‘Subtropicalia’ was held at Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town in November 2009
This body of work began with a short story I wrote about my childhood in Johannesburg in the 70s and 80s and the insatiable interest I had in surfing and skateboarding. I use this as a kind of template through which to view my work, which is characterised by pattern, process and the use of unconventional materials, often resulting in an interpretation which emphasizes its abstract concerns over any others. This device reveals my abiding interest in repetitive form, design, colour and material to be firmly rooted in memory and sensory experiences that I evoke in the abovementioned story.
The series of sculptures, two-dimensional pieces and a video work explore waveforms, symmetry and process in a variety of media across a range of scales. Read a review here.
Foam 2009
Skateboard wheels, cable ties
24 x 50 x 4cm
Dallas Oberholzer of Indigo Skate Camp collected these for me.
Sleeve and (detail) 2008
Wetsuit fabric
210 x 310 x 310cm
Sleeve is made from re-used wetsuit fabric which I acquired from Mahala, an organisation which solicits donations of wetsuits for underprivileged kids, many of which are too large or unusable. I replaced these with good secondhand suits in appropriate sizes.
Roll 2008
Polyurethane
26 x 45 x 3cm
The elements of this work were modelled on an altered skateboard wheel, 3-D printed from a digital file, then moulded and cast in polyurethane.
This series of works was produced in the same way I made Sieve in 2005
Pool (detail) 2008
Silkscreen on hand-cut Tyvek
59.5 x 84.5 x 5cm
Slope 2008
Silkscreen on hand-cut Tyvek
84.5 x 59.5 x 5cm
Trough 2008
Silkscreen on hand-cut Tyvek
59.5 x 84.5 x 5cm
Period 2007
Expanded polyethylene foam, hardware
Two sections, each approximately 140 x 140 x 90cm
These large objects are made from a series of hand-cut foam profiles laminated with hardware into rolling wave-like forms.
Pitch 2008
Acrylic, brass
66 x 55 x 6cm
Ply 2008
Polypropylene, hardware
190 x 115 x 168cm
Ply (detail) 2008
Ply is made from die-cut polypropylene elements assembled into a double-curved helix. The profile of each element is based on the profile of a longboard I made for myself in 2008
Weft (foreground)
Looped DVD, with original footage from Bruce Brown’s Endless Summer, produced by Brendon Bussy
This work was shown in its initial form, produced with Greg Streak in 2003 and in 2008 after Brendon Bussy re-produced it for me
All photographs by Mario Todeschini, courtesy of Stevenson Gallery
Paul Edmunds 