Caleb, 33 - Company's Gardens, Cape Town - Click image for words
I met and interviewed/photographed Caleb today in the gardens in town. he was chilling out on the grass having spent the afternoon on the internet at the library. Caleb is homeless and a working carpenter, click his image (on the right) to read his story and see the image larger.
Any one in Cape Town over the next month make sure you get down to this exhibition im involved in at Blank Projects. Its at 113 – 115 Sir Lowry road in Woodstock. Will post info about screenings soon.
INVERTING THE PYRAMID
curated by Jonathan Garnham
Opening: Thursday 10 June 2010 at 18:00
Exhibition closes 10 July
Image: The legendary Manager of Wolverhampton Wanderers FC, Stan Cullis, working out tactics on a miniature football pitch in his office, 1949. (Wilson, J. 2009. Inverting the pyramid - the history of football tactics. London: Orion).
Artists and aficionado’s comment on the beautiful game.
From the 10th of June to the 10th of July, blank will function as a focal point for critical response and inane comments around football. Ongoing research and production will inform the exhibition and extend it out of the gallery.
A screening programme, curated by Emile Kelly (London), showing films about football, will run over the 5 weeks.
Contributors:
Sanell Aggenbach
Matthew Blackman
Chimurenga magazine
Anja de Klerk
Pierre Fouché
Corlia Harmsen
Trasi Henen
Emile Kelly
Moshekwa Langa
Bettina Malcomess
Catherine Ocholla
Sean O’Toole
David Sazo
Blett Sapper
Robert Sloon
Linda Stupart
Adriaan de Villiers
Jasper Walgrave
Ed Young
England 0, Algeria 0, Football 0
I arrived quite late in the day yesterday, so it was straight out to the England match without being able to start my daily dispatch portrait/interview series. Despite being one of the worst football matches I’ve ever witnessed in my life, it was still an amazing atmosphere and experience. The Coons were out in full force: Brass band troupes in matching colourful outfits and blackface (Its a traditional carnival with a complicated history that confuses tourists).
I didn’t start my portrait series because I very definitely don’t want to interview a load of drunk fans (especially when I’m one of them), I think there’s enough people out here doing that. I will start the series today and put it up this afternoon/evening. Having seen the Coons out and being reminded of the complexity of that whole thing, I think I want to do a piece about it at some point in the next week, so look out for that.
Olivia Airey, 23 - Alexandra Palace, North London - Click image
I’ve relaunched the blog with a new layout and tomorrow I’m leaving for Cape Town and the World Cup. I have lots going on out there and I’m intending to be shooting and posting very prolifically, so I’ve developed a little section of the site called World Cup Daily Dispatch, In which ill be posting new photographs and little stories from Cape Town, daily. This will build into a big gallery by the end of the World Cup that will be a visual diary but also hopefully an interesting portrait of the city.
I decided to start shooting my Daily Dispatch from London to get the ball rolling, I kicked it off with my friend Liv (above) on Saturday. Click the Daily Dispatch gallery launch button to the right to get a flavour of how its going to shape up.
Some more images below… I will do more updates before i leave tomorrow… Have to run off and do a presentation now!
Andrew from Tottenham - Hackney Marshes, East London - Click image
Imi - Hackney Marshes, East London
Marcus Renford, 30 - Hackney Marshes, East London - Click image
Mvuyisi Gcogo, 20 - Port Elizabeth, April 2010
Click the image above to launch a gallery. In Port Elizabeth we couldn’t find any football players, but we did find an amazing old football/sports stadium with some young athletes training inside, so we did some nice loose shooting there. Our flash ran out after one portrait, so we just walked around shooting after that, J with the 6×7 me with the 6×6. There’s a couple light leaks and some harsh shadows here and there, but I dont mind them. I will update soon with some out takes and random P.E extras.
My new favourite blog, Jennifer Doyle’s From A Left Wing:
“From A Left Wing takes on a range of issues that the mainstream sports media doesn’t pay attention to because these stories are too complex (the cultural politics of soccer in LA), too low to the ground (amateur & pick-up scenes), or too darned sexy (why do so many lesbians love David Beckham?). When you want more than a match report, when you want to know why John Brown, the raid on Harper’s Ferry, and the history of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” should matter to Tottenham fans, or when you want a perspective on how it is that 90,000 people turn out for a US/Mexico match in New Jersey, and yet the media continues to assert that Americans don’t care about soccer – come to me. If you want transfer rumors & fine examples of cranky fan blogging, check out the great sites under “recommended reading”.”
I can even forgive her for using the word “soccer” and being a bit of a Spurs fan.
Hout Bay, Cape Town, April 2010
Click the image above to open a gallery of portraits. You can go left or right by clicking your mouse on the left/right side of the image, or you can use the arrow keys on your keyboard, or even N (next) and P (previous). The options are endless… Well, not endless, there’s just three. The colours on some images might be a bit off, but you’ve all probably got dodgy un-calibrated screens anyway, so what does it matter? Would love to hear what anyone thinks in the comments sections. A little bit of waffle and some out-takes below. Enjoy!
Gebane - South Africa
The ash cloud tried to hold us down, but we’re back! I was absolutely rubbish at blogging while I was in South Africa, so I’m going to do retrospective posts about the places we visited, accompanied by the images. I have already scanned all our negs, so those posts will start to appear soon. The image above is a little taster!
“blank projects is an independent, artist-run exhibition space founded in Cape Town by Jonathan Garnham in 2005.
blank is dedicated to new developments in contemporary South African Art and encourages experimental practice from both emerging and established artists, building a context for the dissemination of ideas around contemporary African arts practice.
blank works in partnership with the Goethe Institut Südafrika, and Pro Helvetia with whom it hosts residencies for visiting Swiss artists.”
We’ve been watching lots of football with die hard Derby County (not Hull City!), Arsenal follower, artist, exhibition space owner and all round awesome individual Jonathon Garnham. He has a gap in his program during the World Cup and is keen to do some interesting things based around football, which I’m hoping to get involved in. The trick is finding things to do that aren’t a corny celebration of football/the World Cup. After a nice meeting at the space with Jonathon and his colleagues Anya and Pierre, I’m also planning to stay in dialogue with them over the coming years as the project grows.
“Chimurenga, a pan African publication of writing, art and politics has been in print since March 2002. It was founded by Ntone Edjabe. The journal is published on the page three times/year, online monthly and through themed performances called “Chimurenga Sessions.” A flowering of organic schools of thought grown in backyard gardens, tilled and fertilised by the fundamentals of humanity preached and sometimes practiced. Fela says, simply: Who no know go know.”
I went to a nice evening/party put on by these guys at the City Hall and subsequently dropped by their office to pick up some issues and have a chat about the project. Well worth a look: www.chimurenga.co.za
To view the the Daily Dispatch Gallery from the beginning, click the link at the top. To jump to yesterdays dispatch, click the image. Todays dispatch will be in the post to the left and all of them can also be found by scrolling through the posts.
