Lost & Found

The inaugural #artcrawl was a great success! This exclusive, one-off themed crawl was centred on the use of disused objects in contemporary art and how artists turn lost objects into ‘found’ ones and shift their meaning in the process. There is a long history attached to this practice dating back to Marcel Duchamp’s ‘Readymades’ in the ‘50s and the anti-art conceptualist thrust it inspired to the stereotypical notion that African artists ‘recycle’ objects in their art – think El Antasui.

In a private viewing room at Clarke's bookshop Corrigall used books and images to give an historical perspective on the theme. She delivered a lively but informed and accessible introduction to contemporary African art and the ways in which artists are dealing with the everyday, either blurring the line between art and life or transforming and elevating throwaway images or things into art. Is art about transformation?

From this setting they headed off on foot to Ebony/Curated gallery on Loop Street where they met Patrick Bongoy, Francois Knoetze and Mark Rautenbach and chatted about the different way these artists have employed disused objects. From here they headed down Church Street and met Marlise Keith at Worldart Gallery, where she gave us insight into the Baron-Munchhausen-type sculptures she generates. At SMITH gallery Corrigall stopped to talk about the work of Jeanne Gaigher and how this artist considers photographic imagery as the 'readymade' to be transformed into a painting.