Tape Hiss and Sparkle - The Hidden Year Disc One

  

Installation as Story Telling

When a child listens to a bedtime story, it has the most profound power over that child for a variety of reasons. A voice is an interactive force that draws a story out of it's two-dimensionality and inserts it hyperdermicaly into your mind. It's intimate. It's like sex. When things can be experienced by more than one sense, it becomes a game, an erotic foray into the world of the subconscious.

Stories are about coming to conclusions by yourself. Ofcourse you could say, 'Timmy, stop being such a little fucker!', but if timmy comes to that conclusion via his own mental gymnastics, then he owns that truth. That truth that always lived somewhere deep in his psyche has come alive by means of some skilfull manipulation by the story teller.

A picture is beautiful. It can provoke a thought. But for the most part, a picture is only a question. It may paint a thousand words, but it is still only a starting point, a first approximation. Installation art digs deeper. It creates an atmosphere, a set upon which an idea comes to life. It is, in essence, a continuation of the ancient art of story telling. We are separated from the mind of the artist by the canvas. But with installation, we feel the presence of the artist gently prodding our thoughts as a child-like curiosity compels our bodies to engage. If you walk into a gallery, how often do you see people browsing over pictures and paintings? How often do you see people browse past an installation? Not often, I'm sure. There is something magnetic about installation art.

Take one of my personal favorites, Annette Messager for example. May I just note that her work truly is SUBLIME. I was once fortunate enough to visit a gallery containing a large collection of her work. Her work transports you... somewhere. You only realise when you leave that you haven't been on this plane of existence for the better half of the last 3 hours. Of course, her work functions as a whole. Each piece speaks for itself, but the beauty of her work is that it becomes a journey through a world of installation, a series of chapters about life.

She starts out small, enticing you with little morsels of childish curiosity, a room filled with taxidermy animals of all kinds. Their heads are those of stuffed teddy bears and/or other plush toys and dolls. You walk past a wall, and happen to notice that there are peep-holes. You gaze into a deep void where strange looking apparitions float past in unison. The whole time you are aware of a perverse sensation building inside you: a mixture of childlike-joy and sexual gratification. There's something unwholesome about what you're seeing, something sadistic. Though everything is so turgid and colorful, you can't but help being reminded of death and putrefaction wherever you look. And in that frightening awareness comes the beautiful awareness of something else: breath. You walk into a room and you are dwarfed, first by the sheer size of the giant inflatable organs surrounding you, and then by the sound. You are inside the body of a living creature. You sit there, dumbfounded as you watch the organs inflate and deflate: the breath, the idea that animates things. The feeling is much akin to the first time you ever held a kitten. You think of that, and suddenly you realise that this is just art, and this is just a room full of crap, and then you see that the artist was trying to communicate that very same feeling, and that much like a story teller, she has taken you on a journey and you have come you her conclusion, by yourself. The sense of awareness is profound. The sense of vulnerability you feel creates a certain intimacy in your mind towards the artist. You are never the same again.

Why is ART being ostracised from the South African Education system?

As a 4rth year Fine Art student that has just graduated from the University of Cape Town (UCT). There are a range of options of what I can do next year. These include Curating , becoming a full time professional artist or going into teaching. I wanted to become a high school Art teacher so did research on what qualifications I needed to teach at a government school. After a bit of research I found I needed to do another year of study which I could do full time through UCT or part time through UNISA. I would then have a Higher diploma in education (PGCE). I applied to the education department of UCT and was accepted.

The next step was to find away to pay for my further year of study. I had already invested approximately R30 000 for study fees to get through fourth year Fine art. There was also the capital outlay of materials and framing which is needed in a Fine Art degree, these are over and above study costs. I was running low on finances as I had to find money for the 3 years previous years of study. I did research into what bursary assistance there was on offer in the South African education context.

