'Forms ( S / W)'

NIROXprojects presents 'FORMS / S I W' by Rodan Kane Hart. Following on from 'Structure' (2013) & 'Pattern Language' (2013), 'Forms / S I W' (2014) marks Hart’s third solo showcase in 2 years. The exhibition compromises an entirely new body of work consisting of sculpture, drawing, print & photography. These works follow on from previous points of enquiry regarding the constructed notion of the South African city. After a recent residency at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in England Hart has shifted his focus to more closely examining the influence of European architectural forms onto the urban fabric of South Africa. 

Farshid Moussavi and Michael Kubo sum up the conceptual foundations of the exhibition as a whole in a book titled The Function of Ornament. A statement is made that succinctly deifies the relevance of architectural style and ornament, “Architecture needs mechanisms that allow it to become connected to culture”. Absorbing and capturing the forces that shape society achieve this cultural connection. These forces are then used as material components to work with, forming composite materiality. When two forces found within society, Invisible, meaning; Cultural, Political, and Temporal, and, Visible, meaning; Structural, Functional, and Physical, are brought together, it gives way to, a New Aesthetic Composition. Architectural style is not easily adjustable to the changes in culture and society. Modernists utilized transparency to represent architectural elements of space and structure; Post Modernists used Décor, whereas the Deconstructivists used geometrical collage to replace transparency all together. These concepts express the inextricable relationship between, Inside & Outside, Then & Now and Here & There.

'Forms / S I W'  (S suggesting South = South Africa & W suggesting West = England) at NIROXprojects focuses on the formal influences of European Classism, Modernism and Post Modernism. An array of artistic medium has been utilized to present the historical and personal logic behind Hart’s formally abstracted works. Hart has intentionally incorporated more handcrafted methods with those of mechanical and digital processes, setting up a relationship between subject matter, time, theory and aesthetic. 

Charcoal drawings & 35mm Black & White photographs inspired by architectural and natural forms found in the English cities of Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool & London, are presented alongside those depicting the South African cities of Johannesburg & Cape Town. These images explore the construction of spatial context by juxtaposing figurative representations with those of abstracted ones. 

Being renowned for his life-sized steel sculptures Hart has taken a more intimate and crafted approach, by producing 4 smaller generative sculpture series consisting of 4 stages (each). Hart sees these sculptures as maquettes and studies for larger experiential projects, asserting the Russian Constructivists as an influence. Finally, a series of lithoprints presenting the progression of line to shape and subsequently to form over 4 stages will also be on display.

12 March - 31 March