Bronwyn Lace

Current Review(s)

'Unit of Measure'

Vaughn Sadie and Bronwyn Lace at Durban Art Gallery

Bronwyn Lace and Vaughn Sadie's joint exhibition, 'Unit of Measure', currently on show at the Durban Art Gallery, is an astounding and somewhat overwhelming meditation on structure, fragility and control. A strange tenderness lurks in its midst, yet this remains elusive, constantly slipping through one’s fingers. While the show functions beautifully on the level of visual artifice, that same artifice very quickly and fluidly moves the mind into the realm of the social and the political, exploring the ways in which we are all capable of being lured and pinned down, like the Monarch butterfly to which Lace devotes thousands of metres of fishing wire with that express purpose.

In the large colonial space of the gallery's central chamber, Lace presents three vertical grids of fishing wire held together on either end by squares of perforated Perspex. In one of the grids, two thousand fishing lures are attached to the fishing wire, creating a delicate filigree of light. The remaining two grids devote all their wire to the pinning down of a single monarch butterfly. The three pieces intersect with – are kind of immersed in, in fact – Sadie's work, which fills virtually the entire space of the gallery, allowing only a walking space below; one in which you need to mind your head.

 

12 November 2009 - 16 January 2010

Listings(s)

No/thing

Greg Streak, Ricky Burnett, Trasi Henen, Bronwyn Lace and Righard Kapp at UCA Gallery

Linking together a group of artists, this exhibition explores notions of emptiness within emotional, psychological and physical spaces. The work on show is definitively minimalist in character, and is positioned as a reaction to the production of artwork with superfluous and often meaningless content. It includes installation, wall pieces and a once-off sound-art performance by Righard Kapp starting at 7pm on the opening night.

18 November 2009 - 12 December 2009

'Unit of Measure'

Vaughn Sadie and Bronwyn Lace at Durban Art Gallery

‘UNIT OF MEASURE’ is a fascinating collaborative project from artists Bronwyn Lace and Vaughn Sadie which includes a large-scale installation, a curated exhibition and an education programme hosted at the DAG. For the installation, Sadie created a suspension of 1km of galvanized steel cable, while Lace created two structures with 6km of fishing line; one suspending a swarm of 2 000 hand-made fishing flies, the other pinning down a dried African Monarch Butterfly. The curated exhibition includes work from the permanent collection at the DAG and SABC, while the education component took the form of a one-week workshop conducted with 12 participants from across KZN.

12 November 2009 - 16 January 2010