Alexandra Makhlouf joined me today, having spent some time observing Stompie and Jess working on monotypes previously.  She prepared diligently for our time together, and todays images are based on three novels.  Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and George Orwell's Animal farm, and 1984.  We spent the day working with mostly greys, modifying them acutely with reds and blues.  Alexandra is not a big fan of elaborate colouring, so we kept our shifts quite subtle.  She will be returning tomorrow to further this body for a monotype group show to be held at DKP in October.

-Niall Bingham

31st August

Jessica Webster set about resolving the remaining body imprints we pulled last Monday night.  Once we had completed them, we had a look at the entire body of work as a whole.  It was quite satisfying to see the vast improvements we have made in terms of execution.  Jess is now interested in furthering the series with a few slight adjustments to the initial process of removing ink.  She has invited a friend of hers, who is a performing artist, to move around on slabs of ink under her direction.  In this way she will remove herself from the initial mark-making process.

-Niall Bingham

26 August

DKW at Arts on Main is currently editioning Willem Boshoff's new etching Highveld from his recent show Big Druid in his Cubicle. It is being printed in an edition of 25 and is set to be released on 5 September 2010.

-Shaun Marais

19th August

Maja Maljevic’s monotype project has been extended. Maljevic is working on finalising the work she has done throughout the last few weeks.

Sam Nhlengethwa also visited Arts on Main today and worked in collaboration with Mlungisi Kongisa to produce works for his exhibition at the Goodman Gallery set to open 26 August 2010. Please click here to see more work from this series by Sam Nhlengethwa.

- Shaun Marais

16th August

Jessica Webster arrived just after five, we planned to work after hours to avoid the embarrassment of nude confrontations with staff members.  Jess wanted to work on a large format, so I marked out a full sheet of Somerset Velvet on the underside of the perspex covering the press bed.  She decided to work in what she described as a "Chevrolet 80's green", a colour similar to the one she used for her smaller monotypes (Cadmium yellow, Thalo Blue R/S and black custom mix).  I rolled out a slab of this colour, left the studio, and allowed her to roll in it.  The ink was removed as it stuck to her skin.  Depending on her body position the ink was removed in a variety of ways.  Once Jess had reclothed herself, I returned to print, with the assistance of Thandi Phakedi, Jess's sister.  I'd like to think that Sigur Ros provided an appropriately moody atmosphere for the evening.  We all enjoyed a lamb curry from Parker's Grill for dinner, chef Gulam's speciality.  Jess returns on Friday to resolve the images, fully clothed. 

- Niall Bingham.

11th August

What happens at Oppikoppi stays there, covered in dust.  Visit mahala.co.za for photographs and articles.

Stompie was in today to resolve his eight monotypes.  He used Imbali Glue, which resembles cold glue in colour and consistency, to collage torn pieces of burnt tissue onto the surface of his monotypes.  It was quite bizarre working on prints the entire day without even touching the press.  I am a little worried that they will not flatten sufficiently in our drying rack, as they were showing signs of severe warping.  This happens as the Imbali glue dries and pulls the support paper fibres inwards.

- Niall Bingham

5th August

Jess arrived feeling slightly ill today, everyone seems to have been hit with influenza this winter.  She insisted that she was fit enough to continue with the monotypes, so we completed the remaining three images, to realize the nine-part installation.  Next week thursday is going to be very interesting: Jess wants to roll around in a slab of ink, on the bed, and print the resulting scuff marks.  This will involve nudity so her sister, Thandi, will be assisting with the crazy press manoeuvres, and I'll deal with the printmaking part.  Jess is interested in Jasper Johns, and the Modernist paradigm of treating 'the surface' as a skin.  Apparently Johns had planned to create paintings using his body to pigment canvases, but never got around to it.  Thanks be to Mazzy Star and Lou Reed for today's introspective folk.  Tomorrow I head off to the Oppikoppi music festival in Limpopo province, North-West of Johannesburg.

- Niall Bingham

3rd August

This day will be remembered for a personal milestone having been reached.  There were no elaborate celebrations when I finished the last of Diane Victor's Birth of a Nation prints, but it felt really good.  All thats left to do when she returns from her Mt. Kilimanjaro trip is to sign and curate the editions.  If you haven't yet heard of newcomers, Tame Impala, they are an Australian Psych Rock band.  I highly recommend that you give them a listen.

