rubber

Studio update- Winter 2021

Art portfolio- my work

Whew, July was a strange month: from billionaires in space, to looting in South Africa and more close to home = a broken appliances as well as a traffic fine. Let’s hope August will be peaceful, calm, and things working out without rushing;-)

work in progress

August is my birthday month and I am happy to say that some of my older work will be included in an upcoming exhibition which opens on the same day as my birthday! In celebration I will be giving away this ‘Chocolate bunny” from this exhibition to one lucky person.

This group exhibition is called: Thread(ed): Interlacing womxn in the 21st century, to be held at the Association of Arts, Pretoria from 13 August – 4 September 2021

More details to follow later

But here is a sneak peek:

She does not hold water 63 x 48 cm Cotton thread, batting and rubber, wood- framed (Photographer Kleinjan Groenewald)

I watched a beautiful movie on Netflix called: It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood, which was inspired by an article featured in Esquire about Mr Rogers. After I watched the movie, I read the article, and I would like to share the following quote which really moved me with you:

Anyway, back to studio news:

The KKNK festival virtual exhibition Amplifica is still showing until the end of August. Here is a short video featuring the curator Dineke van der Walt talking about it:

and here is a video we made in my studio with the works in question:

That’s a wrap for now. Keep calm and keep warm until next time….

Please join me for a walk in the park…

Art portfolio- my work, Studio news

Sowaar as padda manel dra met fOMO

Please take a walk with me by following the link below, which will take you to my ‘drive’-(thru) where you will meet different and interesting characters who likes to celebrate life.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1o64lFrkuwliWptwrpiJuQb6uqEkFkNIL

In the link you will find individual images of available works as well as a PDF file containing a short note, and the list of works. There are short videos of the “park” space in my studio).  What is interesting is that by putting everything into the drive, I can update the list of works sold, and I can add a document with Q&A if there will be any and I can add videos by request. So please feel free to drop me an email if you have any questions, suggestions or critique.

The thinker with an educational toy

meet the artist part 7 – working with rubber

Art portfolio- my work, Studio news/blog

Artist photographed by KleinJan Groenewald 2020

Rubber is a very tactile substance and I love the skin-like quality of it, which can be highly fetishized.

It also distances my work from the perceived softness or delicacy of ‘women’s work’ to become the opposite – hard labor.

Working with rubber is like fusing two seemingly irreconcilable material forms together along with their associated symbolic values.

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Thank you for reading my ‘meet the artist’ posts during this month, reaching the half way mark today. I wish you a lovely Valentines day. xxx

 

 

meet the artist part 4 – feelings and flowers

Art portfolio- my work, Studio news/blog

Dear friends the other day I was sitting at my son’s cricket practice at school, stitching a couple of leaves and another mom asked me what I am doing. I tried to explain my work to her and had a hard time doing so.  Even when I know exactly what I should have said, I struggled to make her understand without showing any images.

So to practice I decided to write about it here. This is part 4 of 13….

I love contradictions.  Dichotomies fascinate me for eg:  Art/Craft, Success/Failure, good/bad, pure/sullied, masculine/feminine, self/other, nature/culture, life/death, human/divine, sacred/profane … and the list goes on…

I have a lot of conflicted feelings about the world we live in and sometimes those feelings extend to my work.

These days I mainly stitch flowers. A couple of years ago if you told me that I would stitch flowers, I would have said: No way Jose!

Hannalie Taute studio wall photographed by Kleinjan Groenewald 2020

If I think back now, I guess it started with marigolds for my Stink Afrikaner exhibition in 2016.

I am fascinated by the idea that flowers can be seen as a language of sorts. (see floragraphy) and that it can be used as a symbol for emotions or a code.  Inspired by codes, I learned about the Voynich Manuscript which in turn inspired me to embroider real as well as imaginary flowers.  The Victorians used flowers to send ‘secret’ messages.

I find joy in the process of stitching a variety of blooms on small pieces of rubber and then later arrange them in bouquet-like pieces.  Almost like building a puzzle.  And then of course there are the contradiction of stitching flowers onto rubber, which i like.  It is also an ode to my mother, to a time when she was a florist, but at that stage I didn’t pay attention to her creations, partly because i was too young i guess.

What is your favorite flower?