Global Dialogue on Art
This Global Dialogue on Art features fellow artists (professional and amateur) and writers, their experiences and takes on art.
Artists featured in the Global Dialogue on Art 2010 are: Beezy Bailey II, Wayne Barker, Strijdom van der Merwe, Nicholas Hlobo, Stephen Lasker & Aidan Bennetts, John Eppel, Cyril Rolando II, Beezy Bailey, Aidan Bennetts, Catherine Christie, Cyril Rolando, Craig Hilton-Barber, Michael Wyeth, Gavin Rain, Victoria S Botha, Joan Peeters, Michael Poliza, and Lynda Soutar.
To apply to be featured in this section and for more information please email info@sketchbooktrails.com.
Beezy Bailey II, Artist & Social Commentator
Rain in Africa
Artist: Beezy Bailey
2010. Oil, silk screen, enamel on canvas. 170 x 250 cm
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"Beezy Bailey captures the iconic figure of Nelson Mandela with wit and the irreverence of a genuine iconoclast. This collection is a vivid, touching and illuminating journey around Madiba that teases, tantalises and transfixes the viewer in an effervescent celebration. The symbolic tapestry of South Africa's haunting landscape, secretive mists, visceral imagery of birds and broken shacks weave and float around the elusive, multi-dimensional charisma of a man who has always reminded us that love is central to liberation, and the masses, not great men, are the true creators of history...Through Bailey's prism the icon is captured in all his grace, simplicity and dignity. Bailey the iconoclast does what Mandela would wish. The saint is a human being..." - Ronnie Kasrils, Former Minister of Intelligence and comrade of Nelson Mandela
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Prophets Old and New
Artist: Beezy Bailey
2011. Oil, silk screen, enamel on canvas. 120 x 110 cm
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"Icon: A name, face, picture, edifice or person readily recognized as having a well-known significance or embodying certain qualities: An image or depiction that represents something significant through literal or figurative meaning, usually associated with religion,
cultural, political or economic standing.
Iconoclast: A person who attacks cherished beliefs: one who attacks
and seeks to overthrow traditional or popular beliefs.
The 'Icon' in question is our own Nelson Rohlihlahla Mandela, an international figure revered around the world, acclaimed and claimed by all. A hero who is a prisoner of the mass media! With his birthday decreed and celebrated internationally as Mandela Day, 'Madiba Magic' is real. What then of the man? The 'Character, Comrade, Leader, Prisoner, Negotiator, Statesman' (the title of an exhibition on his life at the Apartheid Museum). What lies beneath the printed iconic smile and familiar face? Who owns the Icon and the reproduction and exploitation of it as a commodity in a consumer society? Who decrees who or what can be shown where and how?
Bailey the artist/iconoclast poses these questions by holding the iconic image up, placing it centrally in his new work. The echo of Warhol's words proclaiming himself to be a 'Business Artist' could be the icon busters Bailey's challenge in de-commercialising the commodity and rebranding it 'Art', where ownership is in the imaginative possibilities and layered meaning attributed to it by the artist..." - Christopher Till
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Rainbow Nation
Artist: Beezy Bailey
2010. Oil, silk screen, enamel on canvas. 170 x 250 cm
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"I feel somewhat like a conduit... people ask where I get my inspiration, and I say, from above. I don't really feel personally responsible for the work I produce - it is rather something that flows through me. I am something of a walking paintbrush. I believe in all forms of creativity and indulge in painting, drawing, sculpture, performance and video as a means of my expression. I live for beauty." – Beezy Bailey
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International Friends
Artist: Beezy Bailey
2010. Silk screen, gouache on archers paper. 125 x 102 cm
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Follow Beezy Bailey’s Blog here.
For more on Beezy Bailey, please go to www.beezybailey.co.za.
Don’t forget to vote for Beezy Bailey on the Sketchbooktrails page on Facebook if you like his work!
[Acknowledgements and thanks to Mark Read, Everard Read Gallery]
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Wayne Barker, Artist
Blue Colonies
Artist: Wayne Barker
1995. Mixed media on canvas. 169 x 160 cm
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"Wayne Barker - the antithesis of "Super Boring"." - Taf [Tafadzwa Mukwashi]
Biography
Wayne Barker was born in Pretoria in 1963, and completed a post-graduate degree in Fine Art at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Marseilles.
