The Link between Art and Film
Cal Kingwill, who heads up Priest, shares her vision for the space, and how the post-production house has moved into the contemporary and visual art space.
Established in 2003, Priest has evolved into a creative studio that encompasses content production, editing, and finishing. It is also a beautiful gallery space and is perfectly positioned on the intersection between art and film. Their Cape Town headquarters in Salt River, and although their edit suites, 4K projector and infinity curve for their VFX suite is located here, their beautiful office space is shown off regularly when they host screenings and industry talks. Priest Johannesburg is one part art gallery, one part production office, and one part Espressobar. And, according to House and Leisure, “Priest’s ‘working space cum coffee space’ is an ode to clever and intuitive design.”
Cal Kingwill takes us through her offices and explains how film, design and fine art go hand in hand.
We’ve heard noise in the art world about a gallery…
Over the last three years, Priest has not marketed our editing capabilities to the Joburg market as much as usual, since both Matthew Swanepoel (award-winning Purist Editor) and Amelia Cohen (extraordinary Illustrator and Motion Graphics Designer) are both new proud owners of babies — thus making being away from home less appealing. As a result of the edit space being less used, but still wanting the luxury of our own identity in Joburg, we collaborated with a group of artists known as The Dead Bunny Society. One of the members, Peter Mammes, I had met when I commissioned him to paint the iconic mural on the wall of the Espressobar. Another member, Neil Nieuwoudt, along with his fellow Stefan Erasmus and Dirk Bauhmann, Priest co-curated art exhibitions for once monthly. Through Neil, I was extremely fortunate to meet the now Gallery Director, Wayne Matthews and his Assistant Curator, Alison Shaw, who have evolved Priest Johannesburg into a well-respected art gallery.
What is the connection between these two fields in visual arts?
Both film and fine art are unquestionably creative fields. Both engage the human capacities of communication, of the intellect and the sensed, experienced world — and they do so by using the visual realm as a primary tool for this communication. Film is, really, a component of the arts, like literature, poetry and music.
Film has even been hailed as ‘the greatest art form’. However, film in the contemporary world has limitations or difficulties, if you like. The size and scope of film projects require many people and vast amounts of funding. These factors often restrict the final expression in terms of film but, generally speaking, fine artists avoid these restrictions. Having a gallery allows us to engage in this kind of practice, keeping our ears to the ground where creative expression can be a little more radical, irrational and flexible.
Have you always been interested in art and film?
My bigger passion is design. If I was brave enough I would retire to the country, build a Potager and make more beautiful pottery than has ever been done before. I studied Interior Design. I loved the History of Art. I’m not a very good drawer. However, I do appreciate art forms and love pizzazz and I’m not afraid of a bit of controversy. With regards to loving film, I would say that I more wanted to create a less predictable environment for filmmakers to appreciate their passion in.
