‘Houding’ found me working in my characteristic unconventional materials using repetitive processes, exploring the notion of materials and permanence.
While polystyrene is cheap and throwaway, it stands a good chance of outlasting more precious materials such as bronze, but will never show signs of its age nor become more attractive because of that. The bronze works here were cast from models I made out of polystyrene punnets which I fashioned into objects that recall the design of durable objects and materials such as treadplate and drainlid covers. The title came from an Afrikaans slang word describing wear-and-tear, typically used during compulsory military service by white South African men of my generation.
I had shown the large scale linocut previously but felt that its marking of time and the way in which the passage of the single, red line spoke in some way of erosion, sat well with these works.
Photos by Dave Southwood
‘Houding’, installation view
Untitled, 2001, bronze, 26.5 x 17 x 5cm
Untitled, 2001, bronze, 32.5 x 26 x 3cm
Untitled, 2001, bronze, 18 x 15 x 4.5c
This series of one-off casts was made from objects I carved, cut and constructed out of polystyrene punnets. The objects, recalling a knurl, treadplate and a drainlid, recall hard-wearing surfaces we associate with use and permanence, and which stand in contrast to the single-use plastic from which they were originally fashioned.
Reef, 2001, polystyrene cups, dimensions variable
Reef, 2001 (detail)
This work comprised a large wandering structure fashioned from several hundred polystyrene cups I’d collected from cafeterias and dustbins over a long period. I cut out an array of arrow-shape motifs from each, leaving behind a set of similar positive shapes. The work was shown a few times in different configurations. Around then, I’d heard that New York’s Fresh Kills landfill site was visible from space and still growing. I heard too that the Australia’s Great Barrier Reef was visible from space but shrinking. I’m not sure if the first ‘fact’ is accurate but, put with the second, there seems to be an emotional veracity to the statements, and that felt more important here. The negative and positive arrows, and the deceptive longevity of the throwaway items seemed analogous to that version of things.
The same but different, 1999, linocut, 182 x 94cm
My first foray into printmaking came at the suggestion of artist and mentor Clive van den Berg for a group show entitled ‘Images of Self’. I had little idea of what I was doing and just began carving a meandering line in the centre of the format, following it as it travelled up- and downwards, becoming straighter in the process. Or, the aberration in the centre slowly gets worn down until it becomes something approaching a straight line. The edition was printed by Artist Proof Studio in Johannesburg.
Paul Edmunds 