| In two very distinct bodies of work I have taken the South African landscape as my departure point so as to interrogate the history of our land and those who have worked it. In my new “Pierneef Series” I have laid down individual shreds of decommissioned South African bank notes – tapestry-like – to reference this artist’s historic and iconic landscapes. While in other works I use mine dump dust, together with oxides and oils, to echo the wan colours of Johannesburg’s gold-mining periphery – once the source of such great underground wealth but now just a repository of surface waste.
Ochre reds, mustard yellows, gun-metal greys and olive greens predominate, all suggestive of the pervasive colours of South Africa’s historical mining landscape: reds and yellows reflect the crushed soils of the dumps themselves; greys and greens suggest the sparse vegetation and scrubby eucalyptus trees and translucent, watery blues reference the spreading industrial skies.
On a more literal level, my materials resonate with the idea of something of enormous wealth that has subsequently been reduced to waste. But I also probe notions of commodification, value and desire. |
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Title: Pierneef Reisited IV
Date: 2022 Medium: Decommissioned shredded R10, R20, R50, R100, R200 SA banknotes, Dimensions: 40 x 40cm
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Title: Pierneef Revisited III
Date: 2021 Medium: Decommissioned shredded R10, R20, R50, R100, R200 SA banknotes, Dimensions: 30 x 30cm |
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Title: Money Grows on Trees(The Old Baobab Tree by Erich Mayer)
Date: 2022 Medium: Decommissioned shredded R10, R20, R50, R100, R200 SA banknotes, Dimensions: 53x70cm |
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Title: After the Fire (Rhodes Memorial, April 2021)
Date: 2022 Medium: Medium: Mine dump dust, oils, oxides, wood glue on ply Dimensions: 90x90cm |
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Title: Windswept
Date: 2021 Medium: Decommissioned Dimensions: 80 x 80cm |
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Title: South Easter
Date: 2021 Medium: Decommissioned Dimensions: 80 x 80cm
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Title: Brandbloem
Date: 2022 Medium: Mine dump dust, oils, oxides, wood glue on ply Dimensions: 60 x 60cm |
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Title: Calm After the Storm Date: 2022 Medium: Shredded R10, R20, R50, R100 & R200 bank notes, Perspex, gold-leaf size Dimensions: 80 x 80cm
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| Title: Calm After the Storm
Date: 2022 Medium: Decommissioned Dimensions: |
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Title: Zoom V
Date: 2021 Medium: Reverse acrylic painting on glass Dimensions: 20 x 20cm |