Tomorrow, Jessica Webster returns to resume her monotype installation with me.  In other news, William Kentridge has started working on a large print, so I have been melting aquatints onto plates for him to work on. The crew at AOM have been assisting him with the etching and proofing, as his studio is in close proximity to ours.

- Niall Bingham

30 July 2010 - David Krut Projects Arts on Main Workshop

Genevieve Lowe and Hannah Dumes are responsible for running David Krut Projects in New York. They are curently in South Africa working with David Krut Publishing in Johannesburg. They were visiting the DKW printing workshop at Arts on Main this week, and because they both have experience in printmaking, they were able to give some input in the printing workshop. Maja Maljevic and Richard Penn continued working on their monotypes.

- Shaun Marais

29 July 2010 - David Krut Projects Arts on Main Workshop

This week, Fred Clarke worked on his monotypes from DKW, Arts on Main. Fred used his distinctive style; applying ink onto Perspex with different brush strokes, smudging, cleaning and reapplying until he was satisfied with the final product.

- Shaun Marais

29th July

Jess Webster joined me in the studio today which meant I could listen to my dubstep collection (at high volume) without any feelings of guilt.  It was a great day for both of us, I dropped my insecurities about monotype collaboration, and she her skepticism about the technique.  Jess brought in some stills that she stumbled upon from a video piece she did while studying undergrad at Michaelis.  Imagine a female nude in a swimming pool with pig bladders.  Jess was focused so we made about 10 monotypes, some of which are incomplete, for next time.  They are quite small bleed prints, but we are going to hang them as a set, in a block, and we've been treating each print as a component of a greater picture.

- Niall Bingham

26th July

Stompie and I had a very productive day in the workshop, completing his monotypes from our last session together, and starting on 4 new scroll-like mixed media prints.  He continued his burning and attaching process, and we used inked up string to emboss.  Coltrane, and a variety of other experimental soundscapes entertained us through the day.  On wednesday I'll be visiting him at his studio in Troyeville, and we'll probably end up at the Troyeville Hotel after- for dinner and a pint or two.  Stompie actually owns his own press, when he's not making prints with me, he's doing it alone at home.

- Niall Bingham

24 July

DKW printer Mlungisi Kongisa began first collaboration with Fred Clarke on a series of monotypes.

- Luke Crossley

23 July

Niall Bingham resumed work on a series of montypes with Stompie Selibe (see below). Jessica Webster was observing the monotype process. Juliet White was on hand to observe and speak to the artists. Her text can be seen here.

DKW Parkwood

  Thandeka and Siphiwe working

A quite afternoon at David Krut Bookstore

- Luke Crossley

22 July 2010 - David Krut Projects Arts on Main Workshop

Richard Penn and Maja Maljevic worked at Arts on Main for the second week of the Monotype project. This week, Richard continued to explore different methods to acquire the exact technique he was after. He mostly used an electrical Dremel tool on Perspex sheets. Maljevic was working meticulously on different types of paper using layers and inks to produce some pleasantly unexpected results. Some of the paper used was thin and transparent and printing was done on both sides of the paper to produce different effects. They will carry on working with us on Thursdays for the next 2 weeks.

- Shaun Marais

20th July

For the last two days I've been finishing off Diane Victor's Leda and the White-Backed Vulture edition.  Alexandra Makhlouf came in this morning and stationed herself out in the front studio, and busied herself with drawing onto proofs I pulled off her spitbite plate.  Luckily she brought in her own earphones, so she didn't have to subject herself to my loud Dubstep beats in the printmaking studio.

- Niall Bingham

16th July

Stompie and I met at the crack of dawn to begin our three day monotype project.
Stompie is an accomplished musician who often incorporates music into aspects of his image making. Interestingly, he used fire to ‘draw’ into Chine Colle paper as a point of departure. We attached the burnt sheets to Somerset cotton rag paper using Methyl Cellulose and the pressure of the press. A transparent grey ink provided a second layer, and some interesting effects occurred as the ink met two differently textured papers on the surface of the print. For the third run Stompie rubbed ink into string and placed it on the bed which, once printed, provided a drawn line with embossing.
Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland provided us with a sound to compliment the process of bringing musical doodlings into a visual arena.

