Press Release: Kendell Geers

08.15.98

THE INTERNATIONAL ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE PROGRAM

New Works: 98.3

Kendell Geers, JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA,

Bill Lundberg, AUSTIN, TX

Diana Thater, LOS ANGELES, CA

Exhibition: September 10, 1998 ?tober 11, 1998

The International Artist-in-Residence Program, sponsored by ArtPace, A Foundation
for Contemporary Art | San Antonio presents New Works: 98.3, a series of
media-based installations by artists living and working at ArtPace. Kendell Geers, Bill
Lundberg and Diana Thater were selected by Susanne Ghez, Curator of the Renaissance
Society at the University of Chicago. Work produced by the artists during their eight-
week residency will open to the public on Thursday, September 10 at 6:30 PM. An artist
dialogue with Chrissie Iles, Curator of Film and Video at the Whitney Museum of
American Art, New York, will take place on Friday, September 11 at 6:30 PM.

Kendell Geers

Kendell Geers was born in May, 1968 and lives and works in Johannesburg, South
Africa. Geers studied at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg before going
on to exhibit his work internationally. His work has been shown in a variety of spaces,
including commissions at Fort Klapperkop, Pretoria; de Vleeshal, Middleburg, Holland;
the Market Theatre Galleries, Johannesburg; and de Appel, Amsterdam. Geers has also
taken part in a number of group exhibitions including the 1993 and 1995 Venice
Biennales and the 1995 and 1997 Johannesburg Biennales. Following his
residency at ArtPace, Geers will exhibit at the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard
College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York and will participate in the XXIV Sao
Paulo Bienal. A full catalogue of the artists' work can be viewed on his web site,
http://www.icon.co.za/~kendell. This is Geers' first one-person exhibition in the U.S.

Geers' installation and action-oriented work draws from the artists' experience as a
political activist and cultural critic. Anarchy, violence, chaos and conspiracy are themes
that emerge from this provocative artists' body of work. Through activism, writing, web
sites, installation and exhibition practices, he has shared his perspective as a South
African who has emerged out of his country's turbulent cultural shift from a system of
apartheid towards the goals of democracy. His work has questioned assumptions about
democracy and capitalism, utilizing guerilla tactics in creating visual experiences. For
example, in Geers' situation/performance Title Withheld (Brick), (1995-97), a
brick was thrown through the gallery's window, and the evidence of this staged
vandalism was the resulting piece.

Geers' video installation at ArtPace, T.W.(Shoot), draws from the artist's
cultural observations of Texas and South Africa, where racial politics, violence and
mythology are part of everyday life. During his residency, Geers has watched hundreds
of films, compiling scenes of guns being shot, and then editing them together at a strobe-
like speed. In the exhibition space, which has been painted black, television monitors
hang from the ceiling at varying heights. The footage of the gun shots?oud, violent
barrage of mediated images?ys on each monitor, filling the room with an
exaggerated sense of violent energy. T.W.(Shoot) focuses our attention on the
proliferation of violence in our media culture and political world in a highly effective,
theatrical environment.

445 North Main Avenue San Antonio TX 78205 t 210 212 4900 f 210 212 4990 www.artpace.org