Artists hold exhibition
MAUREEN ODUBENG
Staff Writer
| Friday January 25, 2008 00:00
The theme of the artworks on display by the duo shows the viewer the links between the narrative in the visual arts and poetry.
'The use of free-association, the juxtaposition of caught happenings that allow a relationship between the real and unreal; there is a kind of metaphysical nature in both. Also the use of intonation and rhythm both to emphasise the message and to create an aesthetic structure are such important elements in visual and poetic composition,' says a note by the artists.
Jobson's artwork is based on the poem Howl by Beat Poet Allen Ginsberg and incorporates the whole poem within a total of about 60 art pieces. Jobson explains that Howl is a poem that he first read almost 30 years ago.
'At the time I was a college student, doing a degree in fine art. The poem seemed at that time to speak of my world,' he recalled.
Jobson added that over the years, he re-read the poem a number of times and thought about embarking on this project for about 10 years.
'Allen Ginsberg was one of the Beat poets-along with Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs and others around the 1950s and into the 1960s: they seemed to pre-empt the youth revolution of the 1960s.
I have come to associate the poem more and more with the work of artists like Kitaj and Hockney, perhaps because of my personal experience of London rather than the cities in the United States of America (US) that the poem alludes to. The cheap rented apartment and hand-to-mouth living, the sex and drugs life style and sense of transience, the blues parties, cheap cafes and bars and part time jobs, clubbing and street life all are part of an inner city youth culture no different today than 50 years ago.
This was the time in my life that shaped who I am, my politics, my beliefs and values,' he said.
Jobson also explains that the structure of the poem, with its sense of free association, is like a journal meandering through familiar sights, sounds and smells.
It is a rather bleak vision, somewhat sordid, but it is lived in:
Jobson's approach for this particular series follows the poem chronologically with the only goal being to embed the whole poem in as many pieces of work as it would take.
'It has taken over a year (though the majority of the work is from 2007) of fairly intense work to complete and I decided that I would show every piece - the good, bad and indifferent-I feel that the work as a whole installation is interesting for the fact that the work has coherence-an accidental bi-product given the lack of forward planning,' he explained in his personal statement.
Heaven is a visual and literal composition by Sedireng Mothibatsela. She uses text and image to create abstract compositions, which explore the nature of illusion and allusion.
Subtle variations in texture and delicate linear rhythms weave across the works constantly changing pace and energy.
The display is part of a larger exhibition programmed for the Grahamstown Festival (with Ann Gollifer and Monica Selelo) later this year.