- Niall Bingham
 

15th July 2010 - David Krut Projects Arts on Main Workshop

We finally have the printing workshop up and running at AOM. Jill and Mlungisi are now mainly working from here. These pictures are from their first week in the new workshop.
AOM is open on Thursday evenings until 8. We had Maja Maljevic and Richard Penn visit us this Thursday. Maja worked on some prints while Richard Penn was making marks with different tools on Perspex. Steven Hobbs has also been working here on some images during the past 2 weeks.

Maja and Richard will be joining us again next Thursday.
 

-Shaun Marais
 

15th July 2010

I editioned Diane Victor's Leda and the White-Backed Vulture, and prepared for Stompie Selibe's arrival tomorrow. We will be working together for the first time in over a year, on monotypes.

- Niall Bingham

14th July 2010

I continued today with the editioning of Diane Victor’s Ganemede, which I completed in the morning. I resumed editioning Actaeon Dreams – it appears that this plate will need some touching up by the artist as some of the lines have broken-down substantially.

- Niall Bingham

13th July

Bingham began Diane Victor's Ganemede drypoint.

- Luke Crossley

12th July

Alexandra Mahklouf in to work at DKW studio and also mixed inks to produce one new monotype, working with Niall Bingham.

- Luke Crossley

Nhlengethwa worked on a series of prints to become part of his exhibition "Kind of Blue" (named after the legendary jazz album recorded by Miles Davis in 1959, which has since become known as the 'jazz bible'), set to open on 26 August 2010 at the Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg.

The monotypes, and other work in the exhibition, pay homage to the music and personalities of Miles Davis and his group, and visually represent the significance of his music in South African life.

This morning, while she worked away on her lino cuts, Alexandra had her earphones in, as usual. She says that she needs to listen to something while she works as it informs the subject matter of her artwork. She doesn’t listen to her favourite tracks or even emotive background music to set the mood, as one might expect. Today’s choice of audio material was a media tribunal. Before that, it was the audio book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Brandbury: a story about a dystopian society where reading is outlawed and information is destroyed. To Alexandra, this is very dangerous as it means the end of democracy. For somebody so passionate about books and information, it’s really important to be aware of this.

Another major influence for Alexandra is Surrealism, especially during the time that she was working on her dry point and spitbite prints. “It’s a juxtaposition of random things” she says. In the same way, her work became a layering and juxtaposing of various stories and information. She tried to capture the importance of the stories she was reading at the time and give them a place in the images that she was creating.

Alexandra spoke briefly about her latest project. It is an artist book that will be an ongoing artwork. Artist books are often published in limited editions or as one-of-a-kind, known as “uniques”. She brought out a beautiful, black hard cover book in which she had planned to keep her drawings. Only after she bought it did she realise that there was a deep gash that had gone straight through the cover and sliced into first few pages. She saw this as a defining feature of the book. Instead of going out to buy another clean, untainted copy, she has decided to make it a book of stories and illustrations about little stabs.

The serendipitous discovery of the stabbed journal is almost necessary in the way that it has brought her two greatest interests together. It makes sense that art and storytelling should be inseparable when looking at Alexandra’s work process. Perhaps Brandbury’s dystopian tale of bookburners brought out the sympathy in her to keep the damaged journal and turn it into something completely unique.
 

William Kentridge, probably the country's best-known artist, last week spent a few days visiting vineyards in the Swartland and some obscure valleys and far up the West Coast in the Olifants River region. With him and me were winemaker Eben Sadie and L'Ormarins viticulturist Rosa Kruger. The purpose? To show William the old vineyards from which Eben has this year made (in tiny quantities) wines for a collection of six extraordinary wines he is planning on releasing next year.

