Gecko on my window

Kurt Vonnegut on the Shapes of Stories

Artist's charcoal-studded helium balloon creates mysterious wall drawings

Artist Karina Smigla-Bobinski has created an installation comprised of an enormous, helium-filled balloon with a hedgehog-like coating of charcoal sticks trapped inside a room.
The balloon floats around the room, leaving charcoal marks on the white walls as it bounces from wall to wall. The piece, called Ada, is being exhibited at the FILE festival in Sao Paulo.
Ada is a transparent PVC balloon with a diameter of 2.5 metres. The charcoal pieces are attached at 30 centimetre intervals. The balloon has just enough helium in it to keep it floating, as opposed to rising.
Smigla-Bobinski told Wired.co.uk that her sponsor Lars Schubert offered "technical support and know-how at the same time I was able to work freely on my ideas. His corporation became my second art studio."
Resembling some sort of molecular hybrid, the transparent globe bobs around the room seemingly autonomously. Visitors can push the sphere around the room and watch it react to the external impetus.
As art critic Arnd Wesemann wrote in German culture magazine Tanz: "Ada is reminiscent of Ada Lovelace, who in the 19th century, together with Charles Babbage developed the very first prototype of a computer. Babbage provided the preliminary computing machine, Lovelace the first software. A symbiosis of mathematics with the romantic legacy of her father Lord Byron emerged there. Ada Lovelace intended to create a machine that would be able to create works of art, such as poetry, music, or pictures, like an artist does."
Smigla-Bobinski added: "I think the biggest challenge for me was that I had to construct Ada in such a way, that it would stand up through the whole festival (July 18 - August 28, 2011) with its roughly 1000 visitors per day. It is not easy to make the charcoals stick to the balloons surface firm enough without damaging the PVC. It has to be flexible and solid at the same time."

From http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-07/27/ada-charcoal-sphere (more images here)

paraprosdokian

"paraprosdokian.  Figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected; frequently used in a humorous situation." eg, "Where there's a will, I want to be in it".

1. Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.
2. The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it's still on my list.
3. Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
4. If I agreed with you we'd both be wrong.
5. We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.
6. War does not determine who is right - only who is left.
7. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
8. Evening news is where they begin with 'Good Evening' and then proceed to tell you why it isn't.
9. To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research.
10. A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station.
11. I thought I wanted a career. Turns out I just wanted paychecks.
12. Whenever I fill out an application, in the part that says 'In case of emergency, notify ...........:' I put 'DOCTOR.'
13. I didn't say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.
14. Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut and still think they are sexy.
15. Behind every successful man is his woman. Behind the fall of a successful man is usually another woman.
16. A clear conscience is the sign of a fuzzy memory.
17. I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn't work that way. So I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness.
18. You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice.
19. Money can't buy happiness but it sure makes misery easier to live with.
20. I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not so sure.
22. You're never too old to learn something stupid.
23. To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target.
24. Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
25. Change is inevitable except from a vending machine.
26. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.
27. A diplomat is someone who tells you to go to hell in such a way that you look forward to the trip.
28. Hospitality is making your guests feel at home even when you wish they were.
29. I always take life with a grain of salt, .... plus a slice of lemon and a shot of tequila.
Words of Wisdom "The early bird may get the worm but it's the second mouse that gets the cheese."

Chris Marker

"The process of making films in communion with oneself, the way a painter works or a writer, need not now be solely experimental. Contrary to what people say, using the first-person in films tends to be a sign of humility: 'All I have to offer is myself'". Chris Marker, 1997.

I first saw what had to be a bootleg copy of 'La Jetee' in a stuffy lecture hall at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown more than 10 years ago. I never forgot it and have been searching for his name ever since, until a friend recently told me to look him up.

Sans Soleil


La Jetee (Part 1)


La Jetee (Part 2)

Green Architecture (Did I tell you I was moving...)

Right. Next week. Its on the cards. I am moving into one of these right now. Who's joining me?



Like an enormous chrysalis, the Yellow Treehouse Restaurant in New Zealand is a network of poplar and redwood slats, high above a redwood tree.



These spacey spheres, designed by Tom Chudleigh, are handmade from fiberglass and local woods. Strung up from neighboring trees, each pod can sleep up to four, and can be hooked up to an electric line.




Visitors to Scandinavia can spend the night amongst the trees in one of Treehotel’s treehouse rooms. Along with a TreeSauna, Treehotel offers six private guest treehouses in winter or summertime.

Read more: 6 High-Flying Treehouses for the True Escapist | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World

This "Ring Around a Tree" addition to an existing building celebrates a Japanese Zelkova tree at the Fuji Kindergarten in Japan. Designed by Yui and Takaharu Tezuka, the glass and wood structure wraps around the 50 year old tree, creating an interior garden and play space. The circular shape joins and complements the oval-shaped kindergarten.

Read more: Amazing Japanese Kindergarten Circles Around a Mythic Tree | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World

The hand-drawn sounds of Norman McLaren

An introduction to the hand-drawn sounds of Norman McLaren. Prepared by Don Peters and Lorne Batchelor. 1951.

Although I do not draw on celluloid, McLaren's technique fascinates me from the perspective of language philosophy and the construction of time. I have made some drawings influenced by this, for instance my graphic notation after a sound improvisation by Niklas Zimmer and James Webb. See:
http://kailossgott.blogspot.com/2010/03/infinite-coastline-drawings-after-sound.html

PURGATORIO, by Ariel Dorfman, directed by Clare Stopford, visual score by Kai Lossgott

PURGATORIO

Award winning actor David Minnaar loses himself in a maze of memory for Kai Lossgott's experimental visual score for Clare Stopford's production of "Purgatorio", by Chilean playwright Ariel Dorfman.

Working in his capacity as experimental filmmaker, Kai Lossgott has composed a sensitive visual track that complements, counterpoints and underlines Dorfman's complex script.

