Tag: Gregory Maqoma;

Art on the Move at This Year’s RMB Turbine Art Fair from July 12 to 14

~ debeernecessities ~ 3 Comments

RMB Turbine Art Fair (RMB TAF) is on the move to a new and bigger venue for the 7th edition of the Fair. Since its inception in 2013, RMB TAF has grown extensively year on year and 2019 will see the most substantial Fair yet in a new location – 10 Fricker Rd, Illovo from July 12 – 14 with a preview evening on July 11.

DIANE DE BEER looks more closely:

Hannalie Taute with her work
Hannalie Taute with her work

One of the exciting art prospects is an artist who has developed her art with a view of speaking her mind – loudly – and she does that with valour.

Hannalie Taute describes her work as in a constant state of evolution, which in itself mirrors many of the ideas behind her art.  One central theme or unifying characteristic, she says, is the repeated exploration of identity and/or relationships within what she calls her paracosmic fantasy.

If all of this sounds a little out there, it is, and it isn’t. This is an artist who doesn’t shy away from putting her heart and mind out there. She often addresses gender issues – but uses both her harsher instincts as well as a sense of humour to speak her mind visually. Shock and laughter often come together when exploring her work.

Ronel Taute
Hannalie Taute’s She Never Promised You A Rose Garden

She examines identity and relationships in a way that probes the duality and conflict people often have with many or even conflicting identities to which they answer to.

This kind of thinking is most striking in the work that Taute will be bringing to the Turbine Art Fair, ranging from figurative toy-like creatures to altered portraits as well as large embroideries.

Characteristic of the work of this Still Bay-based artist is the use of the traditionally black recycled rubber inner tractor tubes with embroidered thread with which she is continuing to create her paracosmos as a way of orienting herself in reality.

The coarseness of the rubber is counteracted by the delicacy of the thread, but this is subverted, as often the stitching and composition of the rubber inner tubes are delicate and the thread seems almost rough in its arrangement. Taute wants the medium of the piece to interact with the subject matter in a way that forces the viewer to engage and question her art. This is an artist in conversation with her prospective viewers.

She is perhaps best known for her strong showings at local art festivals where she received the Kanna award for best visual presentation at the 2014 Klein Karoo Art Festival (KKNK) as well as several nominations throughout the years. In 2017 she also gloriously represented South Africa at the Museum Rijswijk Yextile Biennale in the Netherlands.

Her work will be presented by Tshwane’s Millenium Gallery and the artist will also be present at the Fair.  Just remember before you start talking, she never promised you a rose garden, or that is what her art says.

Ronel Wilsenach Star Box
Berco Wilsenach’s Star Box

Other artists shown by Ronel van der Vyver’s Groenkloof gallery include Berco Wilsenach, currently part time lecturer at the University of Pretoria as well as presenting workshops on a regular basis at the Kunstakademie, Düsseldorf while also completing a PhD in Visual Studies. He won the PPC Young Sculpture’s Award (1997) and the ABSA L’Atelier (2005).

Ronel Colin Mashile
Cobert Mashile

 

Classics like Norman Catherine, Colbert Mashile and Anton Karstel will also feature.

Think Art on the Move, says TAF:  “Our vision has always been to develop young artists and grow the market for African art and elevate art collecting across a wider market. Visitors will be able to view exciting installations, larger gallery spaces and a more conceptually curated Fair but in the relaxed environment that has always been the signature of Turbine Art Fair ” says Fair Founder, Glynis Hyslop.

Proudly partnered for a second year by RMB, TAF is a unique South African art collaboration that brings together galleries and artists from around the country to present and sell works.

RMB TAF, they promise, is not just an art fair but an all-encompassing cultural experience for visitors, with artisanal food and beverages and vibrant entertainment programme. It also differentiates itself from other South African art fairs through its accessible pricing strategy. The selling price of artworks generally falls between R1 000 and R50 000, which presents opportunities to savvy investors and new buyers.

They present a series of special projects for visitors to view during the Fair as well as a multidisciplinary public programme curated by Kefiloe Siwisa and Nomvuyo Horwitz – titled The Year of the mirror which will include performance art, music, screenings, masterclasses and a children’s programme, talks and walkabout series. The talks and walkbaouts are offerd to the public for free and on a first come first serve basis.  The full list of talks, speakers panelists and talk times can be found at http://www.turbineartfair.co.za.

