July TAG Newsletter

It is that time of year again at the studios, when work made in the last couple of months by our visiting artists will culminate in an exhibition entitled Roots Routes on the 24 July 2007. The open studio exhibition will also draw in recent work by some of our resident artists at the studios and promises to be a cozy, intimate evening of rich conversations by the fire, warm beverages, wholesome soup and great art! The artists, Dana Hargrove and Lesego Moncho, have worked consistently during their stay at the studios and as Jill Trappler, one our committee members comments ‘ their quiet enthusiastic contributions’ will be greatly missed. I can’t help but think to myself, have three full months rolled by so soon? Progress indeed has been made, perhaps more slowly than some of our artists would have anticipated, but if we dare to step back from our preoccupations, we can begin to see that indeed meaningful work has been made.

One initiative that is coming to a head at the studios is the instalment of a protective fence around the property. With the hope that more funding is secured for equipment and computers in our resource centre, it is imperative that we clothe ourselves appropriately with secure structures. The intention is not to create an ominous barrier between the artists and the community, but rather form a deterrent of sorts against increased crime experienced across the city.

While the artists at Greatmore Studios congratulate resident artist Nicholas Hales for his efforts in working towards a solo exhibition Adytum at Joao Ferreira Gallery on the 1 August 2007, it is in the same breath that we must also bade him goodbye. Nicholas has been resident at the studios since June 2002 and will leave the studios to continue his art practice in the city. TAG would like to wish him the very best of success in all his forthcoming endeavours.

As August creeps in, and a little sunshine with it, Greatmore Studios will be abuzz with six emerging artists enrolled in a month long mentoring workshop. Pulling artists from as far as Namibia and Zimbabwe, as well as a pool of local artists from the western Cape and Guateng, we hope this will be an exciting time for our resident artists to be challenged to move beyond themselves and impart their rich experience and skills with a new generation of artists. We are expectant of a visual feast!

So from me at the desk, I hope to see some of you at our forthcoming exhibition. For those artists working locally in Cape Town, and who have established art practices, we would like to encourage you to submit your applications to take up residency at the studios. Artists hold one-year tenure of their studios but are allowed to stay up to three years, after which new artists will be invited in. The studios at Greatmore are heavily subsided with somewhat ridiculously low rental fees! The need for working space is critical and this opportunity allows artists a space to work, developing their practice while being exposed to a pool of like-minded artists working in various other media.

p.s. Next month’s offering promises to provide our readers with direct interface with resident artist Mandla Vanyaza’s work as we talk honestly about art making as well as discuss how his infamous visit with Gerard Sekoto in Paris left an definite impression on his practice.

Your letters

Thank you Mr Ezeadichie for your warm email. We are delighted that we are reaching artists from across the continent. We hope through the newsletter that indeed you will stay connected and inspired by your contemporaries sin South Africa and beyond.

TAG editor

“I visited Greatmore Studios last January with an artist friend of mine Joan Needham. We were visiting from Khayelitsha where we were working with some of the artist/mothers at Philani, the health clinic…I just wanted you to know how moved I am by the sentiment you expressed in your "editor's notes". Artists can indeed be as self-focused and ungenerous as the rest of us. It's such a pity because, as you write, it is a lost opportunity to grow together…I am sure things will get better …”

Indeed Kate the onus is on all of us artists to make sure an obsession with developing one’s art practice does not leave us distanced from the greater stories happening all around us! We are hopeful that with new artists arriving and leaving Greatmore, we are all the more challenged to see a bigger picture.

Dana Hargrove, a Scottish artist now living in Florida, USA, has traveled widely and arrives in Cape Town to create art as well as reconnect with her family, making sense of an upbringing strongly influenced by the continent. Meeting her biological father for the first time in his home country and getting to know her half sister has also inspired and influenced her new work that uses acrylic and ink. Using the intricate designs and patterns found on local security gates, barbed wire and bridges, Hargrove weaves these motifs into a narrative that becomes a metaphor for the struggle and emotional and intellectual barriers that people erect consciously and subconsciously in relations with each other.