"Ariel Dorfman's riveting play Purgatorio deals with a Man and a Woman in purgatory - a stark and soulless waiting room. Their identities are fluid and as the drama unfolds it emerges that they are each other`s interrogators, searching for clemency and contrition. Their fates are bound together by a horrific past, and freedom depends on their willingness to sacrifice themselves, each for the other. Trapped in the resonance of their actions and with the roles reversed, the inquisition and the healing begins as each of the characters search for understanding, forgiveness and redemption."

National Arts Festival, Grahamstown
Graeme College
30 June 2011, 8 PM
1 July 2011, 4 PM, 8 PM
2 July 2011, 4 PM, 8 PM
Click now to book

Baxter Theatre Centre, Cape Town
Flipside
7 - 29 July 2011, 8 PM
Click now to book

PURGATORIO, by Ariel Dorfman, directed by Clare Stopford, visual score by Kai Lossgott

PURGATORIO

Acclaimed actress Terry Norton braves the ocean at sunrise on a cold winter's morning to shoot Kai Lossgott's experimental visual score for Clare Stopford's production of "Purgatorio", by Chilean playwright Ariel Dorfman.

Working in his capacity as experimental filmmaker, Kai Lossgott has composed a sensitive visual track that complements, counterpoints and underlines Dorfman's complex script.

"Ariel Dorfman's riveting play Purgatorio deals with a Man and a Woman in purgatory - a stark and soulless waiting room. Their identities are fluid and as the drama unfolds it emerges that they are each other`s interrogators, searching for clemency and contrition. Their fates are bound together by a horrific past, and freedom depends on their willingness to sacrifice themselves, each for the other. Trapped in the resonance of their actions and with the roles reversed, the inquisition and the healing begins as each of the characters search for understanding, forgiveness and redemption."

National Arts Festival, Grahamstown
Graeme College
30 June 2011, 8 PM
1 July 2011, 4 PM, 8 PM
2 July 2011, 4 PM, 8 PM
Click now to book

Baxter Theatre Centre, Cape Town
Flipside
7 - 29 July 2011, 8 PM
Click now to book

hahaha

Haha, what does this represent? Haha, what do you represent? Manuel Ocampo. 2002. Oil on canvas.

See more on http://artradarjournal.com/2011/03/02/words-in-art-manuel-ocampo-doesnt-want-alphabet-soup/

guess who came for brunch

This is what I love about living in Cape Town... When I got home from a shoot half an hour ago, Mr Squirrel had dropped by to raid the pomegranate tree in front of my cottage. This new camera is a total pleasure.

InnerScapes

Curator: Manuela Lietti
Artist: Marike Schuurman

The Chinese notion of health is largely rooted in their distinct notion of the human body as an organic whole that mirrors the intimate connection between the outer world of nature and the inner world of the individual. Whether in biology, medicine or art, the body is regarded as an extension of the natural system, regulated by the same rules and subject to the same phenomena. This holistic approach is a central concept of Chinese culture: the unity of man and nature – tian ren he yi. Micro and macro experiences are linked: individual and world, private Self and public I. Merging with nature is necessary in order to preserve one’s physical and psychological health. This belief is embodied by efforts to bridge the dichotomy between man and environment, personal ego and public persona. Common people, especially the elderly, re-appropriate public spaces and the natural environment in a healing process for body and mind.

The works of Dutch-born Berlin-based artist Marike Schuurman featured in “InnerScapes,” in particular the videos and photos shot in Beijing in 2008, reflect this practice, offering a lens through which to interpret the desire of contemporary Chinese people to integrate their lives in the natural order for their physical and mental health. Schuurman’s series of photographs and videos – shot in public parks, secluded woods hidden within the capital, green spots along the streets and other ordinary public spaces – portrays common people practicing taiqi, exercising and keeping fit by using what nature provides: tree branches, tree trunks, small patches of green. These natural elements function as props, helping people feel their body as alive and responsive. They help to reinvigorate it and reconnect one’s personal rhythm with the macro rhythm of nature. “InnerScapes” presents the kind of fitness equipment that can be found in Beijing’s public parks, streets, and other public spaces not necessarily conceived for fitness activities. With this equipment, “exercise stations” are created throughout the city. These provide not only an opportunity to exercise for those who cannot do so in natural spaces similar to those in Schuurman’s photographs and videos, but also an ideal platform that brings together the young and the old, preserving a sense of “neighborhood feeling of fellowship” that otherwise would be lost in the menacing concrete cityscapes.

from
http://www.synapse.info/projects/innerscapes/

KAI LOSSGOTT book launch & exhibition - Franschhoek Literary Festival 2011

The Gallery at GRANDE PROVENCE

BOOK LAUNCH - 'talking to the tree outside my window while I sleep'
a collection of poems and plant leaf engravings by Kai Lossgott

11:00 AM, Sunday 15 May 2011.

After reading from the book, the author will be in conversation with the writer and poet Dawn Garisch.

FRANSCHHOEK LITERARY FESTIVAL SPECIAL EXHIBITION: FEATURING – KAI LOSSGOTT - 'lexicography of the heart' (Project Room), as well as SAREL PETRUS, CRAIG MULLER and LONI DRÄGER. 1 May - 1 June 2011.

Franschhoek Literary Festival 14 and 15 May 2011.


Contemporary art meets literature in May at Grande Provence during the Franschhoek Literary Festival. Contemporary artist and poet Kai Lossgott will be launching his intimate collection of poems – ‘talking to the tree outside the window while I sleep’ – during the festival, concurrent with his exhibition in the ‘Project Room’ at the gallery.

"Sometimes rarified. Sometimes rough. Exciting. Always Real. The urge to rub your face and body in the pages of this book, like you would with leaves in a pile of Autumn, rises—takes you over, allowing the beauty of the images and words to grow into you. The surrender is easy." (Tania van Schalkwyk, Ingrid Jonker Prize for Poetry 2010)

'talking to the tree outside my window while I sleep' can be purchased at the gallery, and also be paged through and ordered at www.kailossgott.com.

