(Heidi
Brauer (Hollard), Savannah Feeke (BASA) & Ralph Borland (African Robots).)
Business and Arts South Africa NPC (BASA) champions
business investment within the arts.
According to Christina Kennedy, “The annual
BASA Awards fill a vital gap in the South African awards landscape."
Kennedy, a respected arts and culture journalist and commentator, is one of the
adjudicators for the 22nd Annual BASA Awards, partnered by Hollard.
Says Heidi Brauer, Chief Marketing Officer
for Hollard, "The era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is here
and it is already making an impact on every part of life as we know it. This
exciting development demands of us, as individuals, organisations and
countries, to crystallise and unpack revolutionary thinking. This backdrop sets
the scene for this year’s BASA awards, aptly themed ‘Algo-rhythm’. Of course,
this is a beautiful play on the notions of algorithms, which are indicative of
the burgeoning 4IR age."
Working with this theme, Ralph Borland has
been commissioned to design and produce the winners’ trophies for this year's
Awards. Borland is a South African artist, curator and interdisciplinary
knowledge worker, who teases out issues of power, activism, and social
engagement via designed objects. "We are extremely excited by Ralph's
work," says BASA Head of Marketing, Savannah Feeke. "Earlier this
year we supported his residency at the Arts and Creative Technology Centre in
Gwangju, South Korea. At the same time we started workshopping the theme for
this year's awards with our partner Hollard, and we soon realised that Ralph's
work was a perfect fit for the direction our conversation with Hollard was
taking."
Commenting on the theme and his design
process for the BASA Awards project, Borland draws the connection between
algorithms and pattern, especially complex patterns found in nature, which are
produced by algorithmic processes. "From the distribution of seeds on a
sunflower, or the shape of a seashell, or the fur of an animal. These are the
result of ‘complexity’: natural processes acting in similar ways to computer
code," he explains.
"You also find pattern in craft, such
as weaving or beading, produced through an algorithmic process – a formula that
creates a pattern (the late ethno-mathematician Paulo Gerdes in Mozambique
wrote about these). Wire artists use mathematical approaches, such as topology,
in making a single piece of wire become a three-dimensional shape. We use
‘code’ in our projects at African Robots, in the computer code with which we
programme microchips to create movement, light and sound in our artwork."
African Robots has produced some compelling
insect automatons based on local creatures, and Borland decided that the
beloved Southern African flightless tok-tokkie beetle would be an ideal
expression of the ‘Algo-Rhythms’ theme of the Awards. His Tok-Tokkie automaton
BASA Awards trophy is a wire-and-3D-printed beetle with eyes that light up, and
which taps on a found-object base. "As you see the trophies displayed
together, notice how they produce an overall complexity in their behaviour,
which echoes the Awards’ theme of algorithmic processes echoing natural
processes," says Borland.
Borland studied Fine Art, majoring in
Sculpture and English, at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, at the University
of Cape Town (UCT). His final-year work, a large-scale sculptural and sound
installation, titled Transwerk (1997)
(after the train yards at which they were exhibited), was awarded a distinction
and won the class medal for Sculpture. He studied the creative use of
electronics for his Master’s degree, in the Interactive Telecommunications
Program at New York University. His thesis work, Suited for Subversion (2002), a protective performance suit-for-street
protest, was selected for the exhibition, Safe,
at the New York Museum of Modern Art in 2005, and later acquired for its
permanent collection. His current projects, ‘African Robots’ and ‘SPACECRAFT’,
have been funded by Pro Helvetia, British Council, the Department of Arts and
Culture (DAC) the National Arts Council (NAC) of South Africa and Business and
Arts South Africa NPC (BASA).
The 27 finalists for the 2019 BASA Awards
have been announced in the October issue of Creative Feel magazine
(www.creativefeel.co.za) and the winners will be announced at event to be held
later this month at Beechwood Gardens, the classic three-and-a-half acre
Johannesburg garden, laid out in 1945 by legendary landscape architect Joane
Pym.
For more information visit
http://www.basa.co.za
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