Charly D'Almeida and Edgar Allan Poe

L'Oracle by Charly D'Almeida France/Benin


I feel this painting by Charly D'Almeida works excellently with the poem, The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe. Charly is originally from the Republic of Benin, the centre of African voodoo and this aspect of mysticism is central to Charly's early works.

If you would like this poem read to you then hear this poetry on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FID1CiB4bcU otherwise read below.

The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
[First published in 1845]

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
`'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door -
Only this, and nothing more.'

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore -
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore -
Nameless here for evermore.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me - filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating
`'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door -
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door; -
This it is, and nothing more,'

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
`Sir,' said I, `or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you' - here I opened wide the door; -
Darkness there, and nothing more.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before
But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, `Lenore!'
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, `Lenore!'
Merely this and nothing more.

Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.
`Surely,' said I, `surely that is something at my window lattice;
Let me see then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore -
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; -
'Tis the wind and nothing more!'

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore.
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door -
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door -
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
`Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,' I said, `art sure no craven.
Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the nightly shore -
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaning - little relevancy bore;
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door -
Bird or beast above the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
With such name as `Nevermore.'

But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only,
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing further then he uttered - not a feather then he fluttered -
Till I scarcely more than muttered `Other friends have flown before -
On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.'
Then the bird said, `Nevermore.'

Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
`Doubtless,' said I, `what it utters is its only stock and store,
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful disaster
Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore -
Till the dirges of his hope that melancholy burden bore
Of "Never-nevermore."'

But the raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird and bust and door;
Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore -
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore
Meant in croaking `Nevermore.'

This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing
To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core;
This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining
On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o'er,
But whose velvet violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o'er,
She shall press, ah, nevermore!

Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer
Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.
`Wretch,' I cried, `thy God hath lent thee - by these angels he has sent thee
Respite - respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore!
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

`Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil! -
Whether tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted -
On this home by horror haunted - tell me truly, I implore -
Is there - is there balm in Gilead? - tell me - tell me, I implore!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

`Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil!
By that Heaven that bends above us - by that God we both adore -
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels named Lenore -
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden, whom the angels named Lenore?'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

`Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!' I shrieked upstarting -
`Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken! - quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted - nevermore!

The October Gallery

What an amazing evening last night? I met Chris Spring from the British Museum, Elisabeth of the October Gallery and Yinka Shonibare MBE.

Yinka has such kind eyes and thick dreadlocks. I stood in front of him, nervous and not knowing what to say....beside him was a beautiful woman who cared for him so compassionately, they looked the best of friends. He wore a fashionable blue pinstriped suit and calmly walked around the gallery whispering to his partner. I wanted to say so much but ended up talking rubbish. There must have been about 1,000 people there last night. The actor from Holby City who plays the doctor opened the show with a speech about Ghana and his childhood.

Being in the crowd I was taken aback about how gentle, generous and attractive everybody looked. The room was filled with a mixed bag, some black some white, some old some young but we were all there to support the idea of contemporary Africa. This was a little gathering of those that wanted to see some form of change in society; a tiny pocket in London just around the corner from Holborn tube.
There I stood amongst them all uncomfortably umming and rrring. Wish you could have seen me. Over the coming weeks I would like to introduce the artists that Elisabeth and Chris have chosen to represent the continent of Africa but as for now just take a trip to the October Gallery and see for yourself.

Angaza Afrika

Artist Educator led creative workshops for Early Years to KS3
May 19th – June 30th

This exhibition brings together major works by 12 artists who best represent the innovative and dynamic artistic practices across the African continent and the African diaspora and launches Chris Spring’s book, Angaza Afrika ( translated from the Swahili to mean ‘Shed light on Africa’ or ‘Look around Africa’), published by Laurence King. Amongst others, the exhibition will include works by Romuald Hazoumé, El Anatsui, Rachid Koraïchi and Owusu-Ankomah.

Our creative artist-led workshops will be a unique opportunity for pupils to explore the diversity of Africa and challenge ideas of what ‘African art’ is. By discovering a variety of mediums and materials, which fuse traditional and contemporary artistic practices, pupils will create their own responses, whilst investigating issues of culture, identity and stereotypes.

Workshops take place at the gallery from 10.00am—12.00pm at a cost of £70 per group, or £180 for schools booking three classes.



FREE Seminar with Romuald Hazoumé and Chris Spring
Friday 16th May, 4pm – 6pm

Creative professional development for teachers: Art and Global Citizenship

This seminar is part of a three year collaboration with RISC that aims to create online teachers’ resources for key October Gallery artists. Each term, a free seminar for teachers held at the October Gallery will explore the background of one artist, with ideas for ways to lead classroom work linking the art with Global Citizenship.

