The verdict: Joburg Art Fair

Novelist Kathryn White donned her high heels, grabbed her champers and air-kissed her way through the Joburg Art Fair to bring us her personal verdict.

The annual Joburg Art Fair took place between 7 and 9 September 2012. It’s a social event on the cultural calendar, as well as an important moment for local and African galleries to showcase their work on a massive scale. The fun in the experience lies in the amalgamation – akin to a museum – of the most current and hopefully the best work on the scene. Here’s my personal aggregation of the fifth incarnation.

The ticket scuffle

“Have you got your ticket to the opening night?” This is an annual conversation topic. You’d think that with the thousands of people there on the opening night that they would get it right, but alas. As Heidi Klum on Project Runway likes to say: “One minute you’re in. And seh next minute you’re out.” Once again, quite a few relevant people were out. Some people phoned and asked. Others sucked it up and did not ask.

The pre-events

Outsider and The Fringe took place at the Media Mill and in De Beer Street respectively. I didn’t make it to Outsider as I attended In Toto’s Helen Joseph exhibition. Outsider received mixed to bad reviews. Fringe was much more successful. Rebecca Haysom debuted her very-buyable work (neatly conceptual, beautifully executed) and I loved an anthro-style photography set by a collective called Subtle Agency.  

Deborah Poynton

Her Arcadia series, first presented at Stevenson a few months ago, is brilliant. Highly rendered, the attention to detail is disconcerting, an invite into a world that is highly intimate and yet is not personally hers. The Art Fair installation showed pieces that I hadn’t seen before, set in a blackened room to mimic twilight. Unfortunately, it felt like midnight. A combination of the harsh expo lights up above and the darkened curtains blotted the pictures out, hiding the very details that make her work so fascinating. I hope to experience the installation another time, as she is definitely my favourite painter in the country.

Knitted together

In an unusual move where art seems to be following design, there were lots and lots of knitted pieces and lots and lots of interwoven papers. Spier hosted Tamlin Blake, Dan Halter was there, the Moma stand had a framed knit of knits and much more. There was also fluff on paper, a dreamlike set that would hang well in an understated lounge. Athi–Patra Ruga’s Watussi Queen (After Irma Stern 1943) was the best of this movement, but personally I like my craft commentary on a pillow that I can cuddle.

Beads

Beads were also a theme. Standouts were two pieces from Wayne Barker’s Love Land series. Both referenced Pierneef landscapes overlaid with Africana pop on the one and Japanese skulls on the other. Intelligent commentary, brilliantly executed and humorous, he’s making great work at the moment.

Penises per square metre

We gave up counting after 17. Alas, the ANC penis committee was nowhere to be seen, but there would be no confusions. Penises on prisoners, covered in blood or set on a miniature resin man are definitely art.

The very-most most-very-popular piece

That would be the teeny hanging-off-a-nail nude model of Ed Young, referentially titled “My Gallerist Made Me Do It”. There were quite a few sniggers from the cognoscenti. The truth is that The People loved it (LOVED). Young says he made the replica “exactly one third” of himself. Stretched out, it’s a little longer, a model so realistic that the blue-rinses blushed in delight and kids reached out to touch the 3mm-long leg hairs. As far as his work goes, this is work. Snigger if you must, but it has a point and is beautifully made. It made me laugh. And I got to see a miniature version of Ed Young’s penis, which was never on my list of things to see, but there you have it. Now I know.

The desaturated/blurred photo painting

As photography and broadcast become hyper-real, the nostalgia for warm’n’fuzzy defused images goes up. Intellectually, it’s also a little post-post-modern too.

The curators

By 4pm on Thursday most were pink-cheeked with champers in hand as sales were up 27% from 2011, a total of R16-million all round.

Best stands

Art On Paper and David Krut.

The after party

Some great burgers (plus the sticky smell of charred umami clinging to all), some good music and some great conversations but this girl can only stand in heels for seven hours and so early to bed. That is to say, it was a 1:30am evening.

In summary

While the overall experience was great – and better than last year when the confusion of paying for your own drinks short-circuited the enjoyment of many – the curation at many galleries lacked the surprise, joy or drama that art is best loved for. Like the experience of first meeting Mary Sibande’s Sophie. Or finding Angus Taylor’s untitled sculptures of men with rock heads perched in the passage. Still, even though there wasn’t a single piece that erupted with awesomeness, the fair presented some great eight-out-of-ten moments and is an event not to be missed.

Read our guide on how to start an art collection, as told by Sean O’Toole, Marianne Fassler, Ross Douglas, Roelof Petrus van Wyk, Joost Bosland, Jonathan Garnham, Fiona Mauchan, Gavin Rooke, Justin Rhodes and Michelle Constant.

Read our interview with FNB Art Prize Winner Kudzanai Chiurai.