"New Works by Andrew Verster , Installation by Marklyn Govender and Clint Singh"
2001-05-08 until 2001-05-26
NSA Gallery
Durban, , ZA South Africa

Bandhini is the visual theme running through the new works by renowned Durban artist Andrew Verster. The artist states I am fascinated by the idea that the subject of a painting may not reveal itself immediately. You may see other things first. There is no background or foreground. It is all one. That is not to say that everything is equally important, just that everything is important.

Verster continues to develop and explore a contemporary visual language based on the conflation of Western and Asian pictorial principals – investigating notions of ‘abstraction’ and the contradictions between diverse influences and elements that collide, cajole and nestle together in one canvas. In Verster’s words: “I take fragments from here and there that have never until then met and now have to spend their lives together comparing notes. My paintings are like an arranged marriage.”

The exhibition is a testimony to his ever-intensifying love affair with India. “When I talk about India I mean the big one across the sea and Durban, my India. In my mind they are the same thing. When someone called Durban the suburbs of India, I knew exactly what she meant. Living in these suburbs for thirty-five and more years, India has invaded my mind and my thinking.”

The exhibition will also include a breathtaking component created by Marklyn Govender and Clint Singh. Designers of Indian marriage ceremonies (from selection of garments to styling, mehndi rituals etc) they are sensitive to the need to preserve tradition and yet to be innovative and are constantly experimenting with new ideas. An installation foregrounding their exceptional eye for colour, style and unusual combinations of materials will occupy part of the exhibition space.

Related Links:

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