English

FILM may have the tainted label " popular culture " , but the very fact that, like theatre it includes sound, visuals, story-line and special effect marks it as an art form with tremendous power to move minds and hearts. In this respect, it qualifies as such as an art-from that reaches far and wide. Yet this film, beyond the Hollywood gloss and glamour is truly a memorable experience. This is said with circumspect, for this film is brutal, honest and raw. One would hope its effect changes perceptions and motivates action that will generate awareness of issues of violence against woman that will, one hopes change the landscape, particularly in South Africa. I was fortunate to attend the screening of the film at Nu Metro in association with Boondoggie films, Times media films and the Nonceba Family Trust Centre. The latter is an organisation that attempts to alleviate the high incidence of rape and violence against woman and children in Khayelitsha. Tess, played by award winning actress Christia Visser, is a young woman on the fringes of society who sells her body for a living. She copes by popping pain tablets, but her world is turned upside down when she becomes pregnant. I will not divulge the plot any further, save to say that it unravels amidst the setting of Muizenberg here in the Cape. The cinematography, music and sound, editing and dialogue is to the tee. Course and vulgar, yet sensitive and subtle just as nature is at once menacing and ominous as well as inviting and gentle. There are often birds in some scenes which reminded me of Roger Ballen's photographic and video exploration. The dialogue is crisp and without flowery elaboration; the photographic work shifts between close-ups – tattered surroundings, bruised bodies and faces – and panoramic scenery with the hope of escape and a solution. One can only judge the characters in context for morality is relative to context and the viewer will have to decide on ethical issues themselves. What one can perhaps say is that the plight of the downtrodden is not something one can simply judge and cast aside. The music is well considered, often incorporating the natural sound – although hightend – of a heartbeat, trains, intense booms and the like – amidst actual music. This adds to the drama and the psychological torment of the characters, in particular the protagonist. Repetition also serves to make the main salient points of the film: questions of innocence and the loss thereof; the feeling of trying to cleanse; the desire for salvation; the inability to break out of a pattern or system and the suffocating degradation of woman at the hands of men of violence. The film is based on the novel by Tracy Farren entitled " Whiplash " and director Richards has certainly brought it to life for the screen. The screen – yes what a magical place and one that is not simply the haunt of Hollywood with all its glitz and special effects. Indeed, without being overly sentimental – South Africans should be proud of this local production. It has already claimed top prize at the Durban International Film festival as the Best SA film; best actress award for Visser and best editing by Linda Man. But beyond awards, there is clearly a heart wrenching message and one would hope that this does motivate change and upliftment, here in South Africa and beyond. For art's message is often very much about social transformation. This is all the more poignant for if this sort of message is not taken cogniscience of we fail the next generation. Tess laments her loss of innocence. One cannot avoid the fact that there is a clear correspondence between the way somebody acts and behaves and childhood experience and trauma.

