Is there anybody out there?

I missed the opening as I'm generally not fond of scrumming for a styrofoam cup of cheap wine, and, in the days when I used to be ArtThrob Copy Editor, I was averse to running into people who owed me copy.


So I slipped into Whatiftheworld on Friday morning to see Rowan Smith's 'If You Get Far Enough Away You’ll Be On Your Way Back Home' http://www.whatiftheworld.com/now-showing/ . I wasn't surprised to be absolutely gob-smacked. Smith's work is mature beyond his years and he commands your attention in so many ways.

He might lapse into a little Barend de Wet-type brinksmanship with a work whose title I can't recall (googling 'Rowan Smith' is slightly more helpful than googling 'John Smith') which features a 1969 newspaper and the results of some forensic work, but the slightly unruly herd of old radios playing their monotonous symphony of background radiation is absolutely stunning.


It evokes the Boys' Annual-type excitement of post-War technology as much as it functions as a synecdoche for the unfathomable vacuum of space in which our galaxy finds itself suspended.



Oh, and did I mention Smith's hands? I confess to some jealousy here and a small amount of embarassment at having hired him to help me with some of my work a couple of years ago.
Which brings us back to me and what I'm doing here.


Your editor asked if I would fill some space here in the weeks leading up to my show at Michael Stevenson http://www.michaelstevenson.com/contemporary/exhibitions/edmunds/index2009.htm


I know his devious ways and I suspect he's looking for Storm und Drang or at least some snot en trane but I shan't entertain him. Although if I had have been able to operate this blog before yesterday that might have been a different story. To wit, a small teasing picture of something that's giving me a bit of shit at the moment:








There's more about my work on my own site: http://www.pauledmunds.co.za/