(“Woman in
Grasslands” by Heather Gourlay-Conyngham)
Five treatments are very different, ranging from the almost photographic
in terms of realism to the almost abstract. (Review by Margaret von Klemperer)
The exhibition Five Degrees of
Separation running in the Schreiner Gallery at the Tatham Art Gallery in
Pietermaritzburg showcases the work of five artists – Terri Broll, Ian Calder,
Heather Gourlay-Conyngham, Louise Hall and Terence King. All have either
studied or taught at the Centre for Visual Art on the Pietermaritzburg campus
of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Their other connection is that, while all
were living in the Pietermaritzburg area, they met every six weeks or so on an
informal basis to share ideas and discuss their work. It is their second
exhibition as a group, having shown work in 2017 at the KZNSA Gallery in
Durban.
The idea of degrees of separation of course implies connection, but the
way in which the work has been hung, grouped by individual artists, emphasises
their separateness rather than their connectedness. All five are here working
in two-dimensional art, and all are showing figures, objects and landscapes in
various combinations, but the five treatments are very different, ranging from
the almost photographic in terms of realism to the almost abstract. It makes
for a thought-provoking experience to walk round the gallery and observe how
the artists have tackled their subjects and to look for the similarities as
well as the differences.
To consider them in the order in which I walked round the gallery: first
is Gourlay-Conyngham. Her work shows a stark realism, but within that there are
mysteries. Who is the woman in Woman in
Grasslands and why does she look fearfully over her shoulder into the
landscape? Why in Two Men is one
figure clothed and the other nude? The most “realistic” of her works is the
disturbing painting of two albino children, Nicole
and Karyn, which highlights the role society has imposed on those with
albinism, seeing them as outsiders, posed against a blank background.
Calder is perhaps best known locally as a ceramic artist, and here he
seems to be deconstructing his three dimensional work in two dimensions,
showing shards and broken pieces. In Mount
Gilboa: Stoneware, he shows a complete pot, surrounded by fragments,
offering a sense of impermanence, while in the two Codices, he shows only fragments, both the raw materials from which
art can be made, and the results of its destruction.
Impermanence is also a feature of King’s work. His three paintings, Litoral III; Disintegrating Markers VII and
Workspace VI all give a sense of the
mutability of both man-made objects and landscapes, whether the damaged boat and
pier of Litoral III or the broken
combs of Workspace.
With Broll’s two works, Speaking
to You and Dance Card, there is a
return to the human figure, but in a very different manner to
Gourlay-Conyngham’s realism. Her figures are also disturbing, but in this case
because of their distortions, making them curiously inhuman. In Speaking to You, there is an enormous
disconnect between the two figures, which mocks the title the artist has given
the work.
Hall, whose work is the least representational of the pieces on the
exhibition, however shows meticulous detail in the bundles of imphepho that are
almost tactile in their realism in Metaphysics:
Bundles of Imphepho and Water Spirit.
That work, as well as Anubis in Hallowed
Ground and Water Spirit see the artist exploring the area of the sacred –
gods, spirits and objects used in worship.
The exhibition Five Degrees of
Separation runs in the Schreiner Gallery at the Tatham Art Gallery until 17h00
on May 20, 2018. - Margaret von Klemperer
The Tatham Art
Gallery is situated opposite the Town Hall in Chief Albert Luthuli Street,
Pietermaritzburg. It is open from Tuesdays to Sundays from 10h00 to 17h00. Café
Tatham is open on Saturdays. Safe parking with a car guard available. More
information on 033 392 2801 or visit www.tatham.org.za
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