Visual artist Uwe Pfaff lets observers play inside his mind during the journey he took while creating his latest Surrealist body of works, which explores surfaces created using copper, brass and nickel-plating.

“In the past two years, some of my shiny surfaces have acquired what looks like ancient skins. Surfaces change in life, from the shiny naked to the flaky rugged old,” he says.

Trying to understand Pfaff’s inspiration is a study in paradoxes  and dualism.

The artist cites Surrealists such as Escher and Magritte as influences on his work.

“I can relate to their hard- edged dream world. That world in itself is a contradiction,” says Pfaff.

“When I produce my work, my aim is not to analyse the human condition or find answers to the question of life, but perhaps reflect on the paradox of why  humans feel loneliest in a crowd,” he says.

His work challenges observers who have preconditioned perceptions of reality and frequently displays a collection of ordinary objects in an unusual context, giving new meanings to familiar things.

Pfaff says he  listens to the voice in his head, which, interestingly, he does not identify as his own.

“I hear voices I have never heard all at once, including  a particularly good imitation of Sigmund Freud.

This voice tells me that there is somebody else inside all of us,” he says.

Born in 1947 in Rye, Denmark, Pfaff grew up in Germany, and arrived in South Africa in 1970.

In 1975, he took painting and sculpture classes at the Cape Town Art Centre,  holding his first solo exhi-bition a year later.

Pfaff  then took sculpture and etching classes at the Ruth Prowse School of Art and Design.

In 1979, he presented his work in the form of sculpture and etchings at the Cape Town Biennale.

“From then, over the years I explored a range of different media,” says Pfaff, who has achieved recognition for his iconic cut-out images locally and abroad.

Breaking with tradition of outside speakers, the artist himself will open the exhibition, which will offer  fascinating insights and arouse further musings about his work and process.