~
Non-committal, 2017, linocut on paper
~
Can an object exist without communicating anything?
Without conveying some message about itself?
Could I remove or neglect to include a message in an artwork I create?
An uninteresting object fails to communicate
but that is likely because its messages are tired or mixed
Other things, though
we may simply not have the perceptive capacity for
in the same way that we have no taste buds to detect water
Writing and speech belong to
the language of instruction, description and history
Art inhabits a different place:
the language of gesture, ambiguity and negotiation
It is the language of animals
It is impossible to be silent
in the language of gesture
~
Humans rely on verbal language to navigate the social dimensions of the world, for the obvious reason that by creating stereotypes (or set and defined meanings to symbols) we are able to bypass processing the huge quantities of information the world presents. This has the unfortunate result that we are by necessity liable to trust statements while often failing to recognise obvious evidence to the contrary.
Animals, unable to understand human language, are under no such illusions. Animals must be ruled by whips, fences and coercion, whereas humans can be ruled by misconceptions and stereotypes.
!
Lockdown Monotypes, 2020 – 2021, monotype on paper
In the instance that industry, expectations, aspiration and opportunity all vanish,
and when the immediate future is so uncertain that all plans and designs have to be abandoned,
what do you do with your time?
What happens when things that you assumed were important become impossible?
Or irrelevant?
What do you do with all that uncertainty?
~
With no access to supplies
Make a monotype every day using tools at hand
Construct the image spontaneously
Don’t plan ahead
Don’t assess the result
Mark each piece with the number of the day
!
Relief on Hospital Floor, 2021, ink on vinyl flooring
~
A generative digital image handcarved on vinyl flooring
(unused offcuts from Groote Schuur Hospital)
intended to be a printing block, but never used
~
Some say that art is a mirror
something that can be used to gain insight into the culture that bore it
This might be true, but I would hope for it to be more like a doormat
witness to feet passing
in habit
in haste
in emergencies
without self-awareness
!
FAT (I–IV)
~
Create an artwork
In place of paper, use animal fat
The violence contained in the materials is silent
but arguably more evident than so much violence
that hides elsewhere in plain sight
Violence is at home in every culture
accepted and embraced in forms that vary and change with time
making us more able to see the violence of others than our own
making us
for a time
blind to its presence in our own behaviours
and contained in the objects that surround us
~
What if I were to become forgetful
and started asking stupid questions
like why water doesn’t behave like rock
and why beds are raised off of the ground
or what makes videos more entertaining
than reflections on a pond?
The most crucial things
I would have forgotten
is what to take for granted
and what is not an acceptable question
What if there is no ‘nature’, only ‘history’?
The world we see as natural
simply evidence of a way life has been
for us to learn from or replace
Cultures bear scars in the same way bodies do
Incidents crystallise in our attitudes
and are passed on as values
~
Videos of making
!
Tragedy of the Rainbow Warriors
~
A rendition of Jannis Kounellis’ ‘Tragedia Civile’ (Italy, 1975), drawing on the history of the South African hero Francois Pienaar to reimagine the work for contemporary South Africa.
The title derives from the front page of The Sunday Independent, 25 June 1995, which features an image of Nelson Mandela handing Pienaar the Rugby World Cup trophy – an image that has become iconic in South Africa as a symbol of reconciliation and unity – accompanied by the headline ‘Triumph of the Rainbow Warriors’.
In Kounellis’ ‘Tragedia Civile’ (Civil Tragedy), gold leaf lines the wall recalling, in a commentator’s words, “the past golden age in contrast to the disordered and compromised present” by invoking Byzantine art. In front of the wall is a coat rack with overcoat and hat, illustrating in its melancholy banality the limitations of the individual in relation to the demands of their position in history. A paraffin lamp (then already antiquated) on a shelf lights the scene.
In Lawrence’s piece there is no artist’s coat and hat, instead two Springbok rugby supporters jerseys hang stiffly from a coat stand: symbols of hope, unity and reconciliation in South Africa, that are eagerly donned by South Africans of all cultures in support of the national rugby team and in the shared patriotic ecstasy of World Cup victory celebrations. It is in these elated moments that the country’s problems of division appear surmountable, but the attitude soon fades and the drab is packed away until the next revival of the old act. After three such events in democratic South Africa what once felt like divine hope now begins to feel rehearsed.