One of the six will not, in fact, be a new label or from this larger area: the Stellenbosch chenin called Mrs Kirsten's Old Vines that Sadie has already made a few vintages of. The others are mostly from vineyards that Rosa Kruger "discovered" - with splendid old bushvines, aged from 50 to a hundred-plus years. (I wrote about an earlier visit to some of these in a blog earlier this year, and more recently in an article for World of Fine Wine) [unfortunately this link no longer leads to the article]. Most are white wines: a chenin blended from three old vineyards on the Skurfberg, a mountain in the Olifants River region, a field-blend of red and white semillon from another Skurfberg vineyard, another but wider-ranging field blend from an even older and more remote vineyard in the extreme north of the Swartland lost amongst plantations of roobois tea and wheat, and a sweet wine from hanepoot planted on the edge of the same vineyard around 1900. (This is the vineyard I focus on in the Fine Wine article, which also tells the strange story of the rare red semillon grape). In the photo above: Eben, William, Skurfberg vines and some unusually dull weather.

The sole red wine in the collection is - of course, given the past-recuperating nature of Eben's project - from cinsaut, which was for many decades, until the mass plantings of chenin in the 1960s and 1970s, the Cape's most planted grape. This cinsaut vineyard is on the magnificent L'Ormarins-owned farm near Riebeek Kasteel in the southern Swartland (from which I have no doubt some stupendous wines should be emerging some time).

In what should prove to be a wonderful collaboration of two great but varied South African talents, William is to provide drawings to be used on labels for the six wines. In our tour of the vineyards the artist also learned some viticultural skills - in the pic alongside, Rosa Kruger is showing him the principles of suckering, removing unwanted early-season growth in the remote old vineyard on the farm 't Voetpad.

It was a great day - weatherwise an unusual one for these arid parts, as we saw many dark skies and experienced, in the coolness, lots of rain-flurries. We not only looked at the vines, but also tasted the wines they'd produced last season. To our great disappointment, we'd learnt that the wittily retro little restaurant that Eben, Rosa and I had discovered on an earlier visit, Die Afrokaan in the hamlet of Grafwater, had shut down. But we had a fine picnic on its stoep (in the pic below), and sampled the wines that Eben had drawn from their barrels the day before.

Of the wines there will be more to say in future. They are promising to be wonderful, these wines made from mostly unsung old vines whose fruit had hitherto gone into nameless co-operative blends. Hopefully - and this is one of the central points of Eben's project with these wines, and of L'Ornarins's willingness to send its viticulturist to explore for them - hopefully there will be lessons learnt about the treasure house of older vines that still - just - exist in South Africa, but are being pulled up at an alarming rate because they are not economical when their grapes are used for inexpensive, anonymous wines.

Eben does not make claims about quality lightly - but he genuinely thinks that the Skurfberg semillon blend he has made (it is still to complete its fermentation, nine months after picking! nature rules in this project) is perhaps the best white wine that he has ever made - this is the maker of Palladius speaking. And the others? They also promise to be both profound and fine. Undoubtedly the Kentridge labels should be a fitting accompaniment. We'll see the unity of the wine and the art round about the middle of next year, with any luck. There's unlikely to be more than 600 or so packs of the six wines, and I can't imagine they'll be cheap. But it will all amount to an unparallelled tribute to the Cape's vinous past, as well as testimony to the excitement of its present renaissance.

Fool’s Gold, Stephen Hobbs’ debut solo exhibition at David Krut Projects, explores a somewhat pathetic space, between buildings, where special even remarkable findings set up a relationship between buildings as sculpture and ‘public’ space as treasure trove. Hobbs’ current experiments with materials including lead, copper and pyrite, set out to translate the artist’s interpretation of the fabric of the city as a vulnerable medium susceptible to radical transformation, in turn creating the potential for new forms and encounters.

The shroud of projected negativity that envelopes so many seemingly aggressive cities invariably prevents its users and visitors from seeing particular and precise beauties, hence interventionist methods are often required in the process of re-seeing such spaces. Fool’s Gold submits a number of propositions and findings on this unwelcoming city with a view to repositioning the audience’s interpretation of it.

More on Stephen Hobbs

Jozilife profile

Miniland Manifesto

Creating the Ephemeral

Camoupedia Blog

"Out of Order"
 

Jessica Webber also came into the workshop for a short visit in the morning to observe Fred and Mlungisi at work.

