JAMES WEBB

(Pic: “Ost” – sound installation, production still by James Webb - 2009)

James Webb returns to the KZNSA for a solo show of recent work.

James Webb (b. 1975, Kimberley) has been working on both large-scale installations in galleries and museums as well as unannounced interventions in public spaces since 2001. His work questions the nature of belief in our contemporary world, often using exoticism, displacement and humour to achieve these aims. He has participated in exhibitions including This Is Now 2, L’Appartment22 (Rabat); Delusions Of Grandeur,” Unit B (Texas), and the 9th Biennale d’Art Contemporain de Lyon.

Le Marché Oriental (2008, Cinema Space) documents a two-minute intervention inside Cape Town’s disused Oriental Plaza, an Apartheid-era shopping mall designed to control Indian trade. On the 4th day of Ramadan, 2008, Sheikh Mogamat Moerat of District Six’s Zeenatul Islam Majid mosque was invited to sing the Adhan (call to prayer) inside the empty remains of the building a few weeks prior to its demolition to make way for luxury apartments.

Le Marché Oriental was commissioned for the Jozi & The (M)Other City Project curated by Carine Zaayman in August 2008 at the Michaelis Gallery, Cape Town. The work has been exhibited on This Is Now, 2 curated by Cécile Bourne Farrell at L'appartement 22, Rabat in January 2009 and the 3rd Arts In Marrakech biennale curated by Abdellah Karroum, November 2009. The film won second place in the Documentary Filmmaker’s Association My Town competition at the 2009 Encounters Film Festival. The most recent showing of the work was on Webb’s solo show One day, all of this will be yours (January 2010) held at Blank Projects, Woodstock, a few blocks from the original site of the Oriental Plaza.

Ost (2009, Park Gallery, KZNSA) is an audio recording of Auferstanden aus Ruinen, the national anthem of the late-Deutsche Demokratische Republik, sung a cappella by a lifelong East German resident within the defunct studio hall of the former party radio station in Nalepastrasse, Berlin. Ost was commissioned for Berlin: L’effacement des traces, an exhibition curated by Sonia Combe and Thierry Dufrene for the BDIC Musée d'histoire contemporain in Paris in September 2009.

Both of these works use voice and religious/political song to activate once relevant but now obsolete spaces. Together the works probe the way society deals with its history and present through its relationship to architecture, belief and memorials.

Ost runs until May 2 at noon. The KZNSA Gallery is situated at 166 Bulwer Road, Glenwood, in Durban. More information on 031 277 1703, fax 031 201 8051 or cell 082 220 0368 or visit www.kznsagallery.co.za