The book, which showcases a careful selection of three years’ work of engravings on plant leaves, has been praised for its intimate evocation of the personal element in green politics. Lossgott’s work embodies a global shift in identity towards finding intrinsic value in all living things apart from human gain. The artist connects intricate human biological processes to the greater ecology. He refers to similarities between plant and human anatomy, such as a light-sensitive ‘skin’, with branches and capillaries containing blood or sap. “Both plant and human skin scars, heals, remembers,” he says.

The following artists are also included in the exhibition: Sarel Petrus - sculptures , Craig Muller – sculptures, and Loni Dräger with an installation themed ‘Skins’. Loni will also be showcasing a selection of ‘stone succulents’ in the Courtyard.

In the Main Gallery, renowned artist Paul Boulitreau will be exhibiting 'The Mute Opera', a series of paintings. There will also be sculptures by Michaella Janse van Vuuren.

Gallery hours: Monday to Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00. For further information and images, contact The Gallery at +27 (0)21 876 8630.

conflux

conflux. Kai Lossgott. 2011. Laser engraving on coral tree leaf (detail). Wood and glass lightbox. 60 x 30 cm.

KAI LOSSGOTT in the Project Room at Grande Provence

The Gallery at GRANDE PROVENCE

FRANSCHHOEK LITERARY FESTIVAL SPECIAL EXHIBITION: FEATURING – KAI LOSSGOTT - 'lexicography of the heart' (Project Room), as well as SAREL PETRUS, CRAIG MULLER and LONI DRÄGER.

1 May - 1 June 2011. (The Franschhoek Literary Festival 14 and 15 May 2011.)

Contemporary art meets literature in May at Grande Provence during the Franschhoek Literary Festival. Contemporary artist and poet Kai Lossgott will be launching his intimate collection of poems – ‘talking to the tree outside the window while I sleep’ – during the festival, concurrent with his exhibition in the ‘Project Room’ at the gallery.

"Sometimes rarified. Sometimes rough. Exciting. Always Real. The urge to rub your face and body in the pages of this book, like you would with leaves in a pile of Autumn, rises—takes you over, allowing the beauty of the images and words to grow into you. The surrender is easy." (Tania van Schalkwyk, Ingrid Jonker Prize for Poetry 2010)

'talking to the tree outside my window while I sleep' can be purchased at the gallery, and also be paged through and ordered at www.kailossgott.com. (Date and time for the launch to follow.)

The book, which showcases a careful selection of three years’ work of engravings on plant leaves, has been praised for its intimate evocation of the personal element in green politics. Lossgott’s work embodies a global shift in identity towards finding intrinsic value in all living things apart from human gain. The artist connects intricate human biological processes to the greater ecology. He refers to similarities between plant and human anatomy, such as a light-sensitive ‘skin’, with branches and capillaries containing blood or sap. “Both plant and human skin scars, heals, remembers,” he says.

The following artists are also included in the exhibition: Sarel Petrus - sculptures , Craig Muller – sculptures, and Loni Dräger with an installation themed ‘Skins’. Loni will also be showcasing a selection of ‘stone succulents’ in the Courtyard.

The exhibition will be opened on Sunday, 1 May 2011 at 11h00 by Gordon Froud and will be on view until 1 June 2011.

In the Main Gallery, renowned artist Paul Boulitreau will be exhibiting 'The Mute Opera', a series of paintings. There will also be sculptures by Michaella Janse van Vuuren.

Gallery hours: Monday to Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00. For further information and images, contact The Gallery at +27 (0)21 876 8630.

dashboard cactus garden

I'd love to meet the owner of this car. I briefly considered turning my car into a mobile greenhouse like him, except I don't want to be driving my cactus collection around in a collision. Parked outside Newlands Forest, Cape Town, he must have been taking his dogs for a walk.

the aperture of chlorophyll. Kai Lossgott. 2011. Video & plant leaf engravings.

the aperture of chlorophyll. Kai Lossgott. 2011. Typewriter and laser-engraving on Lantana leaves, lightboxes with colour LCD screens, digital video. 2 min 15 sec. 20 x 25 cm.

In “the aperture of chlorophyll”, a fragment from a poem is typed on a small plant leaf, an intricate drawing laser-engraved on another. In the digital light and shadow of the colour LCD screens behind them, these perforations gleam and flicker. Kai Lossgott's latest work merges his plant leaf engravings with his experimental films - motion photography combined with the graphic qualities of drawing and animation.

Influenced by global evidence of climate change, we are currently re-defining our collective and personal identities. As we begin to realise we are part of a living system, we ask: what is the borderline of intelligent life? Plants, for instance, store and process information in sophisticated ways, communicating chemically with their environment. They are capable of learning, and plan for future environmental conditions. Their functions for respiration, digestion, cell growth, reproduction and immunity are comparable to ours.

With this meditation on photosynthesis, the artist revisits his idea that plants see with their skin. Like human skin, light sensitive film or paper, or a digital camera CCD, plants absorb light. They do this in the red and blue regions of the visible light spectrum through the pigment chlorophyll. (Green light is not absorbed but reflected, making the plant appear green.) Through this process leaves convert solar energy intro the nutrients and oxygen human and animal life depend on.

The light-sensitive pigment chlorophyll has in fact no opening regulated like a camera’s aperture stop or the human eye’s iris to adjust the amount of light or dark required for the perception of images as we know them. Although they perceive light, plants ‘feel’ more than ‘see’ it. Plants use the same molecules and pathways to drive their circadian rhythms as humans and animals. Lossgott explores the subtle changes in mood, heart rate, breath and mental activity that occur in humans with the coming and going of day and night. Awake or asleep, we have more in common with our distant evolutionary cousins than we know.

New artworks featured at Design Indaba from 25 - 28 Feb 2011

One of the new works being featured at the the Design Indaba Expo 2011 this week.


sprout. Kai Lossgott. 2011. Laser engraving on poplar leaf. 25 x 25 cm.