Dana Hargrove: I came to the residency with a sense that I wanted to work with patterns, perhaps African textiles or icons specific to the urban landscape in Cape Town. My work uses happy, cheerful colours but in a way is like a double-edged sword, it is loaded with multiple meanings.

I think I had set my sights two high and that made me initially disappointed .I came to South Africa already thinking about all the crates of work that I would have to return home with. After two months though I had hardly anything to show! I had not really considered the 'real' time it would take to actually produce work in this very foreign place. It takes timeto develop one’s ideas. Getting to know my father and sister during my visit to South Africa have been a huge part of my growth and creative process…when I initially came everything was a little uncomfortable as you can imagine must have had some culture shock but it has all worked out.

D.H.:I can visualize the exhibition! I feel happy about that. I was stressed earlier, but realising that it is an open studio event takes the pressure off and I began to just produce.I hope to strip the whole studio to whiteness and mount little canvases on the walls of different spike motifs that are common on many of the neighborhood fences- this will form some sort of installation. I am also hoping to accompany this body of work with photographs of fences, gates and communication lines that have informed my work over the last three months. For me photographs add a clear dimension to the show. In some of my work, I explore an Afrikaans structural fence called ‘broekie-lace which are very much embedded in Edwardian history and has links with imperialism. They are very colonial. Since I arrived I have been able to pick up the links everywhere with Europe- a culture that has a strong signature in the architecture. I was interested in isolated visual cues in the landscape that could speak for something else. The ‘broekie-lace’ as much as it speaks of security also can allude to the pretty barriers we erect in our communication with others on a relational level. I think people will understand the work. Some of my pieces are a little moody but all of it is pretty readable.

Born 41 years ago in the rural village of Taung in a remote area in the North West Province, Lesego Moncho is a practicing artist who has drawn inspiration from rural rituals, customs and cultural practices he shares with a community who are descendants of the Khoi and the San. Moncho has had much experience teaching, and is an active participant of various heritage projects around the country and displays absolute dedication and passion as a self-taught artist to his practice. Despite a challenging background with few resources, Lesego has managed to focus on his art practice and produce a body of work that displays his skill and mature use of abstraction in depicting figures. Unlike many of his black contemporaries who would have had formal training at an art college, Lesego is untainted by a school of landscape that has its roots in a missionary education. With a limited palette of mostly warm earthy colours, Lesego’s pieces ranges from oil on canvas to mixed media, displaying a sophisticated understanding of form; his love for music also finds strong expression in his work.

Lesego Moncho: I am largely a self-taught artist who developed a strong aptitude for drawing and painting in my early formative years. I have over the years read a lot, educated myself about the arts. I always said that if someone where to ask me about ‘tonal values ‘ or depth’ that I would understand what they are referring too. I spent a lot of my time at local libraries trying to better my knowledge and enrolled in a few workshops to push my art practice as well as market my art. My work is very much influenced by Cecil Skotnes.He was a great painter in my view-I have a lot of respect for his work.

L.M.: My earlier work had lacked a true sense of contrast. Artists such as Nicholas Hales have been very receptive to my work, and through discussions and informal studio visits, I have been able to identify this and make appropriate improvements to my body of work. I have since started using a palette knife in my painting that has given my work a new texture.

L.M.: The work is very much reflective of myself, my engagement. Through my work I do not attempt to part with my culture, the lovely traditional dances, people and their story telling. I am feeling very energetic and will continue this pace until the opening of the exhibition. I really can’t stop working! After repainting the walls white again, I will mount all my paintings on the wall and begin to select a nice narrative that I want to share with the audience. I will make a few resolutions to the work.

TAG: Where to from now, I believe you have plans to initiate a similar artists network in your home province?

L.M.: A team of artists and I are currently trying to secure sponsorship to rehabilitate a local municipality building we are currently leasing. The space is actually an abandoned building we identified in the area that forms an art center of sorts. People in my province are not into the arts. Taung is a very rural area and although people are good at making crafts, no one has seen the need to even sell artistic materials in the area. Through this art center it is hoped to be able to provide a space were artists can work, take artists seriously and professionally, and perhaps find opportunities to share my little knowledge with them and help to open their eyes and ears to a greater artistic world.

