BOOKS ARE ART: Spinning Tales II by Barbara Wildenboer.
Lovers of fine, contemporary South African art will get a rare glimpse inside the minds of some of the country’s top visual artists this month during the intriguing Bibliophilia … Turning the Pages group exhibition.
This creative showcase, which opened on 5 February, explores bibliophilia, or the love of reading, admiring and collecting books. But these are not just any books – they’re the working books produced by individual artists in creating their bodies of work.
The artists featured in this exhibition have used both the traditional structure of a book and the contemporary interpretation of book objects to produce the limited edition artists’ books on show.
Kathleen Sawyer, the 2013 L’Atelier Merit Award winner, and several other artists who have participated in the prestigious L’Atelier competition over the years, including Stephen Rosin, Shenaz Mohamed and Neil Nieuwoudt, will take visitors on a personal journey through their love of the written word and their creative expression.
Sawyer’s work is entitled Bedtime Stories and is a series of artists’ books entailing interventions such as delicate ballpoint pen drawings and sketchbook cut-outs.
The collection comprises 12 artists’ books that take Eurocentric fairy tales as a departure point for a visual discussion of what the artist feels are the most enduring motifs of the chosen narratives.
“My intention was to investigate the relevance of the fairytale genre to a contemporary audience that may not necessarily relate to the archaic references and history of the trope,” said Sawyer. “Focusing primarily on sexuality and gender-powered relations, the work identifies how these themes are presented in fairy tales using this as a non-representational basis for the content of the work.
“Consequently, the pieces are not direct illustrations of the stories themselves, but allusive meditations on the thematic elements and how these are still prevalent in contemporary culture.”
LOVING BOOKS: Path of Pins by Kathleen Sawyer.
Participating artists include Banele Khoza, Barbara Wildenboer, Stephan Erasmus, Collen Maswanganyi, Angelique Koekemoer, Michael Meyersfield, Bongani Njalo, Martin Onyis, Rosin, Mohamed, Nieuwoudt and Sawyer.
Bibliophilia … Turning the Pages runs at the Absa Gallery at Absa Towers North until 10 March.
