MICHAEL STEVENSON Hill House De Smidt Street Green Point 8005 PO Box 616 Green Point 8051 Cape Town tel +27 (0)21 421 2575 fax +27 (0)21 421 2578 info@michaelstevenson.com www.michaelstevenson.com
Cover ‘Don’t stand me down’ (detail), 2006
15 February – 16 March 2007
These and following pages The Interview (a transcript), installation views, Michael Stevenson Gallery, 15 February 2007
Either you will go through this door or you will not go through. ... The door itself makes no promises. It is only a door. Adrienne Rich (b 1929), US poet, essayist and lesbian feminist. Prospective Immigrants Please Note, lines 1-3, 19-21 (1962)
‘The growing distance between us’, 2006
‘The smell of fear is thicker than you think’, 2007
‘The rival’, 2007
‘You say you know how we feel’, 2007
‘Memories don’t live like people do’, 2007
‘We forgot how life’s supposed to be’, 2007
‘I felt so vacant’, 2007
‘You’ll understand when I’m gone’, 2007
‘There’s nothing left to give’, 2007
‘Don’t stand me down’, 2006
‘The dirt is so hard to breathe’, 2006
‘Sometime, you will lose’, 2007
‘I can’t make you love me if you don’t’, 2007
‘The room is spinning and I can’t breathe’, 2007
‘They tell me I’m doing fine’, 2007
‘You’ve taken everything’, 2007
‘Your inner soul is what I own’, 2007
‘The fiery furnaces’, 2006
‘One day it will all make sense’, 2007
‘Life on the ropes’, 2006
‘I’ve decided my fate’, 2007
‘They forgot about us’, 2006
‘Funeral for a friend’, 2006
‘You’ll see that I will give my all’, 2007
‘You think I’m on your side’, 2006
‘I’m not going anywhere, this is home’, 2006
‘I should’ve cheated’, 2006
‘Either love me or leave me alone’, 2007
To be born in a new country one has to die in the motherland. Irina Mogilevskaya, Russian student. ‘Immigrating to the US’, student paper in an English Second Language class, Hunter College, 1995
All works are oil and acrylic on canvas, 183 x 133cm
Biography Born 1976. Lives in Cape Town Graduated from De Ateliers post-graduate art institute, Amsterdam, 2001
Australia, Argentina, Brazil and the USA 2004 Personal Affects: Power and poetics in contemporary South African art, Museum for African Art and Cathedral of St John the
Solo exhibitionS 2007 The Interview (a transcript), Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town 2005 Accented Living (a rough guide), Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town 2002 Bad for Your Health/Wrong Colour, Virtual Museum of Contemporary African Art 2001 The Realness, Galerie Tanya Rumpff, Haarlem, The Netherlands 2001 Hard Living (an ethnomethodological approach), De Ateliers, Amsterdam
Divine, New York 2004 Outvideo, Ekaterinburg, Russia 2003 Guess Who, Stedelijk Museum Zwolle, Zwolle, The Netherlands 2003 Afrika Hier en Nu, Centrum Beeldende Kust, Emmen, The Netherlands 2002 4th Biennale of the Pan-African Circle of Artists, Lagos, Nigeria 2002 Crossing Boundaries and Frontiers, Centre Soleil d’Afrique, Bamako, Mali 2002 Interactive Arts Festival.01, Kwang Fong Gallery, California Lutheran University, Los Angeles
2000 Maluka 2000, De Twee Wezen, Enkhuizen, The Netherlands
2000 (W)interface, Galerie Tanya Rumpff, Haarlem, The Netherlands
1998 The (unstoppable) rapist, Association for Visual Arts, Cape Town
2000 Portrait Africa, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
1997 Melanin Millennium, Mau-Mau Gallery, Cape Town
1999 Staking Claims, The Granary, Cape Town 1999 Project Conflux, Luxembourg, Cape Town and Paris
Selected group exhibitionS
1999 Postcards from South Africa, Axis Gallery, New York
2006 How to Live Together, São Paulo Bienal, Brazil
1999 Oos Wes Tuis Bes, Klein Karoo National Arts Festival, Oudtshoorn
2006 What Lies Beneath, Galerie Mikael Andersen,
1998 Childhood, UCT Irma Stern Museum, Cape Town
Copenhagen, Denmark
1998 !Xoe site-specific, Ibis Art Centre, Nieu-Bethesda
2006 Artists at Glenfiddich 06, Glenfiddich Distillery, Dufftown, Scotland 2006 Nie Meer, De Warande, Turnhout, Belgium
AwArdS
2006 New Painting, KZNSA Gallery, Durban; Unisa Gallery, Pretoria;
2004 Tollman Award for the Visual Arts
Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg 2006 De Grote Oversteek, Stedelijk Museum Zwolle, Zwolle, The Netherlands 2006 Personal Affects: Power and poetics in contemporary South African art, The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii 2006 Chimaera, Tenri Cultural Institute, New York
reSidencieS 2006 Glenfiddich Artist in Residence, Dufftown, Scotland 2005 Art Omi International Arts Centre, New York 1998 Thami Mnyele Foundation, Amsterdam 1997 Robben Island Museum, Cape Town
2005 d’Afrique, d’Asie, Ethan Cohen Fine Arts, New York 2005 [R][R][F] 2005--->XP, Hilchot Shehenim, Israeli Digital Art Lab, Holon, Israel; Images Festival, Toronto, Canada; BASICS Festival,
ArtiSt’S AcknowledgementS I would like to thank my family,
Salzburg, Austria
especially my wife Amina; my assistants (particularly Rolo, JP and Ricky);
2004 [R][R][F] 2004 --->XP, National Museum of Contemporary Art,
my album collaborators Gavin, Ameen and Hipe; and the ‘Fraternity of
Kalinderu MediaLab, Bucaresti, Romania; and venues in Norway,
Cape Streets’. Special thanks to Michael Stevenson and all the staff at
Thailand, Austria, Croatia, Italy, Germany, Cuba, Armenia,
the gallery.
Catalogue no 25 February 2007 Editor Sophie Perryer Design Gabrielle Guy Photography Kathy Skead Installation photographs Mario Todeschini Image repro Ray du Toit Printing Hansa Print, Cape Town
MICHAEL STEVENSON www.michaelstevenson.com