On my return I hope to explore the possibilities of getting accredited by Mapp Seta to work in a tutorship and mentorship capacity in my province.

Roots Routes will open at Greatmore Studios in Woodstock on Tuesday the 24^th July 2007 at 5pm and will also showcase the work of a pool of resident artists. Warm soup and light snacks will be provided. For more information please call Mishkaah on 021 4479699.

In memory of Madi Phala

Months prior to his tragic death early this year, resident artist Madi Phala was the recipient of a commission by the Sunday Times Centenary Heritage project to create a memorial to the sinking of the SS Mendi. As a memorial to the late artist himself, Roderick Sauls a contemporary of Phala was asked to make an intervention at the site. Sauls chose to use a bed of protective sea stones that he laid around the existing artwork, to pay tribute to the fallen art hero. Bauer commented that, “ Roderick Sauls’ commission to re-landscape Madi's SS Mendi memorial artwork, serves to honour Madi's role in realising this project for us.” For more information about this initiative please visit http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/heritage/ssmendi/index.asp

Resident at Greatmore Studios since June 2002, this August Nicholas Hales will showcase his most recent body of work in an exhibition entitled Adytum at the Joao Ferreira Gallery in Cape Town. This offering attempts to draw his audience into a difficult discussion around our ‘true selves’ and the desire many of us have to access this somewhat inaccessible ‘space’. Through his work, Hales who works in various media, ranging from wood, oil, wax, enamel and pencil, attempts to make sense of the dormant frustration and anger he has witnessed in many of the individuals in the urban environment in which he locates himself. Looking at his images one gets a sense that there is myriad of seething unspoken emotions brewing below the surface of the canvas. Using small coloured boxes to speak about the human psyche and make reference to our somewhat fractured minds and emotions, Hales comments on the lack of coherence and wholeness many individuals experience. Hales paintings can also be read as individual narratives that speak of the artist’s own journey in his quest to find authentic truth. The frantic scribbles in his Hidden Series (2007) become a metaphor for the tortured psyche. Hales notes that the youth have tap into the medium of graffiti in their attempt to make sense of their complex histories. Engaging with such an image, one is lead to question whether in deed the feeble attempts at expressing pain through such markings, can in fact lead to any a sense of emotional liberation that many so desperately crave.

On the surface his compositions are simple, but given time, the weight of his calculated design begins to draw the viewer into a larger story, though work that is loaded with meaning and a strong sense of spirituality. Strongly couched in a background of Buddhism, Christian mysticism and various other spiritual practices Hales work has a meditative stillness about it that invites us to peal beneath the veneer of an often-sordid reality of our own lives in an attempt to find true peace. In Towerof Light (2007), Hales encourages the reader to transcend the small insignificant stories we so easily live and engage in something more meaningful. Again in his Hidden (1997) series the artist through his scored canvas speaks of a tension between our real scared selves and our destined selves. Adytum is the Latin for a inner sanctuary where it is believed an oracle would reside, in Looking In (1997) Hales posits that to get to that inner space one must confront ones self with all one’s inconsistencies and come to a place of realness, simplicity and honesty. It is only then can we truly reach enlightment. The slight movement captured through Hales deliberate use of line in his work, eludes to the fact that this quest to enter the inner sanctuary is more a life long pursuit rather than a finite destination. When commenting on his own work, Nicholas links the narrative of his body of work, to the reality and struggle individuals face in post apartheid South Africa as they coming to terms with rather abstract notions of freedom and liberation. There are so many neglected stories; so many deep hurts that left ignored are brewing below the surface of men and women. Often through random acts of crime and violence we can witness elements of repressed anger bleeding inappropriately to the surface. As Hales poignantly captures in Adytum there are many obstacles- complex emotions, our own sense of spirituality and intellect, that we must confront and resolve to some degree to enter the sweet place of wholeness and self actualization- a space of true freedom. It is not a process we can attempt on our own terms but rather demands a Being that transcends our own selves, as we know it.

