becoming a body

Its been four days now since I got here and I’ve been doing all the things that one can do with flesh: used some eyeballs to watch the television, I tasted the taste of toast, I rolled some bowls and seen some interesting people and places, yet I find this whole idea of being in a body somewhat strange. As a virtual creature I have memories, thoughts and even some knowledge…well information is probably the more appropriate term here.

But a body…how strange it is. It’s so solid, so limited in its ability to transform. Only on the outside, only in appearance does it seem similar to me, in that the outside can be altered. As a canvas, however the body seems inscripted with details one just cant cover. It is going to take some time to get used to…hopefully by the time I get to meet you face to face, I would have found a way to use this thing called face, without it restricting what I am.

the adult artworld

Standing in the middle of Jan Smuts late at night and window-shopping at the Goodman. One thinks about the art that you have seen and wonders what to make of it - and what to make of your own. The red neon adult world reflects over the exhibiting artist’s name (along side an oh-so pink Angus Taylor…from Gordart across the road).

I am reminded of the pressure from numerous professors to be more explicit, sexual, and sensational, and wonder if that is truly the only route for an artist still to travel.
Well…either that or writing with neon lights on the gallery wall as the trend seems to continue after years of faux-signage illuminating our receptive minds.

And I wonder what I would write…but no words come to mind.
Maybe if I think a little harder…later

the thing with toast and televisions

The thing with both toasters, and television sets is that in the perfect world they would be combined as one. Their individual powerful forces merged into a single object which has the potential to change the way in which a whole globe of individuals spend their time in the kitchen (or the living room for that matter). The thing that bugs me with these appliances is that I have a love/hate relationship with both. I love toast, I have ever since I can remember, especially the toast that my granny used to make in her four-slice toaster when I was a kid. Mainly because of the fact that before hers I had never seen a four-slice toaster anywhere else…a true feat of engineering. Anyway…what gets me down is the time you have to spend waiting for the toast to be toasted to a crispy Californian brown. On the other hand, I hate TV… it sucks you in with mindless programming and before you know it you have wasted an entire evening worth of other fun filled activities. Hence my proposal. If the television was built into the toaster, then you would have something to do whilst waiting for your toast and you would spend less time wasted in front of the TV, cause you would feel plain stupid staring at the toaster if not waiting for toast.

What a marvelous plan, don’t you agree!

a bowl of armed response

It seems to me that these two things are all that there are…causes and effects. More often than not we do things, not because of the sheer pleasure that they might result it, but mainly to gain some form of response. Whether that may be delivered in arms of with open arms does not really matter that much, does it? As long as there’s a sound traveling from the other end of the line, you rest assured that your phone is still working…

as pro:phile prepares

Suddenly I recall some lady speaking at the opening of the Sasol New Signatures prize last year. She was some representative from Sasol who had a clear bias toward photographic works and as I recall also has a history of working in a printing facility or some newspaper press…the anecdote I recall is her nostalgic recollection of the smell of the printing press early in the morning. The ink stench rising through the floor from the basement where the presses were laboring. And I remember imagining a scenario - not much unlike a documentary on child labour - of these pour skinny creatures working the presses under the oppression of some leather clad dominatrix with whips and chains. (the imagery most likely caused by some other art work on show, a piece with similar subject matter).

So now as I sit on my haunches printing face after face to compile in a book of faces I ponder as I smell the scent of printing ink, where is the whip that keeps me working? And more interestingly perhaps; who are those waiting to be whipped by my work? Well we will have to wait and wonder just a while more.

A small note of note...for the novice blogger (like me): remember to bookmark your own blogsite, for bad memory might avoid you from ever finding it again...speaking of which; let us take a moment of silence in respect for all those forgotten dusty corners that are no longer visited but still keep hovering lonesome in limbo somewhere one the web.shame...

pro:phile is an interactive artwork by Francois Jonker which exists here as a virtual entity and will be manifested physically through the artist's performance in Design Square (Brooklyn, Pretoria, South-Africa) from 08/07/2009 - 16/07/2009.

keep watching this space for more information...