A DISCERNING collection of paintings, drawings, photographs and sculptures are on display at the home of Charlette Schachat, a bastion of contemporary South African and master works, better known as Die Kunskamer. The legacy of the gallery shifts its weight once more in this offering and will most likely appeal to a wide audience. Perhaps the most eye-catching other than the obvious works of Irma Stern, Larry Scully, Malcolm Payne, Cecil Skotnes, a Siopis designed tapestry and Slingsby drawings, are the numerous works by Jan Vermerien. They reveal a sort of archaism, lyricism and cartoon-like imagery that stir emotively, bringing to the fore both a poetic sentiment while not losing sight of his awareness of the medium through which he works, some of which are produced on or with handmade paper. His sense of colour is terrific: one a brilliantly nuanced variation of tones of blue; others a sensitive exploration of beige and white and yet others an excursion into the depths of-or interactions between-blue, purple and green. In terms of content – the extra-aesthetic – one might appeal to a certain metaphysical attempt to ascend and reach beyond the mundane as his figures feel both the weight of life, of gravity while yet occupy the format to traverse the very weight of materiality and any potential obstacles. One might also note the peculiarly African stylisation – if indeed there is such a " neat " category – reminding one of an early Braque or Picasso, so that such imagery may yet be an African aesthetics through the eyes of-or as appropriated via-the West. If one should deny such boundaries in the first place, perhaps it is more apt to say that his works go beyond any such convention and rather appeal to a basic universalism. Yet such notions one can only expound with circumspect at best. Another painter on show is that of Chris Denovan. Although in my estimation not as " deep " as the aforementioned, one cannot help been drawn to the quality of mark-making, the singing colours and squiggles and the vibrant, one might say musical quality of his work. Culled from the web, the artist appropriates portraits to give a new take on the digital image in the first place – though I find this rather cold. Irrespective of such concerns, the work is appealing and does talk to the " fictional identities " that the complexity of the information age brings to light. Perhaps more introspective are Wendy Anziska's paintings where she appears to joust and jab with odd squiggles and a certain " unfinished quality " that belie an interest in spatial fecundity of the surface and colour as symbolic of emotive and intuitive being(ness). A work I am always drawn to at the gallery and one of the treasures retained for this show is Beezy Baley's " The Magi " where the colour shimmers and the expressiveness of the figures exude an other-worldly charm; a hieratic order of sorts which corresponds with religious sentiment. This is explored further in such works such as Paul Rabinowitz's sculpture in bronze entitled " embrace " wherein unity and oneness is depicted in a harmonious coming together of two figures. Intertwined, almost losing separate existence, such an image is the epitome of the mystical quest, namely dissolution of self in that which is beyond self and yet

THE UNMISTAKEBLE style of Mathew Hindley greeted me at the studio of the artist. Contained, yet wild; massively Surreal, yet real, and psychologically loaded; yet perhaps broadly applicable, these images are immediately impressive. There is a photographic, digital dimension as well as stylistic references to time-honoured methods or techniques of painting and drawing as Hindley deftly conjures a sense of fantastic realism. As opposed to his " Ruin Lust " series last year, the artist seems less concerned with a sense of resignation at the senselessness of the destructive impulse in general then in the possibility of rebirth. Yet there seems to be a thread in this work and his previous output: That growth occurs often subsequent to in even while disintegration and seeming destruction occurs. This coheres with a psychological principle, namely that ego dissolution is a basis for inner growth. In this sense, whereas Hindley has shown interest in vegetative life that grows precisely when there is fire and embers, so here one finds the main image to be the curious juxtaposition of a flower and plumes of smoke. This motif is iterated in ever nuanced ways. The flower refers to genetically modified sub-species that grow in curious ways. This makes a comparison to chemically modified synthetic concoctions that are not simply aberrations, but may be useful for medicinal purposes. On the one hand, this is then co-joined to smoke rings that refer to oil spills and destruction in general, but on the other hand become a sculptural mass that acts as the stem of the plant. One can then infer that the roots grow deep below the water surface, making a connection perhaps to the ground below the calm waters. For even in the psychological turmoil, symbolism and experience inherent in life with its concomitant suffering, there is yet a certain charm, order, harmony, even beauty. Such dichotomies are explored not only in his paintings – and his creation of illusionary reality, now Surreally " distorted " is powerful – but also in his numerous prints. Hindley refers to painters of yesteryear such as Goya, Rembrandt and Giotto in his mark-making technical virtuosity and the narrative that unfolds. For the nexus of life and death and the seeming enemy that is death is somewhat subverted. One may read in this alive flower attached to the smoking-stem as a metaphor for reincarnation or at least that the spirit lives on, or may even not yield so easily in life proper and defeat death – even if temporarily. Such interpretation is not farfetched. In conversation with the artist, he mentions the difficulty concerning the fact that his mother was diagnosed with cancer. Also, the recent death of Berend de Wet was tragic and Hindley expressed his sense of wanting to carry on the work of Berend, or as it were take up the sword or paintbrush and fight the cause. It appears to me that in this series of work, the artist is trying to defy entropy through creative struggle and the harmony of opposites: Fire with water; the brittle and soft with the geometric and logical. In that dialectic, the struggle becomes noble and energising, and promises creative fruits. It recalls a poetic truth, namely that seemingly irreconcilable ideas can be brought together. That the rule of law is not that of the law of contradiction or the excluded middle, but a poetic truth of the figurative and metaphorical. In this sense, the anatomy and biology of the flower is at the same time a psychological reality. The plumes of smoke become a life-giving principle that gives rise to the singular flower. The visual is heightened and then somehow one can touch the images as the flowers appear