In addition, the wall is not covered in gold leaf here, but plastered with flattened chip packets, attesting to the arrival of Lay’s in South Africa following end of Apartheid and the lifting of sanctions. Lay’s Lightly Salted came to represent a new global sophistication, based on Western consumer culture, for middle class South Africans to aspire to. Pienaar, the face of South African unity alongside Nelson Mandela, was also the face of Lay’s in their South African advertising.
The paraffin lamp from Kounellis’ work remains, but is stripped of its nostalgic value in the context of Lawrence’s work by an awareness of the crisis of energy supply and the depths of poverty faced in the country.
In light of this, the words of Nelson Mandela during his inauguration speech to South Africans and the world in 1994 become bittersweet:
“the mind and soul have been freed to fulfil themselves […]
humanity has taken us back into its bosom […]
The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come
The sun shall never set on so glorious a human achievement!”
~
Images:
Newspaper cover
Tragedia Civile
~
Conclusion has two effects:
either it is premature and prevents realisation
or it initiates decay as life processes carry on
The end of apartheid for example wasn’t an end at all
but a chance to begin pursuing its end
Change evidently has high demands
requiring not a single event
but actions on the scale of ‘person’ and ‘day’
Colonialism and apartheid
were assemblages of exploitations
We have denounced the arrangements themselves
but not the materials and processes
by which they were built
Progress in incremental and must necessarily be incremental
with each step assessed by assemblies of citizens carefully engaged
in the never-ending development of society
It is easy, in practices associated with powerful ideals, as are politics and art, to look for immediate solutions and to grab hold of them when they appear
!
If its all the same to you
~
Every purchase is a vote
Every outfit is a vote
Every login is a vote
Every meal is a vote
Art, as life, is political
Every word spoken is a confirmation
or negation of a state of things,
and as such is an acceptance or rejection,
an endorsement or dissent
!
An Educated Guess
~
Composition in Black and White
~
Make a selection of books
with eye-catching titles
with no regard for their content
Arrange by title
and the story they tell
~
Art complicates, where words simplify
Art offers possibility, not definition
Art explores, where language locates
Art suggests, not stereotypes
At the time of writing,
an artwork appears, to me
to be an attempt to define a term
or terms, that are not, to me
at the time of making, definable
in verbal terms
~
Art is, in the language of signs, what poetry, philosophy and fiction are in the languages of words. As such there are dialects, competencies, vocabularies, personal vernacular, jargon. To say that one doesn’t understand art at all reveals that the idea of art has been alienated, not the ability to recognise and engage with art on any level. Certain modes of art will surely be unfamiliar, and one may be inexperienced in discernment in an analogous way to how one’s palate might be undeveloped in a gastronomical sense, limiting the tastes one has acquired. It would follow however that the underlying ability to appreciate and to create art is as natural and inalienable as listening and speech.
Sometimes
someone will resonate more with
something I have made than I do
There is no direct line
that joins the act of making art
to the separate act of appreciating it
The observer’s inconsistency is equal to that of the subject
Each interaction transforms them slightly
Each is something different now
This picture is no longer representative
This image is no longer accurate
!
Does It Move You?
Is It for Me?
!
Self-portrait under the lamp
~
Write something about the desk. About presence and the task. About showing up.
~
Compare two identical exhibitions:
one by an artist who is living,
one by an artist who is dead
The latter is surely better
With the dead artist,
I can view their work in its entirety
They have become consumed by their work
Their clumsy presence doesn’t detract
from the purity of their vision
They don’t open their suitcase
to present their merchandise for sale
or for praise
They cannot dilute the brilliance of their work
with more work
that might or might not be a bit better
They cannot prove me wrong
show my interpretation to be misconceived
by pursuing a path contrary
to what I had envisioned
They exist now in fiction
And so their art is made in my mind
not theirs
The dead artist is surely better
~
The desk, elevated and on display, towers over the seat of the user, who is left facing a bare wall. It speaks of a failure to comprehend the importance of the task at hand, or otherwise a failure to rise to the occasion.
