception about life. And there will also always be people who you can count on to be encouraging, supportive, wise and loving. To all those who love, support and encourage me - especially those who give constructive criticism and motherly preaches - you know who you are and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.



Landscape in progress

So now onto the juicier bits - I am working on new landscape works, found object sculptures and collages, and also veering more into botanical art. I'm continuing my explorations with watercolour and will have more to show soon!

Raw and (somewhat) uncensored

Okay, so I have decided to share some of my more personal feelings that I am experiencing today. Not because I want to carry my heart on my sleeve or seek any sympathy, but because it might give you some insight into what an artist goes through, and that every artist is also a person JUST LIKE YOU.

Yes, artists have bad days. Yes, artists become a bit depressed, frustrated, demotivated and sad. Because we're human. And because the things that ALL of us (yes, you included) experience every day are things that everyone experiences - whether it is directly or indirectly. Whether we hear it from someone else, or whether it happens to ourselves personally. Whether you become a crime statistic, or know of someone who has been wronged in some way.

I know it might seem like I'm ranting or babbling. BUT there is a point to this post... I am having a day full of doubt and I feel quite frustrated with how little ART I'm producing today and how much self pity, doubt and insecurities I'm feeding and feeling. Just like most - if not everyone - who reads this post. We all feel down sometimes. We all feel like we could use some encouragement and support most of the time. And that's fine. So is feeling sorry for yourself and taking a bit of time 'off' to sort through your feelings and figure out the best way to get yourself out of the rut. We all feel a HUGE range of emotions on a constant basis. This is what makes us human, compassionate and able to express ourselves in so many extraordinary ways (like art, theater, music and even science!).

So yes, I'm having a bit of a 'bad' day. But I know that this will also pass and build the foundation for things that I will learn and do in future, whether it be tomorrow, next week or in 2 years from now.

There.... I feel better now. Your turn.... Express yourself and BE yourself.

Dancing on tiptoes and loving it

I have started attending the open classes by dancers from iKapa at Onpointe Dance Studio in Sea Point and I'm LOVING it. Some of you who knows me really well, or long, would know that I've been wanting to go for dance classes for quite a while. And now finally I've made it a priority!

I've seen iKapa perform 'Stadium' at the Out the Box Festival at UCT's Hiddingh campus, seen them perform at the Cape Creative Exhibition during the World Cup, and also as part of the City Soiree at Wessel Snyman Creative earlier this year. The dancers are talented and dynamic and the choreography breathcatching. And now iKapa is performing FUSE in Stellenbosch next week. I think that anyone who misses it will regret it... Here's the info:



Don't miss out on seeing Fuse - an exhilarating, inspirational and entertaining production that explores the theme of peace and reconciliation.

Fuse includes a new work Choreographed by Theo Ndindwa and Tanya Arshamian (iKapa’s directors) performed collaboratively by members of iKapa and the Ensemble.


Fuse will also include works by acclaimed American choreographers Cherice Barton(Broadway’s Spider Man), Donald Byrd (Artistic Director, Spectrum Dance & Broadway’s The Color Purple), and Andrea Miller (Artistic Director, Gallim Dance) performed by The Steps Repertory Ensemble, as well as new works by South African Choreographers Maxwell Xolani and Ebrahim Medell.


iKapa Dance Theatre and the Steps Repertory Ensemble began this three-phase project in May 2010. This project is explored through dance, video, and community outreach.


For more information contact info@ikapadancetheatre.co.za or otherwise buy your tickets through Computicket for 16 or 17 December at 20:15 at Oude Libertas, Stellenbosch.

Quoting another artist

I found another really compelling post on www.saartistsa2z.com - a directory for artists and art lovers which is run by artist, curator and arts writer Gerhi Janse van Vuuren. I couldn't resist posting it and sharing it with you:

Human need can be distilled into five fears we all share: the fear of death, fear of the future, fear of chaos, fear of the outsider and the fear of insignificance. Every artist faces these fears as a part of their calling and as representatives of humanity.

Being an artist is a statement that says: What I do matters. It matters to me and if you accept what I do, it matters to you. And if what I do matters, then I, as the doer, matter.

Now no one need fear being insignificant.