The further year teaching qualification at UCT will cost me approximately a further R21 500. I do not have enough to finance that so I looked at places where I could get funding. Everyone directed me to the Funza Lushaka Bursary, so I attempted to apply for that bursary. I was quiet disheartened when I filled out the application form. There is a section in the form where one has to tick the boxes to indicate what subject one would like to apply for a bursary in. I noticed the 9 South African languages (isi Ndebele, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, Siswati, Tshivenda and Xitsonga) had check boxes for grades 4, 7 and 10 . That is a total of 27 boxes. There were boxes for English, Maths, Science and Technology among others. I then became aware of what had blatantly been excluded, not a single check box for Art or Afrikaans.

The closest art related link I could find was Engineering Graphic and Design. I went ahead and checked that as I really would have liked to teach in a subject related to the Art and Graphic design background I come from. I was unsure if I would be considered for this subject so I phone Rob Sieborger at the UCT education department. I asked what my chances were of getting the bursary, I was told the chances are very slim because I had only done art practical and discourse subjects and did not have Maths, Science or English.

I think back to a walk I took into Cape Town CBD in August this year when I found myself in a crowd of picketing teacher. These mostly black women were finding their jobs very demanding as the classes they teach are large and so are not easy to discipline. They wanted to important work they were doing for the South African society to be recognised financially through a salary increase.

There is clearly a need to more teacher in South Africa and there are many creative children who would benefit from the creative thinking and finding a visual identity that art offers. Why is it so expensive and difficult to become an Art teacher at a South African Government school?

I have 4 years of University education and am willing to study another year but there seems to be no financial aid so I may be forced into selling my art instead. How many other art students are forced into the same direction? Art can be incorporated as a more creative way of learning in other fields of reading and writing why is it being ostracised for the public education system?

For You In Your Cubicle

I realised that I never posted For You In Your Cubicle to Mixtape... here you go. Enjoy, if you enjoy it.

   01 Middlesex - For You In Your Cubicle by tapehiss-and-sparkle

    02 Blonde Jazz Singer - For You In Your Cubicle by tapehiss-and-sparkle

    03 Interstellar Cape Robin - For You In Your Cubicle by tapehiss-and-sparkle

    04 Good Riddance - For You In Your Cubicle by tapehiss-and-sparkle

    05 We Are The Key - For You In Your Cubicle by tapehiss-and-sparkle

    06 Icarus - For You In Your Cubicle by tapehiss-and-sparkle

    07 Pins In A Ballgown - For You In Your Cubicle by tapehiss-and-sparkle

    08 Mother City - For You In Your Cubicle by tapehiss-and-sparkle

    09 Comet - For You In Your Cubicle by tapehiss-and-sparkle

   10 Escape From A Cubicle - For You In Your Cubicle by tapehiss-and-sparkle

VANSA residency

VISUAL ARTS NETOWRK OF SOUTH AFRICA (VANSA)

Briefing Workshops Invitation
2010 Reasons to live in A Small Town: A VANSA Residency and Public Art Project

Artists and other creative professionals are invited to submit a proposal for the 2010 Reasons to Live in a Small Town project – an unusual residency and public art project facilitated by the Visual Arts Network of South Africa with the support of the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund (NLDTF).

The project is concerned with creatively reimagining the public spaces of small rural towns and contexts. Five artists will be selected through a call for proposal process. Successful proposals will involve intense and thoughtful engagement with a particular environment and the people that inhabit this environment over a period of time.

A substantial budget has been allocated for the realisation of innovative temporary and permanent artworks and creative interventions, including artist fees, residency costs, production costs and technical assistance.

DEADLINE FOR PROPOSAL SUMBISSION: AUGUSY 13, 2010
Briefing Workshops Dates
Grahamstown: 26 & 27 June 2010

Johannesburg: 17 and 19 July 2010

Bloemfontein: 21 & 22 July 2010

Cape Town: 23 & 24 July 2010

If you would like to attend, please send a short CV and a short motivation (not more than 300 words, with one or two of your inspiring ideas thrown in) to: 2010reasons@vansa.co.za. If you aren’t able to or don’t want to send this material via email, phone 011 833 7908 to find out how you can get your material to us through our network in your area.



Some financial assistance is available for accommodation and travel. Please indicate in your application, along with a motivation if you would need to take advantage of this.

