ALTARPIECE
(WILL WE FOREVER TRAVEL INTO THE VOID?)
2020
Ink on paper, and brass
Triptych, 372 x 220cm (per panel)
Ink on paper, and brass
Triptych, 372 x 220cm (per panel)
︎ DESCRIPTION:
Erected, the work stands as a triptych. The center panel appears as a field of refracting blues, bleeding onto the two panels on either side, with the two golden crosses creating a disruption in the blue field.
When standing in front of the triptych, visions of cathedral stained-windows and crosses are clearly evoked. The viewpoint is that of a swimmer, diving and suspended, before plunging into the water, or that of the divine, high above the swimming pool with a bird’s eye view.
Angled inwards, the triptych forms an amphitheater, as if awaiting an enactment or narrative. The two bodies implied by the two lanes of the swimming pool are absent. The golden lines gestures, perhaps, to Alan Hollinghurst’s novel The Line of Beauty (2004).
The swimming pool has been a recurring subject in the artist’s work over the last ten years. It has been a symbol of joy for him and his partner, a homage to their love and a means to commemorate the gay lives that have influenced them. With this work, the artist lays the swimming pool to rest. It begins to merge with the ocean. The pool and the sea becoming intertwined.
Each tile has been hand-printed with ink, onto archival paper. These prints have been stretched around wood, forming a “tile”, that references the tiles of the Long Street Swimming Pool in Cape Town, South Africa.
When standing in front of the triptych, visions of cathedral stained-windows and crosses are clearly evoked. The viewpoint is that of a swimmer, diving and suspended, before plunging into the water, or that of the divine, high above the swimming pool with a bird’s eye view.
Angled inwards, the triptych forms an amphitheater, as if awaiting an enactment or narrative. The two bodies implied by the two lanes of the swimming pool are absent. The golden lines gestures, perhaps, to Alan Hollinghurst’s novel The Line of Beauty (2004).
The swimming pool has been a recurring subject in the artist’s work over the last ten years. It has been a symbol of joy for him and his partner, a homage to their love and a means to commemorate the gay lives that have influenced them. With this work, the artist lays the swimming pool to rest. It begins to merge with the ocean. The pool and the sea becoming intertwined.
Each tile has been hand-printed with ink, onto archival paper. These prints have been stretched around wood, forming a “tile”, that references the tiles of the Long Street Swimming Pool in Cape Town, South Africa.