Speakers include; Romuald Hazoumé, one of Africa 's leading visual artists and Chris Spring, author of Angaza Afrika and curator of the African Galleries at The British Museum.

This seminar is FREE but places must be booked.
It will take place at the October Gallery. There is a maximum of 25 spaces. Funded by LaSER/GD

For further information and booking your workshop or seminar

Please contact Elizabeth Fraser-Betts, Education Officer, for more details of workshops, to make a booking, or to discuss how the sessions can support and enrich learning through the National Curriculum.

Tel: 020 7242 7367 (Mondays - Thursdays)

email: education@octobergallery.co.uk

The Africa in Motion Film Festival | AiM

The Africa in Motion film festival(AiM)










PRESS RELEASE – April 2007

Africa in Motion festival launches new short film competition for emerging African filmmakers across the continent

The Africa in Motion film festival (AiM), which takes place annually in October at Edinburgh Filmhouse, is officially inviting African filmmakers to submit short films for a new AiM competition. In order to target the competition specifically towards young and emerging African talent, filmmakers who enter a film for consideration must not have completed a feature-length film previously. Films entered must have been completed in 2005 or after, and must be no longer than 30 minutes.

The competition winner will be selected from a shortlist of films and will be announced at an awards ceremony at the third successive Africa in Motion festival in October 2008. The winner will have the opportunity for their film to be screened at AiM 2008 as well as the chance to win a significant cash prize. A selection of other short films specially commended by our competition jury will also be screened as part of a short film showcase at AiM 2008.

The AiM 2008 Short Film Competition will be judged by a jury panel consisting of local film specialists and established African filmmakers; still to be confirmed.

The deadline for competition submissions is 31 May 2008, and following from this a shortlist of films will be selected by an AiM viewing committee. The shortlist will be announced in July 2008. These films will then be viewed by all jury panel members, who will make a collective decision as to the prizewinners, based on a point scoring system that will take into account the relative merits of each of the shortlisted films.

Please see www.africa-in-motion.org.uk/call.html for full submission guidelines and to download an entry form. For any further enquiries, please contact AiM festival director Lizelle Bisschoff at: submissions@africa-in-motion.org.uk.

The Art of Selling Art | South Africa

Source: Mail & Guardian South Africa | http://www.chico.mweb.co.za/art/2008/2008mar/080307-artfair.html
Image: The Jo’burg Art Fair’s Ross Douglas. (Photo: Lisa Skinner)






The Art of Selling Art

Anthea Buys speaks to Ross Douglas about the commercial possibilities of the country’s first art fair

It is not uncommon to find contemporary South African artists and critics who are still suspicious of the infiltration of money into the local art scene. Perhaps this is why it has taken the initiative of entrepreneur Ross Douglas, who lacks purist artistic commitments, to realise an event such as the Jo'burg Art Fair, a local art-buying initiative at the Sandton Convention Centre for three days next week.

Douglas is the producer of the first-ever Jo'burg Art Fair, which also claims the accolade of being the first entirely privately funded art-buying fair on the African continent. The fair will take place from March 14 to 16, but will be cushioned by a programme of non-commercial events throughout Johannesburg in the week leading up to it.

Artlogic, the arts production company of which Douglas is director, has cleverly marketed this as Jo'burg Art Week, attracting the support of the likes of Spier Contemporary, which opens at the Johannesburg Art Gallery on March 15, the Marlene Dumas exhibition at the Standard Bank Gallery, as well as less prolific galleries and individual artists who want to piggyback on the art-fair hype.

Douglas says: "We've managed to package an extraordinarily high-end and internationally acclaimed week with not many resources … I think it will be quite extraordinary to have this sort of thing happening in Jo'burg for the first time, this sort of level of quality events."

Douglas began his foray into art events production in 2004, when he orchestrated the wildly successful screening of William Kentridge's 9 Films in Central Park, New York. This same production, boasting a live ensemble to play Phillip Miller's soundtrack, will be foremost of the art-week itinerary, showing at the Linder Auditorium on March 14. Douglas is also credited with co-producing Willem Boshoff's installation Garden of Words III at the Kirstenbosch Gardens in 2006, and most famously, with getting the South African run of Kentridge's The Magic Flute off the ground last year.

The primary aim of the art fair, Douglas says, is to create "a sustainable annual art event that year by year builds up to becoming part of everybody's diaries -- becomes a milestone in your year, something that you do: Jo'burg Art Fair, Jo'burg Art Week, you're there, you're meeting people, you see art, you buy art … Our intention is not to change the nature of existing cultural events but rather to add a new one to the calendar."