Barker is an extremely vocal social satirist, the founder of FIG (The Famous Art Gallery), a curator and educator. The innovative multi-media artist uses deconstruction and subversion in works carrying his signature conceptual expressionism.
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His and Her Mozambique
Artist: Wayne Barker
1995. Mixed media and neon tubing on wood. 200 x 246 cm
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Past exhibitions include "Kunst is Kinder Speef" at Kunsthalle, Vienna, Austria; and "All Washed Up in Africa" at the French Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Barker's work can be found in numerous museums and private collections all over the world.
His latest exhibition, Super Boring, opens at the Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg on 2 February 2011 and runs until 2 April 2011.
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Colour Country
Artist: Wayne Barker
2010. Mixed media and neon tubing on canvas
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'Barker is a colourful, provocative and rebellious persona and artist who lives a life of seemingly endless outrageous incidents. He and his work are anything but boring, lending an ironic twist to the exhibition's title. He firmly rejects the idea that art should be "idle navel-gazing", and presents instead work that is arresting, incisive and a challenge to political perceptions and understandings, morality, authority and values.
Barker is renowned for his re-interpretations of paintings by the Afrikaner nationalist artist, JH Pierneef. For the exhibition, 'Super Boring', he has produced a new body of work that confronts and questions the new South African culture in all its diverse manifestations, while celebrating the underlying force and spirit of optimism that binds and drives our unique country.
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Golden Girl
Artist: Wayne Barker
2009. Strung glass beads. 170 x 170 cm
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'Super Boring' was initially a curatorial collaboration between SMAC Art Gallery, Andrew Lamprecht and Barker. It will now travel in an evolved form to the Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg as a retrospective exhibition curated by SMAC Art Gallery.'
As Standard Bank Gallery is committed to bringing quality exhibitions to us, wherever we are in the world, those of us not in Johannesburg will be able to take a virtual tour of the gallery instead at www.standardbankarts.com.
For more on Wayne Barker please go to www.standardbankarts.com.
Don’t forget to vote for Wayne Barker on the Sketchbooktrails page on Facebook if you like his work!
[Acknowledgements and thanks to Jo-Anne Duggan, The Heritage Agency on behalf of Standard Bank Gallery]
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Strijdom van der Merwe, Land Artist
Lifting stones out of the water and balancing on sticks. Meyerton. Gauteng, South Africa
Land Artist: Strijdom van der Merwe
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Biography
Strijdom Van der Merwe was born in 1961 and currently resides in Stellenbosch, South Africa. As a land artist, he uses the materials provided by the chosen site. His sculptural forms take shape in relation to the landscape. It is a process of working with the natural world, using sand, water, wood, rocks etc… He shapes these elements into geometrical forms that participate with their environment, continually changing until their final probable destruction. He observes the fragility of beauty, while not lamenting its passing, what remains is a photographic image, a fragment of the imagination. While a visual record is materially all that is left, he also leaves us a reminder of the capacity, however feeble, of an individual to alter the universe by embracing the ceaseless changing of nature, actively contributing to it and, in so doing, modulating and beautifying the outcome.
Strijdom obtained a BA Degree in Fine Arts in 1983 and a BA Hons Degree in Fine Arts in 1984 from the University of Stellenbosch. He was awarded with the John van Reenen bursary as the best Graphic Design Student. From 1984 onwards he worked as a graphic designer and in 1990 received a bursary from Dutch Government to study print-making at the Hooge School voor de Kunste,
Utrecht, Holland. In 1992 he became head graphic designer at the Graphic Design Studio of the University of Stellenbosch and from 1993 - 1995 he also lectured computer graphics in the Art Department. He then studied sculpture for six months at the Academy of Art, Architecture & Design in Praha, the Czech Republic and went on to become artist in residence at the Kent Institute of Art and Design, Canterbury, England in 1995/1996. Strijdom has been working as a full time artist since 1996.
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Arranging 9 beach pebbles in dug out squares, Eerste River Beach, Eastern Cape, South Africa
Land Artist: Strijdom van der Merwe
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Strijdom has had a plethora of exhibitions over the past two decades, including an Installation Art Work for the ‚Woordfees' 2009 Stellenbosch, South Africa; Sasol Art Gallery Stellenbosch, Mercedes Benz Awards Exhibition, 2008; Invited Land Art Installation, Pordenone, Italy, 2008; Experimenal Film Festival Carbunanari Florean Museum Baia Mare, Romania,2007; Experimenal Film Festival Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, 2007; Invisioning Change, Nobel Peace Centre Oslo Norway, 2007; BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels, Belgium, 2007; 14 Sculptures for the Simonsberg Ward Wine Route, Stellenbosch, South Africa, 2007; the Medal of Honor Award from the South African Academy of Art and Science, 2007; and Recipient of the Jackson Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant in 2006.
