A Crescendo of Ecstasy
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J.H. Pierneef / Wayne Barker
Gerard Sekhoto / Lady Skollie
x Eden Labs

PROJECT_
Old Masters /
New Realities
About_
Old Masters / New Realities introduces a series of conversations between early South African artists and their contemporary counterparts. Each conversation focuses on a set of social, cultural and/or academic meanings, interpretations and investigations around artistic practice within South Africa. Paired together through a consciously explorative effort, the exhibition features a digital response from Wayne Barker’s ardently layered subversions of the commodification of “African identity” to Pierneef’s stylistic ability in assuring balance of form, colour and composition to effectively evoke an atmosphere that would communicate the mood of peacefulness and serenity found in the unspoilt African landscape; and another from Lady Skollie’s simultaneously bold and vulnerable expression of the duality of the human experience to Sekoto’s graceful and dignified portrayal of abstracted busts and portrait studies of African women through his bold and broad expressionistic style driven by his use of a predominantly blue palette.
With a technology-driven undertone, Old Masters / New Realities presents new and possible ideas for the future of African contemporary art, by offering alternative spaces and realities to the artistic practice and public consumption of that same practice. The physical presence of artworks by Pierneef and Sekoto, the contemporary and new media works created by Wayne Barker and Lady Skollie invite the viewer to reflect on three tiers: the past, the narratives of our present and ultimately advance equally accessible futures.
Copyright 2018 edenlabs
05 September 2018 - 22 December 2018
Past, present and future re-imagined
Virtual Reality meets traditional sculpture


Watch the official trailer

Photograph by Jono Wood
Wayne Barker
x J.H Pierneef
The Gaze can be seen as a visual diary of Wayne Barkers’ life and a chronology of the encounters which include other artists, musicians, dancers, models and the media which has been so pervasive in our era. One of the most important of these encounters has been with the work of Pierneef. It was Pierneef (or more specifically Pierneef’s version of the land) to whom Barker turned in his early critiques.
Wayne Barker’s ardently layered subversions of the commodification of “African identity” is a digital response to J.H. Pierneef’s stylistic ability to assure balance of form, colour and composition as a way of effectively evoking the atmosphere of the unspoilt African landscape.


Realtime mobile VR experience
The artists’ studio captured and brought to life in 3D Virtual Reality
The Gaze VR
Custom 3D printed headsets form a collectible artpiece through which viewers can explore the virtual studio experience. Handheld units enhance ease of use.

In ‘The Gaze’ VR experience, the viewer is able to explore Wayne Barkers’ studio in stereoscopic 360, with realtime interactions triggering an array of mixed media artwork curated by Barker himself. VR sculptures and drawings, traditional 2D animations are hostes by a realtime full body pre-recording of the artist comped in real time.

Three dimensional virtual Poem
Indrid Jonker narrates her poem
‘ Die Kind’ as it reveals itself around the viewer, hand written in VR by Wayne Barker.




Lady Skollie x
Gerarard Sekhoto
Lady Skollie, born Laura Windvogel, depicts the female form as a site of tension, the tipping point between self-actualized ownership versus male-dominated possession. The illustrative and playful nature of her work is easily translated and amplified as virtual sculpture, part of her response to Gerard Sekoto’s Blue Head.


Deep blues mirror that of Sekoto’s 1960’s work blue head while a legion of eyes watch the viewer as the viewer watches back, in a constant loop of being consumed by ‘thegaze’.
This work entitled “Oh No, I Just Like watching, Thanks” , Lady Skollie tells a story about her relationship with her vulnerability, martyrdom of the coloured woman in relation to the tragedy of Ellen Pakkies, and her admiration for the work of the late Gerard Sekoto.


The virtual reality peephole
"
I keep thinking of all the vulnerable drawings Sekoto made of women, the way he represented them. I try to be just as vulnerable but my voyeurism has taken a different angle. My vision is blurry from all the filth; I can’t see straight. I can’t see at all. I’ve seen too much probably. I’ve been watching you watching me watching you watching me.”
- Lady Skollie
Visitors to the gallery could interact with Lady Skollies virtual drawing entitled "Watch The Expulsion" via a Virtual Reality headset suspended in the gallery, or peer through a peephole and watch another persons projected experience in the ultimate virtual voyeuristic encounter
Explore the TMRW gallery in 360°



















Credits_
Technology by
Eden Labs Pty Ltd
Installation / Artwork
Mary Sibande
Photogrammetry
Jonathan Wood
360 Animation
The Kinetic
Sound Design
Audio Militia
After Movie
Dirk Chalmers
Photographs
Brooklyn J. Pakathi / TMRW
Hosted by
Keyes Art Mile / TMRW