Nicholas Hales is a contemporary artist living in urban Cape Town, whose primary obsession is painting. After obtaining an Advanced Diploma in fine art at UCT, Hales has since had several solo exhibitions that in varying degrees have explored the self and his search of truth in a spiritually bankrupt world. For more information on the artist visit www.nicholashales.co.za

Wonder Marthinus: My work plays around with both interior and outdoor spaces –I explore landscapes both in Germany and Cape Town. The work on display is drawn from a body of work entitled ‘Inside Out”.

TAG: Please bring us into focus. How and where did your journey as an artist begin, to get you to this present stage of your art practice. Did you have formal training as an artist?

W.M.: I was a dancer in the early 80’s, mainly specialising in Hip Hop working in the townships in Elsie River and Hanover Park. After a tragic accident I was severely injured and unable to dance…I got caught up very deeply in alcoholism and was not doing much. I stayed with my brother and his family over those years and worked as a panel beater, but one day something broke in me and forced me out of the house and my familiar surrounds. I went to the streets to get away...to escape…myself? I soon realized that the streets were no place for any human being, was homeless and one day found myself in the mountains. For over 5years the Mountains of Cape Town became my home. I sleep, move for a few days and find another place to sleep. I was a very lonely experience, very few people lived on the mountain there and often one would find oneself talking alone. Human contact became something I was not familiar with…As I became more comfortable with myself I would go down the mountain and explore the world below…one day I was hungry and went to a soup kitchen at a local church. It was a Tuesday. There I met up with former resident artists Anthony Cawood who was conducting an outreach project with homeless people. He said that if I joined in with his painting class I would get a free meal…I quickly developed a relationship with Anthony, he would often come to visit me on the mountain and he introduced me to other artists working at Greatmore Studios. I enrolled in my first Thupelo workshop and my art practice really began…I was found.

W.M.: When I became a resident artist at Greatmore, I began to take up lodging at the artists’ house in Observatory. As the mountain became a prohibited area for me. This was my first formal accommodation in over 5 years. It was in the house that I got to meet many artists from all over the world, Switzerland, Germany…During my time at Greamore I met up with German artists Susi Juvan who in the past had worked as a ceramicist making ceramic vases. She lives near the Black Forrest in Germany and during her brief visit to the studios; we explored the possibilities of working on a collaborative piece. She want ed to change her approach as an artist and in 2001 she helped to secure me a three-month residency in Basel .We decided to exchange a piece of work from our individual collections and allow the other artist t o interpret it in their own visual language. I took time to study her painting until I became familiar with it and then began to ‘translate’ the work into my own style. The collaboration culminated in an exhibition we had wanted to call "Fish and Chips".The name was eventually changed for various reasons.

TAG: I imagine you experienced a lot of freedom during your stay on the mountain, why would you confine yourself to painting interior spaces. W.M.: Freedom is a funny word. My mountain experiences were very lonely times during which I had to deal with myself in many dimensions. The time on the mountain has many sad memories, both my parents died during my time living on the mountain. I had to deal with all of this. I am always drawn to the surroundings when I enter a new area I am immediately aware of space and place because I did not have definitions before. Notions of place are very strong in my work; it is about how I sit in a place that I keep in my mind. My work depicts my emotions in particular places the work is not literal spaces it is more abstract and a deconstruction of reality. I do not limit y work mainly to landscape painting I believe that my experiences are more than that. Living at the house with fellow artists really exposed me to art making-the arts were talked about daily. I attempt to capture that in my work.

Studio Conversation with Jill Trappler

Jill Trappler arrives on the scene very much a textile artist. With a large body of work ranging from paintings to structural forms, her style is strongly couched in a tradition of weaving, a practice that has been well cultivated over generations in West Africa, Europe and Australia. It is this rich palette of colours and patterned motifs found on various textiles all over the world that Jill has chosen to draw on as a stimulus for her creative process. Studio Conversation marks the first time that Trappler exhibits such an extensive collection of work that results in a mid-career retrospective. The artist invites viewers to journey with her into twenty-five years of spirited conversations, rich relationships and the ebb and flow of a colourful, and full life.