Strijdom continues to take 'the provenance of art outside of the museum and into the outside world'.
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Using a broom to clear the circles underneath the jacaranda tree, Stellenbosch, South Africa
Land Artist: Strijdom van der Merwe
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For more on Strijdom van der Merwe, please go to www.strijdom.co.za.
Don’t forget to vote for Strijdom van der Merwe on the Sketchbooktrails page on Facebook if you like his work!
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Nicholas Hlobo, Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Art 2009
Izithunzi and Kubomvu (detail of works in progress), 2009
Artist: Nicholas Hlobo
Photograph: John Hodgkiss
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Biography
In 2009 the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Art was bestowed on Nicholas Hlobo. Since 1981, the award has been made annually to those who have demonstrated exceptional ability in their field, and Hlobo was the 28th visual artist to be acclaimed through the award. On winning the award, he said, "I am truly honoured to have been chosen and hope to give audiences something new and innovative."
Drawing on his Xhosa culture and heritage, and his life as a black person in post-apartheid South Africa, Hlobo is concerned with gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, and, according to him, "anything that people find embarrassing in society". He is particularly concerned with prejudice against homosexuality in black society, as well as sex education, AIDS and blurring the division between the masculine and feminine. Renowned for his sculptures made of found objects and disparate materials, such as the inner tubes of car tyres, ribbon, leather and wire, Hlobo also makes drawings and is a performance artist of note. His works are usually entitled in his native tongue, Xhosa, and he is interested in the language, with its proverbs and idioms. His work is symbolic: rubber tubes refer to condoms and some of his forms allude to phalluses, sperm, orifices and umbilical cords.
Nicholas Hlobo was born in Cape Town in 1975. He moved to Johannesburg in 1995, where he worked in the television industry. Initially he explored art-making on his own, but enrolled at the Artist Proof Studio, Johannesburg, in 1998 and also studied at the Technikon Witwatersrand (now the University of Johannesburg), obtaining a B Tech in Fine Art in 2002. Hlobo was an artist-in-residence at the Thami Mnyele Foundation in 2005, following which he won the Tollman Award for Visual Art in 2006. Another residency followed in 2007, when he spent two months at the Ampersand Foundation in New York. During this year, Hlobo was also invited to show at the Aardklop National Arts Festival in Potchefstroom, for which he produced the exhibition, 'Umdudo'.
It has taken just a few years for Hlobo to rise to fame and he has shown around the world to much acclaim. He launched his career as a solo artist in 2006 with 'Izele', an exhibition at Michael Stevenson in Cape Town, to which he is also affiliated as a stable artist. Other solo exhibitions followed, including 'Umakadenethwa engenadyasi' at Galeria Extraspazio in Rome (2007); 'Momentum 11: Nicholas Hlobo' at the ICA in Boston, Massachusetts (2008); and 'Nicholas Hlobo: Uhambo' at the prestigious Tate Modern, London (2008).
Hlobo has also shown on many group shows worldwide. The more recent of these include 'Flow' at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2008); 'Home Lands – Land Marks' at Haunch of Venison, London (2008); 'Beauty and Pleasure in South African Contemporary Art' at The Stenersen Museum, Oslo (2008); 'Skin-to-Skin: Challenging Textile Art' at the Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg (2008); and 'Dada South?' at the South African National Gallery (2009-2009).
Hlobo is represented in the art collections of Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, and the University of South Africa, Pretoria.
While Hlobo's previous shows have explored ideas surrounding birth and sex, the theme in 'Umtshotsho' is the rituals that accompany the transition from youth to adulthood. As Hlobo explains, the term umtshotsho refers to a traditional party for young people. "The focus is on that time when children are beginning to think and act like adults; the desire to explore life, dating, going out at night and all the consequences of wanting to do things older people do. Umtshotsho rarely takes place in its old form anymore and young people have found alternatives, such as going to bars and clubs. The works are not trying to tell a story about an old way of partying for teenagers but look at the new conventions and draw similarities between different times."
