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A Crescendo of Ecstasy

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J.H. Pierneef / Wayne Barker

Gerard Sekhoto / Lady Skollie

x Eden Labs

OldMastersNewRealitiesWayneBarkerTheGaze

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

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Watch the official trailer

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.  

 

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LadySkollieOldMastersNewRealitiesVRPeeph

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°

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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

Lady Skollie’s work provides a playful, edgy, interaction with Gerard Sekoto’s painting Blue Head. Here the VR consists of a tilt-brush painting, which can be examined from all angles but the added introduction of peepholes in the gallery walls opens the work up to an interrogation of ideas around voyeurism and morbid curiosity – when you peer through them you see what the VR viewer using the headset is experiencing – the boundaries between private and public thus melting together, creating a communal experience.

— Tymon Smith - Art Throb

Thanks

For

Looking

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