Read more at: http://www.visi.co.za/News/News/8/Engraving-on-leaves/1196

CITY BREATH in Durban at the KZNSA Gallery

CITY BREATH Festival of Video Poetry and Performance

4 South African cities. 20 short experimental films. 4 minutes each.

25 January 2011, 6:00 PM until 19 February 2010
Multi-media Room, KZNSA Gallery
116 Bulwer Road, Glenwood, Durban

As screened in Cape Town, Johannesburg, London, Berlin, Edinburgh, Grahamstown, Vancouver, and Marseille

"Whichever film you watched, it's unlikely that you would have ever seen anything like it before." Cue, National Arts Festival, Grahamstown

http://www.kznsagallery.co.za

WATCH THE TRAILER by clicking here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95T6zKttECU

Botsotso poetry evening, Cape Town

Botsotso and AIDC present an evening of poetry : 6PM, Wednesday 13 October 2010
VENUE: LOBBY BOOKS, 6 SPIN ST, CENTRAL CAPE TOWN



‎"a no holds barred and bared experience of the spoken/moaned/chanted/sighed/spat". I won't be spitting this time (anyone remember the Spier Contemporary 2007), and I've stopped writing those wrist-slasher poems (hard work, I tell you), so come and celebrate with me. :) You're bound to love something.

More from the organisors: "The poets (in order of their physical stature) - Andre Marais, Aryan Kaganoff, Kai Lossgott, Liesl Jobson, Deon Skade, Zizipo Mgobo, Suzy Bell, Liz Trew, Mark Espin, Cosmos Mairosi, Donald Parenzee and Allan Kolski Horwitz - have been instructed to leave the refreshments for the listeners - so come early and gorge yourself on home made briyani and gehakte herring (there will be special fynbos canapes for vegans and other lunatics).

Botsotso and AIDC present an evening of poetry which knows not the limits of taste or sense - a no holds barred and bared experience of the spoken/moaned/chanted/sighed/spat Word as delivered by a line up that features known felons and deviants, infamous purveyors of sensation and shlock, illiterates and philistines, unreformed stalinist misogynists, escaped slaves and enslaved slave masters, black diamonds and white pussy cats - you name it: they will all be there, not just in spirit but in techniclour flesh. (If you think this hype is in bad taste then you will definitely appreciate the subtleties awaiting your open ears).





Admission free - especially for children under the age of two ( a special kiddies poesy program will be provided by trained lion tamers and other New Age child minders)."

Moving Ferrofluid Sculptures

You are looking at the 3D form of a magnetic field revealed by a Ferrofluid, a fluid with magnetic properties. A little search in the fine art world revealed "Morpho Towers: Two Standing Spirals", a moving mechanical installation by Sachiko Kodama and Yasushi Miyajima using electromagnetism and ferrofluid. Watch the video below. You have to see it to believe it. You can also see some of the real stuff and make it react to magnets at the Sci-bono museum in Newtown, Johannesburg, where I discovered it yesterday.

dead ducklings

Dead ducklings on the pavement. What the ... ? Corner of the Methodist Church wall on Main Rd, Rosebank. Not roadkill. Someone must have put them there. Or did they wander here on their own? From where? Someone's garden pond?

I always get comments like "Yeah right, sure you found that." Well here it is.

my fish and fowl day. yes, really.

Fish tail. Liesbeek River bank, Rondebosch, Cape Town. 11 AM.

Golden Weaver. Long Street, Cape Town central. 5:30 pm.

Matt Gone - the chequer man

Matt Gone - a 100% tattooed man with a focus on black and white cheques. Matt lives in Portland, Oregon and is proud of his 100% tattooed body which includes his penis and anus (inked by himself using a mirror)

Featured in the December 2009 issue of Bizarre Magazine.

(Copyright - Mark Berry/Bizarre Archive)

www.bizarremag.com
www.bizarrearchive.com
www.mattgone.com

Kai Lossgott & Suzanne Duncan on Winelands VAN-guard

coming. Kai Lossgott. 2010. Insect bite and laser engraving on geranium leaf. Lightbox. 60 x 60 cm. (Detail.)

KAI LOSSGOTT & SUZANNE DUNCAN
plant leaf engravings and hair knot sculptures

7 June - 24 July 2010
opening 18:00h, Oude Libertas Art Gallery, Stellenbosch
Curated by Gerhi Janse van Vuuren, Roena Griesel & Ilse Schermers Griesel

Oude Libertas, cnr Adam Tas and Oude Libertas Street, Stellenbosch. Tel 021 883 9742.
Gallery Hours: Tues to Fri 9:00 - 17:00. Sat 9:00 - 13:00.

Winelands VAN-Guard exhibition
spanning Durbanville Hills, Oude Libertas Gallery, Neethlingshof Estate, Uitkyk Wine Estate

The Winelands VAN-Guard exhibition is made possible by the generous support of Distell, BASA, The City of Cape Town, WC Department of Economic Development and Tourism, Durbanville Hills, Oude Libertas Gallery, Neethlingshof Estate, Uitkyk Wine Estate

burn. Kai Lossgott. 2010. Typewriter and hand engraving on poplar leaf. Lightbox. 30 x 30 cm.

From Gloves series. Suzanne Duncan. 2009. Lightjet print. 280 x 420mm.

Kai Lossgott and Suzanne Duncan persue the right to be sensitive in a hard and fast environment. "You are always vulnerable to harm and pain, just because you exist in a body," says Duncan, who channels her nervous energy into gauzy fabrics knotted and woven from her own hair. This therapeutic process of entrainment is an exorcism of anxiety resulting in symbolic skins like gloves, stockings or bandages, which nonetheless fail to remedy feelings of vulnerability.

Kai Lossgott engraves text and continuous line drawings into the living tissue of plant leaves. A poet and artist, he mediates between the branches of expression and ecology. Close to the body through buddhist meditation and performance art practises, his mark-making and symbolism seek to explore biophysical language patterns, and the vulnerable instincts which drive them - sensitivity, silence, and acts of sensing. His is a quest to glean the borderline of conscious life.

