Solo exhibition to focus on intimacy of self-portraits
Hentie van der Merwe's solo exhibition will open in May and will highlight a multitude of self-portraits taken by the artist.
Displaying a multitude of photographs placed on specially designed wooden frames, Hentie van der Merwe’s solo effort, Selfshots captures the intimacy of self-portraits.
The exhibition, opening on 3 May, will be hosted by the Speke Photographic gallery at CIRCA on Jellicoe.
According to Van der Merwe, the series will consist of 33 LightJet prints placed on Fuji metallic photo paper that has been mounted in wooden frames. The frames have been designed specially by Cape Town framer, Wessel Snyman for the exhibition.
“Each image in the series is a face that has been produced by means of an elaborate process of appropriation, reflection and manipulation. The process involved in producing these images…is important to the concept of the series,” Van der Merwe said.
She also explained the painstaking effort involved in putting together the exhibition, which included countless hours spent online, researching the various ways people capture their own reflections in mirrors.
“I came to understand these types of online platforms for hosting such collections of images, as a kind of contemporary self-regulating photo archive of body and face types available for everyone’s participation,” she added.
The artist then explained that the photographs captured were then suspended by hand in front of a flexible mirror in her studio, and the reflections were re-photographed onto transparency film by a medium-format film camera.
During processing, the film was also further manipulated by means of push-processing so as to have an impact on the colours.
“The resultant transparencies were then re-digitised by a drum scanner and then printed, mounted and framed,” Van der Merwe said.
The exhibition will begin at 10am and will run until 24 May.
