David Krut Publishing,
Africa’s No 1 Arts Bookstore and Publisher

For the few readers out there who actually read this manifesto (I mean column) & were wondering what had happened to the Saturday classes and these zany projects, the answers will now follow:

Like any self-respecting revolution, the Saturday Art Class had to, as they say in the movies, “go underground.” During our little black out, which lasted roughly a month and a bit, the class (lets call them recruits) increased steadily as most revolutionary groups worth their weight do. With the forces growing the attention switched slightly to that of subversive art making in which issues such as how art has, does and continues to question how the status quo and ‘The Man’.

Once again Pop Art and graffiti were looked at. This was then linked to a discourse on the merits and pitfalls of initiatives such as Laugh It Off. The crew of design-conscious T-shirt-designers who created Tees such as the much talked about Black Labour White Guilt Tee (which ripped off and raised some interesting questions about Black Label and the liquor industry).  We also spoke about collectives such as Circus Ninja (another design and arts collective whose main objective was to question society). Topics such as the disappearance of resistance and protest art were also looked at.

Next on the agenda is a look at caricatureand how artists use it not only as a means of looking at society but also as a means of turning the proverbial mirror on ourselves. This is ultimately the aim of the Visual Literacy class. Subjects such as race, sexuality, and identity are used in all three of the classes, all in order to get those in attendance a better understanding of who they are and who they are going to be as both artist and people in the world.

I’m sure you have noticed that all the afore mentioned collectives and organisations such as Laugh It Off are no more, and hopefully understand the strategic reasoning for the communication black out. Having said that this will be the last ‘intelligence report’on the happenings in the classes as they are now completely independent. 

Like thay say in the movies I could tell you more of course but I’d have to kill you.

Unknown Author

Keywords: Graffiti, Johannesburg, Johannesburg-Art-Gallery, Nolan Stevens, Pop-art, resistance-art, TAEP