The nature of the event is remorselessly commercial, and Douglas is optimistic about the commoditisation of South African art. "You know, we don't actually realise how well African contemporary art does … the Jo'burg Art Fair has a really important place. It's the only art fair in Africa, it's the only art fair that focuses on African contemporary art. We are commercial. We have every intention of making a profit out of this."

The launch of the fair is not without controversy, however. A great fracas is bubbling between those who see the event as a cattle market and those who expect it, as Douglas does, to fuel a shift in the South African public from being art viewers to art buyers.

A common misconception from detractors is that the art fair is intended as a replacement for the Johannesburg Biennale, which never quite got to round two in 1997 after the withdrawal of state funds.

Douglas objects: "This is not an either/or for us. Ideally what you want is a strong state institution. You want biennales. You want state-sponsored institutions such as Tate Modern or Moma. We're not trying to say we are the alternative to a biennale. We're not trying to say biennales are rubbish things, they don't work, and the art fair is the alternative. We're saying there is space for both models."

Although the majority of serious sales by South African galleries tend to go to overseas buyers, Douglas hopes the art fair will encourage the local art-viewing public to whip out their wallets. "If we could reverse that trend and get about a 50-50 mix [of local and international buyers], I think it would be quite exciting," he says. "I think it's such an important thing in South Africa to show that you can do things on a world-class level."

Simon Njami | As You Like it | South Africa

Source | Mail & Guardian Online | http://www.chico.mweb.co.za/art/2008/2008mar/080314-njami.html

As Njami Likes It

Simon Njami on the show he has curated for the Jo'burg Art Fair and why he has called it As You Like It

In an interview, the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat responded to a critic who tried to ascribe his interpretation to one of his own canvases. He said: "As you like it."

Basquiat's answer is charged with irony. He uttered it at a time when his career had impressively shot up. He had left the New York subway, the walls of which bore his signature, having been invited, along with two other very young artists, to Documenta in Kassel, Germany, where his work was very successfully received. In New York, he became the new idol.

At the time when he spoke these words he had moved beyond the phase of empathetically wanting to impose his own interpretation as the only possible one. Even better, he understood how the art world worked and set himself apart through his personality and character. Thus he erected an insurmountable wall between himself, his work and his commentary on it. The work no longer belonged to him. It entered into the public domain and, from that point onward, everyone could add their two cents' worth. Not that Basquiat considered the specialists' opinion an absolute truth.

But, because of the way in which the art world is organised, the specialist's opinion, according to his or her influence, will be decisive in the manner in which the artwork's arrival in the public domain will proceed. If the critic is influential, the work will inevitably attract the interest of a gallery or a dealer, as well as institutions, whose role it is to endorse the aesthetics and seize the opportunity so as not to be left behind. There is, therefore, an objective collusion between the various players, even if some deny it.

We simply have to face the fact that it has become difficult to draw a clear divide between the dealers and art historians or critics, seeing that some dealers display the qualities often ascribed to critics.

It is the complicated analysis of these sometimes incestuous relationships that exist between the market and art production that governs the design of the exhibition, As You Like It.

Obviously, we do not use this expression ironically in the same way as Basquiat used it. Here we are rather dealing with Shakespeare and the concept of freedom. This freedom means that all markets are regulated by the law of supply and demand. The market is the specific space in which the customer is king. The galleries, which operate like supermarket shelves, offer products that the "customer-king" is free to buy, or to ignore. The customer suddenly becomes the main character of this new scenario and both the artist and the gallerist are reduced to playing a secondary role.

For the Jo'burg Art Fair we have aimed to pervert this well-established system by throwing in a contradictory element: the exhibition. As You Like It is a journey on the other side of the mirror. Its purpose is to initiate an open dialogue between the two extremes of the art world: the producer and the buyer.

THE DETAILS
The Jo’burg Art Fair takes place at the Sandton Convention Centre from March 14 to 16 and includes commercial shows and the curated exhibition As You Like It. There will be a programme of discussions on March 15 at the Alexander Theatre in Braamfontein about the African art market and the impact of art fairs on cities. The extract by Simon Njami was taken from the art fair catalogue. On March 15 there will be a party at the old JSE building in Newtown. More on www.joburgartfair.co.za

This story was commissioned by Art Logic for the Jo'burg Art Fair

Mail & Guardian Online | South Africa

Jo'burg Art Fair Stirs Up Debate

Celean Jacobson | Johannesburg, South Africa


14 March 2008 04:04

The first fair in Africa to focus on selling contemporary African art offers plenty of work reflecting the continent's war, disease and poverty: sculptures of guns with spikes; dark, bloody etchings; installations on the dangers of unprotected sex.

Masks, fetishes and the odd protest poster from South Africa's resistance art movement also are on display. But so is art with more universal themes, such as a wistful sculpture of mother and child. Other work is irreverent, pop and cheeky.