In a darkened room, the central installation, Izithunzi (meaning 'shadows'), comprises a gathering of eight figures resembling jellyfish, pumpkins or ghosts. Some are freestanding, others suspended or seated on a sofa. Constructed primarily from rubber inner tubing, the figures are individuated with details of lace, organza and ribbons – Hlobo's signature materials. Casting a red glow on the group – and perhaps a playful warning – a reupholstered lamp stands on a table covered with rubber to resemble a sack or a scrotum.
'Umtshotsho' is accompanied by Hlobo's first monograph, which traces his life and work from 2005 to 2009. It includes essays by Mark Gevisser, Kopano Ratele and Jen Mergel, all of whom look at aspects of his life and work in depth.
Acknowledgements: Jo-Anne Duggan, The Heritage Agency; Litnet. 2009. "Standard Bank celebrates 25 years of supporting South Africa’s young artists".
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Uzimbamb'emsileni, 2008
Artist: Nicholas Hlobo
Rubber and ribbon on paper
Standard Bank Corporate Collection
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For more on Nicholas Hlobo, please go to www.standardbankarts.com/Gallery/Previous-2010.aspx.
Don’t forget to vote for Nicholas Hlobo on the Sketchbooktrails page on Facebook if you like his work!
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Stephen Lasker & Aidan Bennetts
Aidan Bennetts & Stephen Lasker
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Aidan Bennetts Design partners with Stephen Lasker!
Our friends at Aidan Bennetts Design have just partnered up with Stephen Lasker and the collaboration promises to bring the WOW factor to design.
By now, we all know Aidan Bennetts - Industrial Designer, porduct designer and artist, actor, Muay Thai fighter, model and Top Billing presenter. And Stephen Lasker? Stephen Lasker is a Zimbabwe-born designer and stylist who made his mark in Miami and Los Angeles. From judging Project Runway to designing and consulting some of the edgiest hotels, bars, homes and workplaces, Stephen is a creative force wherever he goes. And now he's right here in Cape Town.
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Aidan Bennetts & Stephen Lasker
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Stephen says on his new partnership with Aidan, "Aidan and I balance each other in what we bring to the table. Together with our dedicated team, we offer a comprehensive creative space where any product or space is possible. Our catch phrase describes our service best, 'A solution looking for a problem'.
The collaboration was the brainchild of Steven Harris, of Furnspace. With Furnspace's powerful 3D rendering software, Intericad, we use this as a visual communication and design tool to present our ideas.
Located in the epicentre of Cape Town's East City precinct, the Fringe, we are proud supporters of Cape Town's World Design City Bid for 2014. Let's make it better, together."
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Aidan Bennetts & Stephen Lasker
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For more on Aidan Bennetts Design and Stephen Lasker please go to www.aidanbennetts.co.za.
Don’t forget to vote for Aidan and Stephen on the Sketchbooktrails page on Facebook if you like their work!
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John Eppel, Author / Poet
John Eppel
Author / Poet
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Biography
"My Mission Statement
That I should treat people the way I should like to be treated; that I should not turn a blind eye to the wickedness of those who have too much power; that I should value the future on a timescale longer than my own." - John Eppel
John Eppel was born in South Africa and raised in Zimbabwe. He lives in Bulawayo, near the Matobo Hills and teaches at Christian Brothers College. He has three children.
His first novel, DGG Berry’s The Great North Road, won the M-Net prize in South Africa, and was listed in the Weekly Mail & Guardian as one of the best 20 South African books in English published between 1948 and 1994. His second novel, Hatchings, was short-listed for the M-Net Prize and was chosen for the series in the Times Literary Supplement of the most significant books to have come out of Africa. Other John Eppel novels include The Giraffe Man, The Curse of the Ripe Tomato, The Holy Innocents, Absent: The English Teacher, and (yet to be published) The Boy Who Loved Camping. His book of poems, Spoils of War, won the Ingrid Jonker Prize. Other poetry books by John include Sonata for Matabeleland, Selected Poems 1965-1995, and Songs My Country Taught Me. In addition, he has written two books which combine poems and short stories: The Caruso of Colleen Bawn, and White Man Crawling. Soon to be published is a book of poems and short stories in collaboration with Julius Chingono, entitled Together.
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Loveliest of Girls
Of all the girls I’ve seen, these, dying,
are loveliest; lovelier by far
than leaves outside a bedroom window
turning, petals from a vase of bronze,
some drifting to this very page,
even now as I rend my garments
for these dying girls. Slender they are
but not like anorexics, nor stalks.
