Portofolio of work from Issue 14 - 16 of one small seed magazine.

1. FEATURE: INTERIOR DESIGN
WORDS: Jessica Manim PHOTOGRAPHY: Robin Sprong
THE NEWSPACE
Nip-TuckiNg
The Old VicTOriaN lady
44 Long Street, affectionately known as the Old Victorian Lady, has lived many
lives. Originally home to the Sea Point tramways when she was born in the 1860s,
she has also housed a variety of different projects – from the YMCA to the original
Space Theatre to the Parks Board. This building’s life has been more varied and
colourful than Winnie Mandela’s hat collection. Throughout its life it has been
fortunate to have very little damage done to its Victorian architecture and it is now
protected by Cultural Heritage status. Currently home to NewSpace Theatre, the
interior of the building has been invigorated by contemporary additions by Kubik
– a company specialising in “imagineered” design solutions – complimenting and
contrasting the heritage and history of the building with its modern vision and
direction.
The NewSpace Theatre, though bearing a similar name, is by no
means a rebirth of the famous Space Theatre of the 1970s and
‘80s – one of the grand old ladies of South African fringe theatre.
It was founded in 1972 by theatre photographer Brian Astbury
and his actress wife, Yvonne Bryceland, in Bloem Street and at the
time was known as The Space Theatre. From its conception, The
Space Theatre was a site of anti-Apartheid activism, highlighting
and interrogating the injustices of the Nationalist government. In
a time when it was unlawful for different races to share the same
beach – never mind the same stage – a group came together to
create an (illegal) space where skin colour didn’t matter. It was
the first non-racial venue in South Africa, although more were
to follow during the ‘70s. Initially The Space Theatre was more
a collective of people than a locatable space but it soon took
physical roots when it moved to 44 Long Street in 1976, and
the name became The People’s Space/ Die Ruimte/ Indawo Ye
Zizwe. In late 1983, the theatre was forced to close its doors for
economic reasons.
Twenty years on and the Old Victorian Lady is putting her name
back in lights and returning to her former cultural life. Fred Ab-
rahamse, Artistic Director of NewSpace, is quick to point out
that they’re not trying to recreate the old days of the theatre but
rather to create a new cultural space for South Africans. While its
main function will be to develop plays and nurture acting talent,
NewSpace will also accommodate a variety of activities, from
lectures to film exhibitions, creating a hub of cultural activity in
one of Cape Town’s hottest party streets. Abrahamse points out
that the refurbishment of the building, headed by Robin Sprong,
has created “a space in the old for the new”.
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2. Although very little damage had been done to the architecture of the building
in its previous lives, it was in serious need of a makeover. Architect Kristof
Basson, who worked on NewSpace, incorporated a modular anodised alu-
minium construction system. Aluminium extrusions are cut precisely to size
and assembled into square frames in Kubik’s Cape Town factory. These
squares are locked together to form large panels that are multifunctional in
their design – being used as anything from walls to doors, windows to floors.
Panels are then cut and fitted into the frames. The panels can be made from
an almost unlimited variety of materials.
The central light well of the building was installed after the building was built,
and thus the architect envisioned the centre of the building to be ‘new’, the
perfect place to incorporate Kubik elements into the architecture. “The Old
Victorian Lady has been given a new heart,” explains Basson. The surround-
ing areas were kept in their original Victorian style. The building is home to
other small businesses besides The NewSpace, including a restaurant, tea
shop, dance studio, art gallery and more. In order to separate the theatre
from the rest of the building, Kubik used clusters of Tivoli lights, reminiscent
of the globes that framed make-up mirrors in the theatre dressing rooms of
bygone eras. The theatre’s bathrooms are also distinguished from the others
in the building by an illuminated ceiling complete with Victorian patterning
to echo the original architectural style of the building.
There are plans to build an illuminated rooftop lounge/bar, the likes of which
have not been seen on the continent. It will overlook Long Street with a view
to Lion’s Head. The entire venue will be illuminated – floors, walls, fountains
and bars. Bars and all illuminated aspects will be synchronised with subtle
light effects to create a magical nighttime experience.
The Old Victorian Lady’s nips-and-tucks have brought new life to an old lass,
a revival that will hopefully inspire the growth of a cultural epicentre to ac-
company the night club hot spots that keep Long Street alive. www.kubik.co.za
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3. ASHA ZERO
MEANING IN PIECES
A marriage of Abstraction and Realism, Asha’s paintings
appear discordant at first. Yet the longer they are gazed upon,
the more the pieces pull together to form a coherent whole.
