A brief consisting of ideas in relation to Milton’s 17th century epic, Paradise Regained, acted as a departure point for the work of Leonard Shapiro, Vincent Osemwegie, KyuSand Lee, Thorton Kabeya and Michael Selekane. Biblical associations aside, the quest for a lost Eden pertinent to South Africa is covertly addressed in these works, each artist having dealt with such issues in accordance with their system of visual language.
Lee, born in Seoul, Korea, moved to Cape Town in 2005 and his photographs in black and white serve as a meditation in time, as the kneeling figure (himself) painstakingly photographed appears to mark a reduction of personality and particularity into the universal and a kind of formal precision.
The exposure is such that as a series of images the focus becomes intense and definite and then loses form and detail. A sense of tonal muscularity evolves as does a sense of Warhol-like redundancy. Does this perhaps highlight the question: does the system dematerialise individuality reducing all to a homogeneity or is a meditative calm a possible outcome of a patient process of building over time? This may apply to the fledgling democracy that is South Africa’s.
Shapiro’s archival pigment inks exhibit an interest and engagement with the structure of the skull, that which is beneath the skin. His lines are well executed as they search for the form of the cranium, a sort of artistic excavation. The overlap between human biology and observational drawing suggests that the search for what lies beneath and beyond is both the vocation of scientist and artist alike, and are skills necessary for reclaiming Eden through knowledge, as well as an answer to those who seem to be unmoved by the facts - that which the skin veils as it were.
Osemwegie’s mixed media on Perspex deal with several themes: a sense of line that creates and leaves traces, erases and reforms. A sense of a line that is layered and complex, as well as incisive and simple. What then do these lines reveal in terms of iconographic depth? Perhaps the sense of a past that is both remote as well as present and a future that beckons, at once hopeful and uncertain. The use of Perspex works well and gives the works a depth, a sense of numerous dimensions as if his figures are on a journey and that the search for Eden is possible, should that be willed (and a consensus on what it is be somehow agreed upon on all strata).
Kabeya seems to capture the ruggedness of the landscape amidst the joys of youth as, in a series of works, children are seeing playing, holding hands, full of carefree abandon and play. Play is timeless; it bonds people together, it is the excitement of creative activity and reduces even toil to joy and a sense of well-being and connectivity. The artist reminisces about this and certainly in terms of Milton’s hankering after a place and time of freedom and peace, one would do well to reflect on the innocence of the child.
One finds in the work of Selekane - a series of silkscreens - where he expresses and reflects on a time of severe unrest in Africa’s history. That is he documents the transformation in the guard in Bophuthatswana, offering an alternative history or one often not recorded in the history books. This is achieved with a strong drawing sensibility as Selekane weaves a narrative both complex and aesthetically alluring.
In sum, this exhibition could be considered a modern take on Milton’s project, couched in artistic formal expression. Biblically, Eden might simply refer to the beauty and abundance of nature to be cared for and guarded - surely a lesson that is perennially significant. Yet this is not simply about Western signification or religious adherence for Paradise regained is a state of mind, a political point of maturity that ought to lead to economic, spiritual and ethical parity.
Art, like philosophical reflection serves as a meta-narrative to such ideals and it is always gratifying to see the variety of expression, if one considers that art down the ages has churned out the same “stuff”, evolving creatively (and conceptually) by only small increments.
On the other hand, the diversity and complexity makes such times ever more in need of a centre or sense of direction and purpose, else all is fragmented and veiled.