The exhibitions run from 26 July 2010 to 20 August 2010 at 13h00.

Material Matters by Erica Elk

Erica Elk presents a mixed media body of work Material Matters in the Main gallery. Elk utilises everyday materials reconstituting them into a contemporary visual language.

Worker Interrupted by David Rossouw

Worker Interrupted by David Rossouw will employ the Artstrip. A photographic study of the aesthetic of the ordinary and the everyday that references the strong relationship between work and identity. Worker Interrupted references the notion that work influences one’s identity in a physical way. The physical appearance of a worker can be altered subtly over time as muscles are developed due to physical labour. On a superficial level, this alteration can also be in the form of clothing or bodies becoming soiled due to the nature of the work.

The Sum of the Parts by Nike Romano

In the Long gallery Nike Romano explores the space where science, the personal and art intersect. This mixed media body of work is a visual exploration that endeavours to contain the uncontainable. The theme of ordering chaos, both at a domestic level and within the universe runs through Romano’s practice and can be noted in her attention to detail and choose of materials.

Association for Visual Arts Gallery
35 Church Street, Cape Town, South Africa
Gallery hours: Weekdays 10h00 to 17h00,
Saturdays 10h00 to 13h00
Phone: +27-21 424-7436,
Fax: +27-21 423-2637,
avaart@iafrica.com
www.ava.co.za

The AVA in partnership with Spier invites you to Own Goal, to be opened by Melvyn Minnaar at 6 pm on the 31st of May 2010.
The exhibition closes at 1 pm on the 25th of June 2010.

Participating artists:

Sanell Aggenbach, Lynette Bester, Stuart Bird, Matthew Blackman, Kevin Brand, Katherine Bull, Karen Cronje, Connor Cullinan, Justin Fiske, Carol-Anne Gainer, Jonathan Garnham, Svea Josephy, Anton Karstel, Marlise Keith, Tim Leibbrandt, Lizza Littlewort, Virginia MacKenny, Charles Maggs, Lindile Magunya, Bettina Malcomess, Richard Mason, Xolani Moshani, Ndikhumbule Ngqinambi, Anet Noval, Jo O’Connor, Colin Payne, Jeremy Puren, Willie Saayman, David Scadden, Linda Stupart, Michael Taylor,  Johann van der Schijff, Max Wolpe, Ed Young, Dale Yudelman.

Curated by the AVA Football Club

Own Goal, rather than referring to the accident in a soccer game when a player kicks the ball across their own goal line, is a reflection upon goals in the personal and possessive sense.
Goals or milestones in life can be elusive to attain, they can be hidden or explicit, impossible or mundane. Sometimes milestones even come about as the result of an accidental or unintended occurrence.
Own Goal in this context is interested in the psychology of the moment when a particular milestone is achieved or identified.

Association for Visual Arts Gallery
35 Church Street, Cape Town, South Africa
Gallery hours: Weekdays 10h00 to 17h00,
Saturdays 10h00 to 13h00
Phone: +27-21 424-7436,
Fax: +27-21 423-2637,
avaart@iafrica.com
www.ava.co.za

Wine at the opening is kindly sponsored by Spier www.spierwines.co.za

Fiona Gordon: Heads will be turned all over Cape Town’s city centre this week, as strangely dressed characters do even stranger things in and around the city’s public spaces.

In an effort to ‘encourage expression of creative thought’ Spier supports this public arts festival, ‘Infecting the City’, (curated by performance artist extraordinaire, Brett Bailey) as part of their community social investment.

With ‘Human Rites’ as the 2010 theme, and involvement from some of the city’s most prominent and prolific theatre-makers, it seems many of the pieces presented acknowledge aspects of this city’s rich and colourful history, and heritage combinations. This social art encourages different perspectives, and seems to seek to acknowledge the lives and struggles of others, and their impact on our presents, and futures.

I saw two pieces which used open spaces, which in itself from an accessibility and audience development perspective, is a great thing. But I was most grateful for the innovation of the third – a site-specific work that makes use of a monument as a performance space, in a way that some may deem disrespectful, but really to my mind, better fulfils the brief of ‘challenging us to think, reflect and communicate in uniquely powerful ways’.

It’s worth making an effort to attend some of the things on offer. Even if it’s just to watch the passers-by be forced to engage with the space, or happenings in it, in a different way than usual.

“Infection” may have negative connotations, but I certainly left my little sojourn in the city feeling inspired – infected with the positivity that comes from experiencing art.

And even the weather played along providing some of its own drama – threatening to rain out the second performance I saw, while I watched the third, a mere hour later, feeling the rays of the scorching sun. Ah, Cape Town…

Performances and installations happen daily 13-20 February, throughout the CBD, and are almost all free of charge. See www.infectingthecity.com for more details.

Fiona Gordon
fiona@artslink.co.za
www.artslink.co.za

INFECTING THE CITY (ITC) the Spier Public Arts Festival hits the streets of Cape Town for its third year from the 13th- 20th February.

Get out of your comfort zone and engage with exciting large-scale site-specific performance art pieces, choreographic works, installations and low-key interventions. Intriguing participating artists come from South Africa, Zimbabwe, China, the UK, the USA, Greece, Germany, Australia and the Netherlands. A wealth of diversity, viewpoints and talent.

ITC 2010 is themed ‘Human Rite’, asking artists to refigure the public spaces of the inner city as arenas in which we confront some of our demons and attempt to put them to rest. To seek out silent memories and invisible stories and celebrate them. To look for what needs to be righted, and ’rited’.

Witness the new creative voice of 21st century urban Africa. The full programme is available on www.infectingthecity.com.

For further information please contact Felicia Pattison-Bacon on 021 422 0468 or email feliciapb@africacentre.net