My View: The List
THE ARTS IS so central to who we are in this world. How it is presented and how much there is of it is arguably a potent yardstick to how well a society is ticking over. When you go to a theatre that was, a few months ago, […]
Taking liberties with Lady Phillips
SHE WAS NOBODY. That is, until she met and married mining magnate Sir Lionel Phillips, and gave life to the possibility of the Johannesburg Art Gallery – amongst other things – which became central to much of her life’s ambition. Lady Florence Phillips is an icon in historical […]
Farming: That’s the fashion!
WHY IS IT an instructive exercise to look at the work of artists related to one another? Does it have to do with heredity and perceptions of where the so-called art gene lies? Or maybe you’re looking for where the works cleave together, and see that they come […]
Life is short, art is long
ASK ANYONE IN the world who Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) is and they will answer you with sunflowers, a severed ear and suicide. And they may be able to point out a bit of Van Gogh branding on a t-shirt or a mug in their vicinity. Headed by […]
What to do when your love’s on the rocks
WELCOME TO CLUB D, where everyone has a heart that is a little bit broken. This is the thread that runs through this sweet revue of songs and divorce repartee with acapello wiz, who you might remember from Not The Midnight Mass, Alan Glass and Cat Simoni, with […]
Still, but never sedate: Colbert Mashile’s things, shelved
THE STILL LIFE genre is so well used as a safe teaching device, you may consider it to have a long beard and scant relevance. Truth is, it’s not just a didactic exercise about decent perceptual skills. There’s a whole rich history behind it about contemplations of mortality […]
Potato Peel Pie, anyone?
WAR. IT’S A time of cruelty and violence, of value-shifting upheaval and horrible surprises. War history, by its very nature is clustered with rich and timeless stories of hope and love. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is a film based on the eponymous novel, that […]
On the road with a trail that doesn’t always blaze
BEAUFORT WEST. A Western Cape town that like many others in the dusty interior of South Africa, is one that 21st values seem to have left behind. It’s dry in so many ways, and prospects of life for a 24-year-old who is in the ignominious situation of being […]
Doing it like the Fawlties
THEY’RE THERE, CONFRONTING you in the audience before curtain up in a polite and distinctly standoffish way, giving off love/hate hospitality vibes like only the British can do. He with his Bryl-cremed hair and moustache and awkward physicality. She with her guttural monotone guffaw, her frowzy wig and […]
Patterns of freedom to channel the universe
AS YOU REACH the top of Circa Gallery’s oval spiral ramp that has become so iconic on Jan Smuts Avenue in Rosebank, and enter this exhibition of works on canvas by Bambo Sibiya, you realise something overwhelming. This is not a simple art show. It is an event. […]
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