RAW Paris, open
for view Wednesday 17 Oct - Monday 22 Oct, 2pm - 1am.
Vernissage Friday 19 Oct, starts 6pm.
During FIAC art
fair in Paris two young South African artists, Tim Dempers
and Michael Elion,
will put on a late-night exhibition in the studio of Xavier
Veilhan. The title of the show refers to both the work
itself and how the artist’s feel at this juncture in
their lives. The work challenges our perceptions with new
modes of sensory
expression. The exhibition is supported by work from Andre
Niemeyer (Brazil), Sandra Pfeifer (Austria) and Kathrin
Kur (Germany). RAW is a supplementary art venue during the
fair.
Tim
Dempers’ three-dimensional paintings
explore the potential identity of lines, using digital
media to exploit
new possibilities in painting. Dempers uses algorithms (developed
in collaboration with mathematician Dr. Alex Scott) and parametric
modelling to create three-dimensional paintings from his sketches.
His work is based on exploiting components
of kinetic energy
exerted in the drawing of a line - acceleration, direction,
pressure, distribution etc. - and allowing them to serve as
catalysts for his work. In “Code Unknown” fibreglass
strips undulate rhythmically around a transparent frame. By
harnessing “the entropy of a line”, Dempers proffers
an original paradigm from which to understand the synthesis
of form and content.
Michael
Elion’s work deals with aesthetics
and visual perception. The highly formal content is drawn
largely from
the natural world. His interest in representation and language,
and their relationship to aesthetics, come together in a dialectic
of seemingly antithetical works. The words KATE MOSS emblazoned
in gold leaf confront an enormous, ugly, yet beautiful fly.
Elion’s use of juxtaposition in the presentation of different
works serves as an auxiliary aesthetic tool, each work acting
as a perceptual prosthesis for the other. His research interest
in cognitive science is evident in his chequer pattern, tropical
aquariums that intend to defy “the inherent desire of
the brain for order”.
Andre
Niemeyer’s aesthetic sensitivity is
clearly rooted in his fashion background. The young men
in his “Wanted” series
(mug shot type paintings) are beautiful, impassive and damaged
and evoke ambiguity. Are they victims of abuse or victims of
their own narcissistic invincibility? Heroic yet delicate,
the duality reveals the ineluctable vulnerability of youth
and the fragility of romanticized masculinity.
Sandra Pfeifer uses
female mannequins as the subjects in her photographs, and
in so doing initiates a
deceptive dialogue
with the viewer. Each of the mise-en-scenes in her “Dummy” series
is based on marginal figures like Anita Berber, “society
whores”, who are both desired and pitied.
Kathrin
Kur’s photographs reveal some
of the blindspots of our experience in a culture of absolute
visibility. Her
empty, bullet-ridden shooting ranges invite ambivalence, using
a seductively clam aesthetic to portray a practice-ground for
killing.
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