PRESS RELEASE: The AVA in partnership with Spier is honoured to present VAUGHN SADIE SITUATION 20 September - 15 October 2010 Vaughn Sadie - untitled (distance to the ground)   ladder wooden A frame 8 step 240 cm, ladder wooden A frame 10 step 300 cm, ladder wooden A frame 12 step 360 cm, 3 x found lamps, 3 x par 38 18 w compact fluorescent, 30m of 0.5 mmsq x 2 co white twin flex, 12 x 75 swivel rubber castors with 60 x 60 mm steel plate and mild steel dimensions variable (2008) The AVA Gallery is pleased to present situation, an installation by Vaughn Sadie, a Durban-based artist.   Light, through illuminating the spaces we occupy, affects our social reality. The nature of light is such that it can be manipulated and altered to illuminate objects and spaces revealing only the aspects that are deemed suitable or necessary. Situation explores the relationship between artificial light and space. Our sense of place is constructed by the relationship between objects, space and artificial light. In this installation the perceived passive nature of this relationship is brought into question. The objects on show not only illuminate themselves and each other, but are also complicit in altering our perception of the spaces we occupy as well as ourselves. The use of artificial light as a metaphor also raises crucial questions about power and ideology. Artists Biography: Vaughn Sadie, born in Heidelberg (1978), has participated in several group shows nationally. Situation, held at Bank Gallery, (April 23 - May 28, 2009) was his first solo exhibition in a commercial venue and followed on his 2005 show Spill light, presented as part of the KZNSA Gallery's Young Artists Project, curated by Storm Janse van Rensburg. In 2007/9 Sadie facilitated light workshops with Jay Pather in the Spier Contemporary Performance Workshops. Unit for measure was a two-person installation, which travelled from Johannesburg to Durban during 2009. In the same year Sadie completed his MFA at the Durban University of Technology and was Art South Africa's eleventh Bright Young Thing. In 2010 Sadie curated Conflicting Contexts at the Durban Art Gallery and has been awarded a residency at the Bag Factory Artist Studios. Main Gallery:  LYNETTE BESTER STALKING THE FAMILIAR 18 October - 12 November 2010 Lynette Bester - Strike, 2010 121 pencil stubs contributed and confiscated from grade 3 school pupils over two years Lynette Bester explores the materiality, meaning and gathering of objects in predominantly sculptural pieces. Her work hinges on the notion that meaning can be challenged by subjecting the object to a process which not only physically challenges it (by taking it apart or destroying it), but also de-contextualizes the object, challenging perceived meaning, value, function and association. Recently she has been interested in how meaning is altered by acknowledging from where an object comes and somehow making that part of the work. Most importantly she aims to expose the ordinary experience through interrogating the familiar and banal, the empathetic, as well as alienation from the experience of the familiar. In Stalking the Familiar, she places new sculptural explorations in context of a narrative already begun in previous works. Here she explores the concept of artist as scavenger or gleaner, gathering objects or material, by depending on social networking, traditional or in cyber space. Through Stalking the Familiar she hopes to challenge not only the object, but the idea of the artist as isolated genius in contemporary society and invites others not only to view but to participate in the process. Stalking the Familiar refers to the way the object is approached before and during the act of art making, but also to the way the art objects are interrogated in a gallery space. In so doing the viewer may not only recognize the object, but also their own contribution or baring on the object. Artists Biography: Lynette Bester completed a B.A. in F. A.1999, majoring in painting, and an M.A. in F.A. (Cum Laude), 2002, majoring in sculpture under the tuition of Alan Alborough, both at the University of Stellenbosch. She has regularly exhibited in group exhibitions since YDESIRE, at The Castle of Good Hope 2003, AFETOS ROUBADOS (Stolen Affections), Brazil 2005, THE COLLAGE SHOW at What if the World 2006, PAPER AND ME at the AVA (Association of Visual Art) 2007, Bell-Roberts Gallery's GREENHOUSE at the Lourensford Estate, 2007. BALL SPORTS 2007, and BARING 2008 both at the AVA. PRINT '08 and BETWEEN MEANING AND MATTER, 2008 at Bell-Roberts Gallery. In 2009 Bester participated in SOCIAL PATTERN at the AVA and BLACK AND WHITE, Bell-Roberts. Most recently Bester has participated in MATTERS CONCEPTUAL in April and CONCEPT MATTERS in August, 2010 at the Erdmann Contemporary as well as OWN GOAL at the AVA. In 2006 Bester was a double finalist for the Sasol New Signatures with HEART: DIMENSIONS VARIABLE and UNTITLED (VIOLIN). In January 2007 she participated in a two-man show, WITHOUT MASTER at the AVA in January 2007, for which she exhibited LE MARTEAU SANS MAITRE ( The Hammer Without  Master), which was then selected as a Top Ten Finalist for the ABSA ATELIER 2007. She has had two solo exhibitions, WHOLES CUT OUT 2002, The Cold Room, Cape Town and HEART: DIMENSIONS VARIABLE, 2005, at Blank Projects, Bo Kaap, Cape Town. In December 2005 she took part in the THUPELO International workshop in Cape Town and in 2008 was selected to participate in the DWAYER International Visual Arts Workshop for Woman in Alexandria, Egypt. In 2009 she participated in an international collaboration in Cornwall England, CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST, through which she and four other artists explored human relationships evoked by the experience of landscape. Lynette Bester is also a lecturer and Head of Department of Theory at The Ruth Prowse School of Art, Woodstock, Cape Town since 2004 and has been a part time lecturer in Theory and Discourse at Michaelis, University of Cape Town in 2005 and mixed-media lecturer at Sivuyile College, Guguletu in 2002.  High resolution images are available   Association for Visual Arts Gallery 35 Church Street, Cape Town, South Africa Gallery hours: Weekdays 10h00 to 17h00, Saturdays 10h00 to 13h00 Phone: +27-21 424-7436, Fax: +27-21 423-2637, avaart@iafrica.com www.ava.co.za                               Wine at the opening is kindly sponsored by Spier www.spierwines.co.za                                                                                                                                                  To , please click on the link at the left of this email or email to avaart@iafrica.com