They walk on the cycle path along
Cecil Avenue or down Flint Road,
cutting corners, joining queues that stretch
like birth; queues for Paracetamol,
for pretty cloth, for paraffin; not
like models with detached pelvises,
nor storks with bloated midriffs, but like
spectres, half-revealed, presentiments
haunting the smug suburb of Hillside,
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, the World,
the fucking Universe. Loveliest
of girls are these, dying; loveliest
of leaves turning; petals on a page.
John Eppel
Copyright © John Eppel
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Winter in Matabeleland, 1987
The airlock in our hosepipe won't be heard
for another season;
the spider in our spout, he won't be stirred
for another season.
The ZANU/ZAPU dialogue is dead
until what rains?
The Somabula Flats are tinctured red
until what rains?
On caps of wind the migrant swallows soar:
will they return?
Our soldiers guard the Beira Corridor:
will they return?
I found a rusty bayonet in the yard:
lest we forget;
some two-by-four and half a playing card:
lest we forget.
We watch our garden dying flower by flower...
perhaps the spring?
the water table falling hour by hour...
perhaps the spring?
There's part of a heart on the card I found:
does it portend?
The Rhodies rev their Hondas, southward bound:
does it portend?
Our new born baby squints her eyes to see
(love, light the fire)
her two-dimensional security.
Love, light the fire.
John Eppel
Copyright © John Eppel
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Poinsettias on Africa Day
Woke to a consciousness of bright petals
opening and closing against my cheek.
Red rags of a child’s back yard, window-sills
cool as flagpoles, cement floors, and the creak
of sap going down. But these whisperings
of milk and poison, these claims of cousins
who crowned Christ, healed Mauritanian kings,
caught wildfowl and fish for unknown dozens,
if not millions, of Africa’s children...
against my cheek. Woke to bracts recalling
Apollo’s lust for Daphne. Lips open,
lips close, and the half-turned palmates falling.
Pulcherrima. Daphne Laureola –
provoker of homeless poets. Consoler.
John Eppel
Copyright © John Eppel
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The Midnight Blooming
Although that night, beyond the pitch
of ululating strings, was dim
enough to veil the twinkle
of a riot squad; although
the atmospheric pressure
on a square inch of my brain
was more than fourteen comma
seven pounds, my stanzas,
oh my stanzas, were as light
as plastic bucket blue.
Although the band that played before
had twanged amandla to a drift
of flowers sweetly clenched; and then
awethu wafted thousand
thousand perfumes in reply;
although the rain came down in dog-
bites, and the midnight blossoms dripped
a crimson song, my stanzas,
oh my stanzas, were as pale
as plastic bucket blue.
John Eppel
Copyright © John Eppel
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For more information on John Eppel, please email info@sketchbooktrails.com
Don’t forget to vote for John Eppel on the Sketchbooktrails page on Facebook if you like his work!
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Cyril Rolando II, Digital Artist
Cupido
Digital Artist: Cyril Rolando
Time: 20 hours
Software: Photoshop CS 2
Tool: Wacom tablet Graphire 3
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Cupido
It was just...
A look to the moon...
...Desires to explore new lands,
to caress tenderly new sands,
with hands.
Wasn't my fault..
It's the light, it was so...
...Affections for the golden eyes,
to reach the heart and devise,
new skies...
The distance..
I couldn't stand more...
...My strength is hard to manage,
Mars and Venus in backstage,
Bang.
I shot the moon.
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Cupido
C'était simplement..
Un regard vers la lune...
...des désires d'explorer de nouvelles terres,
de caresser tendrement de nouveau sables,
avec mes mains.
Ce n'était pas ma faute..
Sa lumière, c'était si...
... De l'affection pour ses yeux d'or,
d'atteindre son coeur et découvrir,
des nouveaux cieux.
Cette distance..
Je ne pouvais plus supporter...
...Ma force est difficile à maitriser,
Mars a rencontré Venus en coulisse,
Paf.
J'ai buté la lune.
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La Biographie
"Je suis un psychologue clinicien et je travaille en libéral.
