Soft Serve

Soft Serve was a series of events started at the South African National Gallery in 1999. Through a collaboration with Young Designers Emporium (YDE) later events used the YD tag.

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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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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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Soft Serve II

Following the success of Soft Serve I, the South African National Gallery was host to a second multimedia event produced by Public Eye on 5 May 2000. Approximately 60 artists and performers were accommodated and more than 4000 people attended the event. Again, money raised at the door was donated to the gallery’s acquisition fund.

The event was curated by Zayd Minty, Heath Nash and Colin Payne with considerable assistance and input from Robert Weinek and Andrew Putter.

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Soft Serve I

In order to attract a younger and broader audience to the South Africa National Gallery, Public Eye initiated Softserve, a multi-media event which first took place on the evening of 5 November 1999. More than 30 young artists were invited to install and produce temporary works and performances in the gallery. Participants came from as far afield as Johannesburg, Grahamstown and Durban. The evening’s audience numbered 1500 and R15,000 of the door takings went to the SANG’s acquisition fund. It was curated by Andrew Putter with assistance from Sue Williamson.

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