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cape reviews
Third World Disorder
Kendell Geers at Goodman Gallery Cape
By Sue Williamson
09 June - 17 July.
If one can describe a show that greets the viewer with a ceiling-high
screen repeatedly spelling out the word FUCK as a softer, gentler
exhibition of work than expected, then 'Third World Disorder' is it.
This is Kendell Geers’ first solo gallery show in Cape Town, and not
only has it been a long time coming, but it reveals a side of the artist
which suggests a movement away from the angry young iconoclast
familiar to the South African art world in the nineties to one with a
more seasoned worldview.
Kendell Geers
Third World Disorder, 2010. Installation view .
It is true that the black rubber police batons of earlier years are still present:
arranged in hexagram and other star shapes across the back wall of the
gallery and appearing at first glance as minimalist wall drawings. The
subtext, and with Geers there is always is a subtext, is a good cop/bad cop
message: the hexagram is the symbol of the police, and their motto is ‘to
serve and protect’ but the batons, banned in other parts of the world, are
used in mass demonstrations to subdue and beat the protesting populace
into submission.
The razor wire, however, a South African invention, here finds a new aesthetic function. No longer
does it form an impenetrable screen as in Akropolis Now (2004) but in Bladerunner VI (2010), the
wire is confined to being coiled inside small, square steel frames. These blocks of coiled wire are
threatening enough if one imagines the bloody lacerations that would be caused if one attempted to
push a hand through the centre of a coil, but the work does not block one’s entire access to a space.
The nine blocks welded together function more as a handsome small sculpture than as a powerful
installation. In a context outside the gallery, they could be imagined as brutal trade samples made
up by a security company anxious to demonstrate the deterrent quality of its tough product.
Kendell Geers
Ritual slip (Mopoto) Vll 2010, leather, glass beads, 37 x 52cm
Image courtesy Goodman Gallery
As such, Bladerunner VI strikes up a dialogue with its formal predecessors: whereas before Geers’
installations palpably threatened and limited the body, the threat of this work is contained, as if our
social endeavours to control our world have gradually diminished in efficacy.
Similarly, one of Geers’ most emblematic early works was a broken-off green glass bottleneck. One
version of this piece was called Self-Portrait (1995) and a second, Title Withheld (Nek). The latter
was described as: ‘Found object (original destroyed on the TWA flight 800 flying from New York to
Paris 18 July 1996)’. The use of the word ‘Nek’ suggested both the bottleneck’s use as a dagga pipe
and as a barroom weapon. In 2010, its successor, now cast in 18 carat gold from a glass original,
has been alchemised into a far more aesthetic object, and christened Mined.
The lethally jagged points of Nek have been softened (these golden points might indent the finger
but they will not draw blood), and a seemingly curvier bottle has been selected for casting. The
result is a flawless and desirable objet d’art, a unique piece, fabricated in the precious metal which
is the age-old symbol of riches.
With Mined, Geers is referring back not only to his own early work, but to the source of wealth of this
country, and to its history of beautiful small golden objects, like the golden foil rhinoceros found at
Mapungubwe in the north, dating back about 800 years.
Kendell Geers
Ritual Slip (Jogolo) VII 2010, leather, glass beads, 48 x 63 cm
Image courtesy Goodman Gallery
But viewers might also be led to draw comparisons with For the Love of God, the diamond
encrusted skull of Damien Hirst. As in Hirst’s case, Mined, with its R1 million rand price tag, could be
seen as a provocation, a pushing of the envelope, a testing of the Geers brand on the international
art market. Prices for the artist’s work generally have skyrocketed in the last ten years and with this
work, Geers seems to exercise the authority of an insider in critiquing the structures of art
commerce.
Either way, the work sets up a tension between material and subject matter: the violence inherent in
the broken-off bottleneck is at odds with the luxury of gold.
A key starting point for Geers in his work has long been language and wordplay; its use and misuse.
The major exhibition of his work that has been touring large art institutions overseas has the title
‘Irrespektiv’, a witty and incisive combination of the word retrospective with an indication of Geer’s
declared attitude of hostility to the established art world. (One might wonder here if this attitude has
not in fact had the effect of furthering rather than hindering his career, but that’s another discussion).
Kendell Geers
Mined 2010, 18 carat gold, 9.5 x 7.5 x 6 cm
Image courtesy Goodman Gallery
Words and their meaning are at the heart of ‘Third World Disorder’, and in planning the exhibition
Geers determined that every piece would be made here in South Africa (the artist now lives in
Belgium) as a proof that it is quite possible to make work of top international standard in this
country. Thus the handsome black metal spindle sculptures which look like elongated chess pieces
(each is a one-off) and spell out the negative forms of words like LOVE and REVOLUTION were
fabricated here. Also, as part of this programme, Geers sent ahead rectangular diagrammatic
drawings of word designs in black and white. These drawings were given to traditional Ndebele
beadworkers, older women whose work is immaculate, even and precise.
The instruction from the artist was to stitch each design into a beadwork panel which the women
would then take further by using it as the main element of an apron. These aprons are traditional
garb for the Ndebele, and show the marital status of the wearer. Once the panel had been executed,
the women were to be given free rein in making up these aprons and adding further embellishments,
and when the aprons are sold, as they no doubt will be, being extremely collectible, the makers will
share in the profits.
This combination of a very contemporary technique - establishing a design in digital format to be
sent through cyberspace across the world - with a traditional craft executed by experts, has resulted
in a series of beautiful and significant artworks. One thinks of the Zulu beadwork messages which
are incomprehensible to unschooled eyes - Geers has taken his one-word messages a step further.
The message is still coded, but can be clearly understood. And the combination of the glittering
black and white glass beads with the matte surface of the leather and fringing is alluring indeed,
signaling that Geers’ strong material sense is as much part of his language as his predilection for
confrontation.
In his walkabout, Geers expressed his fears for the state of a planet in which the developed
countries ignore environmental issues that go against their own interests, in which oil is being
pumped into the Gulf of Mexico and volcanic ash is spewing into the air. He is, he says, trying to
move away from a cynical approach and find a more respectful way both to live on the planet and in
making art.
Kendell Geers
Bladerunner VI 2010, steel, razormesh, 102 x 102 x 8cm
Image courtesy Goodman Gallery
Thus, although Geers chose to call this show ‘Third World Disorder’, his overall message seemed to
suggest that the values found in the local might be transformative and that it was time to tone down
the earlier confrontational stance of his work.
In the black and white spaces of the Goodman, the works themselves look masterly, the curved
columns work with their messages of HOPE and PRIDE, a pierced steel pyramid which casts its
shadow on the floor ,and the stunning collaborative leather and beadwork aprons. All seem to
indicate a new confidence from the artist in the culture, values and skills inherent in the land of his
birth.
Venue
Goodman Gallery Cape
3rd Floor Fairweather House, 176 Sir
Lowry Road, Woodstock
Tel:Tel: (021) 462 7573Fax:
Fax: (021) 462 7579
info@goodmangallerycape. com
www.goodmangallerycape.com
Tue - Fri 9.30am - 5.30pm, Sat
10am - 4pm