TWO strong solo exhibitions are presented at Smac Gallery. Coleman's sculptural work is particularly philosophical while Mapondera's work excites in terms of a certain depth in narrative content. It is clearly in the difference of approaches that one need not see a link between the two shows, yet one must ask oneself why this coexistence. The former artist, uses found materials together with sculptural approaches, while the latter is a combination of traditional painting and curious quasi-sculptural painterly objects suspended in space. Indeed, the awareness of space and by implication time, is implicit in both these shows. On closer reflection, one might say that the artists' – in distinct ways – may be interested in how matter may come to mean something. How does the organisation of matter, in this case an art object come to be imbued with meaning or act as an auxiliary to conscious experience? The answer to that question perhaps lies in the curious nexus between culture and nature. Coleman's work incorporates a multitude of different forms and materials, some found, some directly from nature and others geometric, leaning against one another and objects teetering on the verge of thought and objecthood. He has incorporated measuring tapes and in one piece titled Faktura – a drawing on oxidised steel-one notices a kind of mathematical formulation or problem that is in the process of resolution. Civilization, for want of a better word, is often nothing more than the abstract understanding of nature, in order to use, manipulate, excavate and appropriate. In this sense nature is turned into culture and in then glorified as the order or system of dominance. Yet perhaps the artist questions pure empiricism as a measuring yard stick; perhaps one cannot measure, perhaps the finite has a deep non-quantifiable at its root, so to speak? I suggest the artist alludes to this through his constant upsetting of the natural. For example, the measuring tape is often cut up and reordered. Besides the exact value of things are only relative to the initial frame of reference – the highly arbitrary unit of measurement. In a sense then, there is no Platonic mystery attached to numbers. On the other hand, the sense that all material things can be quantified is a highly useful method for categorisation. Yet such a picture is fragmented and that is why Coleman returns to nature as he uses a large trunk-like form that interacts with the gallery as it seemingly protrudes from the wall and then reacts with the observing consciousness. Nature and culture need to be balanced, neither subservient to the other. Mapoondera possibly answers that call as his paintings include enigmatic figures, dogs, cows, bulls and highly textured surfaces at times. His Kumba Kwababa Vangu works' are the most interesting. Created out of cardboard boxes, these works appear blanket-like and invoke a sense of inter-connectedness and warmth. Such empathetic modalities involve a feeling for how the artist has connected old matter into new matter and then reignited a new awareness. I would suggest that this entails an acknowledgement of how sustainable one can be or rather how effective one can be with the intent to both satisfy the desire to know nature in ways other than simply empirical verification, but also as instances of value and meaning. This is

Dr DANNY SHORKEND Reviews THE THREE exhibitions on offer have the effect of deconstructing and destabilising assumed paradigms. Penny Siopis achieves through the juxtaposition of painting and sculpture; Jody Brand through her subversive photographs and Mitchell Gilbert Messina accomplishes this through reflecting on the overproduction of internet video. Siopis's familiar glue and ink style present to the eye a flowering cascade of pinks, purples, reds, greens and yellow. Yet this abstract sense of formlessness struggle to become a figure or face that emerge from the flowering forms. Yet this tension between the " real " and the abstract is further articulated in her odd juxtaposition of sculptures (often stuck directly on the canvas surface). These figures and busts and merely a rock crystal or semi-precious stone create a tension for the very reality of the painting is questioned. This is so as one is somehow disallowed from simple reverie in colour and form and instead these sculptures, culled from the Western artistic tradition, implicates the painting-objects as bearers of a truth other than their aesthetic beauty. For now, they are unrealities, mere stuff that is poured (consider her video and stills in this light), running beyond the canvas format (she often includes the running and spilling that would occur outside of the canvas frame) and these sensual delights are mere imaginings. There is a third dimension, inhabited by the sculptural form that is perhaps more real, however contrived it may now seem. In sum: visual delight gives way to reflections concerning the extra-aesthetic. Brand's photographs are an attempt to reclaim a sense of pride in the " othered " , and she does this by creating images that defer the onlookers gaze. Instead her " subjects " appear to claim their own space and at the same time a harmony with the natural surrounds. In effect, this inverts the classical norm and certain conventions and testifies to an inclusiveness of voices. The usual binary of pretty versus ugly is subverted without dissolving into one polarity. In a sense, that tension remains and in that struggle the images themselves transcend simply, rigid definitions. This malleability then implies that the body and mind are two sides of the same coin. Brand's figures might be contentious, but they go beyond the conventional art historical narrative which would pander, in the main, to an elitist, male audience. This New Classicism thus promises the embrace of new narratives, whatever ones assumed ideological agenda. Messina's video piece also deconstructs assumed hierarchies. It questions the idea of a well-crafted video work by paying tribute to the YouTube autoplay feature. The story is fragmented and haphazard reflecting on the fact that perhaps one's attention span is limited further through constant streaming, short clips and a break in any one narrative (which is not necessarily negative). One gets the sense that it's a video comparable to an architect that lets all the various scaffoldings and features of the building be exposed. In so doing, one gains a second-order reflective view of contemporary culture, wherein information is ubiquitous and accessible, but no order or coherence results. In fact, the great expanse of possibility renders a potential ordering system rather difficult to discern.

