Launch of ‘Once Removed’ by David Mann (Wednesday)
David Mann’s ‘Once Removed’ is a collection of 13 subtly interlinked stories inspired by the South African art world
Image: Supplied
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Written by the Johannesburg-based editor and arts writer, David Mann, Once Removed is a collection of 13 subtly interlinked stories inspired by the South African art world. With its unique views into high-end galleries, crumbling museums, immanent art fairs and out-of-work critics, the collection explores the idea of having one’s life changed, in ways both profound and banal, through novel encounters with art and performance.
The stories in Once Removed traverse the galleries, museums, artist studios and archives that characterise the contemporary art world. But they also zero in on the homes, private lives, daily journeys and emotional interiorities of artists, art-lovers and those whose lives have been changed in ways both profound and banal, through novel encounters with a work of art. While the stories in Once Removed draw from the undercurrents of the South African art world, their concerns and evocations are not limited to it.
Part wry realism, part experimental surrealism, these stories will matter differently, but equally significantly, to those inside and outside the world they evoke and inhabit.
In ‘Resistance’, a jaded critic blurs the line between art and life, while ‘Rain’ provides an intimate portrait of a parent and child relationship, and the burden of care. ‘Common Ground’ and ‘Meaningful Contributions’ expose the fissures in contemporary art collectives, ‘The Burning Museum’ looks at government interference in the arts and journalism — both in a state of crisis — and the stories ‘The Park’, ‘Nothing to be Done’ and ‘Settled’ look at skewed relationships of power in ways both humorous and incisive. ‘Burden’, ‘The Real Deal’ and ‘Once Removed’ all grapple with the book’s central notion of art changing one’s life. Lastly, ‘Provenance’ and ‘A Record’ make use of the language and the qualities of contemporary arts criticism, research and reportage to better make sense of the ways in which we go about chronicling and archiving the world around us.
EVENT DETAILS:
- Date: Wednesday, June 5 (5.30pm for 6pm)
- Venue: Love Books, 53 Rustenburg Rd, Melville
- RSVP: kate@lovebooks.co.za
Article provided by Botsotso Publishing