J'ai 26 ans et je dessine depuis sept années à travers une démarche autodidacte
dans le cadre de l'art digital. Je souhaite travailler avec des concepts
originaux, empruntant les voies tracées par Tim Burton et Hayao Miyazaki. Le
dessin est un loisir. J'essaie de partager des émotions, de jouer avec les
couleurs et de mettre l'accent sur la nature humaine." - Cyril Rolando
Biography
"I am a French clinical psychologist, working in private practice. I am
26, and have been drawing for seven years after teaching myself how to do digital art. I wish
to work with "otherwordly" concepts, borrowing influences from Tim Burton and
Hayao Miyazaki. Drawing is my main hobby. I try to share emotions and play
with colours to emphasize the human nature." - Cyril Rolando
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I don't come from a forest
Digital Artist: Cyril Rolando
Time: 22 hours
Software: Photoshop CS 2
Character: Marlon LostRoot
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I don't come from a forest
The goat was born on a Canadian meadow,
Green and fresh like an emerald sea,
A land adorned with maple rubies,
Perfect, quiet and enchanted forests,
Boring and foreseeable jade paradise,
He left to understand what is life.
" This is a place where you will find peace,
Just stretch yourself out and feel the sun,
Rocked by the the chilly northern wind,
Trees offer us food, shelter and rest,
You will easily take root on this earth,
and write the last chapter of your quest. "
For the first time Marlon was wondering,
what if the goat was right ? the end of the trip...
It seems to be the place he was looking for,
But this quest... he decided to lie to them :
" Thank you, but I don't come from a forest, let's go... "
As soon as Marlon has finished his sentence,
The three birds were proposing a new place...
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I don't come from a forest
La chèvre était née dans les prairies canadiennes,
vertes et fraiches comme une mer d'émeraudes,
Une terre ornée par les rubies d'érables,
Parfaites, calmes forêts enchantées,
Ennuyeux et prévisible paradis de jades,
qu'il quitta pour comprendre ce qu'est la vie.
" Dans cet endroit tu trouveras la paix,
Detends toi et sens le soleil sur ta peau,
Caressée par la fraiche brise du nord,
Les arbres offrent nourriture et abris,
Tu prendras facilement racine ici,
et écris la dernière page de ta quête. "
Pour la première fois Marlon se demandait,
et si la chèvre avait raison, la fin du voyage...
Il semble que cet endroit soit le bon,
Mais cette quête... et il mentit :
" Merci mais je ne viens pas d'ici, allons y "
A peine cett phrase fut finie,
Les trois oiseaux ouvrir la voie à un autre voyage...
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Deviant Insanity
Digital Artist: Cyril Rolando
Time: 11 hours
Software: Photoshop CS 2
Tool: Wacom tablet Graphire 3
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Deviant Insanity
God is a perfect Santa Claus, be happy.
Or the perfect father of the perfect familly.
Death doesn't exist, enjoy love endlessly.
Dad tells you every war is insane.
Obey and impose your thougths
Extra terrestrial life is a shame.
See the power of the creation.
No place for imagination.
The doubts are rude temptations.
Every prayer to get a favor.
Xmas gets a delirium savor.
If humans need to believe.
Silence your deviant thoughts.
Time is running out.
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Deviant Insanity
Dieu est le parfait père noel, soit content.
Ou le père parfait, le meilleur des parents.
La mort n'existe pas, vie la joie indifiniment.
Papa t'a dis que les guerres étaient démentes.
Obéis et impose tes pensées sur le monde.
La vie extratesrestre est une honte.
Seul le pouvoir de la création compte.
Aucune place à l'imagination.
Les doutes sont de grossières tentations.
Chaque prière pour obtenir une faveur.
Noêl est le délire de l'attente du sauveur.
Si les humains ont besoin de croire en lui.
Fais taire tes pensées deviantes et prie.
Le temps fuit.
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For more on Cyril Rolando, please go to http://six.inside.free.fr/.
Don’t forget to vote for Cyril Rolando on the Sketchbooktrails page on Facebook if you like his work!
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Beezy Bailey, Artist & Social Commentator
Dancing Jesus
Artist: Beezy Bailey
15cm high Dancing Jesus [Hava Nagila] cast in pure 18ct gold . ed. 12.