In this outline of a conceptual terrain that is rather new, i develop a kabbalistic thesis on art, undermining or deconstructing the familiar narrative and in the process offering an alternative version. This may be a start of a new venture, rather than the truth about art perse. In other words text and image can interelate on a new level.

THE UNMISTAKABLE style of Matthew Hindley greeted me at the studio of the artist. One could describe them as contained, yet wild. They are Surreal, almost hyperreal and psychologically-rich so that these images are immediately impressive. There is a photographic, digital dimension as well as stylistic references to time-honoured methods or techniques of painting and drawing as Hindley deftly conjures a sense of fantastic realism. As opposed to his " Ruin Lust " series last year, the artist seems less concerned with a sense of resignation at the senselessness of the destructive impulse in general then in the possibility of rebirth. Yet there seems to be a thread in this work and his previous output: That growth occurs often subsequent to-or even while – disintegration occurs. This coheres with a psychological principle, namely that ego dissolution is a basis for inner growth. In this sense, whereas Hindley has shown interest in vegetative life that grows precisely when there is fire and embers, so here one finds the main image to be the curious juxtaposition of a flower and plumes of smoke. This motif is iterated in ever nuanced ways. The flower refers to genetically modified sub-species that grow in curious ways. This makes a comparison to chemically modified synthetic concoctions that are not simply aberrations, but may be useful for medicinal purposes. On the one hand, this is then co-joined to smoke rings that refer to oil spills, but on the other hand become a sculptural mass that acts as the stem of the plant. One can then infer that the roots grow deep below the water surface, making a connection perhaps to the ground below the calm waters. For even in the psychological turmoil and suffering, there is yet a certain harmony and beauty. Such dichotomies are explored not only in his paintings, but also in his numerous prints. Hindley refers to painters of yesteryear such as Goya, Rembrandt and Giotto in his mark-making technical virtuosity and the narrative that unfolds. For the nexus of life and death and the seeming enemy that is death is somewhat subverted. One may read in this alive flower attached to the smoking-stem a metaphor for reincarnation. Or at least that the spirit lives on, and may even not yield so easily in life proper and defeat death – even if temporarily. Such interpretation is not farfetched. In conversation with the artist, he mentions the difficulty concerning the fact that his mother was diagnosed with cancer. Also, the recent death of Barend de Wet was tragic and Hindley expressed his sense of wanting to carry on the work of Barend, or as it were take up the sword or paintbrush and fight the cause. It appears to me that in this series of work, the artist is trying to defy entropy through creative struggle and the harmony of opposites: Fire with water; the brittle and soft with the geometric and logical. In that dialectic, the struggle becomes noble and energising, and promises creative fruits. It recalls a poetic truth, namely that seemingly irreconcilable ideas can be brought together. That the rule of law is not (only) that of the law of contradiction or the excluded middle, but a poetic truth. In this sense, the anatomy and biology of the flower is at the same time a psychological reality. The plumes of smoke become a life-giving principle that gives rise to the singular flower. The visual is heightened and then somehow one can touch the images as the flowers appear alive. At the same time, one can discern the way they are constructed: flecks of colour and

