Saturday + James

Yesterday I went through to Newlands to visit some family friends & get some tips on China from them.. I headed to The Biscuit Mill market to meet up with my friend James from Canada who is in Cape Town on an internship for 5 months... We also popped into the BeadBoys shop which is always such a great experience: I just LOVE how the shop is colour coded :)

James and I went to What if the World gallery on Albert street (I've always wondered how to find it but have never been able to!) and had a look at their exhibition, Double Entry by Dan Halter:

I particularly liked a video installation based on the old 'Space Invaders' game, where a number of people are shown walking back and forth across the bridge between South Africa & Zimbabwe. Every now and then, piteeeuw-piteeuw and somebody gets 'shot' and climbs over the back of wall & the remaining people keep moving back and forth...

 

More about the exhibition as per the gallery writeup:

DOUBLE ENTRY is Dan Halter’s second solo show in South Africa after his 2006 exhibition entitled Take me to your leader at João Ferreira Gallery.

As a relatively fortunate Zimbabwean living in South Africa, Halter investigates and draws attention to the plight of less fortunate fellow Zimbabweans now displaced in South Africa. Dubbed the pejorative ʻkwerekwereʼ these foreigners are often confronted with xenophobic violence by their South African counterparts. Halter is also concerned with the relations between the two neighbouring countries. He seeks to interrogate empty promises made by governments on both sides.

Informed by two field trips to the Beitbridge border between Zimbabwe and South Africa, this new body of work looks at the notorious barrier and the passage Zimbabwean immigrants face in order to get into South Africa. With a touch of Halter’s own dark humour, this exhibition of video, print and installation relates to these ongoing issues.

Halter has taken part in numerous group exhibitions including Dak’Art 2010 (9th Biennial of Contemporary African Art), the 11th Harare International Festival of Art (HIFA 2010), the 10th Havana Biennial in 2009, the 3rd Guangzhou Triennial in 2008 and the 16th VideoBrasil in 2007.

In 2008 Halter also exhibited in Milan with a solo show titled never say never at the Derbylius Gallery. That same year he was nominated as one of the MTN New Contemporaries and he took part in two residencies, one in Zürich and one in Rio de Janeiro.

Halter has recently been selected to take part in the Glenfiddich Artist in Residence program in Scotland in July 2010.