Both artists share an existential need to renew and repair their position in a broken web. For Lossgott this relates to a split between human beings and the living system they are part of, for Duncan it is psycho-social. In an effort to overcome the alienation and self-estrangement that comes from modern urban life, Lossgott and Duncan elevate ephemeral materials to objects of contemplation. This is a simple, powerful statement of life and of vulnerability for the times we live in.

The clarity of their work defies its intricacy. To this end, both work with qualities of fragility and lightness, with an understated presentation in box frames and lightboxes.

Directions to Oude Libertas Gallery

From N2 (travelling from Cape Town towards Somerset West)
Take Exit 33 (Macassar) R310 Baden Powell Dr
Turn left into Baden Powell Dr
Travel for 13km
Turn right at T-junction (Adam Tas Street)
Travel for 2.8km
Turn Left into Oude Libertas Street
The Oude Libertas building is on your right

find Oude Libertas Street on Google Maps

Joshua Allen Harris - Inflatable bag monsters

Litter lurking on ventilation grids inflates into fluttering plastic creatures

Infinite Coastline, drawings after a sound improvisation by Niklas Zimmer & James Webb

Infinite Coastline: Friday 14:30h. Kai Lossgott. 2010. India ink on archival paper. 60 x 60 cm. (detail)


Infinite Coastline: Signal pass diagram. Kai Lossgott. Niklas Zimmer. James Webb. 2010. Lightjet on archival paper. 60 x 60 cm. (After a graphic by Kate Boswell, 2001.)



Infinite Coastline: Saturday 18:45h. Kai Lossgott. 2010. India ink on archival paper. 60 x 60 cm.

The work consists of three works on paper, two of which are graphic notations in india ink, each based on a listening instance of the live recording "Infinite Coastline: Two" by Niklas Zimmer and James Webb (2001, 11 min 39 sec). The third is a print of a signal pass diagram of the equipment used to create the sound. The drawings are a synaesthetic translation of the sound into a visual language of haptic and emotional impulses. Zimmer played a keyboard and percussion instruments. Webb treated these sounds with electronic effects pedals, adding samples from a dictaphone and a short wave radio.

The work was made for "Collateral", for which I was asked to submit a work that was the result of a collaboration. The curator, Elfriede Dreyer, cites the French art critic Nicolas Bourriaud's idea of the "altermodern" as her departure point for this show of collaborations, on at Fried Contemporary in Pretoria during March.

"Altermodernity is characterised by translation, unlike the modernism of the twentieth century which spoke the abstract language of the colonial west, and postmodernism, which encloses artistic phenomena in origins and identities."

Nicolas Bourriaud. Altermodern manifesto. Tate Modern. 2009.

The last two paragraphs of Bourriaud's text below neatly contextualise the impulse of the work.

"The artist becomes 'homo viator', the prototype of the contemporary traveller whose passage through signs and formats refers to a contemporary experience of mobility, travel and transpassing. This evolution can be seen in the way works are made: a new type of form is appearing, the journey-form, made of lines drawn both in space and time, materialising trajectories rather than destinations. The form of the work expresses a course, a wandering, rather than a fixed space-time.

Altermodern art is thus read as a hypertext; artists translate and transcode information from one format to another, and wander in geography as well as in history. This gives rise to practices which might be referred to as 'time-specific', in response to the 'site-specific' work of the 1960s. Flight-lines, translation programmes and chains of heterogeneous elements articulate each other. Our universe becomes a territory all dimensions of which may be travelled both in time and space."

Nicolas Bourriaud. Altermodern manifesto. Tate Modern. 2009.

back to alpha

alpha. Kai Lossgott. 2010. Video installation, National School of the Arts, Johannesburg.

I was approached to exhibit at my old high school in Johannesburg, the National School of the Arts. I sent along 'alpha' as a video installation. In a very personal way, I was moved by how the installation site, a classroom, extended the film's metaphors of learning and erasure. They are implicit in this found address book that was thrown into the sea and became an experimental film.

I was trying to erase myself when I began to make this film, five years after high school. I hoped that I could forget so much that I would somehow become who I imagined I once must have been. The film, just over three minutes long, took four years to find its current shape. It was a long wait. In the artist's statement, I write about the search for the woman whose name was the only address in the book I had found. "I began to paint her with red food colouring, but she shifted her identities like a mutinous fantasy. It seemed to me as if she had only now begun to exist, not as a woman, but as a little girl. She was alpha, the beginning."

National School of the Arts Festival of Fame, 15 - 20 March 2010.

kiddie stuff in gutter

A gutter in Mountain Rd in Woodstock decorated with bits of bright plastic. Dumped by a teenage dad who lost the custody battle, or a parrot crossed with a Magpie, or a kindergarten teacher spring-cleaning her boot. One object in particular was so beautiful, I bent down to pick it up. It was a weather wheel representing a rainy day, the space around the sun marked with tiny blue stipple lines on tiny printed drops. I was going to take it with me, but then I remembered the working chaos at home and the roadkill I used to dry out and press in my big green Atlas, and about how I can't walk around the room in the dark because I'll fall over or stub my toe or kill some living creature.

And how I'd vowed: no more clutter, ever again.

alive and dying, Iqonga Showcase, Out the Box Festival 2010

For the site-specific live performance alive and dying in UCT's Rosedale Quad (23 March 2010), Kai Lossgott has worked with a range of quirky and fiercely independent talents, one of whom is made of sponge. The visual artist and director carved, cut, glued and stitched together four used mattresses to create the life-size foam puppet animated by enigmatic performance artist Penny Youngleson. Film and theatre actress Dominika Jablonska obsessively eats a sponge head. Dawn Garisch, better known as an acclaimed novelist, and John Cartwright, community activist and dancer, improvised for hours on the hard concrete floor. Sound designer Brendon Bussy rigged the fire escape with a live microphone. In the performance, it becomes an instrument registering even the slightest impact. The din of the first nine steps became the scale from which the soundtrack was composed. Visiting Dutch dance for camera trio Marieke Helmus, Yoka van Zuijlen and Femke Monteny contribute a subversively understated video for projection.

