Three can be a tricky number in a relationship. And when you’re looking at three creative, passionate people, it can sound a lot like the countdown to an explosion. But for Avant Car Guard, the Awesome Threesome from Johannesburg, it’s been as easy as one, two…

Avant Car Guard is a conceptual art collective made up of three talented artists in their own rights: Zander Blom, Michael McGarry and Jan-Henri Booyens. They produce large-scale paintings, sculptures, editioned prints, video and installation, and are on a mission to “undermine and interrogate the mechanics that drive the art world.”

While we’re not 100% sure what they mean by that, they’re certainly having fun – and making fans – doing it. Avant Car Guard’s work is characterised by a strong sense of humour and punk sensibility. Their multimedia mix and self-conscious installations evoke an immediate reaction, and come from “a sincere act to invent something insincere”. Their art – bold, tongue-in-cheek, in-your-face – is accessible. We get it, even without understanding the multilayered in-jokes.

This Triumvirate of Cool, aka The Irreverent Trio, is popularly considered to be the Holy Trinity of the local art scene. But how does an art collective actually work? According to the artists themselves, it’s a bit like in a brand campaign, where a team of people develop a powerful identity that is distinct from their own. Avant Car Guard’s identity is essentially independent of the artists although its essence is tied to them. (If one of them had to leave, Avant Car Guard would cease to exist.)

All photographic installations are created by using a timer (“We’re more comfortable with just the three of us”) and whatever props are on hand. It’s a collaborative exercise and one they’ve explored far and wide. Their  recent ‘Scuse us while we kiss da sky (As in, we’ve hit the ceiling) exhibition featured a number of colourful, controversial paintings. More lyrical and abstract than the performance pieces, they were nonetheless created “like paint-by-numbers” – with one member doing the red bits and another the blue bits. It’s a unique way of working but it works for them – and us.

Images courtesy the artists and Whatiftheworld Gallery.  Avant Car Guard: http://avantcarguard.com/