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ART EXHIBIT
Laugh
It Off 2010 Calendar
Venue: Café Manhattan, Green Point & Sea Point. Tel: (021) 421
6666.
Gallery Hours: Mon - Sun 10:00am till late
Duration: 1- 31 Aug 2009
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From the shirt stirrers who
brought you the Constitutional Court approved T-shirt, ‘Black Labour.
White Guilt’, comes their most controversial publication to date: Laugh it
Off’s 2010 Corpowit Calendar.
It’s an election year in South Africa, and so there would seem no better
time than now to spoof our country’s most well-known brands — be they
politicians, parastatals, or products. No one is spared the rod that is
Laugh it Off’s brand-spanking satire in 13 cheeky brand spoof
‘photographic subverts’ all wrapped up and presented in a 2010 calendar
that will have South Africans laughing out loud, and the lawyers grumbling
quietly.
From president Jacob Zuma and his juvenile sidekick Julius Malema, to
government-owned companies such as Telkom and SAA — not to mention booze,
cellphone, and fast food companies — Laugh it Off will no doubt be testing
the humour and tolerance of the targets they poke fun at in their
‘Corpowit Calendar’.
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All 13 full-colour photographs were taken by
photographic legend Obie Oberholzer, who Laugh it Off had to coerce out of
semi-retirement to tickle some South African funny bones. Oberholzer last
worked with Laugh it Off in 2004 during the height of their court battles
with SABMiller. The publication that came about as a result of their
efforts — the 2005 Laugh it Off Chronicles Calendar — was ruthlessly
interdicted by SABMiller after it had gone to print, meaning that the
final product never saw the light of day.
Laugh it Off felt that it was ‘…high time to challenge the
corporate kowtowing that is jeopardizing the Rainbow Nation. Citizens have
gone from being force-fed an apartheid agenda to one of corporate
subservience. It is fundamental to our democracy’s livelihood that we face
up to the powers that be… even if that only means laughing in their face
’, says Laugh it Off’s founder Justin Nurse.
When Obie Oberholzer was asked as to why he was involved, he said that it
was ‘just another job’ for him as a photographer, except the pay was lousy
and the risks were high.
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