 Radio partner Kaya FM will be broadcasting live from the Fair on Saturday 13th July.

 

Dates:            12 – 14 July 2019

Venue:          10 Fricker Rd Illovo, JHB

Tickets:          R120 via Webtickets or R150 at door

Weekend pass: R250 via webtickets or R300 at door

Children R100: 4 years & older Includes access to children’s arts area and children’s walkabout on a first come first serve basis

Students & Pensioners: R100 at door and R80 via Webtickets (Friday only)

VIP opening night (11th July): R750 via Webtickets only and will include Performances by Gregory Maqoma (founder & executive  director of Vuyani Dance Group) and Mabuta

 

 

FAIR HIGHLIGHTS & SPECIAL PROJECTS

 

  • RMB Talent Unlocked is an emerging artist and curator mentorship program that started in 2014 under the name Fresh Produce. The workshop programme culminates with a curated booth by Fulufhelo Mobadi at the RMB Turbine Art Fair.

 

  • A Meeting of Minds: Louis Khehla Maqhubela and Douglas Portway Presented by Strauss & Co

 

  • Market Photo Workshop alumni exhibition 

 

  • Dumisani Mabaso benefit exhibition – as an artist and printmaker, Dumisani’s life and work is inextricably linked to the history of South African Art.

 

  • The Graduate Exhibition curated by Kefiloe Siwisa in collaboration with Maja Marx  for some fabulous work of artists who are at the beginning of their artistic careers.

 

  • The new space lends itself perfectly to installations and visitors will see the likes of Nkhensani Rihlampfu presented by M Studio Community and Jake Singer.

 

  • Gerard Sekoto Foundation will be presenting an exhibition.

For Artistic Director of The Market James Ngcobo, Theatre Is All About Diversity

~ debeernecessities
market-theatre-4275
Lerato Mvelase, Busi Lurayi, director James Ngcobo, Mona Monyane Skenjana and Noxolo Dlamini Picture: Brett Rubin

Into the second month of 2019 and things are pumping at Joburg’s Market Theatre where artistic director James Ngcobo has staged Nina Simone Four Women to celebrate Black History Month with this South African premiere. He speaks to DIANE DE BEER about his future plans in this, his second term, at this iconic theatre:

 

For James Ngcobo, Nina Simone Four Women written by Christina Ham, one of a quartet of hot female playwrights in the US currently, means many different things. Presented in conjunction with the US Mission in SA, he believes strongly in staging this kind of work which forms part of the Market’s 6th annual commemoration of Black History Month.

It’s all about the message, telling the story and the four actresses on stage who will be portraying different aspects of Nina Simone, as the title indicates. “The play is based on four characters Simone created in a song,” explains Ngcobo who sees this as an exploration of the landscape of women.

It was Nina Simone who said: “Music can’t just be about the art, but it has to be an expression of the good, bad and ugly in life.” A staunch activist in the Civil Rights Movement in the ‘60s, she wrote songs that told stories of people she observed in everyday life. It is because of that truth that her music still resonates so strongly today, argues Ngcobo.

On September 16, 1963, the day after the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, Simone’s career shifted from artist to artist/activist because she believed as an artist it was her responsibility to reflect the times. And in this sacred place, four little girls lost their lives.

Nina Simone Four Women is set in the sadness of the church and also uses the framework of one of Simone’s most blistering songs Four Women to portray a quartet of women who suffered from self-hatred due to the different shades of their skin. As if being black in those times in that place wasn’t damning enough, they further judged themselves on the light- or darkness of their skin.

It’s also about the conversations between the four women. It’s about who they are, how they fight the battle, how they escape for solace – and in the background lingers the death of four little girls. For Ngcobo, this story from the past reverberates with the racism of our time.

“Nina made a choice when she started speaking out. She knew that talking about some of the things she did was to the detriment of her career, but that’s what she had to do,” he notes. And like her songs, this play is also all about storytelling. “That’s why her music still has impact today,” he says.

His cast includes Busi Lurayi as Nina (who brought a flippancy to her audition that caught the director’s eye), Lerato Mvelase (who starred in Colour Purple and King Kong, as Auntie Sarah who is only interested in her livelihood, daily washing and ironing), Mona Monyane Skenjana (who was part of his Coloured Museum cast and he’s been wanting to work with again) and Noxolo Dlamini (representing youth and thus hope) as the four women in the title. There’s also a young piano player representing Simone’s brother who tinkles away in the background – as well as two extra singers.

