Entries (RSS) Patmos and the War at Sea Ships Out
Alastair Whitton’s Patmos and the War at Sea exhibition ended its run last month at David Krut Projects, Jan Smuts and has since moved onto to two new locales, Art on Main and the Bamako Biennale. It is an exhibition that places a lot of emphasis on the viewer’s willingness to engage with the work and subject matter. If one takes time with Whitton’s digital laser cut prints, meaning reveals itself in surprising ways. An example of this are the small letters interspersed among the laser cut brail text. There is also a hidden narrative within his works, which were exhibited along all the DK Project’s walls, filling the gallery with memories and visions of the past. Although the artist offers up so much for the viewer to engage with, the meaning of the images still remains elusive. Whitton has aimed to express the inability of historicisation through visuals or writing to capture the past. Ways of Seeing, the title of the famous John Berger text, is what this exhibition is about. Whitton does not present history, in this case of World War Two, as something finite, rather the archival war imagery transform into new and surreal objects through their digital replication - Parachutes look like jelly fish, an aerial photograph of trains becomes a murky river. One could see a genuine desire from those at the exhibition to understand or at least attempt to understand the meaning behind each work. Considering it was the Spring Art Tour that night and with all the hullabaloo and the Grolsch flowing strong, Whitton works provided a meditative and intellectual space, if but for a moment.
The following Saturday was Whitton’s walk-about with some introductory words from David Krut. Krut spoke of Whitton’s interesting life thus far; his spell in Holland at the studio of Marlene Dumas to his time living in the Karoo and finally his current position managing David Krut Cape Town. After a brief thanks to David, Whitton spoke about the work that had taken him a year to complete. He explained about the highly technical of the Braille lettering and exacting digital replication. Whitton alluded to the many messages and theme’s in the work and chose a few works in particular to ’decode’ so the audience could have an insight into the inner workings of the artist. Finally, Whitton answered a few questions from the audience and was back to Cape Town. |