Meaning is assembled from fragments – a mirror to the way in
which identity is constructed in the modern era.
Asha Zero is an artistic avatar crafted beyond the confines of gender, age and race so that the
“What happens in our current society, especially with the social
artworks can speak for themselves uninhibited. Executed in acrylics, careful brushstrokes imitate
the ripped edges of a page while flicks of paint carve the tears. It would be easy to mistake these networking phenomenon, is that you have this virtual identity,”
paintings for carefully constructed collages. This kind of optical illusion uses the technique of explains Asha. “It’s put together with bits and pieces which form
trompe-l’oeil (‘trick of the eye’), a new world painting genre and extreme form of realism that something coherent. Although it was put together through a
allows the artwork to bend the fine line demarcating reality. complete jumble, it’s this ‘something’ that people see on your
profile.”
WORDS: jessica manim
While many critics have praised Asha’s work as a deconstruc-
tion of identity, seeing its fragmentary nature as representative
of a self fractured by information overload, there is also an
element of sublime celebration in the paintings. They are Dada-
esque, not in the sense that they rebel against popular modern
modes of creative expression, but in the nonsensical and
intuitive aspect of the term. The pieces laud the atomised way in
which identity is formed as a necessary, rather than a negative
process. As Asha says, “The statement, though it’s not linked to
me, is that we’re really only pieces.”
Combining skill with enjoyment, Asha creates a mode of
painting that dissolves the boundary between fine art and the
everyman’s creative expression. Utilising a highly accessible
medium like collage as his starting point, the works are seem-
ingly within anyone’s creative capabilities. After all, we live in
an age where just about anyone can call themselves an artist at
the click of a mouse. Yet the level of skill required to translate
paper to paint is tremendous. Thus, uniquely positioned, the
paintings oscillate between the practicable and the removed.
The process of translation crafts onion layers of overlapping
meaning and empowers the works, imbuing them with deep-
er levels of meaning. As Asha describes it, “A mass produced
media image gets translated into a painting with some sort of
romantic sentiment… Paint in its physicality has an emotional
connection.”
Asha’s works reignite a childlike excitement. The eye is con-
tinuously drawn across the canvas, darting from one segment
of creative shrapnel to the next until a glimmer of meaning
starts to coalesce. Then all of a sudden it disappears amidst
the visual cacophony, and we are forced to re-evaluate the
intricately structured composition. Like an alleyway wall coated
with a decade’s worth of glued and torn poster advertisements,
the beautiful decay seems to add up to some elusive composite
history; A story in pieces, that evolves every time we pass it.
www.ashazero.co.za
LEFT
mouse over text (2008)
100 x 120cm I acrylic on board
RIGHT
assorted bystander (no2) (2008)
60 x 45cm I acrylic on board
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4. competacletz (2008) dart (2008)
30 x 40cm I acrylic on board 30 x 40cm I acrylic on board
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5. THE DIGITAl DREAMS OF
RUDI SIlBERMANN
Recently, a startling collection of work was
uploaded to one small seed’s community
network site. We, in the one small seed of-
fice, were stunned by the portfolio’s technical
wizardry and its delicate, otherworldly com-
positions. Jessica Manim investigated the
digital dreams and found Rudi Silbermann, a
thoroughbred South African talent.
WORDS: jessica manim
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6. Magical and breathtaking, Rudi’s talent is the kind you’d expect Like illustrations of childhood fairytales or snapshots from a lucid
to see grown on international soil. But, raised at the mouth of dream, Rudi’s images instantly call up a narrative in one’s mind.
the Breede River, he’s testament to the rapidly growing South Whether one views each piece in isolation or as a series of related
African digital art scene. He states he’s always had a fervent artworks, they’re definitely more than just ‘pretty pictures’. There’s
interest in the power of visual constructions and that as a a sense that each element he includes is vital to the final product,
child he was deeply intrigued by the layout of magazines. This although he does not always choose them consciously. From cast
obsession with design led him to study photolithography, after aside masks to distant buildings, each part seems to bring a keen
which he worked in the printing industry for six years. It was sense of balance and power to the overall composition. He often
during this time that Rudi met an architect who introduced feels that they are all predetermined, as ideas will often pop wholly
him to the craft of making artistic impressions for architectural formed into his mind. “Sometimes I feel that the images I make are
projects. Instantly attracted to the vocation, he began dabbling just lying there, waiting to be created,” he says. “It’s like they were
in Photoshop. It wasn’t long before he discovered 3D modelling just meant to be.”
and became hooked on developing digital masterpieces.
