Paintings

A process of deconstruction and reconstruction of my practice developed over the year and is supported by contextual research and deep contemplation of the past through my specific white entitled experience of South Africa. More recently post-apartheid gated communities have become desirable escape from escalating crime. They set a fabricated scene; a coping mechanism to distance crime. Just below the surface a sense of guilt underpins my complex relationship with a country that is both tantalising, and regrettably for me, too dangerous to live in.

In visualising this relationship, collage became a way of rearranging and editing memory, part-metaphorical materially for processing memory,  using text as image or archive press photographs to refer to politics.  I considered how a the weight of memory might translate as a floor bound art object or be suspended as a vanishing trace. More recently, the combination of silkscreen printing with painting creates a sense of the voyeur in a moment glimpsed of a poolside in a gated community.  Politics is implicit and asks who has access, who is watching, how close is crime over the wall? The ‘poetics of paint’ has been a guiding phrase in every stage of this process, working on a variety of surfaces and in different mediums.

 

White Guilt, (2018) oil on canvas, 102 x 166 cm

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My Mother’s Privilege 1950’s, (2018) acrylic on board, 14 x 14 cm

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Stolen 1960’s, (2018) acrylic on board, 14 x 14 cm

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Small works on 18 mm board, acrylic, 14 x 14 cm

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Steve Biko, (2018) acrylic on paper, 51 x 41cm

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Sihle Shabalala, ex-gangster, (2018) acrylic and Tippex on cardboard, 26 x 35 cm

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Vicarious Witness, Soweto Riots 1976, (2018) oil on linen, 130 x 180 cm

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Children of Paradise, Canoe, (2019) acrylic on chalk ground, 24 x 24 x 6 cm, shortlisted for Bloomberg New Contemporaries

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Children of Paradise, Birthday Party, (2019) acrylic on chalk ground, 14 x 14 x 6 cm, shortlisted for Bloomberg New Contemporaries

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Politics Disrupts Utopia 1 (2019) oil, acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 80 x 80 cm Photograph: Juhan Kuus, Riot policemen drag man they shot away from township crowd, 1976

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Politics and Memory (2019) 1.5 x 2.5m mixed media

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Pool Chair (2019) Detail, 1.5 x 2.5m, mixed media on Fabriano paper

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Eden Overblown, Gated Community, (2019) acrylic, glitter, collage on canvas, 103 x 103 cm

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 Agave on the beach, (2019) Acrylic on board 25 x 25cm

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One Settler. One Bullet. (2019) Acrylic on photographic digital print, image by Juhan Kuus, White border farmers in the Northern Transvaal, 1985, 

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Land rights (2019), Acrylic image transfer, acrylic, house emulsion and graphite on inherited linen tablecloth, 140 x 140 cm, transfer image by Juhan Kuus, White border farmers in Northern Transvaal, 1985, and Louisa Geryts’ Malachite Sunbird on Leonotus Leonurus (Wild Dagga, prolific on my mother’s farm), text excerpt from my mother’s memoir, Penny Stevens.

Milk and Honey, (2019) acrylic, oil stick, oil pastel, collage on canvas, 180 x 200 cm

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Lounger, Sketch, (2019) Oil on paper, 40 x 50 cm

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 Lounger, Gated Community, Sketch, (2019) Oil on Fabriano oil paper 35 x 45 cm

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Gated Community 1,  Cape Town, (2019) Oil and acrylic on primed polyester, 170 x 203cm

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Gated Community II,  Cape Town, (2019) Acrylic, litho crayon and screen print on primed polyester 170 x 214cm

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Gated Community III, Cape Town, (2019) Oil, acrylic and screen print on primed polyester, 170 x 214 cm

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