The exhibition promises to provide a comprehensive albeit non-chronological record of the transformation and metamorphis of Jill Trappler’s work over two decades. An unapologetic colorist, Jill Trappler has used paint over the years in an unadulterated format to build texture and convey various emotions that have characterised her own life experiences. Her visual poems do not follow a linear artistic trajectory, and to simply claim that the movement of her work over the years displays a greater level of maturity would be to negate the wealth of her earlier experiences with abstraction. Perhaps it would be more correct to say that Jill’s work has always been mature in its attempt to explore new possibilities, new techniques and pigments. The artist’s shift in sensibilities from a strong use of abstraction as an emerging artist, to greater use of the figure as a reference in her mature years, has given her work great range. Throughout her interrogations of complex matters of loss and memory to more simple explorations of the texture and colour of cultural rituals and mundane objects Jill Trappler’s work has consistently been marked by a remarkable energy and passion.

In her Reverberation Series (1997) Trappler’s aggressive mesh of string and canvas tell a story of the strength and exuberance of sounds accompanying complex traditional rituals that have fascinated the artist. Although Trappler insists that she avoids metaphor in her work, even in its most simple form, her work is clearly embedded in layers of memories, both personal and borrowed from various artistic and cultural practices around the world. Choosing to explore her themes in series, Trappler attempts to offer a more complete story of her experiences, although her intentional avoidance of titles lends a mystery and ambiguity to her work.

This sense of mystery and insubstantiality of life is evident in the tiw series in which Trappler constructs life size garments woven from strips of vibrantly coloured canvas. The collection of dresses is crude and form wall hangings creased and stained with the experiences and personalities of their owners. The movements she captures in these garments tell of the exuberance and vitality of specific women known to the artist. Although the work is highly individuated, it has a universal relevance making strong reference to the complexities of the feminine life. Despite the deliberate use of vibrant colours, the garments, which form skeletons of human personalities, speak of absence and loss -there is a definite sense of sadness that underlines them.

The female form for Trappler is a source of great inspiration and in her woman series she uses large rectangular boards that she binds with convoluted pieces of canvas. On a superficial level she makes references to the life force of the umbilical cord and fallopian tube. The series are very sculptural and when placed along side each other, resemble cultural totem poles, inviting the viewer to participate in some form of reflection and act of worship. The pieces are performative in that they allow the viewer to feel the movement and energy that the artist experienced in her creative process. Using the border of her paintings to contain her narratives, Trappler views each canvas as a separate package of experiences and stories. As a body of work her colourful canvases read like a patchwork landscape, fragmented, but unified by a similar reference to pattern and mark.

Informed by a keen understanding of design, Trappler shows great concern for mark and line in a way that is somewhat deliberate and controlled; in her Incantation series however, the artist allows her medium to assume its own rhythm on the canvas- her use of a frantic riot of lines is creates a fierce energy on the canvas. The varying strength of line can create different narratives, and Trappler’s Jetty series tells a simple story of gently fading memories by a lake. The artist’s playful use of dots in the vibrant sunshine yellow of Harvest (2004) lead the viewer down a humorous, light and almost childlike path of discovery and dance. Her work as much as it is organic and free is marked by a distinct directive voice of the artist that is both confident and courageous.

Retrospective exhibitions are unique in the way they are instrumental in rewriting history.

Unlike many of her contemporaries who have chosen to employ a vocabulary of struggle in their art practice during apartheid, Trappler engages in the fight for freedom in a very unique way. Despite obvious criticism that her work and subject matter is insensitive to the harsh realities of apartheid, Jill Trappler in this mid career exhibition frees herself from the baggage of ‘struggle’ and unashamedly contributes a different conversation. Her collection of work produced pre-independence tells ‘another’ story of ordinary people, landscapes, energy and fierce aggression and resilience they possessed in a time of trouble and unrest. Through a strong focus on design Trappler depicts garments, mundane objects and landscapes worn and stained by life itself. Through a provocative display of colour the artist celebrates the vicissitudes of life while leaning on the consistent changes of textile designs that have characterised robust cultures in Nigeria, Australia and South Africa for millennia. People come and go but there are memories that we can hold on to- even within the smaller narratives of life the artist looks to celebrate a sense of dignity and importance. Trappler’s work also has a strong sense of musicality that dates back to the days where jazz became a colourful way of expressing one’s resilience during apartheid.

