Looking for things to do this Saturday? Lots of choices! Ceramics, Queer Art, Creative Nestlings and a movie at The Labia are all listed below. Happy scheduling.
11am: Art in the Forest
Shibuie- “Accidental Beauty” is a forestware collaboration between Louis van Loon, founder of the Buddhist Retreat in Ixopo and ceramic artist Anthony Shapiro.
This exhibition shows a form of art that relies as much on unpredictable natural processes as it does on the artist directing them
WHEN: Opening at 11:00 am on May 31, 2014 and running through to June 30, 2014
WHERE: Art in the Forest, Erf 839 Constantia Rhodes Drive Constantia 7806
11.30: Queer in Africa
A walkabout and book discussion with artists and contributors to the exhibition and Reclaiming Afrikan book launch takes place on at the Centre for African Studies gallery.
WHERE: Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town, Upper Campus, Rondebosch 7700
INFO: see related blog or please visit website
CONTACT: Dr Zethu Matebeni at Huma on / huma@uct.ac.za /
12:00 – 19:00AVA Gallery has a VERY full programme line-up!
CONVERSATIONS ON CREATIVITY 8.0 12:00 – 15:00
Creative Nestlings – in association with the AVA Gallery and Creative Cape Town, a programme of the Cape Town Partnership – invites you to #ConversationsonCreativity 8.0. This is the eighth in the Cape Town series, and here guest host Didi Ntsie enlists four creative heavyweights from around the globe to share their work, lives, and thoughts.
DANIEL TING CHONG is an illustrator, designer and artist, and is now emerging as one of Cape Town’s top creative talents with his series of art exhibitions, talks, commissions from clients, and collaborations with leading international brands including Nike, New York Times and the Discovery Channel.
JESS CROSS is an artist and DJ based between Cape Town and San Francisco. In 2010 she started a non-profit company called SoulCity Movement, a collective of artists who facilitate creation, collaboration, mentorship and showcasing as a platform for cross-cultural understanding through personal leadership development.
CELESTE ARENDSE interned at Klûk CGDT before becoming an Elle New talent finalist in 2009. From there she ventured into creating her own clothing brand – Selfi, inspired by architecture, forms and patterns in nature.
DATHINI MZAYIYA is an artist who works in oil paints, charcoal and video installations to create prolific narratives and social commentary. He is a founding member of the Visual Arts Network South Africa (VANSA, Western Cape), Africa South Arts Initiative (ASAI) and Gugulective.
TRUE/STORY: SCREENINGS OF FOUR SHORT FILMS 17:00 – 19:00
Stills from Penny Siopis’ Obscure White Messenger
This week, the AVA’s Saturday Cult programme screens four films dealing with issues of migrancy and alienation, here curated to obfuscate the erroneous boundaries between documentary and fiction. Thereafter, film fundi Roger Young ignites and directs the conversation between film-makers, producers, artists and you.
CROSSING THE LIMPOPO (2009, 15 min) by DAN HALTER shows the artist being lead across the Limpopo River from Zimbabwe into South Africa, by a cigarette smuggler, along one of the routes used by border jumpers. By playing the notorious barrier up against the passage Zimbabwean immigrants face, Halter uses a dark dark humour to interrogate xenophobia, international relations, and sad and empty promises
BORDER FARM (2011, 32 min) by THENJIWE NIKI NKOSI is a docu-drama about a group of Zimbabwean border jumpers who make their way across the Limpopo River from Zimbabwe to seek work on farms in South Africa. It portrays the many-layered drama of forced migration and is written, acted and crewed by the people who made the journey themselves. The film examines the structure of political, social and architectural power, and the invisible forces that create them.
VECINOS, translated as NEIGHBOURS (2013, 9 min 45 sec) by SYDELLE WILLOW SMITH follows three African migrants as they navigate the urban space of Barcelona: Xumo Nunjo, a musician born in Cameroon; Mamadou Dia, a writer and educator born in Senegal; and Gelia Barila Angri, from Equatorial Guinea. These participants offer an opportunity to re-consider notions of home and belonging in black Europe, framing their narratives around a real or symbolic return to Africa.
OBSCURE WHITE MESSENGER (2010, 15 min 7 sec) by PENNY SIOPIS splices together anonymous film footage found in flea markets with a transcript of the psychiatrist’s interview with Demitrios Tsafendas, the man who murdered Verwoerd. By exploring the fact that Tsafendas was an oddball, an outsider, a drifter, a man to whom no country would give citizenship, not even the place of his birth, Siopis highlights the effects of xenophobia as much as she questions the distinction between fact and fiction.
WHERE: AVA Gallery, 35 Church Street, Cape Town 8001
INFO: (021) 424 7436
18:15: African Metropolis at The Labia
African Metropolis launches at the Labia Theatre on 30 May, with daily screenings running until 5 June. The compilation of six short fiction films, set in six major African cities, tells urban tales about life in African metropolises.
See related blog
WHERE: Labia Theatre, 68 Orange Street, Gardens, Cape Town 8001