AN ODD work greets one as one enters Blank Projects. One is presented with different coloured plastic plates by Ntlonti. The text by Thuli Gamedze explains: " …an installation of colourful plastic plates marked with the family names of people who live close by in the Eastern Cape, refers again to death, to the borrowing of plates for funerals, to another action of living together, eating together – amongst lives passed on from here ". It is curious considering the seeming celebratory tone, the dance of primaries, the swagger of circles and the play of chaos and order, to recontextualize as a reference to the pain felt by some, in particular the black body. Then there is the more obvious reference to such pain. Consider Amabali, where a metal grill and painted " flag " implicate the South African police in another raid of sorts, as the familiar blue and yellow stripes indicate. The bars form a stark code as the voice over plays a distinct sound – Ntlonti's recital of Chris van Wyk's In Detention, the chaotic sounds of RhodesMustFall activists' clashes with police and other such musings. Her Umthandoza, a wooden stick is equally enigmatic, and the markings on the wall call to mind the notion that the stick, at once ceremonial and potentially creative, is simultaneously a tool of revolution as it is potentially one of violence and danger. Yet Marasela's approach is rather different: Wool on shawl works that seem to imply the traditional alongside a new approach. But without deviating philosophically, let us once again heed the words of Gamedze and determine her intentions. She refers to Theodorah, the artist's alter ego, named after the artists' mother. She writes: " Theodorah, who lives in Mvenyane in rural Eastern Cape, longs across thousands of kilometres for her husband Gebane, who works in Johannesburg. Her longing is so great and her patience so tender that we forget that such things are the result of brutal and crass land division in the historical formation of an efficient migrant labour system, whose disregard for love is the cause of generations of heartbreak ". The traditional blanket with a red woollen outpouring, as it were perhaps speaks to the feelings and ideas associated with what is described by the writer. Other works by Marasela suggest a mug shot; a waiting over a period of time experienced by the subject and a strange array of emotions. One thus gets the sense that the forlorn woman waiting for her husband expects the worst of him, that is, possible incarceration and is tormented by what may have become of him. The images are very much cartoon-like, suggesting another dimension, an emotional world that critiques the accepted or established world order. In the above readings, it is as if the artist leaves clues: lines of colour (that are supposed to refer to police vans); grills (referring to the police van or cells) and blankets with woollen red additions that are said to mean a traditional sitting or awaiting coupled with the drawings that are said to represent possible scenarios regarding the one for whom she awaits. Yet the

In this paper, i argue that various aesthetic devices associated with Ancient Greek sport determined a certain view of the body. This institutionalised body as it were communicated a Greek conception opf life - one imbued with beauty of the human form, the greatness of the gods and the desire for victory within the sports arena. This then forms a basis on which to reconceptualise modern sport, its relationship to the aesthetic dimension of art and the impact of institutions on conceptions of the body (mind).