Being an artist is a state of being that walks the edges of society. Artists choose unpopular opinions. They step out and forward, as the vanguard. They become strange even to themselves, but manage to carry on when they accept their own strangeness.

Now no one need fear the outsider.

Doing art is a process of making and unmaking. Giving shape, order and form to ideas and materials is a futile process. The world is forever sliding down the other side and what was made today begins to decay tomorrow. But tomorrow I, the artist, start remaking it again.

Now no one need fear chaos.

Being an artist is a futile game of trying to beat time. Not only have you already been beaten by the masters who lived before, but you are also being thrashed by the masters yet to be born. What one makes today is old hat tomorrow and cliché the day after. What is on the cutting edge now is lost in mediocrity a moment from now. But you can only make something today – yesterday and tomorrow are not options.

Now no one need fear the future.

Being an artist is an attempt to cheat death. It is a process of externalising pieces of yourself and casting them in forms that might outlast you. And that may exist even when you are no longer there. And because things we have made will still exist, we will not be gone, though we may be dead.

Now no one need fear death.

Thanks to artists and what they do, we matter, we belong, we have order, we have now and we live. And every artwork that exists is proof of that.

Extract from the exhibition catalogue of the Winelands VAN-Guard exhibition, edited by Gerhi Janse van Vuuren, published by VANSA Western Cape

I'm busy updating my website, and also working on proposals for exhibitions for next year. So watch this space for more exciting things to come (as opposed to quoting other artists...)!

Buy art as Christmas Gifts!

Stocking Stuffer Show at
VANSA's SPIN SPACE Gallery

It's that time of the season - the season to be giving! Don't miss out on great art gifts for R495 and under!

Bring your friends - spread the word
'tis the season to be buying tralalala laaaaaaa

The exhibition opens on Monday, 29 November at 18:00 runs until 21 December 2010

VANSA's Spin Space
8 Spin Street
Cape Town

Don't miss out! Some of my artworks, currently available, that might be on the wall:

Quoting a fellow artist

I know it's my second blog post within one day, and I don't usually quote other people's entire posts or opinions, but I feel that I really want to share this piece of writing about fine art that I read in my friend's DeviantArt Journal here (see her work at www.dwuff.deviantart.com/gallery):

The important point is that a valid work of art promises in some way or another the possibility of an increase, an improvement. Nor need the work be optimistic to achieve this; indeed, its subject may be tragic. For it is not the subject that makes the promise, it is the artist’s way of viewing his subject. Goya’s way of looking at a massacre amounts to the contention that we ought to be able to do without massacres. - Berger, J. 1960. Permanent Red: Essays in Seeing. London, Methuen.

Keeping this quote in mind, I'd like to state the following:

Fine art and illustration are not polar opposites, but they are different, and the fine art you see me uploading is, by and large, quite removed from my more narrative/illustrative work. This does not make either of them worse or better, just different. Think of all artistic disciplines as points, with gradients inbetween them, linking them. There's so much intermarriage that can happen between disciplines.

As for doing both fine art and illustration, I'm not exclusively one or the other. It's okay for you to like one and not the other. That's how art works - everyone finds resonance in different things. I'm not asking you to adore both or either. What I AM asking is that you get out of your comfort zone and take a more critical, objective look. The entire mission of my artistic practice is to bring about that "increase" and "improvement" that Berger refers to.

Even if you don't like my work; if you view and experience it, and it makes you think, meditate, mull over things, if it sparks debate or ideas, my work is done. I can't force you to open your mind, nor can I force you to see things in a certain way. I can't expect the same level of involvement with my work from everyone. But I can provide you with material which you can use in your journey in life, material which could inspire you and/or just give you something to think about. If that happens, I'm happy.


I'm aware that the fine art scene is seen as elitist and anal-retentive. It shouldn't have to be that way. Reading and appreciating art doesn't require a degree or formal training, just a passion. Art school did not teach me how to draw and paint. They expect you to know those things already when you arrive. What art school DID teach me, and which I am so very grateful for, is how to communicate. It taught me to improve my analytical and observational skills through practice, and how to be specific with what I say instead of vague. It taught me how to handle criticism and how to give it, two things which I have struggled with my entire life and probably will still battle with to the end. It taught me that one learns as much from one's peers as from one's lecturers, and that humility and willingness to learn are the fastest ways to get anywhere in life. And, after everything, it taught me that no one has ever been able to answer with satisfaction the question, "what is art?"

