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Terra Pericolosa 23 June - 28 July 2012

Group exhibition curated by Elfriede Dreyer
Fried Contemporary Art Gallery, Pretoria

For this exhibition, several works from the TRANSCODE (2011) exhibition were reworked and extended. 
 
Residual system had been created and titled Family portrait in TRANSCODE. The original reference point was family relationships and the complexity of the chemistry of biological inheritance. As Residual system, the laboratory glass is arranged with a personal order in mind: a system that speaks of transference, of escalation and of an interrelated network. The system of residue refers to unknown strains of influence over time.  As the series progressed, the idea of contamination developed: and for this exhibition, black drops of handmade glass were commissioned to integrate into the work as details. Resembling an opaque impurity within the system, the dripping suggests a threatening process of spillage.  Most systems contain some residue, dangerously leaking its toxins within our midst, both physically and metaphorically. mmmmm
 
Seeping (2011 - 2012) is a continued contemplation of a flawed system. The tension between purity and stain, between order and defect, brings to our cultural and industrial organisations a sense of looming threat.  Laboratories are places of control where great rigor is applied, yet at the same time experimentation pushes boundaries, of both technology and planetary tolerance.  In the relational system between nature and culture, growth and progression does not necessary have complementary conclusions.  The fissures result in radioactive spills, or acid draining that contaminates water, or pollution of the seas with oil. The residue of purity holds its own menace.

Catalogue available Terra Pericolosa
Lauwrens, J. 2012. Gevaarlike landskappe le ook in kop en lyf, in Beeld 2012/07/22
The installation of Residual System (2011-2012) was later taken up in the Art Collection of SAMHS (South African Military Health Services)

Terra 2015

Group exhibition curated by Elfriede Dreyer
Oliewenhuis Museum, Bloemfontein

This work forms part of an ongoing series which deals with structures of ordering. It is a further contemplation on flawed systems that are frightening yet exhilarating. A disaster, when viewed from the safe distance provided by the news media, holds fascination and sublime attraction, as often occurs with the nature of all things beyond our control. The awareness of a looming threat to our culture and industrial practices develops in the intermedial tension between order and defect.

Catalogue available at TERRA 2015

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