Karate is more violent than judo. Karate is direct, focused on one point and fatal. Judo is diffused, centred and low impact. So, which is better, if indeed one can ask that. Better for what would be the intelligent response. In a karate match, aggression needs to be channelled and skilfully focused. Does that prepare one for an encounter of life and death with a would-be attacker? Does that have any beneficial psychological strength as one encounters life and various situations? And what of judo? In a judo match it's not only soft, skill and feeling, but aggression, fight, will and even violence? Does judo prepare one for a real-life encounter, Heaven forbid? Does it strengthen ones resolve to uplift consciousness, to lift the veil of psychological constriction? I would argue that whether judo and/or karate are both soft and hard, useful in life both within and without is not in itself a fact of doing them, only in relation to the one who does the sport/art can it serves such ends. Therefore the " observing consciousness " does indeed effect the observed and thence the one who so channels that. If that is indeed the case, then one can say that sports such as the martial arts of judo and karate offer wonderful methods in uplifting consciousness. How so? Through these arts/ sports one comes to know one's own body centre and how to orientate that in relation to another person. This could develop empathy and compassion, as well as an intuitive positive reaction to even unsettling situations. It teaches one to react and yet not react. In other words, to enter a mode of behaviour that is instinctively and intelligently orientated to both self-preservation and consciousness beyond the self. Is this not a contradiction? Either its ego or higher or altered consciousness? Consciousness operates in the here and now of time, space and matter as well as the realms of feelings and ideas. Therefore, the empirical, sensuous reality of what is presented – the ego dimension of aggressor and defender – is the first order experience. This is then negotiated by skill, will, intuition and creativity by an " in the zone " conscious response. Yet is not such a valuation only in the case of competition and precisely when one wins, and is an athlete at the pinnacle of that art/sport? Only such an athlete can aspire to greater enlightenment through these disciplines? This I believe is not the case. Some such athletes never pierce the inner dimension – at least not consciously. The acquisition of attuned ego and higher consciousness through these endeavours can be experienced by anyone at any level at these as other games. How then can this be accomplished? By understanding the essence of such games. Judo, the gentle way, is the maximin efficient use of energy with minimum effort. Its guiding principles are the mutual benefit and welfare of all peoples. And yet I cannot find a corresponding set of ideals in karate. Therefore, I opened the piece with the idea that karate is more violent than judo and that may be so. However, if it were so, then judo would have created for itself an adversary (i.e. karate) and that motivates war, and violence. For war becomes possible when one " side " identifies an enemy, an alien, a terrorist, vilifying him and rallying to conquer him in the name of peace and freedom.

HIGHLY relevant, this exhibition focuses on the plight of refugees, particularly from Africa who against terrible odds try to cross the Mediterranean and enter Europe. The treacherous waters combined with some harsh policies of the EU, notwithstanding Germany's more open policy, has often lead to countless deaths, including children. The works by photographer Martina Gruber and paintings/mixed media work by the more well-known Zimbabwean artist Gillian Rosselli speak to these sensitive issues. The irony or blatant contradiction is the fact that these paintings, collages and installations as well as photographs are on one level quite beautiful. Indeed, such is the coast line of much of Europe. Yet at the same time, beneath these waters are the remains of thousands who have not survived the journey. A dangerous journey that could only have been made if the conditions in those countries were not themselves that harrowing. And indeed, they are. In conversation with Gruber, she points out that the EU could help alleviate the problems in these countries instead of spending countless amounts to barricade the borders. The chilling reality is that so many have been lost to the sea, where the sea itself can also be applied as a wider reference point referring to the drowning of, for example children in the illicit crimes of those who have exploited these refugees. Yet at the same time, the blues and greens are not simply cool, chilling colours but exude a warmth, even a kind of spirituality. Thus, the associations are multidimensional: the sea that wipes away all memory of the past; the sea that appears to eternally ebb and flow; the sea that is the pathway toward great discovery – the so-called new world that beckons. Rosselli's paintings often invoke a deep pain tempered with a calming, almost harmonious compositional unity. Her explorations of blue – a colour that often symbolises communications as the nexus between mind and heart – are evocative. They remind one of the sea that is tempestuous – potentially calm, potentially exhilarating, but also violent, terrifying and terribly dangerous. This is echoed in Gruber's work where one finds the alternative use of colour and black/white. In this sense, there is a loud aspect to the sea as it were and a softer, almost silent, sinister set of meanings. Both artists' do not just deal with the theme conceptually or abstractly. They incorporate actual renderings of missing children, actual writings of narratives and in that story-telling bring the idea into concrete reality and emotional tension. For this is not a " refugee crisis " or point on immigration law, but a humanitarian disaster, a human saga kept at bay with political jousting and economic coldness.