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"If you remove the cross from behind Jesus, He looks as if He is dancing. Comprising my recent performance in Copenhagen were sculptures, paintings and drawings. While working on the theme I came about the realisation that when Christ returns to our world, when the Messiah comes, He won't be a rockstar, Mandela-like individual - it will rather be a worldwide, universal awareness within each one of us, of the God within each of us, of our unlimited potential of an eventual heaven on earth." - Beezy Bailey
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Biography
"I feel somewhat like a conduit... people ask where I get my inspiration, and I say, from above. I don't really feel personally responsible for the work I produce - it is rather something that flows through me. I am something of a walking paintbrush. I believe in all forms of creativity and indulge in painting, drawing, sculpture, performance and video as a means of my expression. I live for beauty." – Beezy Bailey
Beezy Bailey (William James Sebastian Bailey) was born in 1962 in Johannesburg, South Africa. He received a fine art degree from Byam Shaw School of Art in London in 1986. Beezy's work is represented in several art collections, including the South African National Gallery, SASOL, Durban Art Gallery, BIDVEST, ABSA, Investec, BZW Bank London, Standard Bank Collection, David Bowie Art Collection, the Getty Family Collection, the Oppenheimer Art Collection and numerous private collections around the world.
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Vote for South Africa
Artist: Beezy Bailey
April 1994 performance
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Performance work at the SA Association of Arts in Cape Town to mark the first democratic elections in South Africa.
"Performance was introduced to me by performance artist Siliva Zaranek who came to speak at our school in London. I recognised it then as an important form of expression and in tune with my showman nature. I have used it since art school, where I did my first performance.
In "Vote for South Africa" in 1994, I appeared naked and was painted with images of a heart and doves which I then printed with my body onto a pre hung piece of paper. The performance was four minutes and the piece (paper and video) was sold immediately to an important collector." - Beezy Bailey
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Beezy has had numerous exhibitions around the globe over the past 24 years and has collaborated with a variety of artists, from fellow South African artist, Zwelethu Mthethwa to David Bowie.
Exhibitions in recent years include Being Blown Backwards into the Future, a group exhibition with alter ego Joyce Ntobe, at Everard Read Gallery Johannesburg, 2008; the exhibition of 'Fallen Angel' at the Johannesburg Art Fair, 2009; Notes from the Empire, a collaborative work with Zwelethu Mthethwa and curated by Christianne Mennicke, at the Kunsthaus, Dresden, 2009; and Beezy organised and curated the 'Art for Africa Fundraiser Auction' comprising 40 top South African and British artists which was held at Sotheby’s Bond Street London in September, 2009.
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'Gugu and Child'
Artist: Beezy Bailey / Joyce Ntobe
Oil on canvas, 1700 x 2500mm, 2007
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"I invented my alter ego Joyce Ntobe in response to political correctness where artists are chosen on their skin colour in an attempt to rewrite our sad history. I regard this as racist and hence, Joyce Ntobe. In 1992 I submitted a series of three linocuts to the Triennale, a prestigious South African competition, under the name Joyce Ntobe. Joyce's works were promptly bought by the National Gallery, causing a heated controversy about the inverted racism of art world institutions when I - whose own works were rejected by the gallery - revealed that I was the artist and that Joyce was my 'black woman alter ego'." - Beezy Bailey
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On where he is now and where he is going:
"We are based in Cape Town (as I have been for a number of years), having two children and living the wonderful life that Cape Town offers. Next year I am showing my Mandela work that I am currently working on at the Nelson Mandela Museum in Transkei, Umtata and then the Everard Read Gallery Johannesburg in May. I am also having a one man show in China while trying to find venues in Germany and England to stage my Dancing Jesus Project which I am currently also working on." - Beezy
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'War and Peace'
Artist: Beezy Bailey
Oil, charcoal and enamel on canvas, 91.5 x 122cm, 2010
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'Aviation Pioneer'
Artist: Beezy Bailey
Oil and enamel on canvas, 90 x 170cm, 2009
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This year has also marked Beezy's arrival on the blogosphere. Describing the internet, Beezy says, "It seems the WWW is a night sky and all the people are stars and I want to touch them all. And have several to keep."
Follow Beezy Bailey’s Blog here.
For more on Beezy Bailey, please go to www.beezybailey.co.za.
Don’t forget to vote for Beezy Bailey on the Sketchbooktrails page on Facebook if you like his work!
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Aidan Bennetts, Artist / Designer
 
Untitled
Artist: Aidan Bennetts
Reclaimed cardboard tubes, sprayed in yellow paint.
800mm (length) x 600mm (width) x 500mm (height)
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Inspiration: Many underprivileged individuals wander around our Woodstock streets, collecting cardboard tubes to sell to recycling companies. This prompted us to help improve their lives by buying the recycled material to create a meaningful art piece.
