Even more thrilling is to see our city depicted in an artwork that suggests that by 2026 our city will be a vital trade hub (isn't it one already?).
Such is the case with Alfredo Jaar's JOHANNESBURG 2026, which puts our city's name up in lights, literally - in neon lights.
Since the Goodman Gallery became more international in its scope it has forged relationships with artists from elsewhere. But this sits uneasily at times. Does art have to be shown to be relevant to South Africa to be exhibited in this country? Are we really so myopic?
Jaar's Sound of Silence installation, on at the Wits Art Museum, documents the work and tragic death of Kevin Carter, the Bang-Bang club photographer who became famous for his shocking image of a vulture preying upon a child during the famine in Sudan.
The work presents such an oversimplified version of Carter's story that it sensationalises the image at its heart.
Jaar overlooks the much darker Bang-Bang legacy, which is more likely to have burdened Carter's psyche.
South Africans are deeply protective over their history and stories. Sometimes the distance outsiders have can present unique responses.
Hank Willis Thomas the American artist staged an exhibition at the Joburg Gallery in 2014. It presented sculptures inspired by well-known photographs taken during the apartheid era.
Perhaps with Jaar what jars is the moral high-ground he adopts and the alacrity with which he appropriates, repackages and oversimplifies history and events from around the world.
He clings to low-hanging fruit, turning tragedies and absences into solutions for art objects, which sell. If Jaar showed some self-conscious struggle with what he does, his work would go down better with this local.
Amilcar, Frantz, Patrice and the others shows at the Goodman Gallery until March 23. Sound of Silence is on show at the Wits Art Museum