Please check our website for details: 
www.vansa.co.za/two-thousand-and-ten-extraordinary-ideas/view


Ginsburg&Herman in Grahamstown

We love Jasper

I was very saddened to hear that our favourite dad in the group, Jasper Stupart is not well.

At every meeting, and through numerous of the projects, Jasper has been quietly in the background but nevertheless essential to the success of everything that he has been apart of (I can recall him arriving after a frantic phonecall from linda saying that our camera battery is dead and our evaporating sculpture has only 10 min left...only to see him in less than three and a half minutes coming barefoot down the Liesbeeck River, professional camera in tow).

At the risk of exposing myself as the tree-hugging hippy that I am no doubt (deep down inside), great positive energy is streaming his way from myself and I'm sure everyone in the group. Keep strong and may you have a speedy recovery.

To Linda and Ethel and everyone close to Jasper, breathe....everything will be fine.

All my love

tony

Shame Pamela

I've been meaning to review Richard Mason's latest solo exhibition 'Carbonage Light' at the AVA for some time now (3 Weeks to be exact). It's hasn't happened often this year (despite the multitude of offerings available) that I've walked out of an exhibition, dying to tell everyone that they are missing out if the don't go see it, then only to find myself going back time again to chuckle and give a mental 'up yours' to the various institutions and groups that Mason so irreverently critiques with a wit that is at once easy to digest and upon further investigation, complex and subtly layered.

I have found myself describing it in terms of similies such as: 'like walking into a Laugh It Off theme park'; or 'like Legoland for street artists'; but as much these come close to describing an aesthetic, Mason's content cannot be as conveniently negotiated. The impact of 3-dimensions perhaps, or maybe because it is situated in those holy of holies- the art gallery.

Fortunately for me (for anyone who knows me also knows that writing is my most loathed skill and this has already taken far longer than I generally enjoy sitting at a keyboard), Mason's work has attracted the attention of one of his subjects (in much the same vane as Justin Nurse Vs. SAB- we all know how that went). And so this exhibition is likely to attract better writers to weave their skills and direct a very satisfying exhibition into the ever-recurring anus of discourse.

I am glad.

If you're in Cape Town and have not yet gone to look, Carbonage Light will be up at the AVA until Wednesday.

All I can say to Pamela and her sons is that they have succeeded in being so predictable as to fortunately ensure decent advertising for a deserving artist

Ag Shame Pam (Hehehe, and this Plaque of Shame invokes - and I have to say it because its something that should not be forgotten so quickly- the great shame of Rhodes University and their Africa Media Matrix) Phthththththththt

Tape Hiss and Sparkle Disc Ten

05 Pretoria - Disc Ten by Simon Tamblyn

Disc Ten is up on my soundcloud account. This is the song i'm most proud of. I hope you enjoy it.

I'm also working on getting data discs available of all ten discs. Maybe also making a compressed zip folder that I can email to peepw if you would want the convenience of dloading one folder instead of dloading every track off the soundcloud account. There will obviously be a price for this, but I'll keep you all updated.

Keep safe.

Simon

P Diddy vs. Art

Activating Transitory Spaces

hey guys, so im looking to get into contact with the CT kids working on Activating the Transitory spaces in Gtown, i am currently trying to manage and get this project moving. We have started working with sakhulunthu in the making of the kites, ironing plastic packets together to make the cover of these kites. This workshop was extremely successful but ultimately we want to fly large scale kites from the 3 chimneys and Makana's Kop.

What im looking for are people who might have ideas and knowledge about kites, box kites, and windsocks. These kites have to be able to hoist themselves! also any technical knowledge about how construct these, materials used etc. would be greatly appreciated. to cut costs and be eco friendly we are trying to use recycled materials.

I would really like to get into contact with those of you coming and who are working on this project, I REALLY REALLY NEED TO BOUNCE IDEAS AROUND regarding the construction of these kites.

please drop me a mail or a line.

Bronwen
0826756181
bronsalton@gmail.com

Floating Island

Hey guys,

As many of you know, I have a bit of an obsession with the space of Grey Dam in Grahamstown and have been thinking about something interesting to do there for a long time.