The work is a portrait of a society unable to reconcile itself with the challenges it faces; of a dislocation of the sense of self into incompatible parts (that that is and that which must be done); and of an absence or abandonment – like a sentinel who has deserted their post.
!
Nameless and Friendless
!
Digital Synthesiser, Hospital Flooring and Serving Spoon
~
production videos
~
Create a generative image using a crudely-edited virtual synthesiser
Carve the image into leftover hospital flooring vinyl
On hands and knees, print the image using the back of a serving spoon
~
When we say that a person is a consumer
it is obvious that it is not
the consumption of food that is referred to
If I assume it is the consumption
of products and services
then this would appear to be an advantageous position
like a king being fed by courtesans
but kings cannot be more populous than their subjects
So I am led to assume rather that this interpretation is outdated
that we are now consumers of messages
And if one thinks that creativity is central to
being human,
why do we accept the label of consumer?
Surely the passiveness implied in this title
indicates a lost freedom
Something is interesting until it is understood
whereafter the message has been consumed
and its vessel is discarded
!
Making Work
Ironing T-shirts
~
The Lino blocks are carved by hand using flooring vinyl, rather than artist’s linoleum, because of their large size. The vinyl is much harder than linoleum so I heat the block with a hair dryer to soften it while carving. One block takes about sixteen hours to complete. They used to take me much longer, but I have learnt through practice to move more steadily and can be less cautious. While I carve, a studio-mate is working on a logo design for a coffee roaster. Another is photographing a pair of shoes. Another is detailing architectural drawings for a home renovation. The mechanics below the studio rev motorbikes and the studio cleaner is vacuuming, which both serve to drown out the sound of my hair dryer.
This series of works was designed digitally, then hand-carved and printed through a traditional, physical process. This seems counter-intuitive, as digital processes normally follow the physical to improve productivity. This makes me conscious of how new technologies are supposed to reduce demands on our time, but often have the opposite effect.
Do my extra efforts add value to the final piece?
Is it better because it was difficult to make, or because of the hours that went into crafting it?
Is the labour involved somehow different to what goes into mundane, everyday tasks?
Is it possible that because the effort was unnecessary, that the work is imbued with a nostalgic or ironic value?
Is it the ability of a buyer to own something created with care that seems rare nowadays?
Or perhaps it is the embedded message that I am a hard worker that a potential owner relates to and aligns themselves to, effectively broadcasting this as a statement about themselves.
~
Artists share with the unemployed the dubious luxury of spare time, existing as they do on the outskirts of the traditional workforce, yet these characters could scarcely be viewed more differently, the former as almost dignitaries and the latter as a problematic drain on society. Yet both enjoy and lament the pleasure and pain of being somewhat superfluous.
~
Look Busy Essay
!
Another Helping
~
After completing the print edition of ‘Ironing T-shirts’ (2016)
as per tradition, destroy the printing block
to prevent further prints being made
Create a new print by arranging salvaged remnants
and give the new work a new title
~
Our inevitable disappointment at discovering our own lack of originality should be to us an indication of the nature of our aspiration that is in competition with those around us and not in collaboration
If there are hopes are to a common goal then the discovery of unoriginality should be encouraging
~
A new colour is mixed
This colour has never before been mixed:
It resides within the visual colour spectrum
between infrared and ultraviolet:
Our eyes anticipated it
and it preexists in our capacity to see it
Or it lies outside
and we cannot see it
If the matter that makes up everything
has for all intents and purposes existed forever
(assuming that all the Big Bang indicates is a horizon)
what can be said to be new?
for all potentialities preexisted in the state
of things that preceded it
I contain within myself the cause of my own death
I carry around my own cadaver
To what degree do we seek newness?
To what degree do we appreciate newness?
To what degree can we recognise newness?
Infinite colours can be generated
but only three seen
Another Helping Essay
!