SITUATED in the beautiful Franschoek, I was happy to see the work of Kali van der Merwe. Powerful and profound, her work stirs one's senses and reason in terms of philosophical speculation on the question concerning the relationship between life and death. Based on relics and bodies that she encounters on her farm residence, she has created images of uncanny scientific, taxidermical and magical qualities. There is a sense of structure and order, yet one " imposed " beyond the assumed categories of the sciences. Her path therefore is embraces both a desire to know nature and one that is in awe of – and complicit with – the unfolding of the natural and cosmological realms. Her methods allow for a beautiful light that pervades her subjects. Her subjects – ranging from plant life to the world of animals – in fact is a life that has passed and yet the artist suggests that that body still somehow houses a spirit or life. In the macabre death of the image, one can intuit a life that was, an existence that was palpable and real. In a Frankensteinien sense Kali almost breathes life back into these carcases and remnants. In her photographs she contextualises the dead bees, flowers, snakes and snake skin, cats and birds to name a few, within galactic, interstellar space, images derived from the Hubble telescope and freely accessed. This gives such animal-forms an almost angelic and other-worldly meaning. It instils in them a sense of cosmic depth and meaning even after the spirit appears to have expired. At the very least, the viewer may well sense a portal to other dimensions. In her installation work, she urges the viewer to touch and fondle the various broken and fragmented bodies and relics. It is an experience that precedes any kind of knowing or categorisation of the mysteries of the created world; it is a primitive sense of awe and wonder. At the same time, as the artist communicated in her speech at the opening, the observer effects the observed. Thus, one cannot pierce and know reality as such as being kinds of biological organisms ourselves we effect and change the experimental set up. In simple terms, one can only know with reference to the framework of human knowing, and that framework is necessarily limited. Yet, Kali suggests an alternative taxidermy that considers an artistic vision as well, one that could sit equally well in a Natural History Museum as it could in an art gallery or museum. Kali's work shows tremendous observation skills (she provides a magnifying glass with all curious " sculptures " or ready-mades). Consider her video installation where one watches a pray mantis devouring its meal. It is absorbing and yet one cannot eschew the abject horror together with the curious desire to engage. A wonderful scientific and artistic scene is expertly recorded. Kali has a reverence for the scientific exploration of nature, but I believe adds to this knowledge base as she somehow touches what she calls " the soul of form ". This concept points to the fact of which the artist is aware, that matter itself is ill defined. A photon, a particle (and wave) for example is massless; and the other of matter, namely dark

MAKING my way down loop street with no intention to view art in a gallery, I was suddenly caught unawares. As I happened to pass Ebony, a surge of pure colour and form engulfed me. I was beckoned to have a closer look and indeed I did just that. The artist Hugh Byrne explains his methods: " …through the process of making abstract art, I am trying to understand why certain colours, textures, shapes or materials have a pull on me, and how best to group these individual and sometimes disparate components into a fully realized and pleasing object ". Such concerns perhaps explain equally well why I felt drawn to his work. There is a sense of structural tension as squares and rectangles of pure colour shapes mingle and are applied in certain sequences, sometimes superimposed. Yet there is somehow a resolution, a harmonious reverie of form, shape and colour. The artist explains further: " My work is the result of identifying a problem, solving it and then letting that decision influence the next problem/solution. In this way, the artworks become tangible compilations of decisions, organised in one place as a painting or sculpture ". This is neatly explained and one does get a sense of a structural unity, whether in painting or sculpture that is the sum of such decisions. In effect, the work becomes a meditation of form and colour.

I outline the trend to reconstruct sport as an instance of art-aesthetic expression. I do this by bringing the readers attention historically and conceptually to the task of relating art and sport. In this regard, I highlight the " weak " version of the aesthetics of the everyday (so named AEL) which tend to see somewhat of a continuity between art and sport. I then develop three basic underpinnings that suggest what I would call a paradigm shift, namely Einfuhlung (empathy), play and aesthesis. The upshot is that art and sport mediate reality in such a way that although one cannot ultimately know reality, they both offer similar philosophical framings, that is, they enhance a world consciousness of connectivity, sport functioning in such a way that it need not be rigidly distinguished from art. I suggest an observation which devolves from this theoretical framework, namely the " will to form " .

