From the archives: Selling out

Fax campaign by Richardt Strydom protesting the early closure of the 2nd Johannesburg Biennale Trade Routes: History and Geography in 1997

This was a fax campaign to petition against the premature closing of the 2nd Johannesburg Biennale: Trade Routes : History and Geography (1997).

At the time I was toying with the idea of having a performance persona called Richardt Strijdom. ‘Strijdom’ is an archaic spelling of my own surname – although it is still in use by some e.g. JG Strijdom - who was Prime Minister of South Africa from 1954 to 1958. An alternative theory on the genealogical origin suggests that the surname is of Polish origin - read more here.

The idea was that Richardt Strijdom is this conservative idiot savant type character that inadvertently transgressed his own cultural taboos and the political correctness of the then South African art establishment – usually both at the same time. It related to the unofficial (and illegal) performance
I survived… at the opening of the 2nd Johannesburg Biennale, Newtown, Johannesburg. The performance entailed the hawking of signed and editioned copies of these t-shirts inside and outside MuseumAfrica and the then Electric Workshop venues on the opening night of the Biennale (the picture below is a recent take).

The last time I referenced the Strijdom persona was in a still projection called Fopdosser (2000). I abandoned the persona when my output went off in a different direction – ironically it is much closer to what I’m doing today, so maybe I should revive the idea and plan the rebirth of Richardt Lazarus Strijdom.