22nd Jun, 2022 18:00
The Present Future: A Private Collection of African & International Contemporary Art (Live Auction)
20
Cameron Platter (South Africa 1978-)
Gold Prince Barrack Hussein
bronze
Artwork date: 2010
Literature: WHATIFTHEWORLD Gallery, Cape Town, 'Selected Works: Cameron Platter', 2010. illustrated in colour on p. 30.
Sold for R91,040
Estimated at R80,000 - R120,000
bronze
Artwork date: 2010
Literature: WHATIFTHEWORLD Gallery, Cape Town, 'Selected Works: Cameron Platter', 2010. illustrated in colour on p. 30.
(1)
99 x 46 x 88 cm
Provenance:
Private collection, Cape Town.
WHATIFTHEWORLD Gallery, Cape Town.
Notes:
Life Solutions International, Cherry’s The Bomb.Com, Mango Loco – some of the titles for the works in this collection – are clear indicators as to the kind of artist we’re dealing with. Cameron Platter is a mirthless prankster, someone wholly locked into the tinsel that is Pop Art, who, nevertheless, also understands that Pop Art and Pop Culture have metastasised, and now that it is a global virus, impossible to ignore.
Platter’s mantra – ORIGINAL GREEN OOEY GOOEY YUM YUM BLOOP RAZZLEDAZZLE LO CARB SPORTY RED MIXXED PURPLE MANGO LOCO CHERRYSTHEBOMB.COM PEELIN’ OUT ORANGE DEEP SEA REEF QUAKE ENERGY BERRY BLAST HEAVY METAL – sums up the infantilism, glee, mania, illiterate bliss of our current age. As Lindsey Raymond notes, with regard to Platter’s work – ours is an “unethical capitalist frenzy” which Platter, in his own peculiar way, performs.[1]
Ours is “the dizzying disorientation brought on by the premature arrival of the future,” the futurist writer Alvin Tofler notes in his book Future Shock (1970).[2] In South Africa, we have a phrase for this time warp – Now Now. Platter works inside this warp. His bling breeze blocks – used for RDP housing – now appear as riddled lozenges, in Mango Loco, Mixxxed Purple, Original Green and Cherry’s The Bomb.Com (lots 9, 10, 11 & 12). His vision of autocracy - Gold Prince Barrack Hussein (lot 20) – is gold plated, puffed up, infused with a metastasized arrogance and narcissism - the defining grotesquery of our age. As for Life Solutions International (lot 23)? It’s a monochromatic pencil crayon work on paper which evokes the age-old wood cut. It is a sum of bird-people – a hybrid morphing world – intercut with a crowd of faces with yellow eyes like distant headlights. There is something spooky in this primal forest, but also a wry spoof of Africa as a necropolitical zone of psychic fuckery.
All in all, despite the works’ undertow, Cameron Platter gives us what we want – just the right dosage to entertain us in this end-time.
Ashraf Jamal
[1] Raymond, L. (2020) as cited in Jamal, A. (2021). Strange Cargo. Milan: SKIRA. p.335.
[2] Tofler, A. (1970). Future Shock. New York: Random House. p.10.
You can place an absentee bid through our website - please sign in to your account on our website to proceed.
In the My Account tab you can also enter telephone bids, or email bids@aspireart.net to log telephone/absentee bids.
Join us on the day of the auction to follow and bid in real-time.
The auction will be live-streamed with an audio-visual feed.
Auction: The Present Future: A Private Collection of African & International Contemporary Art (Live Auction), 22nd Jun, 2022
HIGHLIGHTS
Currency conversions are based on the exchange rate at the auction's start time and date. Bidders should verify the current exchange rate on the day of the sale. All invoices and payments must be made in South African Rands.
IMPORTANT NOTICE:
Logistics
While we endeavour to assist our Clients as much as possible, we require artwork(s) to be delivered and/or collected from our premises by the Client. In instances where a Client is unable to deliver or collect artwork(s), Aspire staff is available to assist in this process by outsourcing the services to one of our preferred Service Providers. The cost for this will be for the Client’s account, with an additional Handling Fee of 15% charged on top of the Service Provider’s invoice.
Aspire Art provides inter-company transfer services for its Clients between Johannesburg and Cape Town branches. These are based on the size of the artwork(s), and charged as follows:
Small (≤60x90x10 cm): R480
Medium (≤90x120x15 cm): R960
Large (≤120x150x20 cm): R1,440
Over-size: Special quote
Should artwork(s) be collected or delivered to/from Clients by Aspire Art directly, the following charges will apply:
Collection/delivery ≤20km: R400
Collection/delivery 20km>R800≤50km
Collection/delivery >50km: Special quote
Packaging
A flat fee of R100 will be added to the invoice for packaging of unframed works on paper.
International Collectors Shipping Package
For collectors based outside South Africa who purchase regularly from Aspire Art’s auctions in South Africa, it does not make sense to ship artworks individually or per auction and pay shipping every time you buy another work. Consequently, we have developed a special collectors’ shipping package to assist in reducing shipping costs and the constant demands of logistics arrangements.
For buyers from outside South Africa, we will keep the artworks you have purchased in storage during the year and then ship all the works you have acquired during the year together, so the shipping costs are reduced. At the end of the annual period, we will source various quotes to get you the best price, and ship all your artworks to your desired address at once.
Aspire Art will arrange suitable storage during, and cost-effective shipping at the end, of the annual period.
Collections
Collections are by appointment, with 24-hours’ notice
Clients are requested to contact the relevant office and inform Aspire Art of which artwork(s) they would like to collect, and allow a 24-hour window for Aspire Art’s logistics department to retrieve the artwork(s) and prepare them for collection.
Handling Fee
Aspire Art charges a 15% Handling Fee on all Logistics, Framing, Restoration and Conservation arranged by Aspire.