The kaleidoscope of images and themes is a fitting backdrop for the debate the Jo'burg Art Fair has sparked about what it means to be African and an artist. The fair also has the art world buzzing about tensions between art and commerce.

"Whatever we call African art, I think the African artist exists," said Simon Njami, a Cameroon-born, Paris-based curator who spoke at Thursday's reception, the night before the fair opened to the public. "To be an African ... means to see the world from a specific point of view, which doesn't mean we don't look at our world or only look at our neighbourhood."

The Jo'burg Art Fair, in the city's wealthy financial and shopping district of Sandton, brings together 22 major galleries from Europe, the United States and Africa showcasing works on sale from R1 000 to R5,92-million.

There is work by some of South Africa's top artists such as William Kentridge, photographer David Goldblatt and Gerard Sekoto, regarded as one of the fathers of African modernist painting.

The rest of the continent is well represented with Ghanian Owusu-Ankomah, Beninese artist Romuald Hazoume and Nigerian Otobong Nkanga.

From Cameroon and based in Paris and Brussels, photographer Bili Bidjocka prefers to be seen as an "international" artist. "I am an African, without any doubt, but I am also a contemporary artist and I have no difficulties with this," he said.

The fair is something of a homecoming for Cape Town artist Robin Rhode. Since leaving for Berlin in 2003, Rhode has had huge success with his hip, athletic performances and photographic work. Represented by the New York Perry Rubenstein Gallery, Rhode is a special guest artist at the fair.

"I consider myself an artist of the world," he says. "The labels will continue to exist. But let the art question the validity of that. Then art is not about geography, then the art becomes of the world."

Claude Simard, from New York's Jack Shainman Gallery, said African artists "are rooted to Africa through issues such as race, politics, poverty and social issues". He points to South Africa's Zwelethu Mthethwa's striking portraits of African migrant workers.

Interest in Africa
There's no doubt African art -- however you define it -- is hot. An African Pavilion set up at the Venice Biennial for the first time last year grabbed headlines, not least for reports of collections being funded by blood diamonds.

"In America there is also a renewed interest in African art," said Durban-based curator Carol Brown, who consulted on the fair. She said "the Big Five" draw the most interest -- Kentridge, sculptor El Anatsui from Ghana, British stars Chris Ofili and Yinka Shonibare of Nigerian families, and Kenyan potter Magdalene Odundo.

South African-born Marlene Dumas is the most expensive living female artist after a painting sold in London for $3,34-million. Based in Amsterdam, Dumas is holding her first solo show in her native country at another Johannesburg gallery.

Two years ago, London auction house Bonhams hosted its first sale focusing on South African art. Old masters, like Jacob Hendrik Pierneef, are back in vogue now after being cast put aside for their associations with the apartheid past. Prices fetched for works by expressionist Irma Stern and Maggie Laubscher have also hit record levels locally and internationally.

South Africa, buoyed by nearly a decade of economic growth, has seen an increase in the number of wealthy individuals looking to spend money on art and new galleries have opened across the country.

But the South African art-buying public remains small -- and still almost exclusively white.

With post-apartheid South Africa grappling with high unemployment and mass poverty, the handful of public galleries barely have budgets to buy emerging artists' works, let alone South African artists fetching record prices on the international market.

Exhibitions
Africans rarely even get a chance to see, let alone buy, contemporary art of the continent. Major international exhibitions of contemporary African art rarely come to Africa. Njami's acclaimed Africa Remix, which showed in Johannesburg last year after a world tour, is an exception.

Njami wants there to be more contemporary museums in Africa, more African critics and more involvement in setting the price for the continent's artworks. "I think it is important for Africa to create its own value and an art fair is very instrumental in that," he says.

He is mindful, though that the fair is also a test of the market and that "what the galleries are showing is what they expect to sell".

Critic Anthea Buys wrote in the Mail & Guardian of what she saw as the "remorselessly" commercial nature of the fair. That sense has left many artists and critics, already suspicious about exploitative dealers, feeling uncomfortable.

"Sceptic" read one of the badges being handed out at the opening night by a top Johannesburg gallery -- along with "Collector" and "Artist".

"There is a lot of unease about the interaction between art and money," said Sean O'Toole, editor of Art South Africa. In a recent article he described art dealers as drunk on champagne and "self-congratulatory".

Ending his speech on Thursday, Njami urged the well-heeled crowd of art aficionados to buy the works -- before they got too expensive, he joked.

"I think it is our responsibility to the future to make sure African creations remain in Africa -- or at least some evidence of it," he said, more seriously.

It's not yet clear whether Njami's call will be heeded out of altruism or in the pursuit of good investment returns. But by the end of the evening, there were quite a few red "Sold" stickers on the walls. -- Sapa-AP