James Webb: Yumei na wa ju-go pun

I would like to present a critical overview of my project, “Wa,” an interventionist performance at a large, public art event at the Castle of Good Hope in 2003. The performance was billed as a concert by famous, female Japanese noise musician, Wa. The event was attended by just under 8’000-people and the gig’s highlights were broadcast on E-TV news. Being the first Japanese DJ to play in South Africa, and what with the local audience’s limited experience of harsh noise music, the concert was received with a mixture of chaos, exoticism and awe.

Unbeknownst to the audience, Wa was a fictitious character invented by James Webb. Webb hired a Korean tourist, taught her basic DJ skills and had her “perform” his noise music to the hyped-up crowd.

Biography: James Webb (b. 1975, Kimberley) has been working on both large-scale installations in galleries and museums as well as unannounced interventions in public spaces since 2001. His work explores the nature of belief in our contemporary world, often using exoticism, displacement and humour to achieve these aims. He has participated in exhibitions including the 3rd Marrakech Biennale, the 2009 Melbourne International Arts Festival and the 9th Biennale d’Art Contemporain de Lyon.

Notable recent projects include “Scream,” wherein the artist invited members of the gallery staff of the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid to scream at Picasso’s Guernica, “Autohagiography,” an installation consisting of audio interviews conducted with himself under hypnosis, and “There’s No Place Called Home” an on going, world-wide intervention using incongruous foreign birdcalls broadcast out of speakers concealed in local trees, for example the calls of South African summer birds in Japanese trees during midwinter.

www.theotherjameswebb.com