This sent to me by Lizza Littlewort... thanks:

Trawling around the shows on the Cape '07 itinerary, you never know when you're going to have one of those moments that remind you why you love art and what the point of it all is. A moment like that happened for me in Gugulethu on Saturday, at the Kwa Mmlamli shebeen. Perhaps it was the golden autumn light that made a glow around the place, but there seemed to be a tangible air of cerebral calm and openness, as if anything was possible and everything okay. There was great music being played on a huge sound system, yummy roast chicken dinners, lots of space to sit and relax, and enough cold beers to last us for a week. A group show had been installed by some local artists who call themselves the Gugulective. There were videos, photos and slides, among other things, but what really got to me was an installation by Unathi Sigewu, which was in the dusty yard at the back of the shop. At first I thought some lout had been turfing empty beer bottles out of the back door, so I went to look. There really were a lot of bottles, so many as to start one thinking of alcohol consumption in epidemic proportions. In the middle of this devastation was a tiny, perfect replica of a Johnny Walker billboard, rewording the ad to say “KEEP ON DRINKING / JOHNNY WALKER IS A BLACK MAN”. I thought of the response travel-writer PJ O'Rourke gave when asked to describe South Africans using only two words. He said, “They drink.” Further on was another more exaggerated version of the sign (see pic), evoking a rapidly advancing state of drunkenness. A simple enough strategy and probably not nearly 'serious' enough for most people, but this work had me rooted to the spot. For a moment a mental picture of the sheer scale of the alcohol trade overcame me, doubtless exacerbated by the fact that I'd just finished storyboarding a string of extremely cynical beer commercials. I thought of the unvarnished, gutting realities we live with in this country, and the histories which have brought us here. Perhaps it was its utter lack of piousness that made this one of the strongest works I've seen in a while.