Recently, Rudi has been working in conjunction with Ian Mitchinson,
Working primarily in Photoshop and Maxon Cinema 4D, a Capetonian fine art photographer, on The Cherish Series. The
Rudi combines photographs with 3D-modelled elements collaboration pushes the limits of portrait photography, which
to build dreamy landscapes that whisper fantastical stories is often conventionally stifling. The idea is to take that which is
and whimsical dreams. Each piece carefully balances the most dear to the subject and transform it from the expected to the
delicate and the dark, contrasting soft lighting with sombre, fantastical, imbuing it with tangible emotional tones. From wedding
warm colours. From abandoned houses set against barren dresses to hobbies and the jovial to the serious, the collection
landscapes to exquisite women wrapped in mist, his works are celebrates life’s revered moments. And while Rudi and Ian cherish
at once foreign and yet familiar, leaving an open doorway the moments of others, this is clearly one South African talent who’s
through which to discover meaning. “The key thing I try to worthy of being cherished himself.
create is a space where the viewer can develop their own story
ABOVE: Nates Tune
about what they see,” explains Rudi. “My images are meant to RIGHT: Sister of Night
invoke emotion and thought. Sometimes the things we dream PREVIOUS PAGE: Journey
do feel real, and this is what the artworks are about.” FOLLOWING PAGE: Next Level
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7. “Sometimes we dream and things do feel real,
and this is what the artwork is about.”
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8. COMPASSION IN A DARK REALM
Sasan is a man intrigued by the darker side of the hu-
man mind. his artworks exist in a realm of palpable
fear and tension; and yet he takes no sadistic pleasure
in them, only a profound contemplation in the possi-
bility of their existence. Although his portfolio includes
a variety of formats, his mixed media works are the
most intriguing. They combine his work’s finest aspects,
creating pieces that captivate the mind and invoke the
most primal of emotions.
WORDS: jessica manim
Red Thinker X
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9. The Capetonian artist’s world is a stark one, created primarily in black and white, the
linework swims in heavy layers of crimson. He positions his subjects centrally before slowly
building up their surroundings. His figures are always alone, lost within an oppressively
dim realm without a companion. A sense of rejection surrounds them, a feeling that they
are social outcasts due to some form of deformity. Which makes sense when one learns
that one of his major sources of inspiration is Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis. The novella
famously tells the story of Gregor Samsa, a pressurised salesman who transforms into
an insect overnight, only to be rejected by those who once loved him. Sasan explains
the connection to this seminal modernist work: “I’m trying to tap into the dark and
melancholic parts of the mind. As humans we are visual creatures and love beauty. We
don’t like ugliness.”
Areas of intricate detail are sharply contrasted with achingly open spaces in most of
Sasan’s mixed media works. Vacant spaces draw you into the surrounding areas, heavily
populated by intense crosshatching. “The very simple linework can be followed like a
road until you get to the busy area,” says Sasan. “I choose my shading and light source
in a way that allows me to have a lot of dark areas as the focus point.” Whether he draws
your attention to the foreground figure or the background scenery, the effect is powerful,
forcing one aspect of an image to pop out while others recede.
Several symbols recur throughout Sasan’s portfolio of personal work. Two that predominate
are masks and insects. The masks reference the medieval Schandmasken (Shameful
Masks) that were used to publicly discipline and ridicule those who had committed minor
offences. Metal masks in the shape of animal heads were strapped to the head before
the offender was forced into public to be mocked by his community. It’s no surprise
then that they have become such a strong feature in the work of a man who explores
the twisted ways in which humans interact with one another. However, his work doesn’t
enter into the ridicule; instead it pulsates with a powerful feeling of compassion. The use
of insects prevails as, for Sasan, they straddle the delicate line between the grotesque
and the magnificent. While most humans react with automatic repulsion towards insects,
Sasan spent many years drawing them professionally and finds them intensely alluring.
Obsessed with the darker side of humans yet beating with a gentle sense of compassion,
Sasan’s works delve the depths of the hidden territory of the heart. While one may be
shocked or even revolted by his subjects’ suffering, it’s impossible to withdraw from
them. Instead, his works provoke a prolonged contemplation, a silent analysis not only
of the subject’s situation but an exploration of one’s own murkier acts and intentions.
Vogue
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10. Cape Town Port Hermann
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