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Moment

15 September - 10 October 2024 | Tina Skukan Gallery, Pretoria

19 October - 9 November 2024 | White River Gallery, Mpumalanga

 

An exhibition showcasing artworks that explore the transmutation of sound into words, images into sound, and words into images. Compositions on/in piano by the artist in collaboration with Johan van Huyssteen, experimental visual and sound artist based in Seoul. 

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00:00 / 00:32

In collaboration with Korean-South-African sound artist Johan van Huyssteen

Boom Ting
00:00 / 01:04
Moment
Danse
00:00 / 00:28
Fermata
00:00 / 01:33
00:00 / 00:24
Tonk
Scales-stars
00:00 / 00:21
00:00 / 00:20
00:00 / 00:24
Polyphony1
Polyphony2
Birthing
00:00 / 01:06
productive
Speak
00:00 / 00:59
Performer
Ebony
00:00 / 01:00
00:00 / 02:02
00:00 / 01:28
00:00 / 00:36
00:00 / 01:08
Piano & angel
Bokkie
Song 1
Song 2
Saving grace
Composition
Ontogenesis
Transfiguration
00:00 / 01:33
00:00 / 01:48
00:00 / 00:52
00:00 / 01:05
00:00 / 02:40

Artist statement: Moment

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A moment in time – that is human life. A sound recounts a moment in time.

 

The Moment works deal with my piano as object and instrument. In a previous 2024 series, The piano, my piano which survived the 2017 Knysna Great Fire also served as the central motif, addressing the theme of loss and recollection. In the Moment body of work I connect word, image and sound. The work was produced in expansion of a previous 2023 series, Song of the Philosopher, in which the relationship of word to image was investigated. My play with onomatopoeia  – words that mimic the sounds they describe ­– explores the interplay between word, image and sound, as well as sound evoking both word and image.

 

My piano and its resounding ‘voice’; black-and-white notes (ebony and ivory); outer appearance; inner harp; keyboard; and mechanics are interpreted as figure tropes of the architecture of life. Conceptually the work is grounded in Heidegger's idea of Dasein, which denotes human beings in their everydayness, intertwining subject, object, consciousness and world. Heidegger’s notion of  Geworfenheit (being ‘thrown’ into life) applies to all living beings, including death. Just as the piano is lifeless until played, bringing forth sound, so too does the female body bear life.

 

Each work in Moment is accompanied by a sound or small composition I played on the piano—on both its notes and strings—in collaboration with Seoul-based experimental visual and sound artist Johan van Huyssteen. The sounds are accessible via QR codes. Imagery of sound waves features in several works, symbolising the piano’s production of sound and the act of communicating voice.

 

I incorporate comic-book conventions such as dialogue balloons to evoke a stylised human narrative. These balloons reflect the highs and lows of human experience, suggesting the need to pause in the relentless flow of time. Dotted balloons suggest soft whispers, while jagged balloons represent loud noise or a scream. Mountain imagery, particularly peaks, is a recurring motif, symbolising a state of heightened consciousness. The works combine comic-book lines in black ink with expressive, emotive paint. A technique of layered polyphony—employed across physical and digital media—suggests consciousness across physical, mental, and virtual worlds.

 

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