Contextualising this eclectic collection of work in an old church in Orange Street, Cape Town, Trappler invites the viewer to appreciate the sacredness of her work and creative process. Her colourful offerings, that are personal translations of incantations and verses that have marked textile making for centuries, become acts of worship to a power that transcends the artist. Traditional churches are spaces of convergence; spaces of vulnerability where men and women are invited to laugh and shed their tears over broken lives. For Trappler, her work is her private offering of a full and dynamic life. The sheer presence and weight of the works begs the viewer to dive into the composition and colour of the work and engage with it emotionally, physically and spiritually.

Due to the broad mix of work on display creating various rhythms and conversations within one exhibition, this is one show that demands a thoughtful curator to arrange the work in such a way that will invite the viewer to linger at various moments within the space. Studio Conversation reads like a complete anthology– the work is meaningful, full and decadent, with the artist wringing so much emotion out of each mark and brush stroke that it is evident that the creative process is exhausting and overwhelming in its self. Like any wholesome meal, this body of work should be approached with ease and time to be fully satisfying

Work is currently being exhibited at Orange Street Studio, Gardens Presbyterian Church and will close on Friday 20 July 2007. For more information about the artist contact her on 021 422 1865 . Alternately email her on trappler@telkomsa.net or visit www.jilltrappler.com

Spier Contemporary launches a residency programme in the Eastern Cape

Working from the premise that art education in South Africa remains limited, due to poor infrastructural connection to the rest of the country and the wider art world. The Spier Contemporary has partnered with the University of Fort Hare to implement an-artist-in-residence programme for rural artists from the Eastern Cape, giving them an opportunity to explore new media and techniques. Under the coordination of Churchill Madikida, this outreach programme will take the form of studio visits, slide presentations and inter-active workshops. The first group of artists is currently working at the newly renovated facilities at Fort Hare. It is hoped that a second group will begin their work in August. A long-term strategy looks to develop a database of artists and initiatives in the identified areas which will benefit from fostering partnerships with museums and art galleries, higher education and training institutions, government departments, the cultural industries SETA, community organisations and interested NGOs. Please visit www.spiercontemporary.co.za for more information about this unique initiative.

An honest and simple site to recent images of work .If you currently do not have a website of your own, this could be an inexpensive tool to get your work exposed by a larger audience, as well as enabling you to expand your artistic network. Visit www.myartprofile.com

A the worldwide network of artist-residencies and residential art centers. Visit www.resartis.org

A research-and-development lab for the arts, that provides artists with up to date news about latest opportunities in the art arena globally, visit www.artistcommunities.org for more information.

The Westland Art Society calls for artists to submit applications for a Koekenaap Regional Workshop in 2007

Scheduled to take place from 21 September to 29 September 2007, the Wesland art Society in association with the Department of Cultural affairs in the Matzikama District is proud to host a weeklong workshop in Koekennap. The workshop aims to converge professional, full-time artists from diverse backgrounds, privileged and historically disadvantaged artists, in a mutually supportive environment that encourages freedom to experiment through sharing of ideas, techniques and disciplines. It is hoped that following the workshop, the artists will emerge empowered to further their artistic practices as well as make meaningful contributions in the community. Three basic meals will be provided each day, and simple accommodation. Basic art materials will also be provided. Each artist will be responsible for providing their own transport, bedding and any specialist art materials needed. Interested artists are asked to submit an updated C.V., photographs /CD or slides of recent work as well as a motivation letter (English, Xhosa/Afrikaans). The applications can be sent to: Koekenaap Workshop, Private Bag X17, Vredendal, 8160; or hand delivered to: Koekenaap Workshop, Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport, 31 Matzikama Street, Vredendal 8160 (For attention Mandy – tel.: 027-2133018). For more information and help with the applications please contact Des on +27 2132567 or Sharon on 073 6192275. The workshop will culminate in an open day exhibition of work in progress by all the artists. Deadline for submissions is 18 August 2007.

