MindMapSA Issue 9

ing art as far as I am concerned. (laughs)Your work is often very surreal, I want to ask how much of yourperformance is conceptual and how much of it is personal?I believe the integrity of my work isbased around an understanding of myupbringing and how I interact with variouselements in me that are often facedwith resistance. The resistance to myidentity is the motivation behind why Iwork this way. This is also the concept.What relevance do you think work has as anart form to South African audiences today?I think there is a lot of silence and a culturethat is on one hand highly forgetful toviolence and it’s history in this country specificallyour men. This and the resulting displacementis something that noone can saythey haven’t experienced , this is relevant .You have often described your earlierwork as very self-indulgent, why is that?I think this comes from the beginning of myperformance work in the mid noughties, cozeverywhere I went and did these public interventions…abig question from the publicwould be:”What are you doing it for.?” andthis was stressfull and at one point it led me to think that it wasan enduldgence…I live to answer this question and I’ve movedon from qualifying it as endulgence, this is my proffesion.One of the things that I get from watching your work is that youhave an interest in ceremony and ritual and sequences, why is that?I am still comingto terms with thelevel of engagementthat the workrecieves internationally,it is veryoverwhelmingfor a studio thathas been aroundfor 6 years.My character live in this etyhereal space , I’ve performed theseritual killings of them. but Ilulwane is in the afterlife , so theritual element is not that of killing it , but raising it in the afterlife to exist forever. The transityional element in the work…like 99 percent of it’s language…revolvesaround transitions…this requires ritualYour works have been showcasedabroad and in SA, how have you foundthat audiences react to your workabroad as compared to here at home?I am still coming to terms with the levelof engagement that the work recievesinternationally, it is very overwhelmingfor a studio that has been around for 6years. The market as well has respondedvery well to the studios work. Andthat has been great in putting the workI a position to continue my competionwith my critical and commercial market.You will be collaborating with MichaelSubotzky at National Art Fest tell us a littlebit about that and how it came about?The work revolves around surveylanceand will be taking place in two places :inside a 19th century camera obscura andalso as an intervention in the town. I amthoroughly interested in the inclusion/ exclusiondynamic of performance , in a big way. and with thiswork I think I have a big chance of getting closer to articulatingthat to the public.I spoke of the first performance , the secondvenue I will be doing the performance in is at the Provost. Thisis where soldiers during the frontier wars were imprisoned…they can look forward to men spanking and a lot of wetness.47