"The inhabitants of an inner city apartment block encounter a humanoid sponge puppet, fallen deity of a sublime and chilling urban ecology. It becomes both perpetrator and victim of their behaviour addiction rituals, survival and self-sabotage."

Out the Box Festival. 23 March 2010. 19:00 - 21:00h. Part of the selection for the Iqonga Programme - a series of 15 min performances. Arena Theatre, UCT Hiddingh Campus.

Book at Computicket under Iqonga.

The artists would like to thank UNIMA South Africa for technical assistance and the use of their workshop facilities.

Dawn Garisch and John Cartwright jive on hard concrete

An intense duet on hard concrete between Dawn Garisch (recently shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writer's Prize) and John Cartwright (known for his performances for Brett Bailey and Jay Pather). They are rehearsing for alive and dying, a short site-specific performance directed by Kai Lossgott for the Out the Box puppetry festival in Cape Town, South Africa.

alive and dying. Site-specific performance with experimental cinema, live interactive sound, movement and puppetry. Directed by Kai Lossgott. Out the Box Festival. 23 March 2010. 19:00 - 21:00h. Part of the selection for the Iqonga Programme - a series of 15 min performances. Arena Theatre, UCT Hiddingh Campus. Book at Computicket under Iqonga.

Penny Youngleson breathes life into sponge puppet

Sunday 14 March, 12 pm, inner city Cape Town. Enigmatic performance artist Penny Youngleson animates for the first time the finished life-size sponge puppet by visual artist and director Kai Lossgott.

alive and dying. Site-specific performance with experimental cinema, live interactive sound, movement and puppetry. Out the Box Festival. 23 March 2010. 19:00 - 21:00h. Part of the selection for the Iqonga Programme - a series of 15 min performances. Arena Theatre, UCT Hiddingh Campus. Book at Computicket under Iqonga.

Complete list of phobias

Achluophobia Fear of darkness.
Acousticophobia Fear of noise.
Acrophobia Fear of heights.
Agoraphobia Fear of open spaces or of being in crowded places.
Ailurophobia Fear of cats.
Alektorophobia Fear of chickens.
Alliumphobia Fear of garlic.
Allodoxaphobia Fear of opinions.
Altophobia Fear of heights.
Amaxophobia Fear of riding in a car.
Ambulophobia Fear of walking.
Ancraophobia or Anemophobia Fear of wind.
Androphobia Fear of men.
Anglophobia Fear of England, English culture, etc.
Anthrophobia Fear of flowers.
Antlophobia Fear of floods.
Anuptaphobia Fear of staying single.
Apeirophobia Fear of infinity.
Aphenphosmphobia Fear of being touched.
Apiphobia Fear of bees.
Apotemnophobia Fear of persons with amputations. Arachnephobia/Arachnophobia Fear of spiders.
Arithmophobia Fear of numbers.
Arrhenphobia Fear of men. Arsonphobia Fear of fire.
Astraphobia/Astrapophobia Fear of thunder and lightning.
Astrophobia Fear of stars/space.
Ataxophobia Fear of disorder or untidiness.
Atelophobia Fear of imperfection.
Athazagoraphobia Fear of being forgotton or ignored or forgetting.
Atychiphobia Fear of failure.
Aurophobia Fear of gold.
Automatonophobia Fear of ventriloquist's dummies, animatronic creatures, wax statues
Automysophobia Fear of being dirty.
Autophobia Fear of being alone or of oneself.
Aviophobia/Aviatophobia Fear of flying.

Bacillophobia Fear of microbes.
Bacteriophobia Fear of bacteria.
Bathmophobia Fear of stairs or steep slopes.
Batophobia Fear of heights.
Batrachophobia Fear of amphibians (like frogs)
Belonephobia Fear of pins and needles.
Bibliophobia Fear of books.
Botanophobia Fear of plants.
Brontophobia Fear of thunder and lightning.

Cacophobia Fear of ugliness.
Cainophobia/Cainotophobia Fear of newness, novelty.
Caligynephobia Fear of beautiful women.
Carnophobia Fear of meat.
Catagelophobia Fear of being ridiculed.
Catoptrophobia Fear of mirrors.
Cenophobia / Centophobia Fear of new things or ideas.
Ceraunophobia Fear of thunder.
Chaetophobia Fear of hair.
Chionophobia Fear of snow.
Chiraptophobia Fear of being touched.
Chirophobia Fear of hands.
Chorophobia Fear of dancing.
Chrometophobia/Chrematophobia Fear of money.
Chromophobia/Chromatophobia Fear of colors.
Chronomentrophobia Fear of clocks.
Cibophobia/Sitophobia/Sitiophobia Fear of food.
Claustrophobia Fear of confined spaces.
Climacophobia Fear of stairs.
Clinophobia Fear of going to bed.
Coimetrophobia Fear of cemeteries.
Coulrophobia Fear of clowns.
Cyberphobia Fear of computers.
Cyclophobia Fear of bicycles.
Cymophobia Fear of waves.
Cynophobia Fear of dogs.

Demophobia Fear of crowds.
Dendrophobia Fear of trees.
Dentophobia Fear of dentists.
Didaskaleinophobia Fear of going to school.
Dipsophobia Fear of drinking.
Dishabiliophobia Fear of undressing in front of someone.
Dromophobia Fear of crossing streets.

Eisoptrophobia Fear of mirrors.
Elurophobia Fear of cats.
Emetophobia Fear of vomiting.
Entomophobia Fear of insects.
Ephebiphobia Fear of teenagers.
Epistaxiophobia Fear of nosebleeds.
Equinophobia Fear of horses.
Ergophobia Fear of work.

Felinophobia Fear of cats.

