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The Nandos ‘Guide to Art’ booklet served as a great entry point for visitors to engage with the artists and art on offer at the Open Studios programme that took place in Joburg last week alongside the RMB Latitudes Art Fair. It included questions such as “What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received on your work?” and “When did you get interested in art?”. The booklet also contained stickers derived from trendy memes with words such as “thought-provoking” and “main character energy” that one could place underneath the artworks.
There were a few “that’s extra hot’ stickers placed next to Levy Pooe’s The Monologue (2022), which was included in a group exhibition at the Bag Factory, the starting venue for the Saturday programme. The painting depicts a figure sitting on a chair holding a red rose. One could link Pooe’s distinct style to Cubism, a style that makes objects, and subjects, appear fragmented and abstract. Conventionally in galleries, there would be a small circular red sticker to indicate that the work was bought, but here the audience got the opportunity to visually appreciate the works.
The booklet also contains Nan-don’ts that explained the lack of chicken at the event. This section unpacks art decorum, from not touching the art (especially with spicy Peri-Peri fingers) to not expecting all the art you view to be pretty or comprehensible. For those who were not as familiar with art and its context, the booklet proved an effective companion. Perhaps the section should also include an ‘attire don’t, of which platform boots should be listed first. As I discovered this is not the ideal event to break in a new pair of shoes.
Young Womxn Studio Bursary awardee Nadia Myburgh included a video piece in her collection of artworks. This was refreshing to see in contrast to other inanimate artworks at the studios. Her practice explores the act of “re-membering” which has a dual meaning of assembling and disassembling. Myburgh translates this notion of duality by juxtaposing two mediums; an embroidered cloth and a forestry video.
Waiting for the shuttle to take us to the next space felt like an eternity, considering my soles were starting to sing. A large crowd of people formed also awaiting the shuttle to the next venue. Ideally, for me, the plan was to head to Rand Club as per the Saturday programme on social media but the bus that had just arrived declared a different route. @Creative Uprising Hub – Transwerke in Braamfontein was the next stop.
We had to scan our tickets at every location, which required a pinch of patience due to the huge crowd at the Transwerke space. The lack of signage in the space made navigating the area somewhat difficult.
The crowd at the Transwerke was diverse; from school children in their uniforms to people working in the arts such as the theatre maker and co-founder of POPArt, Hayleigh Evans.
“I heard about it through one of the participating artists, I didn’t see much advertising for it but I am impressed with the site and the event,” commented Evans. Another familiar face commented that although the space was not well curated, the event was important in generating conversations around art and potentially growing the creative economy.
One studio that stood out at the Transwerke location was The Arts Company Soweto. Thabo Motseki, who is one of the co-founders, proudly unpacked their printmaking studio's business model. They create demand through forming a collaboration with an artist and producing distinct prints. In addition, print as a medium allows one to generate multiple editions of an artwork. Motseki continued to list some of the artists they have worked with including the likes of Baba Tjeko, Blessing Ngobeni and “his wife” – the rightfully established artist, Teresa Firmino.
Just down the passage was Bafana Zembe’s studio. Most people know of him as an art installer but he also dabbles in paint and is interested in the idea of pareidolia. This is the tendency to perceive a specific, often meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern. When viewing his artworks at first glance, you see conventional colourful portraits but as you start to get closer at the pieces, you see figures nestled in the facial features. Zembe describes these faces as some of the people that still haunt him from the violence during the 1970s Uprising in Soweto. His work is a platform for healing for him but speaks to how our minds visually create patterns of familiarity.
As my aching feet walked down from the studio to the ground floor, I realised that the Open Studios is limited to those who can walk, see and hear. Hopefully, the next iteration of Open Studios Joburg could include features to assist disabled people to attend.
Overall, the Open Studio is more than an event. It is a worthwhile experience that lets you immerse yourself in art in an environment that is not intimidating whilst seeing some parts of the city that you would have never walked through. . - This text was produced during an independent journalism development project by African Arts Content focused on the Openstudios.Joburg programme.
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