One of the many stylishly dressed people at the Brett Kebble Art Awards commented that the 2003 prize, awarded to Doreen Southwood, was strangely free from controversy, given the rambunctious nature of the art world. Not so this year — after three days locked in deliberation, the judges still couldn’t decide between Tanya Poole and Phillip Rikhotso, so Brett Kebble was called in to exercise the judgement of Solomon. He sawed the R200 000 prize in half, added in one of the six merit awards of R60 000, and lo! we have two winners of R130 000 each.
Forgive the list of amounts, but that’s what a lot of the evening was about — glorying in the fact that so much money was being made available to so many artists. Presenters Nkuli Kgositsile and Jennifer Cryws-Williams, the ugly sisters to Kebble’s fairy godmother, continually crowed about how much money was being made available to the Cinderella artists, both as prize money and, perhaps even more importantly, as funds to enable them to bring their entries to fruition.
They had every right to crow. The Kebble awards have the power to change lives, to create the conditions necessary for artists to ”build their own capital base”, as Kebble put it in his speech. It is a marvellous initiative, and it would be a cold person whose heart didn’t give a lurch at certain poignant moments. And poignant moments there were aplenty. Like the granting of a Major Award to the women of the Keiskamma Art Project for their 100m-long Keiskamma Tapestry, for instance, money and recognition that will improve the lot of more than just the happy winners who took the stage.
Poole, whose beautiful Missing is a variation on oil painting and stop-frame animation, will use her prize money to set up an animation studio in Grahamstown. Rikhotso, who apparently had to borrow R20 to travel from his thatched hut home to meet organisers arranging his trip to Cape Town, says he is going to use his prize to buy a bakkie so that he can fetch wood for more carvings.
His untitled wood carvings are lovely, odd visions, and you have to congratulate the judges on their perceptiveness in choosing these two winners. They aren’t the obvious choices, and show that the judges are in tune with the state of South African art. There were other possible winners, of course, as is to be expected in such a rich field, and everyone will have their own particular favourite, but few will cavil at the results.
Although, who knows. Perhaps there are people out there who disagree vehemently. During the course of the extremely well-organised evening, reference was made three times to Kebble’s ”courage” in holding these awards. Given that he is used to the bloodthirsty boardrooms of big business, this would seem a mite overstated. Are we to imagine that the art world is more vicious and unforgiving? Perhaps.
One who won’t require forgiveness is curator Clive van den Berg. The man is brilliant. To put together such disparate work in such a cogent, pleasing way can’t have been easy. Good news for Jo’burgers is that a selection of these works will be exhibited in Jo’burg early next year. During the ceremony, one of the presenters made reference to a Kebble awards ”tradition”. It seems ludicrously early to be talking of traditions, but it’s heartening to have a second year under our belts. We can only hope the Kebbles are here to stay.
Winning line-up
Major Awards of R60 000
- New Media entry, Step Inside by Nathaniel Stern;
- The 100m-long Keiskamma Tapestry by the Keiskamma Art Project;
- Video piece, Jet Hotel by Sue Williamson;
- Sculpture, Time Line (D10) by Marco Cianfanelli;
- Performance, choreography of The Kitchen, Jay Pather
Merit awards of R10 000
- Bronwyn Eunice Findlay for A Painting about a Bedspread;
- Zen Marie for her photography entry, Pitch Markings 00005 + 00006;
- Mberegeni Ndou for his sculpture entitled Celebration for winning the 2010 World Soccer Bid;
- Nemurunzini Fhumulani Elikanah, June 16 Youth Day, sculpture;
- Jeremy Wafer for his new media installation, Enhlobe 7638
- Stop-frame animation digital piece, And there in the dust by Lara Foot Newton and Gerhard Marx