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Biography
Aidan Bennetts was born in Johannesburg. As a child, Aidan was an analytical thinker who would make his own toys, often dissecting them and combining them with others. His father, a chemical engineer, allowed his young son into his workshop on the weekends and as he grew up, he fostered within him a passion for quality workmanship, deconstruction and reconstruction. Beyond Art and English, in his scholarly years, he also excelled at trigonometry and practical science. Aidan went on to study fine arts with a focus on sculpture and attained his Bachelor's Degree in Fine Art, from the University of Cape Town. It was during this time he learnt to three dimensionalize forms, to understand the feasibility of product design and how different materials could work together.
He opened the Aidan Bennetts Design Studio in 2005 upon completion of his studies and within 4 months secured a valuable contract to develop the interiors for Haiku. Over the few years since starting the studio, it is clear that in every item receives the same commitment to a lifetime of striving for excellence. This high level of commitment flanked with an idiosyncratic sensitivity to environment and community has been reflected by the mainstream media.
Aidan Bennetts has become a household name in South Africa. With weekly appearances on Top Billing as a presenter, and extensive radio and print coverage, Aidan has made a well-deserved name for himself with his product and interior designs.
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Heart of Gold
Artist: Aidan Bennetts
Cast polyurethane base that is gold-leafed and fastened with a chain with the Aidan Bennetts' logo.
200mm (length) x 200mm (width) x 300mm (height)
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Inspiration: The Aidan Bennetts logo fastened around the heart is a reminder that design is meant to be selfless. We should not design selfishly. Instead we design to better our environment and our future.
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For more on Aidan Bennetts, please go to www.aidanbennetts.com.
Don’t forget to vote for Aidan Bennetts on the Sketchbooktrails page on Facebook if you like his work!
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Catherine Christie, Artist
 
Butterfly Series
Artist: Catherine Christie
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Biography
"The enjoyable, fascinating part about my work is the alchemy - the alchemistic essence. This is the essence of how substances react when they meet and meld / flow together, and what is produced in the interaction. The proverbial alchemist, whose studious efforts eventually lead him/her to turn base alloys (the path of the soul) into gold (becoming conscious), is what inspires my day to day painting. I feel that my work reflects that beautiful yet arduous journey." - Catherine Christie
Christie is based in Hout Bay, Cape Town where she also runs her own gallery. She completed a Bachelor of Art degree at the University of Cape Town in 1989 and is today recognised as one of South Africa's leading contemporary abstract artists.
True to her appreciation of Natural Law, the nature of her style is process driven. The artist uses gravity, chemical reaction and evaporation as her allies. When handling the syrupy paints, she spills, heaves, rubs, sands back, dilutes and drips. Layer upon layer of shear and translucent earthy glazes create an ambiguity of depth and floating form.
Christie's work captures the beauty of Nature. She explores and reveals the weathering effects of exposure and time - unpredictable, yet certain. There is a sense that change is constant - creation, growth, weathering, erosion, repair, decay and rebirth…The rich surfaces on her canvases reflect the cyclical processes of Life.
Catherine Christie's works have been sold to large corporate companies such as Old Mutual/Discovery, Fin Source House, Irish & Ashman amongst many others. Besides taking the corporate and private world by storm, Catherine exhibits her work internationally in Cape Town, Dubai, Germany, Holland, Johannesburg, London, Miami, New York, Perth, Spain and Sydney.
"For the chemical wedding to take place Mercury needs to be present. This is the sacred metal of the alchemist. This is the marriage between light and dark; male and female; yin and yang. It is the search for the Philosopher's Stone; the Holy Grail. We all search for this in our daily lives. When the chemical wedding occurs - the union of male and female - enlightenment is achieved. Balance. Mercury must be present. My work is full of this sacred silver element. The alchemists never underestimated its great importance, especially not Hermes! The Greek God Hermes was the messenger of the Gods to the humans. He straddled both worlds – the physical and the metaphysical. He interpreted the hidden meaning of art." - Christie
Acknowledgements: Leinino K. Haasbroek, Home to Life
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Butterfly Series
Artist: Catherine Christie
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For more on Catherine Christie, please go to www.catherinechristie.co.za.
Don’t forget to vote for Catherine Christie on the Sketchbooktrails page on Facebook if you like her work!
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