Fever Jubilee

Julia Rosa Clark is inviting all interested parties to meet her for tea/beer/a chat and to collaborate on Fever Jubilee at blank projects. Call her (083 4392854)to meet at a time convenient to you...
otherwise join us for the closing on Thursday 3 January 2008 between 18h00 and 20h00 to view the final outcome of this festive installation.

TWO EXHIBITIONS OPENING AT BLANK ON THURSDAY 13th DECEMBER 2007

FEVER JUBILEE an installation by Julia Rosa Clark
Opening @ 18h00 on Thursday 13th December
• open every Thursday from 18h00-20h00 and by appointment
• ends 5th January 2008
FEVER JUBILEE, is a new installation and performance by Julia Rosa Clark. The artist will turn the gallery into a recuperative grotto-like space. The audience will be invited to just come and relax in this contemporary urban folley, or to grow the space from the inside, with the help of the artist. It is a festive holiday piece: a place in which the artist will spend some quality time resting, with friends and family.

The artist says, "2007 seemed like a long and difficult year for many people close to me. It is finally drawing to a close and it is time to take stock and clear out surplus". A jubilee marks the passing of a period of time, emancipation and a celebration. In this case, the artist celebrates sensuality, colour, music and a move away from sadness and fear. It is a corollary to HYPOCRITE'S LAMENT, her solo show earlier this year ( http://www.artjoao.co.za/exhibitions/exhib2007_clark.html). Whereas Lament was, in part, driven by a response to cycles of addiction and destruction, the artist is now excited by growth and restoration. As is often her process, Julia will use leftovers, clutter, collections of bits and pieces and lots of paper to make up the space.

2) At blank contemporary: WORKS ON PAPER
This group show by 10 well-known SA artists opens Thursday 13th December at 18h00



• Exhibition closes end of January 2008 (open by appointment)
Sanell Aggenbach, Wayne Barker, Jacques Coetzer, Jeanne Hoffman, Lindele Magunya, Thando Mama, Andrzej Nowicki, Linda Stupart, Johan Thom & Kemang Wa Lehulere

(All works on sale for R500 – R5000)

Gugulective

Untitled
Opens: 8 November 2007
Ends: 30 November 2007



Gugulective is an artist collective consisting of 7 members. The name Gugulective derives from the Xhosa word for pride (gugu). Although founded and developed in Gugulethu in 2006, artists from Langa and Khayelitsha have joined the group in the meantime. Due to a number of organisational and financial obstacles, the collective could only take up its practical work in the form of creative projects this year. Two exhibitions were put together in Gugulethu as well as a painting workshop with the local youth.
Gugulective is clearly not aiming at reactionary intervention, but is born out of the need for creative projects in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Art is seen as a means to promote development and create social cohesion within communities. Unfortunately, it is often neglected when crime and economic troubles are prevalent in everyday life. Many township schools for instance do not teach art any longer, and extracurricular activities in this field are largely lacking, too.
To date, their work have been realised in Gugulethu. Untitled is a group exhibition working in and with the blank projects space to create work which will create a conversation between two locations (blank projects in Cape Town and Kwa Mlamli in Gugulethu). The installation piece will consist of tables and chairs taken from Mlami's shebeen and installed at blank projects. Along with the chairs and tables, items of clothing will be installed.

“We aim to challenge the pre-conceived visual representation of shebeens in institutional and gallery spaces. In recent years, the shebeen has been portrayed as a negative and loud space, covered with wall paper, filled with people sitting on beer crates and lacking aesthetics and recreational values.
This piece is symbolic of absence in many ways: the absence of black artists and audience in gallery spaces, and also the fact that mobility structures hinder accessibility to institutional spaces and the city centre itself for individuals residing in Khayelitsha and Gugulethu.”

blank gains weight...

blank is expanding!!

We are opening a second space this month (as from 7 November).
In the room adjacent to blank, we will host a retrospective of past projects. The first show is simply titled: 'blank projects: selected work 2005 - 2007'.

Work by the following artists will be showcased:Nomthunzi Mashalaba, Pierre Fouche, Kerim Seiler, Abrie Fourie/Ella Ziegler, Gabi Ngcobo, ChristianNerf/Douglas Gimberg, Jackson Hlungwani and Barend de Wet.

This space will also be used by our residency artists and for blank admin.

Abrie Fourie & Ella Ziegler

See2 by Abrie Fourie & Ella Ziegler opens this Wednesday 17 October. The Show ends on Friday 3 November.



Image # 1

Unknown man climbing down the façade of Dianahof, Sunnyside, Pretoria, August 2007
Digital photograph

Image # 2

Untitled
Hyena Tail bought at a muti shop

Image # 3

Invisibility by mirrors

Mirrors and stoneware potters clay

CARPENTRY 101

Douglas Gimberg and Christian Nerf present CARPENTRY 101.
The artists will be attempting to dismantle traditional wooden sculptures, you are welcome to join them. A book will accompany the show with contributions from Ronald SureshRoberts, Bettina Malcomess, Nuno Sacramento, Robert Sloon, Ed Young, Andrew Lamprecht, Bianca Baldi, Johan Kritzinger, Dan Halter, LizzaLittlewort, Gimberg and Nerf.
The artists invite you to one final night of Carpentry IOI. Gimbergand Nerf plan to get rid of all the bodies on August 29. Gates open at18h00. The artists will be accepting IOU's for works and prices arenegotiable. Many people participated in the IOI process which producedover 70 works and some great fires. Some are beautifully gold-leafedand others plain crude, but it is the thought that counts.An IOU is a note and acknowledgment of personal debt (from the phrase"I owe you" or "I owe unto") that is generally limited to casual usagebetween acquaintances. 1] Select a work, 2] make a reasonable offer,3] negotiate, if successful 4] sign an IOU and 5] exchange it for thework. Simple. Only bodies will be available, left arms have beenarchived and right arms burnt."There is something beautiful about reversing the process of making.Of undoing something, of taking it apart. Of returning the object towhat it was originally made of. And yet on returning it to the'wood', one may be left with the little arms, remnants of the objectfor which there is no use, a kind of surplus. I do not mean the kindthat brings profit, this is not the 'surplus value' of capitalistexchange. It is rather that which sort of escapes the contract ofexchange. In reality our relations are so much defined by exchange, socompletely rationalised that maybe this is not even possible.It is the little branch Dante plucked, and dropped in fear and leftbehind, like a trace."Bettina Malcomess, Carpentry IOI ISBN: 978-0-620-39272-3"

Visit http://www.artheat.110mb.com/ to download the free online catalogue.