Trade Re-Routed
2012
Curated by Nontobeko Ntombela, Trade Re-Routed, was an art intervention by Anthea Moys and Donna Kukama in collaboration with artists Jamie Gowrie and Shannon Ferguson. The project aimed to create a "trade game" between the Johannesburg Art Fair and the Fringe Fair and critically engage what is Art Fair-worthy art. The Art Analysts, Kukama and Moys conceptualized a system of exchanges between Fair and Fringe contexts that re-evaluated art, its market value, and the economies surrounding its trade.
At both Fringe and Joburg Art Fair, the Art Analysts began the process of selecting work to be re-drawn and then traded. Standing in front of the chosen artwork, they described the selected works via walkie-talkies to two drawers, Gowrie and Ferguson. These artists created 3-min real-time interpretations (drawings) of the works based on what they heard, without any visual references. Fringe drawings were 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.
