28th: So anyway got a comment the other day from the mysterious BlackArks - they have a blogger profile but with no info other than they have been online since September 2011 - hmmmm - it made me think - well not much actually - that has been the problem over the last while it has just been work work work work work I am an automaton and I just work work work work work I get up out of bed and I go straight to work work work work work and I only stop work work work work work when it is time for bed work work work work work it is just work work work work monday to sunday work work work work work the life of an artist work work work work work. Yip I know life is not supposed to be easy but this is just taking the piss.
Below is the flyer from the Assembledge fringe show (my name is in the far right corner). All in all I would say it was a pretty cool event. Anyway I am just going to go back to work work work work work.......
15th: Some times I seriously wonder about the validity of calling myself an artist. With the amount of time I get to spend on my practice it hardly seems like a hobby. Sure I have ideas that I want to execute but looking at my work commitments for the next month or two I am going barely going to be having the time to sit on arse to take a quick five minute breather let alone do something productive. The worst thing about this all is that the money that I am bringing in doesn't even cover the bills. Yip I guess things feel pretty hopeless.
On the bright side I have been selected to take part in a show that is being run by Assembledge. The title of the show is titled 'The Art of Assembledge'. It is part of the Johannesburg fringe which is running concurrently with the Johannesburg Art Fair. The show runs from the 21st till the 25th September.
The image below is the piece that I am exhibiting. It is titled 'The Boxer' and is a self portrait which I took with Helga. I stood her up one way to expose half the photograph and then turned her over to take the other half.
4th: So after getting the call on thursday to come and collect my rejected piece for this years Tahmi Mnyeli Open I went out to get it today. After wandering around the space to see what had been selected I went to go and take my piece of it's easel...'what are you doing?'...'I'm collecting my entry'...'you got your receipt?'...'No'...'You can't take that one it has been selected'...'Ok its just that I got a phone call telling me to come and pick it up'...'someone has been making phone calls to the wrong people, all the ones with a green sticker have been selected'..'oh ok'.. and so after the initial WTF? to laughing about the fact that I hadn't got in to the final I finally ended up having to leave my work as it had actually been selected...oh well.
3rd: Well went to the opening of Sasol New Signatures. As an event it was pretty cool. Good food accomponied with the usual scramble etc etc. The work was ok, saw a couple of pieces that I liked, but to be honest on the whole I found the show to be a little underwhelming. And the catalogue? While it is great to have a record, it would have been nice to see a truer representation of ones work.
I don't know whether I should be admiting to this but my work for the Thami Mnyeli Open got rejected. My Voortrekker piece. Yip....WTF!?!?! In the words of the great Mutley 'Shagafraghashaga' or something to that effect. Yes it is the ultimate humiliation. So yes now I am going to have to go through the humbling experience of picking my work up whilst trying not to think 'how the hell did that get in?' as I walk past some piece of rubbish. Anyway,this brings to mind my experience of walking round the Tate Modern and then the National Gallery in London. With the work in the National Gallery you do not need to be told how good it is. To be considered great it needs no justification, nor do they require you to like them. With the work in the Tate it is different. With some of the works you need the confirmation, to be told that they are great pieces of art, and of course with personal taste coming in to it, it is easy to dismiss one piecs of work as being a joke. The same can be said of some of the works that are selected for ABSA, Sasol, Thami Mnyeli etc etc. Sometimes the justification required seems to vastly outweigh the quality of the work. At times it is all to easy to pick holes in some of the selections. If you are not selected this is no reason to get upset as it is just the way the it is. Best to just shrug your shoulders and say - oh well.
So what else, there is the group on at Fried which I am a part of and then the Altered Pieces group show has moved to Pandora.
Below is the flyer from the Assembledge fringe show (my name is in the far right corner). All in all I would say it was a pretty cool event. Anyway I am just going to go back to work work work work work.......
15th: Some times I seriously wonder about the validity of calling myself an artist. With the amount of time I get to spend on my practice it hardly seems like a hobby. Sure I have ideas that I want to execute but looking at my work commitments for the next month or two I am going barely going to be having the time to sit on arse to take a quick five minute breather let alone do something productive. The worst thing about this all is that the money that I am bringing in doesn't even cover the bills. Yip I guess things feel pretty hopeless.
On the bright side I have been selected to take part in a show that is being run by Assembledge. The title of the show is titled 'The Art of Assembledge'. It is part of the Johannesburg fringe which is running concurrently with the Johannesburg Art Fair. The show runs from the 21st till the 25th September.
The image below is the piece that I am exhibiting. It is titled 'The Boxer' and is a self portrait which I took with Helga. I stood her up one way to expose half the photograph and then turned her over to take the other half.
4th: So after getting the call on thursday to come and collect my rejected piece for this years Tahmi Mnyeli Open I went out to get it today. After wandering around the space to see what had been selected I went to go and take my piece of it's easel...'what are you doing?'...'I'm collecting my entry'...'you got your receipt?'...'No'...'You can't take that one it has been selected'...'Ok its just that I got a phone call telling me to come and pick it up'...'someone has been making phone calls to the wrong people, all the ones with a green sticker have been selected'..'oh ok'.. and so after the initial WTF? to laughing about the fact that I hadn't got in to the final I finally ended up having to leave my work as it had actually been selected...oh well.
3rd: Well went to the opening of Sasol New Signatures. As an event it was pretty cool. Good food accomponied with the usual scramble etc etc. The work was ok, saw a couple of pieces that I liked, but to be honest on the whole I found the show to be a little underwhelming. And the catalogue? While it is great to have a record, it would have been nice to see a truer representation of ones work.
I don't know whether I should be admiting to this but my work for the Thami Mnyeli Open got rejected. My Voortrekker piece. Yip....WTF!?!?! In the words of the great Mutley 'Shagafraghashaga' or something to that effect. Yes it is the ultimate humiliation. So yes now I am going to have to go through the humbling experience of picking my work up whilst trying not to think 'how the hell did that get in?' as I walk past some piece of rubbish. Anyway,this brings to mind my experience of walking round the Tate Modern and then the National Gallery in London. With the work in the National Gallery you do not need to be told how good it is. To be considered great it needs no justification, nor do they require you to like them. With the work in the Tate it is different. With some of the works you need the confirmation, to be told that they are great pieces of art, and of course with personal taste coming in to it, it is easy to dismiss one piecs of work as being a joke. The same can be said of some of the works that are selected for ABSA, Sasol, Thami Mnyeli etc etc. Sometimes the justification required seems to vastly outweigh the quality of the work. At times it is all to easy to pick holes in some of the selections. If you are not selected this is no reason to get upset as it is just the way the it is. Best to just shrug your shoulders and say - oh well.
So what else, there is the group on at Fried which I am a part of and then the Altered Pieces group show has moved to Pandora.
