Invitation to CeraMIX:TEXTURE at art.b Gallery – Bellville Art Association / by Natasja De Wet

Dear all,

Herewith an invitation to the thought provoking group exhibition CeraMIX:TEXURE.

Scrolls in a Box and Layered Introversion are included.

The layered, hand-stitched ‘miniatures’, titled Layered Introversion, are comprised of textural materials such as plastic netting, shreds of delicate clothing, previously painted on and used canvas, gauze and felt, and are carefully placed together to form dense layers of mostly monochrome colours with strong hints of orange in certain places. This work echoes the private, quiet space of a shirt pocket, that also has a bodily resonance. These objects can fit or be hidden away in the personal, intimate space of a pocket.

The primacy of viewer interaction is also reflected in my process of making for the work titled Scrolls in a Box, which comprises of miniature scrolls stored in a canvas box. Tightly rolled and bound painted canvases, what I refer to as ‘private scrolls’, given that the information contained within them cannot be read, were painted daily with layers of glue. Glue and detritus were applied to the surface of the box and in the cavities in between the rolled-up canvasses. Thus, the surface reveals layers of substances, which mimics the layered, concealed nature of the melancholic state. The melancholic temperament occasionally wants to be seen, to reveal something or to be acknowledged, but is most comfortable when introverted and out of sight. Viewing Scrolls in a Box alludes to a voyeuristic experience, as the lid of the box can be opened and the box’s interior can be viewed, but the scrolls cannot be read. The intimacy of the box and the veiling quality of the glue conveys the dichotomy of the melancholic, of one that seeks to both hide and be seen.