Located between fine-art performance and street culture, Robin Rhode is one of South Africa’s successful art exports.
What are your opinions on the art-fair format? What are the opportunities and limitations of this format?
The art fair offers artists commercial exposure as well as the global art market an opportunity to establish a consensus on the local art scene. The fair allows art practitioners (artists, curators, collectors) to converge in a single space and functions as a networking initiative. I do not always agree that art fairs are healthy for artists and have in the past refused to attend certain fairs. The commercial aspect of the fair could become a distraction to the artist. Besides that fact the context of the fair is not always suitable for political commentary. The role of the commercial gallery takes precedence at the fair.
What are your feelings/opinions about the status of African and/or South African contemporary art?
African art has always been peripheral on the greater art market, but remains critically influential on Western modernity.
It is stated in a biography that a significant moment in your artistic career was reading an article in Frieze magazine about the aesthetic terrorism in the work of Stephen Hobbs, Wayne Barker and Kendell Geers. How does the art-fair format relate to your subversive style of art?
I read the article as a young student and was impressed by the avant-garde approach, at that time, of South African artists during our political climate. The subversive position by artists allowed for cutting-edge social commentary, which became the cornerstone of my development as an emerging artist. Whether the format of an art fair is a suitable enough context remains debatable. An art fair is a commercial entity and not a kunsthalle and should be treated as such. Besides the fact that the Jo’burg Art Fair is on my home turf, my concern is the effects of the fair on the emerging South African art scene. Does it open up possibilities for young artists to be represented globally?
Art fairs mark the intersection between art and commerce. What are your feelings about the relationship between art and money?
In today’s world money and art are the same currency. New money. New art.
Do you feel that African contemporary art has a market in the international arena? Can local themes resonate beyond our borders?
Local themes have resonated globally since many African artists are living abroad and engaging in various international discourses. It’s the development of new localities outside of our borders that will have the greater resonance. My interests are to examine the relational aspects between these localities.
How does the local art scene compare to the international art scene?
It would be difficult to compare since the international scene has many established markets as well as the weight of Western art history. The local scene does embody an “authenticity”, which makes it attractive to the international scene.
What is your proposed vision for your booth at the Jo’burg Art Fair?
I have decided to have a more classical booth at the fair.
You have travelled quite extensively exhibiting your work. Given the site specificity of your work how have these different environments impacted on your art?
I have begun to understand the autonomous nature of space and at times have rejected its inherent history that has become a burden to itself. I am more interested in the creation of new narratives derived from the old and injected with the new thus allowing for a re-evaluation of the constructs of our modernity.
Your work seems very much located in the public arena of urban youth culture that challenges traditional artistic expression and the privileged space of the gallery space. What attracts you to this public context and this type of art making?
Working in the public realm allows me to disappear from the white cube and to take on a new role as artist/activator. I prefer to work unannounced in public so that the work and its process be integrated into society, allowing the performance/happening to function as a daily occurrence, to fuse art and life in that moment.
Do you have any major thematic concerns? Identity politics seems to be a recurring theme in your work.
My themes remain rooted in South African identity politics but have also embraced the analytical approach of German art history and design. My focus is always to extract the essential.
Current and future projects?
I am currently working on the stage design for the pianist Leif Ove Andsnes for the solo piano concerto Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition scheduled for next year at the Lincoln Centre, New York.
THE DETAILS
The Jo’burg Art Fair takes place at the Sandton Convention Centre from March 14 to 16 and includes exhibitions by 22 galleries from seven countries. Apart from the commercial shows there is also a show of 29 emergent contemporary artists titled As You Like It, which is curated by Simon Njami.
There will be guided tours on March 14 and 16 and a programme of discussions on March 15 about the African art market and the impact of art fairs on cities at the refurbished Alexander Theatre in Braamfontein. Speakers include art-magazine publisher Louise Blouin MacBain, curator Njami, local German-based artist Robin Rhode, United Kingdom-based African art curator Christopher Spring, Thumelo Mosaka of the Brooklyn Museum and Berlin-based critic Oliver Koerner von Gustorf.
Rhode is a featured artist of the event. Other special projects include participation from the development project Funda and local furniture design. There is a catalogue on sale edited by Cobi Lauscagne from which this interview with Rhode was extracted. On March 15 from 9pm there will be an art fair party at the old JSE building in Newtown. More info at www.joburgartfair.co.za.