Gamophobia Fear of marriage.
Geliophobia Fear of laughter.
Genophobia Fear of sex.
Gephyrophobia, Gephydrophobia, or Gephysrophobia Fear of crossing bridges.
Gerascophobia Fear of growing old.
Glossophobia Fear of speaking in public or of trying to speak. Gynephobia/Gynophobia Fear of women.

Haphephobia/Haptephobia Fear of being touched.
Harpaxophobia Fear of being robbed.
Heliophobia Fear of the sun.
Hemophobia/Hemaphobia/Hematophobia Fear of blood.
Hierophobia Fear of priests or sacred things.
Hominophobia Fear of men.
Hylophobia Fear of forests.

Iatrophobia Fear of doctors.
Ichthyophobia Fear of fish.

Judeophobia Fear of Jews.

Keraunophobia Fear of thunder and lightning.
Kymophobia Fear of waves.

Lachanophobia Fear of vegetables.
Ligyrophobia Fear of loud noises.
Limnophobia Fear of lakes.
Liticaphobia Fear of lawsuits.
Lockiophobia Fear of childbirth.
Logizomechanophobia Fear of computers.
Logophobia Fear of words.
Lygophobia Fear of darkness.

Macrophobia Fear of long waits.
Mageirocophobia Fear of cooking.
Maieusiophobia Fear of childbirth.
Megalophobia Fear of large things.
Melissophobia Fear of bees.
Methyphobia Fear of alcohol.
Microphobia Fear of small things.
Misophobia Fear of being contaminated with dirt/germs.
Monophobia Fear of solitude or being alone.
Motorphobia Fear of automobiles.
Musophobia/Murophobia Fear of mice.

Necrophobia Fear of death / dead things.
Neophobia Fear of anything new.
Nosocomephobia Fear of hospitals.
Numerophobia Fear of numbers.

Ochlophobia Fear of crowds or mobs.
Ophidiophobia Fear of snakes.
Ophthalmophobia Fear of being stared at.
Ornithophobia Fear of birds.

Pedophobia Fear of children.
Peladophobia Fear of bald people.
Phasmophobia Fear of ghosts.
Placophobia Fear of tombstones.
Plutophobia Fear of wealth.
Pogonophobia Fear of beards.
Potamophobia Fear of rivers or running water.
Pteronophobia Fear of being tickled by feathers.
Pupaphobia fear of puppets.
Pyrophobia Fear of fire.

Rhytiphobia Fear of getting wrinkles.
Rupophobia Fear of dirt.

Scolionophobia Fear of school.
Selachophobia Fear of sharks.
Sesquipedalophobia Fear of long words.

Tachophobia Fear of speed.
Technophobia Fear of technology.
Telephonophobia Fear of telephones.
Testophobia Fear of taking tests.
Theophobia Fear of gods or religion.
Trypanophobia Fear of injections.

Venustraphobia Fear of beautiful women.
Verbophobia Fear of words.
Verminophobia Fear of germs.
Vestiphobia Fear of clothing.

Xenoglossophobia Fear of foreign languages.

Zoophobia Fear of animals

[source unknown]

I almost jumped off the moving train into the sea

Trekking out to Simonstown, where the irreverent poet Tania van Schalkwyk hides out these days, the heat was stifling, until we began to move. The British tourists in the compartment were shocked. A train running without a door. Welcome to Africa, I said, grateful for the breeze. The old man opposite me told me stories about his youth. It was very boring. I made the mistake of being polite, but he would not stop. Then I pretended to read my book. Over and over he told me the same mundane family anecdotes, even though I blatantly ignored him. Sweat ran down my sides. The seat was sticky. When we came past Fischhoek, I almost jumped off. I took a picture instead.

Phantom Canyon - Stacey Steers

Phantom Canyon. Stacey Steers. 4000 collages, 6"x8", Xerox and mixed media. Film still.

"Phantom Canyon explores a woman's fantastical journey through memories. Meticulous collages incorporate figures from Eadweard Mubridge's "Human and Animal Locomotion", first published in 1887. Music and Sound by Bruce Odland." Click on the link above to watch.

Dublin artist investigates biodiversity in the city

(image from Space is the Place curated by Conor McGarrigle & John Buckley, featuring among others the Tresspass project)


Seoidín O’Sullivan is an artist based in Dublin, Ireland. Her art practice investigates sociopolitical and ecological narratives, which she represents in critically engaged and poetic ways.

"TRESPASS (with Aiofe Desmond) is a collaborative project that engages research and action with forgotten urban space, abandoned landscapes and sites under transformation. TRESPASS is a multi-disciplinary project including photography, film, research and socially engaged practice. ... TRESPASS questions the inherent value of wasteland sites. ... The role of nature in wasteland sites is examined in tandem with their human usages. These delicate and interconnected issues can best be examined through a multifaceted collaborative process focused on ecological biodiversity in the city."

"TACTIC (with Ralph Borland) is a cross-national laboratory for tactical art making: TACTIC aims to work cross-nationally between South Africa and Ireland. This work across two countries will reveal the connections between local and global concerns in each place, bringing artists from the two countries together to develop projects and share ideas."

Everything was Alive and Dying

Sarcastic behind her sunglasses in a lumo-green forest preserve, hints of hysteria and grief bubble to the surface as American performance artist, musician and poet Janet Kuypers reads her 1995 poem "Everything Was Alive and Dying".

the poem concludes:
-----

in the wild
you have no power over anyone else

now that we're civilized
we create our own wild

maybe when we have all this power
the only choice we have
is to destroy ourselves

and so we do

----

go to http://www.janetkuypers.com for more poetry, information and details.

"Take Care of Yourself" - Sophie Calle

From MomentEmagazine.com
TateShots Issue 5

When a boyfriend broke-up with her by email, French artist Sophie Calle asked 107 women to read the letter and to analyse it according to their professional interest. more>>

Diana Al-Hadeed

Spun of the Limits of my Lonely Waltz
Diana Al-Hadeed
2006
Mixed media
183 x 164 x 164 cm

See more of her work at http://www.al-hadid.wsdia.com/

5 Psychological Experiments that expose humanity's dark side

by Alexandra Gedrose
Source: cracked.com

Psychologists know you have to be careful when you go poking around the human mind because you're never sure what you'll find there. A number of psychological experiments over the years have yielded terrifying conclusions about the subjects. We're talking about you.