- Danelle Malan

Fluid and earthly

Two watercolour drawings that I did during this weekend when we were in Gordon's Bay:




My favourite blog for the week:
dontcopoutcopart.blogspot.com

Looking around again

Debut run with my new Holga! Using Portra Natural Colour 160 Iso film, I had a go with my new Lomography camera, which I bought about two weeks ago at Exposure Gallery at the Old Biscuit Mill - thanks Fernando! A LOT of blurry images - motion blur, not the characteristic Lomo-blur (I got confused with the N (normal) and B (bulb) setting, resulting in toooo long exposures and too much movement on my already double-, triple- and quadruple exposures) - but these six shots are quite satisfactory - especially the bottom 3...


As usual, of course, taking photographs with film made me more aware again about what's around me and how a lot of the very 'ordinary' objects, scenes and landscapes around us could make the perfect, most interesting subjects for artworks...

A quick little update

So things are going really well. I am now happily married (*shy smile*), and I am working harder than ever on my dream and my passion - which is a combination of art (in so many of its forms and shapes!) and nature. I am currently planning an exhibition in Vanderbijlpark for May 2011, with Mark Shaun Hopkins, and currently I am also getting involved with a project for a recycle centre/swop shop in Khaylitcha (oops, sorry - Khayalitsha - I always misspell it!) using tyres, earth and clay, by Tierra Construction - read more about it on the Ecojunki blog... And looking for artists and people who'd be interested in joining in on a voluntary basis to help with the 'finishing' and 'pretty-up' phase of the project -whether it be by sharing ideas, or hands-on!

I'm definitely looking forward to getting my hands dirty - Nick from Tierra has mentioned that the clay can be made quite thick, or very runny, and this has SO many possibilities for having fun, being creative and being part of something that's bigger than any of us would have been able to achieve on our own. Awesome... We're also considering doing wall mosaics with glass that we'll get from Waste Plan, so even MORE opportunity for artists to get involved!

If you're interested in helping out, contact me at art@janetbotes.co.za or Nick at info@tierraprojects.co.za.

In the meantime I am of course still playing around with watercolour, as well as charcoal, and starting to give informal, encouraging art classes. So keep an eye on this space for more on those at a later stage!

Rocks and Trees

I am starting to play and explore more and more with watercolour and of course combining it with my drawing materials. These are some smallish sketches (smaller than A4 size) I did last week in preparation for some bigger works.

 

 

 

Loving the fringe arts!

I think I joined in with the Fringe Arts from their start. And it's been amazingly exciting, fun and inspiring to be part of things! First there was the pop-up at Spier Contemporary at the Cape Town City Hall, and then they popped up at Cape Creative Exhibition in Greenpoint Main Road during the soccer madness, and now they're in the Alfred Mall at the Waterfront. Not to even mention their more permanent space launching very soon at Spier Wine Estate!

But wait, let me tell me what you SHOULD NOT MISS tomorrow, on Thursday, 14 October. Starting at 5pm Chantal Louw and Thessa Bos will be unveiling ceramic hearts decorated and modified by local artists (of which I am one!) and sell them to the public, with some of the proceeds going towards the AVA Artreach Fund which constantly assists South African artists in creating and exhibiting their art.

So don't miss this!
Thursday, October 14 · 5:00pm - 8:00pm
Alfred Mall, Victoria & Alfred Hotel, V & A Waterfront

For more info:
Facebook event page
theFringeArts Facebook page

POST UPDATE:
My heart:

Christiaan Diedericks Solo show in Cape Town

I'm really looking forward to this solo show and book launch by one of the artists who's been an inspiration to me since my school days:

New solo show and book launch by Christiaan Diedericks


blood slitting the throat of the horizon


book launch | the feather room

Christiaan Diedericks will show his second grand-scale solo show entitled 'Pretending to be Flesh' at Focus Contemporary, in 67 loop street on thursday 28.10.10 from 6pm. Christiaan's mid-career book 'the feather room' will also be launched.

The exhibition works include unique mixed media pieces, numbered and signed prints, engravings, lithographs, giclée prints, linocuts and ceramics.

Hope to see you there!

