Extract from a review of State of the Art, Everard Read Contemporary

With international interest and the Johannesburg Biennial around the corner, exhibitions like Trent Read's State of the Art provide some thoughtful perspectives. It was a pity Read chose to commission "important" works of art. This not only sounds pretentious, which Read isn't, but it ignores the business of process. An artist creates a body of work, within which one will hopefully find significant pieces. The idea that an important work of art can be created on demand should be treated with scepticism, particularly since artists are usually the last people to judge their work. But neatly deflating all this unbearable significance is Alan Alborough.

Alborough's work is called Kill the Messenger. It's a misleadingly unassuming piece. The telegraphed message is contained in a single ironic word - "culture", a harsh little sound. But for the time being it is part of the official agenda. Politically, culture is synonymous with control; we have after all had 40 years' experience.

But it signifies another issue - and that is, how do we, after years of isolation, present SA art to the international art world? A number of curators have made valiant attempts. SA's first foray into internationalism, a politically correct flotilla sent to the Venice Biennale, sank without trace. Newtown Galleries' Ricky Burnett took a generalised stab at the problem in Habitat and the Johannsburg Biennial curators have yet to do their stuff.

The problem lies with the notion that there is something called SA art. And artists are being pressed into illustrating it because, it is argued, this is how we will take the world by storm. All that happens is that we conform to our own stereotypes, self-consciously constructing from within when, in fact, the act of naming belongs to outsiders. It always has. It is clever marketing like provocative exhibitions that will take the world by storm, not paralysed artists frantically illustrating themes.

Fortunately many of the artists ignored the "important" imperative in Read's otherwise very broad commission; those who did not foundered. But the result is that State of the Art is one of the most successful of all expositions on local art to date. ...