In 2009 Anthea Moys won the Braitt Everard Read award. Included in this award was the publication of a catalogue. The introductory essay is by Penny Siopis and is a great introduction to the artists' work.
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In Gautrain Series: Tunnel Shout I shout greetings down a large pipe which leads into the depths of the earth to where the construction workers are building the future. Even if it is only my own voice that echoes back to me, I enjoyed the attempt to make a connection with the unknown.
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Nessun Dorma (None Shall Sleep Tonight)
Joubert Park in front of Johannesburg Art Gallery, Jo-hannesburg, 2008.
Two-hour performance with opera singers Rheinald Moagi and Khotso Tsekeletsa and four CSS Tactical Security Guards
PHOTOGRAPHER: CHRIS SAUNDERS
The performance was repeated and the prints exhibited at the Dray Walk Gallery in London in November 2008.
In recent years, the parks and avenues surrounding the
Johannesburg Art Gallery in Joubert Parks have become
crowded taxi ranks and hawkers’ markets during the
day and no-go areas at night. In the Nessun Dorma
performance, I relocated my bed to the rose gardens
in Joubert Park. Guarded by four CSS Tactical Security
guards, and serenaded by two opera singers performing
Puccini’s aria Nessun Dorma, I fall asleep in a familiar
state of mind to South Africans – relaxed but forever
on guard.
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Sleeping Around (Newtown vs the North)
Newtown, May 2009
Sleeping Around (Alex vs Sandton)
Alexandria, May 2009
PHOTOGRAPHER: CHRIS SAUNDERS
These two images are part of a planned series of
performances entitled Sleeping Around that stem from
my Nessun Dorma performance at the Johannesburg Art
Gallery. In both of these performances, I am re-enacting
my bedtime routine in unfamiliar territory. The locations
are symbolic of the manufactured divisions that exist in
South Africa between safe and unsafe spaces: the safety
of the northern suburbs starkly juxtaposed against the
perceived danger of the inner city and the township.
Security guards stand watch over my body in an
enactment of safety, and a reminder that the very idea
of safety in South Africa is itself a performance.
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Playing with Pirates
Pirates Rugby Club, Parkhurst, June 2009
Two-hour collaborative performance with Junior Pirates Rugby Team
PHOTOGRAPHER: JOHN HODGEKISS
In Playing with Pirates I worked with the Pirates Junior
Rugby team. In this performance I played the role of the
ball. Throwing oneself into unfamiliar territory always
involves risk. It asks of both performer and participant
to engage in a shared space of play. For modern humans,
this is a risky proposition, for there are no winners or
losers in my rugby game. The outcome is the experience.
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I would like to extend my greatest thanks and wondrous appreciation to the following people for going out of their way in helping to bring my often quite unbelievable and hard-to-fathom ideas into reality. Thank you for playing with me.
George K Khosi and all the boxers I worked with at the K Khosi Boxing Gym in Claim Street, Hillbrow.
Jackon Mamashela at the Braamfontein Gautrain construction site.
Johan Bothma, Martin Scheepers, Non Welsford and the Junior Pirates Rugby team: U19 and U21.
The CSS Tactical team – specifically the guards who watched over me while I slept and Rheinald Moagi and Khotso Tsekeletsa for singing Puccinni’s aria Nessun Dorma so beautifully
I would like to thank the following photographers, videographers and printers for their ongoing support – for giving me their precious time and making the intangible tangible so that this ephemeral art can live on in solid form and in this way live on through others …
Chris SaundersAlastair MclachlanJohn HodgekissAdriano Giulio GiovanelliBenji MagowenAlexis FotiadisAmichai Tahor
I would also like to extend my thanks to the following people who have always supported me in my risky adventures and who have been there
literally for all the ups as well as the downs.
My family: Denise, Michael and Joshua Moys and Priscilla Scott as well as my extended family.
My love: Gwyd.
My fellow players and friends: Nicola van Der Linde, Lester Adams, Robyn de Klerk, Caitlin Judge, Gia Thom, Bronwyn Lace, Amy Watson, Rob Peers, Murray Kruger and the Wits players, Nadine Hutton, Murray and Lucy Turpin, Donovan Pugh, James Happe, Toni Morkel and Kai Lossgott.
I would also like to thank the following people for their continuous support in my studies and artistic endeavours over the years:
Dorothee Kreutzfeldt, Joseph Gaylard, Lesley Purkiss, Anthea Buys, Leora Farber, Sue Williamson, David Andrew, Kathryn Smith, Jeremy Wafer and all at The Trinity Session.
I would also like to extend special thanks to Penny Siopis, a great mentor and friend, for your guidance.
Thank you to the Everard Read Gallery and the Brait Foundation for taking a risk and giving me this amazing opportunity. And grand applause to all at the Wits School of the Arts – you have been my inspiration!
Finally, I would like to acknowledge the contribution made by all of the extraordinary people who have collaborated with me over the years – the boxers, grannies, rugby players, opera singers, security guards, trolley-men, stockbrokers, construction workers, bell-ringers, snow-swimmers
and cyclists. All have welcomed me into their homes, their workplaces and their playgrounds. My performances have been facilitated purely through the generosity of strangers like these who have found themselves approached out of the blue by a short girl with a tall story and, to my surprise and continuing delight, have agreed to play. These works belong as much to all of my collaborators as they do to me.
www.antheamoys.co.za
This exhibition catalogue is published in conjunction