5x Attempts
~
Make a drawing in ink
of nothing in particular
Take a second to decide if it’s good
If not, place a new sheet of paper on top
The wet ink adheres the sheets to one another
Try again until a good drawing is achieved
~
The new exists over the old
The old must remain functional
while the new is developed
As such the new does not replace
the old but is added to it
A clever tool of evolution
in creatures with tongues
is the tendency for taste
to notify the brain
of new and unfamiliar things
Naturally it can be assumed
that this prevents the eating
of poisonous substances:
adopting the mantra
that familiar is good
But how far does that extend?
Does that old trick of the brain
still keep us safe in a modern world:
making the new repulsive
so that we prefer variations of the old?
~
alternate attempts?
!
Keeping Up Appearances
~
In the early twenty-first John Berger wrote:
‘In the mid-twentieth century Walter Benjamin wrote:
“The state of emergency in which we live is not the exception but the rule. We must attain to a concept of history that is in keeping with this insight.”
Within such a concept of history we have to come to see that every simplification, every label, serves only the interests of those who wield power; the more extensive their power, the greater their need for simplifications. And by contrast, the interests of those who suffer under, or struggle against this blind power, are served now and for the long, long future by the recognition and acceptance of diversity, differences and complexities.’
Responding to history as it presents itself in the continuous moment, does my work serve to disrupt existing structures of power or support them?
There’s a hopelessness to making beautiful things in difficult times.
People make beautiful things when we feel we can’t bring about greater change
!
A Modest Price for My Work
~
Received emails read out loud (Jun. – Oct. 2020)
with live-streamed video footage (26 Oct. 2020, FaceTime HD camera, MacBook Pro)
~
Read transcription
~
“Now art is being made in smaller spaces,
on kitchen tables,
out of things at hand,
with kids nearby,
cooking happening in the background, […]
This is how our species made most things over the last 50,000 years.
Creativity was with us in the caves […]
Viruses don’t kill art. ” 1
~
Link to culture vulture article
~
So remarked a cable thief,
mid-act,
to the journalist, Bheki C. Simelane:
“If a money van is prised open
and everyone scrambles for cash,
you want to tell me that you will stand by and watch?”
Criminality is at the limit of law
but not necessarily at the limit
of acceptability
The long-standing prevalence
of theft for example
would suggest that theft is in fact
in some way an accepted fact of contemporary society, culture and economy
In certain regards
particularly concerning the rewards
of wealth, status and means
received by successful practitioners
I would argue that theft is more
widely acceptable than art
Art has no rules so that
the rules applied by
the society who judge it are
made evident
Today the only subversive art
is not art that can’t be sold
The only subversive art
is art that can’t be seen
!
Ends and beginnings (Ca
~
Create an artwork
In place of paper
use animal fat
Instead of ink
pigment gathered from the ruins of a recent wildfire
in the mountains of Cape Town
that also destroyed the university library
A fire made by the homeless of the city
on the edge of the mountain
spread into the mountains
then to the library
then back into the mountains
then to the homes of the people of the city
~
I must apologise, I would have preferred
to present to you an empty room
with no art and unimportant walls
at a time when this would have sufficed
because no art was needed. When
I had nothing to say, and you
were not looking for something new
There were no issues to address
and we no longer needed to exchange
You were not collecting
I was not selling anything
Everything that needed to be said
had been said
Everything that needed to be done
had been done
That is what I would have preferred
!
Desire is social in nature
I do not desire her
I desire her in this place
in this landscape
I do not desire this dress
but this dress in relation to my friends
and to people who are not my friends
Desire is construction
says Gilles Deleuze
Delirium too
is social
It is not a family affair
but a response to history
and the world
and the state of the world
Delirium is cosmic
!
I want to be referred to by the pronoun ‘it’
not out of jest or a lack of sensitivity to people who prefer
the neutral pronoun ‘they’
but inspired by the possibilities it suggests
My decision
is to align myself
with other ‘its’
A whale or a bird is an ‘it’
as is an ant or a tree
The earth, the moon and the sky are all ‘it’
and love, eternity, freedom, knowledge
life, death, time, space
To identify as ‘he’ or ‘she’
is to align with humanity’s desire
to separate itself from all existence
to create for itself a category apart
where humanity alone is subject
and all others are object