City Soiree at Wessel Snyman Creative

If you missed the opening for Dare to Dream in Silent Moments, not to worry, the exhibition is running until the 13th of October! And this week there is also a City Soiree organized by Gerhard Maree at the gallery!! Here is the info:

Please join us for THREE EVENINGS of FREE concerts in celebration of the performing arts in all its various guises; music, dance, film, poetry, you name it!

Wednesday 29 Sept

...Janet Botes - Nuances (Performance art)
Vocal Recital - (Artist tbc)
Dillion Banda - The Voice of Exile (Zimbabwean Mbira Music)
iKapa Dance Theatre

Thursday 30 Sept

A Journey Through Music
Caty Marvelous (voice and piano)
Vera Vukovic (lute and voice)
Gavin Coppenhall (traditional instruments)
Adamu da Silva (traditional instruments)

Friday 1 Oct

Loftus Marais - Poetry
Nina Fourie-Gouws - Guitar Recital
Of Gravity and Life - Short film by Karien Murrey (director). Produced by Eira Sletbak

Please note no entry after 20:00.

Frieda's on Bree (next to Wessel Snyman Creative) will be open for dinner and drinks.
Come and enjoy some urban home-style food in a funky, deliciously bohemian location or have a sundowner whilst taking in the retro atmosphere.
Happy Hour is from 4 - 6pm
Booking is essential for dinner so please call (021) 421 2404
Visit www.friedasonbree.co.za

Voorsmakie...

Acrylic and ink on wood, "Escape II"

Two of the works in the Vryheid series. Full series:"Vryheid: vlieg, vladder, vlug"

These are some of the works I am exhibiting as part of Dare to Dream in Silent Moments, opening on Thursday at 7pm at Wessel Snyman Creative, 17 Bree street, Cape Town. If you can only come for a quick look, make sure to be there at 8pm for my performance art piece!

Hope to see you there...

Black and Green...

When you break open one of those old 1.44 MB stiffie disks, this is what you find - without the cut out patterns of course... I hand cut patterns, letters and shapes into these stiffie inners and put small magnets on each to create some funky fridge magnets. You can get them at the Fringe Arts, which has their current pop-up shop at the V&A Waterfront, in Alfred Mall.


I did a mirror for the Habitat for Humanity Mirror Project, shown or run at the Home Expo at the CTICC during the first weekend of September. Yup, the green one. A mixed media piece that included lasercut wood, found wood, discarded items, Mendall (the premixed polifilla that I often use in my work) and also two hanging hooks for clothing or necklaces that adds functionality to the mirror.

...and now I'm off to work on the final works for next week's exhibition! Don't miss it... opening 23 September at 7pm at Wessel Snyman Creative, 17 Bree Street, Cape Town. My performance art piece will be at 8pm. The exhibition will run until 13 October.

Re-awaken, Express and LIVE

This was an idea I had a while back, for a triptych that shows both the Cape Town and Joburg skyline on either side of a hand with roots at the end of the forearm. If and when I do it, the leaves might be a tattoo on the arm, rather than just twisting around the arm.

On quite another note:

For too long I have stared blindly at the solutions and aspects of myself begging for attention/to be expressed that are right in front of me...

I have been trying to integrate focus, balance and simplicity in my daily life, but constantly fail to bring it into practice in my art. I have constantly been aware of the cycles that happen throughout our years, seasons, relationships and lives, and also the interconnectiveness of everything, but neglected to express these realizations and truths in my art. I have also been trying to focus and move towards re-awakening my own connectiveness and knowledge of nature, as well as re-awakening my body through movement and exercise, but because art is so central to my life and I have NOT fully integrated nature and movement into my art, I have not succeeded or made much headway in either.

So the path that I will follow from here on will lead me towards exploring and expressing balance, focus, simplicity and cyclic processes in my art, which will more and more take shape in the process, and documentation of Land Art, performance art and other more 'transient' forms that capture the essence of the above elements.

Relevance is Relative

What is art's relevance in our modern society where almost every fourth middle-class person can take a photograph with a digital camera and transform it into a passable artwork by utilizing imaging software such as Adobe Photoshop or Gimp?


Photograph by Holly Raider. Model...me.