Fred was preparing the first session: a minimal line drawing of a boxing match between a bear and a rabbit. Mlungisi prepared a test sheet of perspex for a reduction print. As he did this, he was explaining to Jessica that when working with the reduction method of printing, it’s important to remember that every mark counts.

When asked to talk more about his current work, Fred spoke about how he has been “matching up animal anthropomorph types” to create death match scenes between animals, with humans as the spectators. He went on to describe how animals can be used to represent so much: a pig, for example, can represent laziness, gluttony and greed, while a swan represents beauty and grace. “There is a freedom in using animals instead of people, they signify more.”

As Fred worked he spoke about Japanese culture and how their minimal approach to art fascinated him. He also commented on Japan’s respect for nature but apparent disregard for animal rights. It was refreshing to see how his interest in such things was as strong as his awareness of its darker side. He did mention that an apocalyptic film, he saw the night before, unnerved him the point of not being able to sleep properly. I also found out that his favourite quote in the entire world comes from a book by Jonathan Safran Foer called Eating Animals.

Frans de Waal, author of numerous books including Chimpanzee Politics and Our Inner Ape writes: "To endow animals with human emotions has long been a scientific taboo. But if we do not, we risk missing something fundamental, about both animals and us." When looking at Fred's art, it is clear that he is aware of this. He seems to take a genuine and unbiased interest in everything around him, although we both agreed that you can't trust the news.

As the day progressed we watched as his images morphed and transformed into wonderfully captivating anomalies.

 For more information on the artist and some of his earlier work, go to his website www.frederickclarke.co.za

Using different tools and with the guidance of DKW Manager Jillian Ross, Richard is creating textured Perspex plates that will reflect the style of his drawings in his monotypes.

Maja is working with layers of prints and different types of paper to produce monotypes with rich colours, texture and depth.
 

Jessica’s first exhibition at the David Krut Projects was painting, not printmaking. She said that she was somewhat intimidated by the idea of having to be clean and precise. At the same time she was looking forward to finding a new direction through the process. Being unsure of the final outcome seemed appealing and the threat of not being able to rework the piece was something of a relief. It’s almost ironic considering how her paintings suggest an artist who is fearless when it comes to attacking a canvas with colour and form.

Niall was trying to gauge how Jessica would like to work and to get an idea of her intended scale. After a little uncertainty she resolved to work on a smaller scale. Niall explained that in printmaking you work from light to dark. You start with a translucent colour and build up. After some discussion about printing processes she admits, “I had no idea of how it works”. Half laughing she says, “When it comes to my paintings there is an absolute lack of logic.” There was a moment of consolation in realising that this would be a great way for her to break free from the intense planning and uncertain end that one encounters when painting.

At the same time Stompie was composing imagery on his surface in much the same way that I would make dinner: working ingredients together, paying attention to the combinations of flavours and watching with interest at what comes out of the process. There was a sense that he knew exactly what he was doing without fully understanding the technique. At one point someone noticed that the chine collé layer had moved off the page slightly. Stompie, apparently relaxed but completely focused, said that it’s ok. He was like composer improvising music. It was hard to see where it stopped being music and started being art. Niall holds up the work and after a moment asks, “Don’t you want to see it?” Stompie glanced up, gave a brief nod of approval in a way that suggested that he was listening to the work more so than anything else, and went back to composing.

Jessica works primarily with oil paint and wax. Her work deals with the key concept of trauma. She speaks of trauma as something that transcends our fabricated ideas of reality. The idea that she focuses on mark making is interesting. My impression of her style is that technique is not as much of a priority as autographic mark making. Trauma is tangible, physical and real. It makes impressions and leaves marks. South African art is generally divided into two categories: identity and politics. When I asked Jessica where her work fits into that, she responded that “The concept of trauma goes beyond identity.”

Stompie combines music and art and sees them as a form of therapy. The line of a stave becomes an autographic mark. Both artists seem to fulfill the others purpose in art, without knowing it. Just watching Stompie work reassures her that the process is important. It was an interesting dynamic. If this is what Stompie could achieve through the process with his background in art therapy and counseling, then I can’t wait to see what will come from Jessica’s process in the coming week.