Wednesday, March 31 2004
Speaking Through an Interpreter
Pieter-Dirk Uys and his Mbeki puppet poke South African leadership in its tender spots.
Wednesday, January 14 2004
Above Disgrace: Nobel Laureate J.M. Coetzee
Are South African critics indeed displeased that Coetzee won, or is their kind of smarmy sensationalism going on, like a backhanded nod of national pride?
Wednesday, October 15 2003
African Diminuendo of a Classic Sound
I predicted that 10 years down the line, not only would this audience not be with us any longer, but neither would the music that they hear: not in Africa, at least.
Wednesday, September 17 2003
Tooting Her Horn
She was tempestuous, gluttonous, selfish and vulnerable: everything that an artist as genius is supposed to be.
Wednesday, August 20 2003
Dancing with Nothing but Heart
Through their performance art they have dealt with the legislation of sodomy, addressed the smoking of marijuana, contemplated being trained to behave in the world by learning the 'tricks' that society expects, and confronted homophobia and anti-Semitism.
Wednesday, July 16 2003
Crouching Synagogue, Hidden Witness
I question the value of my presence there, as a white woman amongst young black people who historically shouldn't want to be near me or my kind.
Wednesday, June 18 2003
White Like Me
Murray refuses to pussyfoot around politically correct representation of ethnic diversity.
Wednesday, May 28 2003
Daydreams While Balancing Atop a Narrow Fence
If my Jewish identity was more easily recognisable, and I took a slightly faulty step in social protocols, would I also be fleeing on shot-out tires?
Thursday, April 17 2003
Phoenix in My Backyard
Ziabuya shows the community that there is something special and incredible growing in the city's belly.
Thursday, February 20 2003
Kentridge Matters
With his conceptual experiments, collaborative projects and performed artworks, Kentridge has succeeded in awaking everyone to the notion of classical narrative, fabulous music, the South African gesammtkunstwerk . . .
Wednesday, January 15 2003
In no-man’s land I got lost
In Afrikaner alternative music and poetry, Johannes Kerkorrel was like the Bob Dylan of white South Africa . . .
Wednesday, October 30 2002
Joan Miró: An African Experience
. . . improvisation with materials that represent throwaway elements of our day-to-day existence is par for the course, both visually and economically.
Wednesday, October 16 2002
Johnny Clegg: A South African Story
He was the first vocal artist to use Nelson Mandela's name in lyrics, but South Africans only got to hear them after the new democracy had come about.
Wednesday, July 10 2002
Colour It Wild : David Goldblatt Turns Over a Colourful Leaf, in His Seventies
The tones that the sun inflicts on our spaces are often neither rich nor filled with gentle gradations.
Wednesday, June 5 2002
Still Standing: The Sharpeville Six
. . . The previous government gave killers the golden handshake and the present government gave them amnesty . . .
Wednesday, May 1 2002
Apartheid: Now in Museum Form
Paralleling concepts like apartheid with the Holocaust . . . has become a bit of a knee-jerk analogy that is often deeply fashionable and very disturbing . . .
Wednesday, April 3 2002
The Umbrella: A South African cultural weapon?
During apartheid, if a controversial South African artist went out of the country and 'made it' by gaining acknowledgement from 'real' galleries Out There before returning, suddenly the former pariah would magically become prodigal son and worthy citizen.
Wednesday, January 30 2002
Who Let the Dogs Out?
. . . instinctively, you know to steel yourself for what waits on the other side of this curtain.
Tuesday, November 13 2001
Dividing the Horses from the Donkeys
(W)hile we have to remain philosophical about the projects that begin like race horses and end like donkeys, the spark is there for all manner of animal to pick up some speed.