Nina Simone Four Women is staged in the main, John Kani Theatre until February 24, while storytelling of another kind is playing in the Mannie Manim Theatre.

zane meas and christo davids director of van wyk the storyteller of riverlea
Actor Zane Meas and Christo Davids director of Van Wyk The Storyteller of Riverlea

Van Wyk the Storyteller of Riverlea was created and is performed by well-known South African actor Zane Meas and directed by Christo Davids. These two have a previous links with Van Wyk as they both played in Janice Honeyman’s 2008 adaptation of Shirley, Goodness and Mercy which performed to full houses at the Market Theatre. This is the 5th time that they will be working together on stage in a partnership that spans over 12 years.

Anyone who has read Van Wyk’s books will know that he was foremost a storyteller. This particular piece explores his influences as a poet, as political activist and writer, his family life and his tragic battle with cancer.  It is an homage to his humour, political values and storytelling abilities, all of which add texture to the piece and insight into the writer’s life. (see review).

nailed starring khulu skenjana, aya mpama, katlego letsholonyane, zesuliwe hadebe and lunga khuhlane
Nailed starring Khulu Skenjana, Aya Mpama, Katlego Letsholonyane, Zesuliwe Hadebe and Lunga Khuhlane.

In the Barney Simon Theatre Nailed will premiere from February 8 to March 3. The production is sponsored by the Department of Arts and Culture’s Incubation Fund, aimed at assisting emerging practitioners to hone their skills from amateur to professional status.

If you want to tell the naked truth about post-apartheid South Africa, better do it through fiction believes The Market’s artistic director. Author Niq Mhlongo has long been a Ngcobo favourite and he believes he masters his art brilliantly.

His latest work, Soweto Under the Apricot Tree is a collection of short stories about contemporary Soweto, Johannesburg and South Africa and the one that caught Ngcobo’s attention. The stories are an account of township life with commentary on post-apartheid South Africa still grappling with many of the issues emanating from our past. “Every township house always had an apricot tree,” reminisces Ngcobo.

 It is a story about abuse of political power, infidelity and violence. It deals with corrupt, greedy and selfish politicians who are in the business not for the people but for self aggrandisement and personal gain.

This country knows better than many how behavior impacts on the lives of ordinary people and how it affects the morale of a country. That’s why this one will be fun to watch with an engaged audience as well as writing that comes alive on stage.

Nailed is directed by Luthando Mngomezulu, who was responsible for Isithunzi, the 2017 Zwakala Festival winner, and the cast includes Aya Mpama, Khulu Skenjana, Katlego Letsholonyane, Lunga Khuhlane, Nyaniso Dzedze and Zesuliwe Hadebe.

gregory-maqoma-in-exitexist.jpg
Gregory Maqoma in Exit/Exist

Other exciting plays to watch out for is a reworking of Tsafendasby by playwright Anton Krueger starring Renos Nicos Spanoudes and directed by the exciting Jade Bowers, who will add fresh and young perspective; in Exit/Exist, dancer/choreographer Gregory Maqoma takes inspiration from his ancestral past as he blends storytelling with his powerful dance vocabulary and dynamic live music in this moving solo performance with live musicians. It’s an examination of race, political power, and the melding of past and present. (Also watch out for a return of the haunting Cion – inspired by the Zakes Mda book -which will be staged in September to celebrate the company’s 20th anniversary.

There’s also a lot of buzz around the new John Kani play which deals with the relationship between a dying white actor (Anthony Sher) and his black nurse (John Kani) directed by Kani stalwart Janice Honeyman which will be staged in the latter half of the year. The Baxter’s production of Strindberg’s The Goat starring the powerful combination of Jennifer Steyn and Andrew Buckland directed by Mdu Kweyana will also be staged.

Times may be tough, but theatre is as always inspired.

 

 

 

Adrienne Sichel Gives Context to SA Contemporary Dance in Body Politics

~ debeernecessities

Adrienne book cover

Kgomotso Moncho – Maripane

Guest Writer

 

The description that dance is “wordless expression in a world where words are currency,” by poet Lebo Mashile in her unpublished poem, I Dance To Know Who I Am, speaks to the hesitation and sometimes lack of engagement with South African contemporary dance locally.

