Exhibition by Janet Solomon at Origins Centre
JOBURG - The exhibition of photographs and paintings by Janet Solomon is intended to set up associations between reality and artifice, death and life.
The exhibition, showing from 6 November at the Origins Centre, will be Solomon’s fourth solo show, as well as her submission for a Master’s Degree through the University of the Witwatersrand.
Solomon intends on comparing the technique of the “Green Screen” to the way in which museums traditionally display groups of people or animals in dioramas – a construction similar to a stage set in a glass showcase and intended to give a context to the reconstructed humans and animals.
The dioramas result in a false sense of reality comparable to how the Green Screen manipulates the digital image.
The term “Green Screen” is used in the digital world when an image of a subject is taken against a green background. The green is then erased and replaced by a different background, thus manipulating reality.
The photographed images of taxidermied animals trapped in artificial situations are accompanied by her paintings of living people in natural environments, suggesting the ravages and threats of climate change and other ecological destruction.
The juxtapositions between the frozen moments of history and the ravages of the present examine ideas of freedom and entrapment as well as question how we look at the distance between object and subject.
The situating of this exhibition in the Origins Centre locates the work in a specific context which adds credence to the images and allows the viewer to broaden the parameters of this layered exhibition.
The exhibition will be showing everyday from 4 November until 31 January.
Details: 011 717 4700.
