SIMPLY ASSASSINATING
Galerie Puta, those whores from Cape Town, have arrived on our shores, writes Robert Bodil who reckons that their brand of site-specific genius gives Michelangelo a run for his money
Galerie Puta, a highly successful, non-venue specific "conceptual" gallery, launched in Cape Town early last year, is currently colonising the NSA Gallery for the exclusive use of its highly regarded curatorial team of head honchos, Cameron "the Don" Platter, Andrew "Fluffy" Lamprecht and Ed "One Eye" Young.
Their three solo shows, all coincidentally entitled Storm after the gallery's curator, interrogate issues such as idleness, assassination, insider trading on the JSE, random beatings, vodka martinis, the historical philosophy of Hegel and dirty livin'.
The curatorial staff of Galerie Puta are known for their fearless challenging of the status quo in the South African art world. Nearly all South African art is crap, they reckon, they're here to put things right.
To this extent, their series of installations currently on show will put all doubting Thomases in their place. Their exquisite command of painting, photography, sculpture and video art puts all South African art squarely in the shade and reveals apparent pretenders to the throne such as, William Kentridge and Andrew Verster to be exactly that — mere pretenders.
In fact, in the history of art, there are few practitioners who have managed to come so close to revealing the divine experience of being human in this complex world.
In the history of post-renaissance art, only Michelangelo it seems, has managed to appropriate a space with such a sense of pathos, bathos and dread-fear as these enterprising young lads. And he had the Cistine Chapel to work with.
Galerie Puta have only the cold, cavernous space of the NSA with which to work, but they have transformed it into a space that resonates with both aesthetic completeness and a profound understanding of virtually every single conundrum facing the modern artist.
The central piece in the main gallery (see picture) looks at first glance to be Simple, albeit perfectly realised, representations of a black man or woman and a crocodile. But it immediately becomes clear to the informed observer that this is in fact a sophisticated dialogue between the old South Africa and the new with the elegantly stylised crocodile clearly intended to be an iconic representation of PW Botha, South Africa's last apartheid president.
Elsewhere in the gallery, art of similar density and beauty is found everywhere.
A shark and another crocodile find themselves caught up in a carefully sculpted shag. The social importance of the revered group Milli Vanilli is caught lovingly, almost movingly on video. A T-shirt and jacket are sculpted with a chilling realism.
And Storm, well Storm sits in his office taking callers.
Robert Bodil
Extract from: Bodil, Robert. “Simply Assassinating.” Daily News, 21 May 2004, Page 3 (Tonight)
