Innovative use of new media is the art focus this week.
■ The overwhelming feeling you get on encountering Ruth Rosengarten’s wall of reworked photos is sadness, sadness for a time and a way of understanding time that is gone. It’s not just the subject matter that will draw you in: family photos redrawn by Rosengarten, the backs of old photos refigured with new stories. What the show, titled Still, life (and a joint show with artist Terry Kurgan) says about how the digital age contributes to the impossibility of fixing time is profound. And the faded history of the old photographs implies disturbing things about the new fever of easy upload. Rosengarten explains the physicality of the artworks: ‘The reverse of each photograph tells its own story … Their mottled surfaces are exquisite, painterly abstractions in shades of malt; the torn, map-shaped black blotches reminders of an earlier existence in an album.”
Still, life is showing at Gallery AOP, 44 Stanley Avenue, Braamfontein Werf, until May 28. Tel: 011 726 2234. More on: www.artonpaper.co.za.
■ Richard John Forbes is a sculptor who creates mysterious objects. They seem to emerge from a previous age, giving scant clues about their previous function. There is something monumental about his constructions and, even on a small scale, they appear to refer to a ‘lost” Africa. The Joburg Art Gallery is showing a retrospective of Forbes’s work to date. At the centre of the exhibition stands his most recent work, the mammoth ARC (Acoustic Resonance Collector), described by the artist as, ‘a voluminous, 14m suspended sculpture with which visitors can interact.”
Johannesburg Art Gallery, King George Street, Joubert Park, until August 15. Tel: 011 725 3130.
■ Grayscale gallery presents Overhead Sketch Battles, a series of live knock-out battles in which two artists compete using only black pens and old-school overhead projectors. The artists at this event, to be held at Joburg’s only graffiti art gallery, include Mr Alpha, Breeze, Rekzo, Myza420, Ben, AE, Kevin Love and Rowan Toselli. The battle takes one hour, after which the crowd is asked to vote anonymously for the best work. The winner moves to the next round.
Grayscale Gallery, 33 De Korte Street, Braamfontein, on May 26 at 7pm. The doors open at 6.30pm and entrance is free. Drinks sold.
■ Emerging talent Nelson Makamo’s CityTales and CountryScapes focuses attention on the migration to city centres (especially Jo’burg) in latter-day South Africa. According to the show’s press information, the figurative artist paints from experience, having moved to Johannesburg from Mokopane (previously Nylstroom) eight years ago. Makamo is a printmaker, working in silkscreen and monoprints, and an illustrator. His images have a simple yet photographic quality that is atmospheric and mildly nostalgic.
Museum Africa, 121 Bree Street, Newtown. There will be a walk about with Nelson Makamo on May 21 at 1.30pm and on May 26 at 12.30pm.