September 14, 2024 - October 06, 2024
White River, South Africa
Click here to view: The Unseen Exhibition Catalogue
Click here to view: Lowvelder Article 'Two locals exhibit artworks at White River Gallery'
Cyril Chiburre
Artist Statement
The series “Introspection” consists of paintings on zinc sheet and charcoal drawings on paper. Because it smudges easily, charcoal is regarded as one of the hardest mediums to work with. Since I delve deeply into delicate issues, I believe that charcoal is a sensitive media that complements my notion. Shutter Island and Requiem for a Dream are referenced in the cinematic work Introspection. I react to these two films because they address questions of self-hood and society.
The piece is a reflection on our culture, our identity, and an attempt to understand the direction in which the world is heading, a society where it is simple to alter someone's culture and beliefs and where social transmission causes people to lose sight of their own identities and cultures. I study the liminal areas between the past, present, and future. The artwork predicts both the potential result and the root causes of the problems that our society faces.
The artwork follows an allegorical approach, with layered meanings allowing the viewer to have their own opinion and allow them to interpret the work based on how they understand it.
Simon Attwood
Artist Statement
Print media introduced me to the art world. I learned to make linocuts in my father’s printmaking studio (The Artists’ Press) in Mpumalanga, South Africa. Linocut has always been my preferred medium because it creates exciting challenges around flipping images and thinking in negative space. Using a chisel to carve out blank space is exciting because it breaks beyond the limitations of a normal pencil mark on paper and creates a rhythm that cannot otherwise be achieved.
My artworks are an extension of adventures into the hills of Mpumalanga, where rock shelters and trees bear witness to the flow of time. I focus on easily overlooked elements of my local environment for subject matter. Creatures that hide from sight, faded rock paintings, undescribed plant species and remote inaccessible mountaintops. For this body of work, I have focused on using trees and small easily missed creatures to embed stories and ideas.
The dead animals I have depicted are usually taken as repulsive and kept out of our minds. A dead serval on the side of the road fades into the surrounding veldt as it decomposes, but is still stunning despite being lifeless. I try to look closely at these creatures and take in details that regularly go by unseen.
It is a way of paying tribute to and appreciating something that we have smacked off the side of the road and try not to think about. The trees also contain some of these creatures and other unseen elements. Hidden images that tie in meaning without becoming the focal point. Process and materials are fundamental to me, and the charcoal that I use in my drawings is made from trees that I carbonise in a brick kiln I made. Chiburre has made use of this charcoal in his drawings too.
White River Gallery
The Unseen
September, 2024
Installation Photos
