Shame Pamela

I've been meaning to review Richard Mason's latest solo exhibition 'Carbonage Light' at the AVA for some time now (3 Weeks to be exact). It's hasn't happened often this year (despite the multitude of offerings available) that I've walked out of an exhibition, dying to tell everyone that they are missing out if the don't go see it, then only to find myself going back time again to chuckle and give a mental 'up yours' to the various institutions and groups that Mason so irreverently critiques with a wit that is at once easy to digest and upon further investigation, complex and subtly layered.

I have found myself describing it in terms of similies such as: 'like walking into a Laugh It Off theme park'; or 'like Legoland for street artists'; but as much these come close to describing an aesthetic, Mason's content cannot be as conveniently negotiated. The impact of 3-dimensions perhaps, or maybe because it is situated in those holy of holies- the art gallery.

Fortunately for me (for anyone who knows me also knows that writing is my most loathed skill and this has already taken far longer than I generally enjoy sitting at a keyboard), Mason's work has attracted the attention of one of his subjects (in much the same vane as Justin Nurse Vs. SAB- we all know how that went). And so this exhibition is likely to attract better writers to weave their skills and direct a very satisfying exhibition into the ever-recurring anus of discourse.

I am glad.

If you're in Cape Town and have not yet gone to look, Carbonage Light will be up at the AVA until Wednesday.

All I can say to Pamela and her sons is that they have succeeded in being so predictable as to fortunately ensure decent advertising for a deserving artist

Ag Shame Pam (Hehehe, and this Plaque of Shame invokes - and I have to say it because its something that should not be forgotten so quickly- the great shame of Rhodes University and their Africa Media Matrix) Phthththththththt