Credo - Pablo Neruda

“I believe that poetry is an action, ephemeral or solemn, in which there enter as equal partners solitude and solidarity, emotion and action, the nearness to oneself, the nearness to mankind and to the secret manifestations of nature. And no less strongly I think that all this is sustained... by an ever-wider sense of community, by an effort which will forever bring together the reality and the dreams in us because it is precisely in this way that poetry unites and mingles them....
“All paths lead to the same goal: to convey to others what we are. And we must pass through solitude and difficulty, isolation and silence in order to reach forth to the enchanted place where we can dance our clumsy dance and sing our sorrowful song - but in this dance or in this song there are fulfilled the most ancient rites of our conscience in the awareness of being human and of believing in a common destiny.”

Pablo Neruda, Credo, from his Noble Prize speech

for the full speech (in Spanish)

unkonventionally Kathryn

Oh God. I thought they had been eaten by a darkroom somewhere, back in the day when darkrooms still existed. I saw these recently for the first time.

In the grand postmodern tradition of the footnote, comes, well you guessed it. The sincerest form of flattery. A little plot on Kathryn Smith and her exhibition "Euphemism", as winner of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award. Grahamstown Arts Festival 2004. Emma Taggart. Avri Spilka. Kai Lossgott. Photos by Mathew Rudenberg.

See the full album on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3157563&id=740885169&ref=mf#/album.php?aid=125285&id=740885169

Makes me wonder. Maybe Avant Car Guard is referencing us.

Hello Hokusai

Taxi rank, Cape Town Station, car-wash water, hint of ocean, urine, drainpipes, rotting chicken bones. Hello Hokusai.

The Great Wave at Kanagawa (from 36 views of Mount Fuji). c.1829. Katsushika Hokusai.

Badilisha! (to celebrate - Swahili)

Here I am, all smiles with Seni Seneviratne, a poet and folk singer from the UK whose poetry engages with women's testimony and trauma. For a poet she's a real sunshine person.

Badilisha Poetry Xchange 2009. To be in the company of like-minded people. To witness them as cultural workers and activists in action, on the continent our identities are rooted in. Their shows cut to the heart of what it is to be human. "This is the most African I have ever felt in Cape Town," said performance poet Phillippa Yaa De Villiers, commenting on this city divided by class and racial lines. It was a statement that quickened our hearts and was often repeated. I was left feeling exceptionally priveleged to have been part of this gathering of dynamic personalities.

enough. video poetry performance at Badilisha! Poetry X-Change

Sometimes you’ve had enough. And sometimes you have enough. A fusion of sound and light, Kai Lossgott’s and Mbali Vilakazi’s authentic and intimate multimedia poetry performance "enough" takes you into the dream cycles of obsessive behaviour and uncomfortable truths in the search for wholeness. It is about the breakdown of society, and people at breaking point.

In a lyrical conversation of experimental music and cinema, the poets draw their self-portraits only to erase them, through testimonies that become ciphers in the round-trip between abundance and gratitude, lack and self-pity. Through spoken word, dance, and gesture, they journey with the audience through breathing rhythms of take and give, where insecurity comes up for air and we open like blossoms.

Music by Niklas Zimmer ("here, now") and Mandla Mlangeni

Badilisha! Poetry Xchange website

Mbali exploring a tentative moment during rehearsals at the Theatre Arts Admin Collective in Observatory, Cape Town.

Communication breakdown during the performance, with Mandla Mlangeni on jazz trombone in the background.

The World Outside
by Mbali Vilakazi

what? oh. a cup of tea.
please.
that would be two sugars. a slice of lemon? mmmm. yes. thank you. that would be nice
nothing quite like bitter sweet
oh but to dream
two left feet
that take to the floor
an exquisite masquerade
top hats
foxtrots and what nots
the band plays on
it is a song of pandemonium
and we dance
we dance to the sounds of oblivion
life is a fancy dress party
youll see us all smiles
the world is but outside
this afternoon. we sit inside and shelter our dreams
a cup of tea? yes. that would be nice
in porcelain cups that feign they can contain
when they shatter
we mind our manners and play composure
the world is but outside
phuck it. pass me another crumpet

Buddha Jesus take my lust / no matter how many gold stars I stick onto my forehead / I'll never know enough

if knowledge was power
by Kai Lossgott

if knowledge was power
you wouldn't always be on tv
starring in porn flicks
in your electric chair,
and checking your e-mail
no constant query
to leave you neurotic
if you’re not prepared.

trashed by telepathic touch
pressing, clicking
plugging, unplugging. contact. nothing. nothing.
check check check check
socket check, cable check, adaptor check, wall plug check
nothing nothing nothing.
migrate like a blinking spaceship
laptop plugging in the kitchen
pressing, clicking. nothing, nothing, nothing.

on facebook I will never die
I survive on
two-minute noodles
memory is not required
who needs god when you've got google

trashed by telepathic touch
things I do that didn't
have a name before
grew to be
the most important things I do

fiddling and jiggling
pressing and clicking
two pin plug number two
switchboard. Check. all thumbs up.
test another thing. Ping! green light.
plug computer in. no such luck.
trouble, shooting shooting through my fingers
into every socket.

Trashed by telepathic touch
knowledge is
the child of fear.
headlessness is bliss.
I will sit
I will drink
the sweet fat peace of ignorance.
Let my laptop gather dust.
Buddha, Jesus, take my lust
no matter how many
gold stars I stick on my forehead
teecher teecher
I'll never know enough.

Mbali Vilakazi and Kai Lossgott in the official publicity photographs.
All photos courtesy of the Africa Centre and Cecile Mella.
The Africa Centre's Video channel