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The term ‘Open Studio’ is relatively clear in its meaning. An artist provides an audience with access to the environment in which their work is conceptualised and produced. It sits in contrast with but is not necessarily in opposition to an ‘exhibition’, where artwork is generally presented as if it sprung, fully formed and framed, from the gleaming surface of the gallery floor. In Johannesburg, the spaces where artworks are exhibited, are, for the most part, marketplaces, where they are presented as tidy products, packaged to appeal to a buyer. The spaces where art is made bear the marks of the making process, evidence of the trials and errors that precede the artwork.
In theory, the form of the Open Studio resists the resolution that an exhibition demands. It allows for experimentation and a loose, wider interpretation of an artist’s practice, but it is also its own kind of performance, where the need to sell is no less acute than in the space of an exhibition.
The past week in Johannesburg saw both models play out in parallel; Latitudes held its second in-person art fair following a COVID-19 hiatus, and the META foundation launched ‘Open Studios Joburg’, shuttling visitors between studio complexes and related cultural spaces in the inner city. On the surface, the two could not be more different. Shepstone Gardens, where Latitudes hosted this year’s fair, is described on its website as, “...a venue for life's best occasions: the pinnacle of sophistication and grace.” The hyper-embellished architecture and elaborately landscaped Shepstone Gardens with its White Lotus overtones, made for a welcome, if melodramatic, change from the sterile halls of the Sandton Convention Centre. Latitudes created a world of its own, providing an escape for anyone willing to let go of the need for contemporary art to take itself deeply seriously at all times.
The inner city streets and buildings that formed the backdrop for Open Studios Joburg over the same weekend have decidedly less sparkle. The drawcard is the ingenuity, communal spirit and extraordinary hustle that belies Johannesburg’s grit. Despite the sharp variation between these settings, much of the art on show was similar in its execution, medium and subject matter, with many artists exhibiting on Latitudes and Open Studios Joburg simultaneously.
The key difference for Fatima Tayob Moosa, whose gestural paintings appeared on both platforms, was in the way each setting conditioned audience engagement. She explained from her studio at the Bag Factory in Fordsburg that her ”...work doesn't grab lots of people, it has a more intimate relationship with its audience… I’m working on an energetic level - my work is about the process, it’s not about outcomes.” For this reason, Moosa felt the Open Studio format was better suited to her practice, which is rooted in the physical and spiritual act of making.
The dynamic of a working studio inevitably shifts when it becomes a studio on show, and for most artists, there is a level of curation involved. The romanticism around an artist’s process is attractive to visitors, who are allowed to develop a more personal relationship with the artist and their work. Moosa’s process was made legible to her audience through an index of marks, materials and notes in her studio. A range of works was displayed on her walls at various stages of development. She lamented that most of her resolved works had been sent to Latitudes.
Several artists at the Bag Factory transformed parts of their studios into gallery-like spaces, with completed works carefully arranged on the walls or floor area. Usen Obot’s immaculate relief panels and sculptures, incorporating soft acrylic colour, metal and steel elements, were carefully arranged in his studio. His experience running his own gallery, Gallery Noko in Nelson Mandela Bay, was evident.
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