Lauren Shantall On show in Cape Town
Absolut Vodka is conquering new territory, pith helmet firmly in place. The boozy struggle for Africa has begun, as the companys marketing machine seeks the next slick promo in its infinite series of witty takes on that bountiful bottle. Weve had Absolut Stockholm, Absolut Vienna, Absolut London, Absolut Venice Theyve chartered absolutely everywhere.
And now, ushering the dark continent into the international drinking club, were presented with the 50% proof presence in unchartered land Absolut Africa.
Absolut Africa? That the diversity of the worlds second-largest land mass cannot ever be encapsulated in a single, unified image seems lost on the organisers of this years Absolut Africa photographic event at the Area Gallery in Cape Town. This is unimportant, it would appear, in the light of the considerable exposure and financial support Absolut provides the local arts, with the proceeds of the exhibition going to the Centre for Photographys educational outreach programme.
Not forgetting the considerable publicity garnered for the Swedish spirit in the process.
It is perfectly justified then, to conveniently reduce Africa to a synechdocal supposition, and plunder it for vodka campaign visuals. Thats, of course, also ignoring the fact that teenagers are exposed to hundreds of thousands of alcohol advertisements before the legal drinking age, and if thats too staid to stir your martini, consider rather the thousands of alcohol-related deaths in South Africa alone.
Calling for the abolition of alcohol advertising is as heinous as demanding that a teetotaller have a tot; what is problematic, however, is the calculated, hyped glamorisation of what amounts to little more than the fine distillation of rotting potatoes. Absolut as desirable product, regardless of its considerable side-effects. Absolut as promoter and supporter of the arts.
It is in the latter capacity that this event is least open to criticism, for none can deny the importance of exposure for the 35 partcipants, all of whom donated work which was offered for sale by silent auction.
But, and this barely needs voicing, the images produced, regardless of technical skill, are not artworks. Clever marketing concepts, sure, no matter an ironic delivery. The window dressing, ultimately, for the bottle stores of the consumers imaginations. But what is perhaps least auspicious about this exhibition, is some of the works on display. With heedless disregard for the mediums culpability in furthering colonialist myths about Africa, hand-me-down clichs are perpetuated left right and centre. The European appetite for the exotic is pandered to unquestioningly, and the viewer is continually confronted with an array of nubile, bare-breasted black maidens (obviously fashion models) adorned in the finest of Absolut bottle beads.
Images like the one of a naked black woman in an African mask dancing while a large, flaming Absolut effigy blazes at rear, sends one reeling back from the frame, muttering the horror, the horror in dismay. Men do not escape either, and black virility is mythologised to the max with heroic warriors sporting ritual scarifications in the shape of Absolut bottles, or, as in another image, muscly black arms bearing equally macho buffalo horns.
Africa, it seems, is still subjected to the damaging, inherited misconceptions of the Western cultural inheritance. That over 90% of the exhibiting photographers are white and male may have something to do with this.
But not all of the images on display hack their way through that last liana to the lost temple of tired tribal representations. They range from the sophisticated to the witty. Some are skilfully ironic, playing aptly on their context and the advertisers intentions. An inscribed bottle reads, a tad heavy- handedly: ABSOLUT WARNING! Sophisticated advertising often misleads
The exhibition runs until July 11 (contact Heidi at (021) 422-1321)