‘Braids’ began with a suite of silkscreens where a repeated iteration of a simple motif gave rise to images which resemble ropes, braids or scaled surfaces. This led to a small body of work which explores such forms in diverse media, especially in terms of colour, pattern and material. The result is something rich in visual and tactile qualities, where reference is made as much to natural phenomena as to human-made artefacts. The works achieve their complexity by the accumulation and interweaving of simple elements, and the intervention of chance is as important as meticulous planning.

Photographs courtesy of WhatiftheWorld

Braid 1, 2016, silkscreen 70 x 70cm

The first in a series of three, Braid 1 was made using a simple circular arrangement of crescent-shaped motifs re-registered and printed around 30 times, using a two colour split fountain process. This was a close collaboration with artist and friend Wim Le Grand at Black River Studio,

Braid 2,  2016, silkscreen, 70 x 70cm

This was made in the same way as the previous piece, but with a concave crescent motif.

Braid 3, 2016, silkscreen, 70 x 70cm

This time I used a shallow s-shaped motif.

Coils, 2016, skateboard wheels, brass, hardware, 60 x 17 x 8cm

I first used this medium in ‘Season’ in 2013. Here, the colours available and the scaled surfaces suggested to me an exotic snake, and the wheels are arranged to suggest as much.

Squaretangle, 2016, bronze, 27 x 43cm

This work was made and cast from corrugated cardboard, and is little more than a visual and verbal pun making reference to my own work, such as this, something I re-worked here too.

Parting, 2016, PVC-insulated wire, copper wire, wood

Telephone wire has long been a part of my oeuvre (see here, for example.) Previously I’d mostly woven it in a method I learned in KwaZulu-Natal. Here I chose to ‘thatch’ it and then let the loose ends run wild. The colours are simply a response to what I had available, and the form made reference to a wave (something explored in my earlier show ‘Subtropicalia’, among other places) as much as my fast-disappearing cowlick.  RIP!

Hoops, 2016, skateboard wheels, cable ties, 69 x 16 x 3cm

These wheels were given to me by Dallas Oberholzer, some time before he was the second oldest competitor at the Paris Olympics. The colours suggested to me a coral snake and the title refers as much to the shape of the individual elements as to the term used to describe bands of colour in clothing and, I assume, snakes,

Installation view, ‘Braids’