Public Eye staged the second Spier Outdoor Sculpture Biennale in collaboration with the Spier Arts Trust, in January 2004.
YDesire
After more than year’s hiatus, the 4th Softserve took place on 22 February 2003. Following in the footsteps of its predecessor YDETAG, it’s called YDESIRE after the event’s main sponsor Young Designer’s Emporium (YDE). No less a Public Eye event than the previous three, it was curated by artist and Public Eye member James Webb, who played a major role in YDETAG. He was been joined by Kim Stern, a Michaelis graduate responsible for ‘Aisle 5’, the art/ shopping event which took place in Cape Town in 2002. The event moved from its usual home, the South African National Gallery, to the Castle of Good Hope. This much larger venue was certainly more loaded, both ideologically and aesthetically, and provided a variety of spaces from its tranquil courtyards to its damp dungeons…
Read an article about the event on ArtThrob
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Voices in Transit
‘Voices in Transit’ opened on 16 March 2002 in Cape Town. It consisted of a range of cultural activities addressing issues of displacement, belonging and identity. Participants were mostly African refugees and exiles now resident in Cape Town, and, amongst other things, the project included a writers’ publication, dramatic performances and a visual art installation at the Cape Town Central Station. Various organisations such as the Cape Town Refugee Centre and the Community Arts Project were involved. Public Eye member Roger van Wyk was one of the chief organisers of the event and some funding was obtained through Public Eye.
Read a review on ArtThrob.
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Beyond the Gallery
‘Beyond The Gallery: Art in Public Spaces’ was a public art symposium organised by Public Eye, held at the Cape Technikon and attended by more than 80 participants hailing from both South Africa and several countries abroad. These participants included students, academics, artists, arts administrators and cultural activists. The emphasis was on the visual presentation of public art projects undertaken, and the effect they had had on the communities where they had been realised. An evening keynote address and presentation by Professor Jane Taylor on Friday 15 March 2002 was followed by four days of panel discussions. A useful feedback and closed workshop for some participants concluded the event. Funding was obtained from various local and foreign sources. The symposium was co-ordinated by Sue Williamson.
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Radiotopia
Radiotopia formed part of the 2002 Ars Electronica Festival and Kunstradio in Linz, Austria. Johannesburg-based Trinity Sessions were South African partners to the festival and commissioned Public Eye to co-ordinate a contribution to Radiotopia from Cape Town. Public Eye member and sound artist James Webb conducted a workshop and collated contributions from a diverse range of artists for this event which explored radio as the most globally accessible medium for communication and information exchange.
Senzeni Marasela at Upstream
‘Upstream’ was an exhibition based in Hoorn and Amsterdam in the Netherlands in 2002. The exhibition commemorated the 400th anniversary of the Dutch East Indies Company (VOC). Participants in the project all came from countries on the company’s original itinerary – The Netherlands, Sri Lanka, India, Japan, Indonesia, China and South Africa. Public Eye was contacted in order to provide a short-list of appropriate participants from South Africa. From these artists Johannesburg-based Senzeni Marasela was chosen. She exhibited works in both venues of the exhibition.
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Lecture by Rick Lowe
Houston-based artist/ activist Rick Lowe paid a brief visit to Cape Town in 2002 where Public Eye arranged for him to deliver a lecture and slideshow at the Michaelis School of Fine Art. Lowe is best known for the Project Row Houses, an initiative in which 22 historic slave houses were saved from demolition through a community-based programme of restoration. While some of the houses function as temporary homes for single mothers, others are used as venues for art installations. Lowe is a board member of the Rice Design Alliance at Rice University and a Loeb Fellow at Harvard Design School.
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Spier Outdoor Sculpture Biennale I
The first of these bi-annual events took place in January 2002 at two locations. Largely sponsored by the Spier Arts and Culture Trust, a number of well- and lesser known artists were invited to produce and exhibit outdoor works on the grounds of Spier Estate outside Stellenbosch. In addition, Pro Helvetia sponsored Swiss artist Urs Twellmann to take part in the project. A satellite exhibition opened shortly afterwards at the Jan Marais Nature Reserve in Stellenbosch. Here, a number of artists were commissioned to produce long lasting, site-specific outdoor work. Participating were Sanell Aggenbach, Bruce Arnott, Deborah Bell, Willie Bester, David Brown, Danny Carstens, Hettie de Klerk, Terry de Vries, Jacques Dhont, Randolph Hartzenberg, David Jones, Jacobus Kloppers, Nicole Meyer, Jo OÕConnor, Susan Reid, Sean Slemon, Urs Twellmann and Elmarie van der Merwe. This project was initiated by Kevin Brand and curated with Strijdom van der Merwe.
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Homeport
The Public Eye curated project ‘Homeport’ was launched from the SA Maritime Museum at the V&A Waterfront on 5 December 2001. ‘Homeport’ has been described by its Rotterdam initiators, Cell, as “a sea voyage through six harbour cities located on different continents”. Cape Town is the sixth city to host a ‘Homeport’ project, following Havana, Rotterdam, Mumbai, Shanghai and Jakarta.
Read an article in the Mail & Guardian
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YDETAG
YDETAG was the third incarnation of Softserve, staged on 7 September 2001. It took its name from main sponsor Young Designers’ Emporium (YDE) a clothing retailer marketing only the work of young independent designers. Specifically designed to foster collaborative productions, the event saw participants investigating issues of branding and advertising. YDETAG once again drew capacity crowds and raised a significant sum of money for the SANG’s acquisition fund.
This was curated by Andrew Putter along with James Webb, who at this stage, was not yet a member of Public Eye.
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