Page 157 - Bulletin 13 2009

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In all his endeavours Ladan is the innovator, never accepting any form as final,
realizing that satisfaction marks the decline of the artist. His is an infectious quest ………
He has plans for transforming Cape Town’s architectural face and skyline,
“There are huge blank faces on virtually every high rise building in Cape Town,
presenting an ideal surface for gigantic nail patterns. Just imagine: concrete cast in the
shape of huge nails or spikes embedded in sockets. You would have a moving picture all
the time. From the time the sun rose until it went down there would be a changing field of
shadows. And at night a spotlight could be directed onto it to create a completely different
effect.”
Ladan mourns that the architects of the Mother City do not so far seem to regard as
worthy of experiment his vision of a skyline dotted with monumental kinetic sculptures.
“What is a few thousand rand extra on a building that costs a few million?” he asks with
some asperity. “In Holland, when a large building is put up, one per cent or so of the total
cost has got to be allocated to a practising artist to provide a free-standing sculpture or
some other work of art to be incorporated in the building.”
“This is what I regard as a piece of enlightened legislation. I strongly recommend
the same for South Africa. Without such a directive we are going to wind up with an
architecture whose vernacular is sterility and featurelessness.”

Perceived to be among the avant garde he was often asked to comment on ‘modern’ art

which was frequently disparaged and alleged to be merely a ‘gimmick’. A response in 1967
captured his views on the subject:

Artist in a changing world
The art and artists of today tend to puzzle and bewilder many people. This is due to
phenomena which are new and revolutionary and differ from that which is regarded as
normal: art has become alienated and isolated from its social environment because of the
development of intellectualism and science and the abandonment of the illustrative function
of art.
The avant garde artist is given to free expression and to pioneering. The urge to
explore dominates contemporary art. It may give the impression that it has developed into
an autonomous concept, devoid of contact with reality (socialist realism in art is a political
educational function).
The many ways of expression and styles run parallel with the evolution that is
taking place. These changes are new and so complex that they cannot be expressed in the
old stereotyped forms.