I realise that I wont be there this year but would like to propose this work for consideration. Floating lilly pads and sculptures made out of tesellated coat-hangers (ala Gordon Froud). It is easy, fun, made with materials that are no hassle, easily transportable and hangers can be distributed afterwards etc. I was thinking it couls also be a nice project for Sakhulunthu Art Factory, Egazini....wherever and the forms that we can produce are basically endless.

I have spoken to Gordon and he is keen on the idea, he also said that he can help us source coathangers at a nominal price.

Let me know what you think.

Tony

Building Trash City

Genevieve Louw

On Saturday the 1st of May, the Spier Contemporary was a little trashy (but this time in a good way) Four of my good buddies/colleagues and I decided to run a workshop at City Hall after collecting alot of tins, boxes, plastic bottles and basically whatever we could find and called it "Metropolis: Building the City". Willard and Juma who work with me brought a few kids from Kayelitsha to come join in the fun and also to make us feel weak next to their awesome skills in sculpture. Lots of people who came to see the exhibition spontaneously joined in too, and we had a good group of about thirty or so people just making something out of nothing. There was an amazing milk bottle tower, a few stadiums with soccer fields (of course), The Cardboard Coffee Shop ( complete with plastic ATM), A radio, a television, cool mixed media cars and helicopters, the Twin Towers also made an appearance with paper aeroplanes, a tower/ stage for the Black Bag Rockstar Man to perform on, and lots lots more cool and interesting happenings. There were people of all ages who ended up making something to make the city grow. The children enjoyed it and some were there with their moms and dads who also made junk art. The sad part was realising when it was time to break it all down and send it all to recycling. I would have loved it if it stayed up as part of the exhibition. I think it would have been the best work on the Spier Contemporary by far! (jokes)



In this pic to the left: the team from left to right: Juma, Nix, Me, Alex,Willard. We are planning to run lots more workshops and would love it if mixtape people want to join in for the fun and get people involved who don't always have an opportunity to make art. My email is genjlouw@gmail.com and if you want to join the next one, I'll post something on the blog in advance and drop me an email if you want to help out.

Sakhulunthu Art Factory Meeting Friday 30th

Hey all,

For those who are interested in getting involved with coordinating or contributing to the Sakhulunthu Art Factory (see previous post for info) at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival, there is a meeting to be held at Hiddingh campus, outside the gallery on Friday 30th (tomorrow) at 5pm.....(we can go from there to Early Friday- so you wont miss anything)

Come through and bring anyone who you think might be interested.

Tony

MIXTAPE/EGAZINI ART PARTY

The Mixtape/Egazini Art Party is a one-night art event (think of the old Public Eye Softserve parties) to be held at the Egazini Outreach Centre on June 25th. Following Mixtape’s mandates of collaboration, integration and community outreach, this event will see artists, musicians and performers from a diverse range of community backgrounds working (and playing) together.

Egazini Outreach Centre is an ex-Apartheid Detention Centre, and now serves as a dynamic workshop, retail, performance and exhibition space for artists, musicians, performers and crafters from Grahamstown’s communities. The Mixtape/Egazini Art Party will see the space transformed into a multicultural, multidisciplinary art space, dance floor (which is a reakky ra, big space) and party venue; with site – specific installations and video pieces from some of Cape Town’s top young artists as well as work in all media from the artists based at Egazini. As part of the preparation for the event there will be an installation workshop at Egazini Centre to introduce the artists working there to elements of contemporary art practice, while Egazini’s artists will give Mixtape members a printmaking workshop so that we can all work together on décor, marketing and collaborative art production.

There will also be a range of performance pieces, some of which will be choreographed specifically for this event.

Music will be as eclectic as we hope our audience to be, with everything ranging from hip hop and spoken word to Indie, rock and House music, so come with open ears and an open mind!

(There might also be Rave Craft - think Traditional Xhosa necklaces made in UV beads)

OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: MIXTAPE PUBLIC ARTS PROJECT GRAHAMSTOWN NATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL FESTIVAL

So, after a year of proposal writing, planning, talking and much panicking, we have finally done it: the Mixtape Public Arts Project is happening at this year's National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, and you can still be a part of it!

