Words by Michael Pedersen
JRNL Art Editor Jonathan Freemantle is in Amsterdam this week for his solo exhibition ‘We Have Invented Nothing’, at the project space PUNT WG. Jonathan asked Edinburgh based poet Michael Pedersen to write an introduction to the work.
“Jonathan’s is a world where face value and gritty urban realism is at most a playful veil; a world where carousels and cultivations of the imagination take a firm precedence in documenting the sights and sounds around him…”
Interview by Jonathan Freemantle
Nico Krijno is a photographer and director living and working in Cape Town, South Africa. JRNL Art Editor Jonathan Freemantle spoke to him ahead of his solo exhibition at MUSEUM Gallery, a showcase of work from his forthcoming book ‘On How to Fill Those Gaps’.
Krijno: “I want to show the multiplicity of the nature of things. That things aren’t always so simple, and that there aren’t always clear and definitive answers. I don’t want to be trapped in one ‘style’ or stifled by genre, or focus on one thing and make that my life’s work. That will bore me, and will be a lie.”
Interview by Jonathan Freemantle
South African artist Daniel Levi has spent much of the past decade in London working on a variety of contemporary art projects, directing music videos for Interpol and Massive Attack among others. JRNL Art Editor Jonathan Freemantle spoke to him about being drawn home to paint, and the subsequent solo exhibition ‘When Nature Ends’, currently on show at Whatiftheworld Gallery.
Levi: “I try to keep things very simple and stay in the moment. I let distracting thought pass by like traffic until it disappears.”
interview by Jonathan Freemantle
Porky Hefer is an artist and designer who counts among his works the Coca-Cola ‘Crateman’ installation at the V&A Waterfront. He spoke about the need for art to be inclusive, prioritising concept over execution and his recent design calling for the release of political prisoner Ai Wei Wei.
“Ai Wei-Wei continually tries the impossible but in the execution shows how possible it all was. It’s a state of mind. You must be willing to push things into a new space rather than maintaining the current status quo.”
Interview by Unathi Mkonto
Paul Edmunds exhibited his latest collection, ‘Tone’, at the Michael Stevenson Gallery in Cape Town. JRNL Art intern Unathi Mkonto met him in his studio.
“There is wonderful phrase that I came across: “Accumulated gestures”. I think when people look at something with accumulated gestures, they have a bodily sense of time and concentration that went into it, whether it is a drawing or a three dimensional sculpture.”
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