I think its value lies in the artist's interpretation/expression, the integrity to his/her medium, as well as the opportunity for the viewer to interact honestly and freely to an artwork. We are constantly guided and told what to do by advertising, our bosses, our religions, our families, and our peers or friends. However, when viewing or buying art you are given the opportunity and right to judge, criticize and express your opinion about the piece of art. And the beauty of this: you will never be wrong. The person who loves a certain piece of art is no more wrong or right than the person who hates looking at the same piece of art.

There is no wrong way to do art either, as the "invalidity" of an artwork can easily be debated by referring to previous artists and artworks through the centuries and decades, such as Marcel Duchamp's ready-mades or the performance art and happenings by artists in the 60's and 70's. Art usually reflects on the society and environment that it happens in, and since we live in a very diverse world with limitless possibilities, different cultures living together, and a never-ending range of visual stimuli and subject matter for artwork, the forms that art could, does and will take, are just as limitless and unpredictable.


...And I read this on a blog I follow, called New Art:

What if there was nothing to discover? No story, no thousand words, no answer to a non-riddle? What if it was really, really, just a game of forms and colors?
Would it be a sin?
Does this lady need a past?
Is it really so bad for something to be "just" a pretty picture?
We know of the danger of beauty, we know the seductive spectacle means flirting with submission, yet is it really so immoral?

Read the full blog (with pics, etc.) here

Flow

Valley of a mountain

Weathered

Weathered
Digital Illustration
Created on 12 July 2010 in GIMP

I met Kevin Brand today! I went to the Cape Peninsula University of Technology and while talking to the head of Graphic Design, Bruce Snaddon, Kevin walked into his office and got to meet him. Nice timing!

Where we Lived

Work in progress....

I've written onto this old lomograph by scratching into the photographic paper's first layer. The image were created by exposing the film twice - once in a fish eye lens camera, and once in my Pentax K-1000.

What will tomorrow bring?

"what will tomorrow bring

if not more change

what will we choose to believe

when there is only our own truth to behold

what will you do

when life proves to exist for love and compassion only

and what will happen

when things change more than you can even imagine now"

"Peinsend oor More"

Coffee and pencil on paper.

280 x 210mm

Growing, living and learning

"Growing and Living"
Wood and mixed media - my poems and images laser cut and engraved onto discarded wood found in Woodstock and other Cape Town areas.
Variable sizes
2010

the rush of the wind through the leaves
with the sound of your heart underneath
the warmth of the sun on your skin
with the grass growing wildly at your feet

the season changes swiftly in the mountain
while the rock lies peacefully in the stream
and the colours burn orange in the forest
while we drift along in the flurry of life

These were created for the Great Walk and More Arts Festival, hosted by Greatmore Art Studios. The Festival was held on 25 and 26 June in the entire Greatmore Street in Woodstock and featured more than 30 artists, performers, groups and intiatives. I also did a simple performance on the Friday night, carrying two lanterns while dressed in white, and doing movements that enforces concepts or ideas of searching, following the light, finding light in the darkness, and shining a light for other people to follow in order to find their own light. The performance was meant to communicate or inspire 'peace' (a dove's feather was hanging from a rope tied around my waist and neck) and spirituality - whether linked to religion (I was wearing Christian crosses around my neck) or just compassion and respect for all life and life forms.

Wake-up Call

We have a neighbourhood duck (one of those beautiful Egyptian geese, I think) who has a bit of an identity crisis. It seems to think that it's a rooster, and every morning with sunrise it sits on a chimney and hoots and calls until we all seem to be awake with a cup of coffee in the hand...

The above quick digital painting was done using a Wacom tablet - those pads with the pens, which makes drawing via a computer screen so much easier!

I was delighted this morning to see a squirrel again too. Just by the way...

Exhibitions and a bug

A recent commission for Heyns and Partners Inc. for their Cape Town branch in Keerom Street.

So, current exhibition that I'm participating in:

African Oddyssey at Raw Vision Gallery, Sir Lowry
Road, Woodstock, Cape Town (Almost diagonally accross from the Michael
Stevenson, and just down the road from Blank Projects)

VAN-guard Winelands Group Exhibition, opening on 8 June 2010. My work will be exhibited at Durbanville Hills, Western Cape.

South Africa at the Gallery at Duncan Yard, cnr. of Duncan &
Prospect Street, Hatfield, Pretoria.