The poem also encapsulates the transformative experience that dance can be.

Mashile created the poem for the production, Threads, a collaboration with choreographer and anthropologist, Sylvia Glasser and her Moving Into Dance Mophatong Company.

The poem opens veteran dance writer and arts journalist, Adrienne Sichel’s new book, Body Politics: Fingerprinting South African Contemporary Dance (published by Porcupine Press).

Adrianne_Sichel_photo_by_Val_Adamson
Adrianne_Sichel_ Picture: Val_Adamson

The book is a socio-political cultural history that focusses on the roots and evolution of South African contemporary dance from the mid 1970s to 2016.

Whereas the role of protest theatre is known in its engagement with socio-political issues, it may be taken for granted that contemporary dance, through its activist actions, played an important part in the championing of a free and multi-cultural society, during and post- apartheid.

Sichel’s book illuminates this particular cultural history, revealing how prior to democracy, the proponents of contemporary dance were at the fore-front of cultural activism.

“The policy-making Arts and Culture Task Group (ACTAG) process which culminated in the White Paper, the establishment of the Department of Arts and Culture, Science and Technology, as well as the founding of the National Arts Council in 1997, was the handiwork of many politically focussed dancers, educationists, choreographers, researchers and administrators,” she writes.

One of the standout traits of South African contemporary dance is that it is driven by the activist artist.

Adrienne Sichel Book Launch Jhb.
Adrienne Sichel Book Launch Jhb.

“That’s what gives it its originality and made it attractive to the world. You have people commenting on their society and the human condition. It has overtaken theatre in a way because dancers keep working and make it happen despite the challenges,” says Sichel.

“Paradoxically contemporary dance is an individualistic art form, but in so many ways South African contemporary dance is a collaborative mission to express our cultural and artistic identity. A lot of SA contemporary dance and African contemporary dance is sensorial and experiential. Those dimensions create a much more holistic vibrant art form,” she says.

Body Politics gives context to South African contemporary dance. It captures the collusion of cultures and histories as people explored their roots and their identities of the country and the people they wanted to be pre-1994. It highlights these very rich essences and fingerprints their origins with chapters looking at the birth of Afro-Fusion, subversive storytellers, the birth of theatre dance and what constitutes contemporary African dance.

It features festivals, companies and artists including early pioneers and contemporary players like Glasser, Carly Dibakwane, Robyn Orlin, Alfred Hinkel, Jay Pather, Jeannette Ginslov, Vincent Sekwati Koko Mantswe, Gregory Maqoma, Mamela Nyamza, Nelisiwe Xaba, PJ Sabbagha and many more.

 

It also includes a collection of Sichel’s published and unpublished journalistic writing. This makes it an important documentation and preservation of a unique artistic heritage and a necessary learning tool.

In mapping the evolution of this remarkable art form and its vocabulary, Sichel moves through terrains of contentious issues of appropriation and ownership, leaving questions to ponder on. Questions similar to the ones she asked herself when contemplating writing this book, like, who has the right to collate and tell this history? Who owns this history?

As a dedicated witness to and advocate for SA contemporary dance for 40 years in an environment that often rejects SA contemporary dance, she has earned the right to tell this history. Her background growing up in the rural Rustenburg exposed to her to a variety of cultures, religions, rituals, political practices and prejudices which fueled her curiosity as an arts journalist.

She co-founded the South African Dance Umbrella as a free democratic platform for all South African dancers and dance forms. She has also created an accessible language to articulate meanings behind movements and the fresh aesthetics of South African contemporary dance, which is no easy feat.

At the Johannesburg launch of the book in September, Sichel said, “What is scary about Body Politics is that it’s very concrete, it is tangible and it can’t be changed. I will be judged, just as I have been judging and evaluating people over the decades.”

She is also acutely aware of the gaps the book leaves and this is perhaps a challenge for the gaps to be filled.

The existence of Body Politics also makes the dearth

of books archiving or capturing cultural history in the country glaring. This is an urgent concern for Sichel.

“So many people did not want to publish this book. We don’t respect our history in this country. There are many narratives and cultural histories that are not being published and also need to be written,” she says.

Sichel’s hopes for dance is that “it keeps informing, transforming and educating.”

 

 

 

 

 

c