John Murray and Claudette Schreuders at Michael Stevenson Contemporary
by Kim Gurney
There is something rather eloquent about a single Claudette Schreuders sculpture standing all alone in the Michael Stevenson Contemporary gallery. She used to be nice immediately makes the rest of the space feel particularly haunting. It reflects the way all Schreuders' figures appear isolated from their environment, wrapped up in their internal world.
The single sculpture also speaks of an artist in great demand who produces work with a fastidious ethic that will not be compromised to satiate demand. Buying a Schreuders sculpture takes patience: this one could apparently have been sold 10 times over.
She used to be nice is carved from Jacaranda wood and painted with enamel. The young woman stands resolute: a short, compact, almost stocky figure with a printed dress, hands by her side. We are left to wonder what event has changed our perception of her.
The remainder of the exhibition is taken up by lithographs. Schreuders began to draw as part of her working process and developed this into lithography as a way of documenting her sculptures. Her printmaking exhibitions are thus an interesting two-dimensional record of her three-dimensional work. They also offer collectors an alternative to joining the queue for a sculpture.
These lithographs are primarily drawn from the -Burnt by the Sun' series - a group of sculptures exhibited and sold out in New York in 2001. Schreuders has previously described this series as an exploration of what it means to be exposed to too much too soon, as she felt her upbringing in South Africa had done this to her. The prints manage to express the internal anxiety that was so evident in the related body of sculptures.
In Mingle, for example, a young woman with an oversized glass stands hesitant, as if expected to socialise but reluctant to do so. She bears her fate with an awkward resilience. There are no objects in her surroundings to anchor her, adding to the prevalent sense of alienation.
The larger portion of the gallery is taken up by John Murray's exhibition of portraits of African leaders. His oil paintings echo the gallery's previous exhibition of portraits by Mustafa Maluka, whose invented heroes lined the gallery walls. This time, however, the faces are of actual African presidents.
Murray's style echoes that of West African barbershop signs, but his intention with this is difficult to gauge. At the risk of reading too much into it, this technique lends an ironic twist to the subject matter of his latest body of work. The faces have an exaggerated sculptural quality that suggests a kind of mythologising, reinforced by the large scale of the portraits. The faces are offset by their flatly applied paint that can be read as an apt metaphor for a concern with surface appearance in the world of politics.
Opens: July 13
Closes: August 13
Michael Stevenson Contemporary Gallery
Hill House, De Smidt Street, Green Point
Tel: (021) 421 2575
Fax: (021) 421 2578
www.michaelstevenson.com
Hours: Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat 10am-1pm