Call for Applications to participate in an exhibition entitled Landscapes of my heart

Landscape artists are encouraged to submit proposals of work that will depict South Africa to be included in an exhibition entitled Landscapes of my heart” to take place from 12 November 2007 to 30 November 2007. Artwork that showcases recognisable elements of the country’s various romantic destinations. Will be selected. The aim of the exhibition is to create a telling narrative of the country’s magical pictures to the art viewer and take them on
a fantastic visual art tour, creating a characteristic art journey of places that will last in our memories. Participating artists will have the opportunity to paint at various show times during the exhibition at Arts cape as well as have an option to participate in the SA ART marketing calendar for 2008. Successful artists will also have the opportunity to accompany their art with a short story or poem. Please submit images you would like to be considered to mail@saart.net. Deadline for submissions is 10 October 2007. A minimum charge of R120 will be charged per artwork or otherwise artists can submit for pieces for R350. Charges include rental and administration costs. For more information contact Sanet Visser on 0824915461 for more details.

Kuona Trust invites artists to participate in the second international forest workshop Nairobi, Kenya

Kuona Trust, a sister organization of Greatmore Studios invites artists from various levels of professional development to participate in a two week long international Forest workshop that seeks to encourage the Kenyan public to “re-look” at the issue of deforestation and the loss of wilderness sites with the hop to inspire a desire to keep these sites healthy and alive. The hope is that the exchange with international artists will challenge Kenyan artists to work in a completely different and new environment, which may make the artists and members of the public question their ideas on art. The workshop is scheduled to take place from 24 September - 6 October 2007. Interested candidates are asked to submit a motivational letter, n updated CV to Michael soi on smichael@kuonatrust.org. Artists are required too fund their own air travel to Nairobi, however accommodation, food and transport within Nairobi will be provided. The deadline for applications is 15 August 2007.

Dwayer’s international visual arts workshop for women, scheduled to take place in January 25 2008 until February 2008, is the first of its kind in the arts field in Egypt to converge women who work in the visual arts from the entire world in Alexandria. The workshop will be form collaboration with Atelier of Alexandria (Assembly of Artists and Writers). The fifteen-day workshop will gather a group of female artists to exchange their artistic work learn about their respective cultures and develop work together in a collective environment of intense dialogue and creativity. The primary goal of the workshop is to stimulate Egyptian female artists to create work through mutual exchange and collaboration with international female artists. Drawing up to 30 artists, 5 Egyptians and 25 female artists from other countries, every artist will also have the opportunity to give a presentation in the first two days of the workshop, about her own work and culture. Toward the end of the workshop, the artists will be invited to share work developed during the workshop. Artists working professionally in the field of visual arts in (painting, drawing, printing, sculpture, photography and performance art) are encouraged to apply. Applications may be obtained by visiting www.dwayer.org and accompanied by up to five images a complete application should be sent to women.workshop1@dwayer.org and info@dwayer.org. Deadline for applications is September 15, 2007.

editor’s notes …(read more)

our news

Roots Routes is a visual art exhibition that looks at drawing the unique narratives of two visiting artists. TAG speaks to Dana Hargrove and Lesego Moncho about their working process and looks at the challenges they have encountered during their three month residency …(read more)

In memory of Madi Phala Charlotte Bauer project director of the Sunday Times Heritage Project speaks to TAG about new interventions made to late resident artists Madi Phala’s SS Mendi memorial by fellow artist Roderick Sauls …(read more)

arrivals & departures

The Westland Art Society calls for artists to submit applications for a Koekenaap Regional Workshop in 2007 …(read more)

Call for Applications to participate in an exhibition entitled Landscapes of my heart …(read more)

Kuona Trust invites artists to participate in the second international forest workshop Nairobi, Kenya…(read more)

Call for applications for the Dwayer’s International visual arts workshop for women Egypt…(read more)

Call for applications to participate in Dwayer’s International exhibition for digital arts Egypt …(read more)

editor’s notes

Your letters

Thank you Mr Ezeadichie for your warm email. We are delighted that we are reaching artists from across the continent. We hope through the newsletter that indeed you will stay connected and inspired by your contemporaries sin South Africa and beyond.

TAG editor

In memory of Madi Phala

Studio Conversation with Jill Trappler

Call for applications to participate in Dwayer’s International exhibition for digital arts Egypt