Tina Skukan Art Gallery (September 2024) and White River Art Gallery (October 2024)

The creative research for the traveling exhibition The Measure of Matter consists of a reimagining of spines, mapping devices and objects to consider our reality of being bound by time and matter. The 21 new works created in 2024 involved photography and mixed media works ranging from acrylic inks, Lucia Pro ink, charcoal, graphite, and pencil drawings, as well as acrylic paintings and oil painting with encaustic.

The travelling solo exhibition “The Measure of Matter” consists of 21 new works reimagining spines and objects to consider being bound by time and matter. The first installation was in the two front rooms of the Tina Skukan Gallery and the second installation took place at the White River Art Gallery, where the narrative flow was reconceptualised. The research was triggered by the physical problem of struggling to walk due to Spondylitis of the backbones. In the months before the pending operation, I studied the anatomy and contemplated frailty. Images of the skeleton and the spine transmuted into an interest in the spines of old books, existential mapping devices, and objects associated with mortality and the interrogation of what really matters. My artworks address a shared reality: we are all bound by time and matter, and the anxieties of an uncertain future. My preliminary research considered how I could extend my personal experiences into works that would resonate with the audience, bringing its own history and realities to the exhibition. The painting “Platteland” was a reworking of the brush I worked with the previous year, but here I added water to suggest a journey of the object as ‘body’ on the way elsewhere. It was the work that triggered the association and link with weathered bones. Drawing the past into the present, I have used alchemic yellow tones in works such as “Map to no-where (becoming something)”, and the darkly humorous dancing “Salome I” and “Salome II.” Interestingly, the Biblical Salome is vilified by Jung in his Red Book (2009), although he equates her with the soul.

Initially I approached anatomy as a mechanistic system of levels until I discovered the body’s incredible ability to grow new bone, restructuring the old into something new. Bridgman’s (1972) “The human machine” introduced me to the tiny Atlas bone that supports the human skull. It is named after the titan Atlas, who, in Greek mythology, supported the world on his shoulders. The painting “Atlas” was accompanied by “Load Bearing,” depicting an overloaded truck — begging the question of burden — albeit with some sense of humour. Bridgman’s images of the human spine reminded me of my weathered books kept intact by  a network of stubborn threads, like tendons binding muscle and bone. These inspired the creation of “All that matters” and “The spine study” series. At Skukan Art Gallery, the series was positioned to form a dialogue with the permanent sculptural works that related to objects of labour, but the installation was reformatted and retitled at White River Art Gallery to “A library of time from Göttingen,” as the space seemed to demand a different reading.  In high-resolution photography, the books were treated as if they were portraits, commemorating time with subtitles such as “Becoming wood” and “Dictionary of the disappearing.”

Conceptually I considered weather mapping to contemplate fresh winds blowing life into matter. The chronicle flow was a method to renew thinking about illness as a cyclical part of life. Visual associations were layered until the medium and material began to communicate meaningful new associations. Torn layers of paper and thickly applied charcoal evidenced awareness as embodied thinking.

Much like the atlas bone, our spiritual compass decides what matters and what does not, and how we measure its bearing and influence. These works form an interdisciplinary conversation with reflections on psychology, new-material culture and research on ‘falling upwards” in life, to borrow Richard Rohr’s words. In this sense the work contributes to new understanding, bridging the above fields in visualization.  “The Measure of Matter” exhibitions and several walkabouts were well attended at both Tina Skukan Gallery and at White River Art Gallery.

Opportunities for academic talks were optimized as the audience attended my solo and the solo of Elfriede Dreyer, which were presented alongside each other but as separate research.  Both spaces have a substantive following and are well-established institutions. The artworks were published on social media and were taken into the archive of the Unisa Institutional Repository for permanent research access. 

Bridgman, GB. 1972. The human machine. New York: Dover.
Jung, CG.  2009. The Red Book: Liber Novus. Edited by S. Shamdasani. New York: Norton.
 

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Gallery of images from the openings and walkabouts of The Measure of Matter 2024: