(Pic: Mosaic work by Jane du Rand)
Internationally acclaimed Durban ceramic artist, Jane du Rand, is hosting her second solo exhibition Loathing and Loving and Giving at artSPACE Durban, from October 28.
Du Rand’s exhibition combines small miniature pieces with six large statement domes (of about one and a half meters each in diameter). Some are designed on the concave and others on the convex, each featuring a ceramic collage reflecting specific conceptual themes.
Her work feels like discovering treasure – a visual and tactile experience which is tantalizing, delicate and precious. Deftly-crafted individual segments are woven together to create a complex and detailed work in a palette of carefully-chosen mostly muted and unexpected shades. The narrative and meaning is subtle – one responds to her work on a symbolic and subconscious, almost organic level. One reads meaning into the hues, textures and shapes she uses which results in an incredibly personal and intimate connection both with the work on display and with Jane as the artist.
“In Loathing and Loving and Giving, I use ceramics and mosaics made out of numerous bits and pieces to explore the daily emotions that I experience as a working mother. As I care for my family and claim time for my work and my creative self, I have to find a precarious balance. How, at the same time, can I be completely selfish, and yet also selfless? The feelings that are expressed through the shape and colour of tiny ceramic fragments and the layering of objects are therefore contradictory,” explains du Rand.
“I have layered some of the pieces, so that you need to look through a ceramic layer to see what is contained inside or underneath. I also used tools usually associated with domesticity and children’s celebrations, such as cookie cutters for the decorative cut-out patterns of the terracotta tiles” she expounds.
Du Rand’s work marries her dual interest in architecture and art. She has just returned from Chile with her team of five art-makers where they were commissioned to create a 100m² floor for the new Mostazal Casino Development in San Francisco de Mostazal, 57km south of Santiago. The design for the floor used dramatic, big, bold, bright flowers.
Du Rand’s public work will be familiar to Durbanites – she did the mosaic work of the public benches and bollards in Durban’s CBD (2002); the “red carpet” walkway into the new wing of the ICC (2007) and the Bessie Head Memorial at Werde School (2007). Further afield she has done the Baragwanath Taxi Rank in Soweto; 18 foyer columns for the new Constitutional Court in Johannesburg (2003); and the Oppenheimer family home in Johannesburg. On individual commissions, she has worked throughout the province, throughout the country and internationally.
This year she was one of eight finalists in the SA DaimlerChrysler Mercedes Award – South African Art Projects in Public Spaces.
“The medium of mosaics and my specific approach also allows me to snatch moments for my personal art, in-between the bread-and-butter of commissions and time spent with my children. Small individual ceramic pieces could be made with small bits of time. It was only at the end of this process that I claimed the time to put everything together in its final form.”
Loathing and Loving and Giving can be viewed at artSPACE durban from October 28 until November 15. Entry is free and all are welcome. artSPACE durban is alongside Waste Centre in 3 Millar Road, just off Umgeni Road. More information on 031 312 0793 or email: artspace_durban@yahoo.com
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