Chicago
Artists Coalition Newsletter

My Art Safari
What’s to be gained from an artist’s residency? One artist’s experience provides a glimpse
by Claire Wolf Krantz

When I arrived at the Bag Factory in Johannesburg to begin a visiting artist's residency, I was struck by the enormous liveliness and diversity of the neighborhood and the artists working there. The Bag Factory is located in the Fordsburg neighborhood, close to a very dangerous but colorful downtown that, in contrast to the "white" suburbs in Johannesburg and Cape Town, truly looks like Africa. Throngs of people are in the streets, selling a huge variety of wares in stores and on sidewalks, buying and schmoozing, listening to loud "African" music, young people dancing and singing. It's an exciting part of town, but one that whites generally drive around but one they don't walk, especially with visible purses or wallets.

In “Jo'burg,” out of justifiable fear, people barricade their homes behind high walls topped with barbed wire and glass. Stores, restaurants and movie theaters are generally located in shopping malls instead of along streets. A particularly colorful and crowded neighborhood adjacent to Fordsburg is a predominantly Muslim area, but it is also populated by people from many backgrounds—Indian, black, white, Asian... Just one block from the Bag Factory is an enormous indoor shopping mall, called the Oriental Plaza, featuring Indian fare: clothing, hardware, groceries—most anything you can name.

Some Indian people resent the place because of its history. In the 1970s, storeowners were thrown out of shops lining the neighborhood streets and forcibly relocated to make room for all-white neighborhoods. But the mall now is busy and cheerful, with families of all ages and kinds shopping, chatting, eating and visiting. Near the mall is a mosque, where the call to prayer can be heard every afternoon. (Interestingly, the recorded call is sung with melodies that sound very similar to the chants in an Orthodox Synagogue.) Particularly on Fridays, you can see throngs of men, coming from all directions, visiting with each other as they head for the mosque. Although they all wear the skullcap, most are dressed in street clothes. No women take part in these prayer meetings, but you often see them around town, covered up according to tradition.

On a previous trip to South Africa, I had heard about the Bag Factory Residency Program and decided to apply. My application was accepted and I stayed there from September to December 2006. The Bag Factory is housed in an old warehouse transformed into artists' studios. In the 1980s, wealthy donors financed the project to accommodate black artists who, under Apartheid, couldn't travel into white areas and couldn't afford studios. Today, the Bag Factory programs, including residencies, are multiracial and supported through fundraising.

The Bag Factory is a wonderful place to work, although the physical plant is old and in need of repair. Its artists' works are exhibited internationally and I found them superb. The artists there were also very friendly and I think that the time I spent visiting with several of them was mutually beneficial and, personally, illuminating.

My commitment to the residency was to spend time painting and have an exhibit of artwork created at the end of my stay. I was happy to concentrate on work without all the distractions I have in Chicago and was able to experiment with new ways of handling photo transparencies and paint. Although I usually work slowly, I managed to create six smallish paintings, combining abstract acrylic paint and photo transparencies, during the terms of my residency. I was pleased that my exhibit was well received, particularly since this was experimental work.

Johannesburg is a difficult city to live in. I was driving a rattletrap car provided by the Bag Factory (from a company called “Rent a Wreck”) and had to get used to driving on the left side of the road, in a strange city, all the while careful not to wander into dangerous places. The city is a warren of streets that often don't meet; they change names every five or six blocks. The infrastructure in South Africa is still developing; phones are expensive and unreliable; public transportation is sporadic and often dangerous; and central heat and air conditioning are practically non-existent. International newspapers and periodicals are generally unavailable and the small number of art magazines can only be purchased months behind their publication dates.  

Touring the city, my husband and I visited the Museum Africa, with its collection of photos and artifacts, and the Apartheid Museum, which was beautiful, engrossing and absolutely horrifying at the same time. Many, including us, were near tears by tour’s end. We also went to the new Constitutional Court Building atop Constitution Hill on a tour led Albie Sachs, a co-author of the nation’s new constitution, member of South Africa’s Supreme Court and former freedom fighter who lived in exile for many years and even lost an arm for his cause via a letter bomb. The court building’s architecture and decorations reflect many parts of Africa and its collection of African art includes some of Sacs’, which features Mozambican and South African art.

People in Johannesburg are uncommonly friendly and kind. They stopped to talk; they invited us places; they wanted to know about us and the Chicago art scene. We were invited to lunch and to dinner; we were introduced to people; and we were taken to openings and events. I drove mostly to places I was familiar with but, usually, our friends generously picked us up and drove us home.

Johannesburg’s art world is small and interconnected. Friends took us to see a particularly wonderful and famous collection, owned by Jack Ginsberg, of South African art and artists' books from Europe, America and South Africa. We befriended famous artists and discussed each others’ work supportively. Unfortunately, most of their work is all but unknown in the U.S. Some remarkable Bag Factory artists we met include Diana Hyslop, Joachim Schonfeldt, Pat Mautloa, Sam Nhlengethwa, David Koalane and Robert Hodgins who, in his 80s, is as spry as a 60-year-old. They admired my artwork and spent time talking with me about my prints and paintings.  

Robert Hodgins, photographer David Goldblatt and a number of my colleagues at the Bag Factory exhibit in the most prestigious Cape Town and Johannesburg galleries, as well as in Europe and America. Goldblatt had a one-person show at MOMA and recently won the Hasselblad award for photography. Other photographers, including Omar Badsha and Cecil Nunn, were leaders of Afrapix, a photo agency formed to use photography as a resistance to the white regime in power. Their photos were distributed world-wide, alerting people to the truth about South Africa during Apartheid.

I found Johannesburg’s art scene to be vibrant and focused more on content, as opposed to issues. Shortly after I arrived, my digital prints were exhibited at a commercial gallery (I’d met the owner/director on a previous trip). My work was incredibly well received: I was interviewed on the radio; had a long review in one of the top newspapers; and, best of all, the American Embassy gave a reception for me and invited the who's who in the arts! What fun! Interestingly, with rare exception, the galleries, collectors and arts institutions, including the Johannesburg Art Gallery (more of a municipal art museum than an art gallery), show only South African artists.

We were in Jo'burg during the summer (Chicago's winter) and the weather was very hot in the sun. Although the summer also brings heavy rainstorms, with dramatic lightning and thunderstorms almost daily, they are brief and the sun reappears. In the early mornings and late afternoons, my husband and I enjoyed sitting in the garden of the house that had been provided us, watching the birds among the flowering plants and reading or listening to music. We had a wonderful four months traveling in South Africa, Namibia and Tanzania but, most of all, enjoyed creating new work in an exciting and friendly environment.

Claire Wolf Krantz is an artist, freelance critic, and guest curator.
As an artist she works in a combination of painting and photography as well as digitally created images.