Talking Art with Cape Town’s Alastair Whitton

Tell us about your most recent work, ‘Pat­mos and the War at Sea’, ded­i­cated to your late brother, Ronald James Whitton.

The Pat­mos Project is an intensely lay­ered one that essen­tially con­sid­ers the way in which we see or rather fail to see par­al­lel worlds and land­scapes. The works also con­tem­plate processes of inter­pre­ta­tion and on one level are an attempt to make sense of language.

Over the years you’ve also pro­duced other inspir­ing art­works — Con­ver­sa­tions with Thomas, Fil­ter and oth­ers. Which ones have meant the most to you? Why?

Con­ver­sa­tions with Thomas and The Pat­mos Project remain those clos­est to my heart. Both were ‘made in the fire’ and their residue makes for memory.

You were one of four South Africans selected for the Pan African Pho­tog­ra­phy Bien­nale in Bamako, Mali in Novem­ber 2009. Tell us about these photographs.

Paris based cura­tor, Michket Krifa the artis­tic direc­tor of the 2009 bien­nale was in Johan­nes­burg in April and came across exam­ples from the Pat­mos Project at the 2nd Johan­nes­burg Art Fair. She selected 5 works for inclu­sion in the Pan African Exhi­bi­tion in Bamako which was curated to the theme of ‘Bor­ders’.

Together with David Krut you estab­lished David Krut Pub­lish­ing: Fine Art & Books, Cape Town in Jan­u­ary 2007 where you con­tinue to man­age and over­see all Cape Town based projects. Take us through your role and the types of projects you oversee?

On the book side I am respon­si­ble for all dis­tri­b­u­tion in the region. I also func­tion as the company’s edu­ca­tion offi­cer respon­si­ble for nur­tur­ing our rela­tion­ships within the sec­ondary school arena. With regards to the art, I am David Krut’s main rep­re­sen­ta­tive respon­si­ble for deal­ing with local and inter­na­tional collectors.

What do you love about liv­ing in Cape Town?

What’s not to like?! I have lived in a num­ber of places and have been for­tu­nate enough to visit var­i­ous cities around the world and can hon­estly say that Cape Town has to be one of the most beau­ti­ful and diverse.
Dis­like? That I don’t get to share it with good friends who are now dot­ted all over the globe (Actu­ally mostly in Oz)!

After attend­ing one of South Africa’s pre­mier board­ing schools, Michael­house, you went on to grad­u­ate with dis­tinc­tion from Natal Tech­nikon School of Fine Arts. What are your fond­est mem­o­ries of those years.

At Michaelhouse—good friends and rugby. At Natal Technikon—an incred­i­ble men­tor and friend in Mike McMeekan who encour­aged me and helped show me the way in which to walk.

In 1995 you had a three-month stay at the stu­dio of artist Mar­lene Dumas in Ams­ter­dam. What did you gain from your time there?

Being exposed to such a famous con­tem­po­rary artist was ini­tially daunt­ing but ulti­mately inspir­ing and her kind­ness and gen­eros­ity I will not for­get. We pro­duce very dif­fer­ent work and have con­trast­ing world views but I respect her. She hails from an obscure South African town but has gone on to forge a for­mi­da­ble inter­na­tional career and amongst other acco­lades has made her mark on his­tory for the high­est amount paid on auc­tion for a paint­ing by a female artist!

You returned to the coun­try of your birth in the 90’s to study at the Glas­gow School of Art as part of an inter­na­tional post grad­u­ate exchange pro­gramme ini­ti­ated by Roger Palmer and Jeremy Wafer. Tell us about this pro­gramme and your expe­ri­ences in Scotland.

This was an oppor­tu­nity that I had hav­ing won the Emma Smith Schol­ar­ship in 1994. I stud­ied on the MFA at GSA and my tutors were Roger Palmer and Sam Ains­ley. I had been trained at Natal Tech­nikon School of Art in a sculp­ture depart­ment well known for pro­duc­ing strong ‘mak­ers’ and found myself stretched and chal­lenged at GSA where the core was strongly con­cep­tual. So I guess that it had a bal­anc­ing effect on me. The thing that left the biggest mark on my mem­ory how­ever was our trav­els in the Scot­tish Highlands.

You’ve also lec­tured at the Chel­tenham Col­lege of Art and Design from 1997–1998 and lived in Lon­don until 2002. Tell us about your lec­tur­ing expe­ri­ence and what aspects you enjoyed about liv­ing in the UK?

For­tu­nately I had a great bunch of kids to teach. I did enjoy it, and at times have felt that I was per­haps self­ish in not pur­su­ing a path as an edu­ca­tor, espe­cially given the con­sid­er­able input I had received as a stu­dent myself. Any­way, hope­fully I am giv­ing some­thing back in other ways. As for liv­ing in the UK, mixed feelings—they were times of great joy in the birth of our two chil­dren and priv­i­lege hav­ing access to some of the great art of his­tory as well as the inter­na­tional con­tem­po­rary art scene in both Lon­don and other nearby Euro­pean cities. But they were also chal­leng­ing times; Lon­don fast becomes an unfor­giv­ing place when your cash flow is lim­ited. Also Lon­don is not a great place for bring­ing up chil­dren. We could live there again per­haps one day but not for now. We are where we’re meant to be right now.

Who has inspired you to keep your pas­sion for art alive?

My dear wife and good friends Mike McMeekan and Philip Barlow.

What advice would you give to young, aspir­ing artists, look­ing to make a liv­ing out of their artwork?

If you are going to go the Uni­ver­sity route, do your home work and find a school that is bal­anced in its pro­gram re. tech­ni­cal and con­cep­tual stud­ies. Work hard—tertiary edu­ca­tion is a priv­i­lege not a right. If you choose to go it alone i.e. self taught — make sure you famil­iar­ize your­self with the gal­leries in your city and find a way of con­nect­ing with the local art com­mu­nity. Art mak­ing can­not be sus­tained in a vac­uum. Ide­ally find your­self a suit­able men­tor. No mat­ter what route you opt for, get a job (where you are still able to con­tinue with art mak­ing between shifts), aside from the ben­e­fits of an income it will ground you in reality.

What’s hap­pen­ing on the art front in South Africa? Any major exhi­bi­tions com­ing up in 2010?

Although rel­a­tively small, the best of SA art is focussed, ambi­tious and world class. Big Dada Show cur­rently at the SA National Gallery with 2009 African Pho­tog­ra­phy Bien­nale to come after its Euro­pean tour. Also Ken­tridge at Krut—recent edi­tions coin­cid­ing with his show at MOMA, New York.

Where to next?

Where Christ leads.

Alas­tair Whit­ton can be con­tacted at:

David Krut Fine Arts and Pub­lish­ing
31 New­lands Avenue
New­lands, Cape Town, 7700, South Africa
(t) 021 685 0676
(e) alastair@davidkrut.com
(i) David Krut Projects