Don’t end up kicking yourself for missing the excellent Spier Contemporary 2010 Exhibition at the City Hall. It’s well worth a visit – not only for the art, but for the pop-up arts and crafts store as well as the superb food and drink offerings from the pop-up café by Rotisserie.
The Spier Contemporary 2010 opened on 14 March after two years of planning as well as a nationwide call for entries from around South Africa and an exhaustive curatorial tour.
The Cape Town City Hall was transformed for the exhibition, which will run until 14 May.
It is worth going to the exhibition just to see the vast potential of the City Hall and how it can be transformed. The art on exhibition has drawn thousands of people – from school groups to arts fundis to ordinary Capetonians who want to do something unusual during their lunch break.
Presented by the Africa Centre, and funded by Spier, the Spier Contemporary Art Exhibition is showcasing 132 artworks from 101 artists from throughout South Africa.
The exhibition winners were announced in March, winning a total of nearly R1,8 million.
The exhibition is a good barometer of what it is like to live in South Africa in 2010 – and, through the exhibited artworks, provides a platform for expressing the South African condition – our fears, joys and humour.
The exhibition is the largest biennale of South African art staged in the country. It features artistic work across the spectrum – sculpture, painting, photography, installation, video and performance art.
To illustrate this diversity: one section of the exhibition features photographs of a range of former and present presidents of South Africa. Alongside the framed photographs is a television screen with Julius Malema’s face waxing forths all day.
As the introductory words in this section explain: “A noticeable shift in tone since 2007 is the cynical and critical view reflected of former political structures and the political cult of personality. Previously there was a triumphant celebratory view of leaders and politicians. Now we see a far more critical ambiguous engagement of politicians shot through with humour and sarcasm.”
The Spier Contemporary 2010 also houses a pop-up cafe by Rotisserie 360 as well as a pop-up shop featuring crafts and artworks by a range of local artists and craft people.
The range is well worth a visit – from shweshwe teddy bears to quirky bags designed by the likes of artists Brett Murray and Liza Grobler. The bags feature witty words, like: “Hallo, how am I” and “Mrs Amandla” and “Whose life are you repeating?”
Also on sale are delightful decals, pencil cases and notebooks by Skinny laMinx.
“Our concept is to make art more accessible,” said pop up store coordinator Chantall louw. “We worked with artists and designers to come up with a wonderful, creative range. We believe everyone should own at least something by an established artist.”