ENERGETIC swirls and splotches, sinewy line and strong sweeping gestures in luminous enamel as abstracted faces emerge make for a powerful gallery experience. Maritz can capture both a primitive and primal impulse as well as a kind of digital all-pervasiveness that is compelling as an icon of current portend. Over and above this, he has captured a kind of spirit-energy of the collective human imagination. The faces are abstracted in their childlike simplicity, yet ooze with life. Life as it emanates from the subtle sensing apparatus: two eyes and two ears, a mouth and two nostrils. These are the mediators between what is inside and what is outside. These are the doors of perception that negotiate concrete and a not so concrete sense of the real. Maritz's mark-making is rapid and yet surprisingly controlled. The consistency with which his Ur Faces emerge with their robust pools of paint and mesmerising line create a sense of vigour and expanded consciousness. The title of the exhibition " Sortilegium " refers to a kind divination, drawing of the lots or even a kind of sorcery evolved from simple games like opening a sacred book on a random page and if it has an answer to one's question. Such a practice derives from even before antiquity and extends even into the middle or dark ages and has survived to this day. This kind of method of inquiry was thought to be sorcery. In the same way, one gets a sense from the artists' method that he kind of draws with a divination stick. That out of seeming chaos, an order, pattern and structure emerges. The shine of the enamel urges the eye to dart around the surface of the images. The image itself is one of complexity and simplicity. On the one hand, a disorderly random spirit-mediumship-inspired taking over-of-the-hand as it were. On the other hand, a will controlling to render these enigmatic faces. Everyone and no one. A symbol, like a stick figure. Abstracted and " without flesh " they are yet human and humane. For they are not only masks or skulls, but seething with a vision channelled through speech, seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling and tasting. His sculptures are equally compelling and speak to the paintings insofar as found materials appear to have been put together and then painted on with this signature style: energetic swirls and sinewy line – and obvious references to surreal automatic painting, Art Brut, and Jackson Pollock. They emerge now as not just the head, but a full figure if not a strange human-like form. All references to what these found objects were are all but rendered imperceptible by the almost obsessive will to cover with paint, to homogenize and unify even if a curious beast appears to emerge. The spaghetti-like lines could refer to anything from metaphysical unity to neuronal networks to the simple fact and texture of paint expressed through a quality and intensity of line.

SITUATED in the beautiful Franschoek, I was happy to see the work of Kali van der Merwe. Powerful and profound, her work stirs one's senses and reason in terms of philosophical speculation on the question concerning the relationship between life and death. Based on relics and bodies that she encounters on her farm residence, she has created images of uncanny scientific, taxidermical and magical qualities. There is a sense of structure and order, yet one " imposed " beyond the assumed categories of the sciences. Her path therefore is embraces both a desire to know nature and one that is in awe of – and complicit with – the unfolding of the natural and cosmological realms. Her methods allow for a beautiful light that pervades her subjects. Her subjects – ranging from plant life to the world of animals – in fact is a life that has passed and yet the artist suggests that that body still somehow houses a spirit or life. In the macabre death of the image, one can intuit a life that was, an existence that was palpable and real. In a Frankensteinien sense Kali almost breathes life back into these carcases and remnants. In her photographs she contextualises the dead bees, flowers, snakes and snake skin, cats and birds to name a few, within galactic, interstellar space, images derived from the Hubble telescope and freely accessed. This gives such animal-forms an almost angelic and other-worldly meaning. It instils in them a sense of cosmic depth and meaning even after the spirit appears to have expired. At the very least, the viewer may well sense a portal to other dimensions. In her installation work, she urges the viewer to touch and fondle the various broken and fragmented bodies and relics. It is an experience that precedes any kind of knowing or categorisation of the mysteries of the created world; it is a primitive sense of awe and wonder. At the same time, as the artist communicated in her speech at the opening, the observer effects the observed. Thus, one cannot pierce and know reality as such as being kinds of biological organisms ourselves we effect and change the experimental set up. In simple terms, one can only know with reference to the framework of human knowing, and that framework is necessarily limited. Yet, Kali suggests an alternative taxidermy that considers an artistic vision as well, one that could sit equally well in a Natural History Museum as it could in an art gallery or museum. Kali's work shows tremendous observation skills (she provides a magnifying glass with all curious " sculptures " or ready-mades). Consider her video installation where one watches a pray mantis devouring its meal. It is absorbing and yet one cannot eschew the abject horror together with the curious desire to engage. A wonderful scientific and artistic scene is expertly recorded. Kali has a reverence for the scientific exploration of nature, but I believe adds to this knowledge base as she somehow touches what she calls " the soul of form ". This concept points to the fact of which the artist is aware, that matter itself is ill defined. A photon, a particle (and wave) for example is massless; and the other of matter, namely dark