thoughts and memoirs from a dimly-lit room

Creative Week Cape Town is finally here! This week designers, artists and generally anyone who is remotely interested or involved in the creative industry will be showing their faces at various events happening all over the city. Last night, I attended an event held at the old Bijou Theatre in Observatory, Cape Town. The event was made up of an art exhibition, live bands and an indoor marketplace that seemed to specialise in selling vintage, second-hand clothes. However, one thing that I realised whilst absentmindedly strolling through the exhibition, was that some of the artworks on show seemed so overpriced! – even by general art standards.

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Artwork by Norman O’Flynn on show at the Bijou Theatre in Observatory. Selling price: R18 000.

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Now, maybe I’ve been living under a rock without realising it, but I thought we were moving away from the whole ‘putting-a-dot-on-a-page-and-charging-exorbitant-prices-for-it’ vibe. I mean, one of the artists was selling a series of simple, circular, medium size photographs of various foods like macaroni and chocolate fudge for R800…each! I’m sure there was some great introspective mumbo jumbo motivation behind this minimalistic ‘art’ series, but really! Let’s not get crazy.

I’m also aware that ‘expensive’ is a relative term and is interpreted differently depending on an individual’s bank balance, so if the price seems suitable to you then by all means, go for it. I just feel like sometimes the integrity and passion of artwork is lost by putting ridiculous prices on pieces that are clearly not worth that much.

For instance, I like the impact of Norman O’Flynn’s artwork pictured above, but is it really worth that much? Maybe or maybe not…but it sure beats an R800 photo of macaroni.

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Lights out till next time.

Kris513 (”,)

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*Some parts of this post were originally published on www.hy-se-sy-se.com