I am, of course, still working on artworks for the exhibition "Dare to dream in silent moments". Lucy Skinner and I are exhibiting our work under this title or theme in September at Wessel Snyman Creative, at 17 Bree Street.


...And giving art classes on a Monday and Tuesday evening from 5pm-8pm in my studio in Woodstock. Interested? Send me an email at art@janetbotes.co.za for more info!

In the meantime I am also hard at work at managing Ecojunki (http://www.ecojunki.co.za/) and Arteviate (http://www.arteviate.blogspot.com/), keep an eye and ear open and let me know if you'd like to help or get involved!

And now for a bit of randomness:



While on my way to White Rabbit Studio in Gardens (Cape Town), I saw this old Volksie in Lingen Street. I started chatting to the owner of the beetle, who was right there at the moment! Miro Kloosterman is from the Netherlands, if I remember correctly, and after living in Cape Town for a while he is back in Europe. Now he is selling this very cute and charismatic VW beetle for R10 000. If you're interested, contact Richard watson at 0737800566.

Taking the Winelands and Pretoria by storm

My "Flotsam" series of works - which is mixed media works of wood and scraperboard - will be exhibited at Durbanville Hills, Western Cape, as part of the Winelands VAN-Guard exhibition from June to July. Read more here.





I will also be participating in the South Africa exhibition at The Gallery at Duncan Yard in Pretoria, opening on 28 May 2010 and running until July. For more information contact Cecily Pohl at 082 826 1298 or thegallery.cecily@gmail.com.

The change of season is a time for renewal

I know that I have been quiet and that it didn't seem like much were going on. I've been working full time at Wessel Snyman Creative from about the 2nd of April, I'm working at the Fringe Arts store at Spier Contemporary on Friday and in the meantime I'm also working on a commission, proposals for two other commissions, new artwork for a two-day show at Wessel Snyman Creative and while this is all happening - or at least in the pipeline - we're also moving from our current flat to a garden flat in Oranjezicht at the end of this week. Things are hectic, to say the least.

But it's not all as bad as I make it seem. Being busy is actually really a blessing, and while I may not be making a living from my art YET, the studio looks and feels great, I'm feeling more creative than I've felt in a very long time and I am producing work that I feel proud of. I'm also working on finishing my Flotsam series before the end of May, and continue creating work for my and Lucy's Skinner's September exhibition entitled 'Dare to dream in silent moments'.

Life is good and I feel really honoured and privelaged to be where I am now, to know the people who are so amazing and supportive to me, and while the season is changing, I feel that everything in life is also changing and renewing itself again - bringing new oppotunities, challenges, beauty and experiences.

What's been happening?

Janet Botes (yes, me), Elsa Lourens and Philippe Kayumba performing Philippe's 'Newspaper Persona' at the opening of Spier Contemporary 2010 at Cape Town City Hall.



The above works form part of my 'Flotsam' series - inspired by our throwaway culture and disregard for nature, but also the way that nature persists and that there's still natural places of peace and beauty, regardless of human's pollution and disrespect for nature. These works were created by combining images drawn into scraperboard and pieces of driftwood and found wood.



People drawing at the informal and fun art class on Tuesday mornings at White Rabbit Studio in Gardens. There's also an evening class on a Thursday at 18h30, and this class is more focused on formal elements of drawing - such as composition, proportion, tonality and texture. Keep your eyes peeled for some exciting workshops to start at the studio soon. You could also join the Facebook group to keep track of updates for events.

And last, but not least - I now have a studio that I will work from and sell my work from! Situated in Woodstock, I am currently moving all my work, work table, materials and display items to the space. Keep your eyes on this blog for photographs and the address!

is Dada ever going to be seen as it should?

Check out ArtHeat for an interesting review and ensuing debate about the DADA exhibition at the National Art Museum in Cape Town.

Personally I enjoyed the exhibition a lot, but would also love to know more about the curatorial process and how they chose the South African artists for the show. The latter is due to the vast amount and variety of resistance art in our country that were created during the Apartheid years and that could be viewed as similar in concept and motivation to the war-durational Dada movement.

Work in progress

"With love from the beach"
Hearts carved from cuttlefish bones. See more at Haas in Rose Street, Bo-Kaap.

"Onthou" - Remember. Found object, clay, metal.

"Kerk Toe" - work in progress