For anyone who has been to Grahamstown Festival recently, you may have noticed the lack of engagement not only with contemporary visual art, but also with public art generally - everything is expensive, inaccessible and a long walk up a hill. Mixtape Public Arts Project is changing that, introducing art and performance that is public, interactive, multidisciplinary and collaborative.

At the same time, most of the people who actually LIVE and produce work in Grahamstown and its sorrounds rarely get to experience anything of the Arts Festival, and certainly there are a lot of prohibitions that make it difficult for the majority of Grahamstonians to contribute meaningfully to the Festival programme. Mixtape's Public Art Project aims to bridge the gap between East and West Grahamstown; engaging in meaningful, collaborative projects with people and institutions who represent Grahamstown's community arts and culture projects. As well as working with artists, cultural producers and community leaders, Mixtape's projects and events will encourage festival goers to move from the usual three-street radius that the National Arts Festival centers around, bringing the festival audience to Grahamstown's broader community and vise versa.

The next few posts will detail our projects for the festival; these will be added to, changed, expanded etc in the next few weeks - Please, wherever or whoever you are, comment with ideas, criticisms and anything else you want to share with us.

And if you're in Grahamstown or Cape Town, get in touch with either of us here, or on facebook and come join in our meetings, we're looking for interesting people to think, help, and work together!

P.S by 'us' (as in get hold of), I mean the Project coordinators, myself Linda Stupart (Cape Town) or Craig Groenewald (Grahamstown)
Yay.

Pseudomnesia


Carnage crash of crowded commuter trains
Darting swiftly through the press of craft,
Dodging junks and sampans as she came
Judges were unable to guess his parentage
And hoped he had not sired many offspring.

In 1949 an experimental model flew non-stop
Despite a record fall of snow
Snowy-white, double-thick, home-kitchen fresh
Dead pedestrian lies in doorway
Crushed by steam from a bursting pipe.

A basic item of civilized clothing is shoes
Worn to keep out other people’s feet,
Broken glass, heroism and human failure
A strange city and very eerie at night
Police patrol at a water hole on the fringe of the desert.

Adam Becker (2009)

Anyone Keen to get involved? Grahamstown 2010

Sho, the week has flown by and I have to apologise to those people who were at the Cape Town meeting on Sunday that it is only now that I'm posting something.......well better late.

For those of you who could not make the Mixtape meeting at Kimbo's (or those who feel that meetings are for quitters), we have finally begun planning some of the interventions and projects that we would like to do at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival and are looking for members that are interested in getting involved (either at the festival -20 June-5July- or with ideas, resources etc).

Amongst the many exciting public art projects that we are embarking on during the festival is the Sakhalunthu Art Factory in collaboration with the Sakhalunthu Cultural Group (see Linda's post below). This is an existing group with existing support structures that works with children between the ages of 7-15 in Extension9 Grahamtown. What we are hoping to assist them with is developing an arts programme for the duration of the festival: organising, facilitating or putting them in touch with people who can facilitate workshops for the children with the aim of working towards a larger performance /public artwork. Some of the ideas that have been thrown around are Puppetry, costume making, music and sculpture making workshops.

We will be using both the blog as well as an email group to develop these ideas until we have a tight and workable framework for the festival.

If you are interested in being involved (on any level) in making this project a reality, please email me: eastart.tony@gmail.com and I will include you in the group......everyone is welcome and I am especially interested in engaging and connecting people working in both Cape Town and Grahamstown so that we can better pool our resources.

enjoy and see you on Sunday

A Glimpse into the world of a DTP student

'Only in My Dreams 1' (2010) Hugh Upsher

Tape Hiss and Sparkle - Disc Eight

03 A V Of Swans - Disc Eight by Simon Tamblyn

Disc Eight is up. I figured I'll post my favourite song from each disc on the blog rather than posting each track on the Mixtape blog as it chows bandwidth, so if you wanna dload the whole disc you can go here.

Sweet. And thanks to everyone who made last week's show at Tabula Rasa Theatre, we all had a great time. Many thanks to Sanjin and Jon at Yawazzi!