TAF002 & TAF003: Spier Contemporary 2007


Film director Revel Fox spent time gathering footage of various artists and their work during the installation of Spier Contemporary 2007 toward what will be the second and third DVDs in a series of Taxi Art Films to be produced by David Krut Publishing.

Eighteen hours of Fox’s superb material have been edited into a collection of short films, each dedicated to a specific artist or work. Taken together, these films are a fascinating group portrait of contemporary South African art, presented by an organisation that hopes to promote growth in this arena. FEATURED ON TAF002 – Spier Contemporary 2007: ANDREW PUTTER, and his singing portrait of Dutch settler, Maria van Riebeeck. ANDRZEJ NOWICKI, whose paintings and drawings examine the role of interpretation in art. PETER VAN HEERDEN, whose performance questions South African stereotypes. MDUDUZI NYEMBE, who breaks barriers between art forms through performance. FEATURED ON TAF003 – Spier Contemporary 2007: BRETT BAILEY, whose performance piece shocked viewers with its pointed commentary on immigrants in South Africa. RUTH LEVIN, with a performace that interrogates stereotypes of feminine identity. LEILA ANDERSON, who performs a work conceptualised by Peter van Heerden – a work the artist has described as a linear journey through the mud of history. MWENYA KABWE, CHUMA SOPOTELA & KEMANG WALEHULERE, whose collaborative performance is inspired by their interpretations of memory, loss and transition. Both DVDs also feature: AN INTERVIEW WITH CURATOR CLIVE VAN DEN BERG DIRECTOR REVEL FOX’S INTERVIEW WITH THE JUDGES SPIER CONTEMPORARY 2007: The concept behind The Spier Contemporary is a biennale exhibition of contemporary South African art and an accompanying series of awards. The first exhibition was launched on the Spier Estate on 12 December 2007. During this time it was seen by just over 13 000 people and received extensive critical acclaim. The Spier Contemporary seeks to make a contribution to the visual arts industry in a broad way endeavoring to benefit artists, curators, writers, development officers, designers and others. Whilst the Spier Contemporary culminated in an exhibition of 92 artists and 120 artworks from all over the country and series of awards, the intention is to make contributions to each aspect of the profession required for the production of a biennale large-scale exhibition. The exhibition/award has been conceived as a platform to give artists the opportunity to show their work, uncompromised by the limitations of technology, themes or materials used. An additional goal of the project is to address some of the imbalances in the visual art field regarding access to information and resources. This imbalance is acute for artists who are not based in the major metropolitan areas of South Africa. To address these issues the Spier Contemporary has established a series of residencies, in collaboration with Fort Hare University, and other training projects to connect artists who fall outside the existing art infrastructure to a wider network of art production. Other Taxi Art Films projects: TAF001 – Touring the Constitutional Court of South Africa,with Justice Albie Sachs TAF004 – Design Initiatives Forthcoming: TAF005 – Friedrich Danielis in conversation with David Krut TAF006 – Pancho Guedes: An Alternative Modernist WATCH A PREVIEW: Spier Contemporary 2007 general overview. TAF002 – an inside look at artist’s at Spier Contemporary 2007. TAF003 – an inside look at artist’s at Spier Contemporary 2007. JOIN TAXI ART FILMS on Facebook

Author: TAXI Art Films, English, Multimedia, DVD, PAL/Full Colour, ISBN: 978-0-9814188-4-1 / 978-0-9814188-5-8,
Price: (ZA)R 150.00


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