YES, well, we all know that art no longer speaks for itself; that truly fully (shoo wow) relevant art is communicable primarily in terms of its incommunicability. And if we want to gain access to it, we can only do it with the aid of a Beginner’s Guide to the Aridly Intellectual – a road map and dictionary in one filled with translations of visual argot and general pointers to the global supermarket of references that serve to inspire the artist and irritate the critic.
But in the absence of a contemporary artmongers bible, we have come up with the next best option: a pictorial guide to some of the choicest pickings of the visual fare.
While one can hardly rate the overall art line-up as cutting edge stuff, several exhibitions, particularly that of Lien Botha, are worth much more than a cursory glance. Other noteworthy shows include Photo/synthesis – contemporary photographs that uncover new directions in the discipline brought about by changes in the political climate; contemporary print-making; German artist Kathe Kollwitz’s graphics; and on the Fringe – a visceral send-up of mass consumption, taxidermy and chicken soup by Dror Eyal and Stacy Hardy.