Channeltoo

Brief history of SA video art

by Gregg Smith and Robert Weinek
With a lack of research material it is very difficult to find the true history of video art in South Africa.
A situation that is made more difficult by the fact that archives and libraries around South Africa where not even looking for the this innovative and cutting edge form of art. There is no central resource centre or even a web page that can remedy this lack of information. Freddy Ogterop from the Cape Provincial Library is one of few who has been collecting these gems. Art galleries and Museums still have no policies towards the collection of such material.

A strange fact is that artists who work in this field often are practising artists in more traditional mediums (William Kentridge and his drawings) but there video work will often not be officially mentioned or exhibited. This probably has several reasons but the one that crops up time and again is the lack of equipment and resources as the presentation of such work is very costly. The professional rang of such equipment is prohibitive even on a rental basis. The experience of the past shows that the companies involved in the electronic goods market in South Africa have no or little interest in promoting such forms of expression. Many artists in the Seventies used Super 8 film to either document there performances or edit it into a work of art.

People such as George Tobias and in particular artists from the innovative group called Possessions Art in the early 1980's used the moving image ( Super 8)as form of expression. Many of these works are now missing and only faint memories exist of there content. (if you remember e-mail bobman@iafrica.com). Television studios and bigger media departments where the first to us Television technology. Malcolm Payne started using such bulky cameras in 1973 at the St Martins art school in London. In 1974 Malcolm Payne produced a work for the Association of arts Johannesburg. This piece consisted of a Close circuit Camera and monitor and was called " In geval van noot stamp ruit uit" This piece is also lost and might be recreated in the near future.

In 1978 Malcolm was working at Wits university in Johannesburg. Payne and the students did several video drawing projects where by they replayed images drawn in the Television studio in the lecture hall. These where in B+W and of low resolution. Non of these works seem to have servived Malcolm Payne's piece for CHANNEL is called "Ten cannons of stupidety"the first version and comprises video projection.
The 1980's heralded the growth of VHS machines in the average home thus it became ease to distribute works on tape. Artists started using Video cameras to carry the image. This was a new growth point dew to its relative in expense. On could always borrow a camera from someone, buy a R30.00 tape and use the Video recorder for a DIY edit situation.

The rough grainy and flickering image became so sought after that many music videos used this to convey hippnes to commercial music groups. MTV and Channel 4 co produced a popular Program called the Buzz ,the entire documentary was shot in a very rough and ready low Tec manner High 8 video. Morris La Mantias piece +_ 20 minutes produced in the early 1990 played the image through a Monitor and then re record his images several times directly from the television . Often he would paint directly onto the Television screen. This video cost him a few rand to make. He did not own the equipment. These DIY cultural cut ups became more and more accessible from the middle !980 with several alternative venues in Johannesburg showing this material.

The Black Sun Cabaret venue in Berea was such a venue were one could play ones VHS during intervals or in the early hours of the morning much to the irritation of the drunk patrons. There was a point where one was doing something constructive specially when the Nationalist Governments Publications board would ban your work. This was a sign of recognition , a stamp of approval. A highlight would be to watch the banned film De Voortrekkers during the interval of the banned Cabaret "Famous dead men" and then having it all interrupted by a police raid. Over zealous policemen chasing cabaret artists in drag through the venue was of course the highlight. Much of this VHS material from that period has also since been lost.

In the early nineties there was the Fig gallery cheekily known as the Famous international gallery. Fig's aim was to present a new way of looking and video art was just that. Initially started by Morris la Mantia and Wayne Barker and later joined by Robert Weinek ,it went on to show Conrad Welz's "Last attempt at Paradise" (www.mweb.co.za)in 1991. This was one of the earliest Video exhibitions in South Africa. Willy Saayman's Computer generated work was a also first.
In 1993 Barend de Wet (check the archives of artthrob and za@play)and Hofmeyer Skolz made a short video for 22 nd Sau Paulo Biennials exhibition to which Barend De Wet had been invited.

This was on of the first video installation pieces to be officially recognised and was nominated for a VITA (prestigious annual South African art competition now run/administered by the Sandton Art Gallery ). Not only was this a first but Barend in his everything is art frame of mind proceeded to urinated onto a dull South African Embassy Official.(sadly there was no camera present otherwise this could have been the funniest performances in the history of South Africa art ). It Took a few years pefor in significant development happened in the video art scene. The most notable event was the exhibition Scramble held in October 1996 at the Civiv Gallery.

This show was curated by Marc Edwards, Klive Kellner and Stephen Hobbs.( www.artthrob.co.za) It gave a new exposure to the video art medium and brought new innovative works to the for.( check www.artthrob.co.za for the Scramble story) . We hope that in 1999 CHANNEL will inspire a whole new audience to experiment with video art. Let the journey begin.