Trade Re-Routed
2012
Trade Re- Routed
A kind of ‘trade game’
Curated by
Nontobeko Ntombela
An intervention by Anthea Moys and Donna Kukama
in collaboration with Jamie Gowrie and Shannon Ferguson
The Goethe-Institut asked Nontobeko Ntombela to formulate a curatorial strategy that would connect the Joburg Fringe in Braamfontein and Joburg Fringe Booth at the Joburg Art Fair in Sandton. Her strategy, rather than selecting individual artists’ work, was to invite selected artists to engage in the art ‘trade’ central to both platforms.
‘What artists Donna Kukama and Anthea Moys have conceptualized is a system of exchanges that re-evaluates art, its market value, and the economies surrounding its trade. The Art Analysts (Donna Kukama and Anthea Moys) will embark on a tour of both the Fringe and Joburg Art Fair collecting works to be traded between the two spaces.
The collection process takes on the form of a game where the Art Analysts describe selected works via walkie talkies to two drawers, Gowrie and Ferguson, who create real-time interpretations (drawings) of the works based on what they hear, without any visual references. These re-interpretations of the works “collected” at the Fringe will be traded for interpreted works “collected” at the Art Fair, resulting in an auction of Fringe works at the fair, and vice-versa. The result is a game of chance that allows for the “original artwork” to be potentially re-routed from its original location in order to be traded in its counter-universe.’
Wednesday: "Collecting of artworks” at the Fringe. The Art Analysts, Donna and Anthea, describe artworks via Walkie-Talkie to the 2 artists located at the Fringe. Each artist has 3 minutes to complete a drawing based on the description sent by us, without visual references. The aim is to collect as much “Art Fair Worthy” work as possible. In simple terms, as much work from the Fringe as possible.
Thursday: “Collecting of artworks” at the Fair (the same process happens as the day before, with all four participants at the Fair).
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Finally, the drawings (reinterpretations of other artists’ works by the drawers) are auctioned off at both the Art Fair and the Fringe. Fringe drawings are auctioned off at the Fair and vice versa, playing with ideas surrounding authorship and the somewhat arbitrary game of choosing what is Fair or Fringe-worthy art.
