/ 26 July 2002

Ship of fools gets arty

As a Big Brother enthusiast approaching the upcoming series, I find myself deeply conflicted in what my innermost needs are regarding the new housemates. On the one hand I secretly hope that they’re all equally as sexy and stupid as the last crop. On the other hand my desire to elevate the experience to something intellectually digestible draws me to mouth what others have said about a more rounded approach to casting. This goes something like, there should be a broader age-group representation, and there should be at least one brain cell functioning on set.

Well, I’m not sure whether older, cleverer people will necessarily be more entertaining. Certainly not when it comes to shower hour. And certainly not when it comes to frolicking drunk in the jacuzzi.

Then there’s the actual Big Brother set. Remember that all-over beige veneer? It seemed like an appropriate colour against which the low-gauge drama of comfortable incarceration unfolded. The experience was, after all, human life lived as soft, rotting excrement.

But that’s all in the past. And although the producers are trying to exercise strict control over the nature of information emanating from the event-in-planning, an enterprising young art consultancy, The Trinity Session, has let out that it is involved in colouring the new environment with work donated for free by some of the country’s biggest artists. These works will be auctioned off at the end of the series for the benefit of the Topsy Foundation, a charity in support of needy people living with HIV.

This is possibly the first indication — after the charity-driven Celebrity Big Brother — that Big Brother II is endeavouring to set itself up as reality TV with its heart appropriately positioned.

A list of the top 10 artists represented in the new Big Brother household reveals that The Trinity Session has chosen works that are mostly colourful and comic. (One could hardly expect the place to be turned into a showcase for art against social injustice.)

Looming large and perhaps obtrusively will be a mammoth colour photograph by Jo Ractliffe called Guess Who Loves You. This enormous image is of a stress ball painted to look like a human eye, a toy that had been chewed to bits by Ractliffe’s now deceased pet dog.

Then there’s the work of veteran sculptor Norman Catherine, who tends to favour humanoid hounds. There will be two larger-than-life creatures called Truth and Consequence. Apparently the former has a green snake protruding from its mouth and the latter eats a shark. While Ractliffe’s eye will remind housemates that they’re being watched, Catherine’s dogs should remind them that any rubbish they speak will be remembered by society at large for the rest of their lives.

Graphic artist David Koloane will be represented by his intense scribbles of the over-populated Johannesburg city streets and collagist Sam Nhlengethwa will provide a portrait of the late jazz diva Ella Fitzgerald.

For more light relief, Brett Murray will show some “totally cool” cutouts of Bart Simpson, and Lisa Brice will hang up fake backlit exit signs that will be of little use to the house’s prize-hungry inhabitants.

At bedtime viewers and slumberers can revel in designer linen. Doreen Southwood has provided duvet covers printed with mattress fabric. And whiz-kid clothing designer David West’s bedding will be printed with photorealistic images of fluffy toys.

The two have also dreamed up slogans for the pillowcases, with Southwood’s reading, “I know I’m special”, and West’s reading, “I watch you when you’re sleeping.”

In total there are 35 artists represented, including Abrie Fourie, Mandla Mabila, Isolde Krams and Sue Williamson. Others amount to lesser-known names eager for national exposure.

So, if the action proves to be a complete bore and there’s no hint of entertaining idiocy, then just ponder the art. It’ll probably provide a more savoury exploration of the South African reality.

Big Brother starts again on Sunday July 28 from 7pm on M-Net, when the new housemates enter the house