Stone and Time 1998
Local stone, chicken wire, glass, wood
Site-specific installation
on Xoe! art project, Nieu Bethesda

Randolph Hartzenberg performing
The 9th Haptic String
against the background
of his installation
'Salt Theatre', 1996

Salt Tower 1997
60 bags of salt
Installed in St Marks Church
on the District 6 Sculpture Project

Randolph Hartzenberg
(August, 1998)

Modus operandi:

Randolph Hartzenberg is an artist with a carefully considered approach to each project, immersing himself slowly in both the physical and conceptual possibilities before arriving at a strong if sometimes demanding solution which satisfies on a number of levels. Recently his work has tended towards sculptural installations, though he considers his prints and paintings an important adjunct to these.

Artist's statement:

"I hope that the work acts as a catalyst for questioning by the viewer, and for further engagement with the material, with the object, with the reasons for the object existing, with the processes that initiated the concept and also those involved in the making of the pieces."

Most recent project:

Hartzenberg was one of the artists involved in the Xoe! Site-Specific project at Nieu Bethesda in the Karroo in July. "For me, when I moved through the Karoo, I needed to respond to the stones." Hartzenberg called his piece Stone and Time, and, working with the local stonemason, built a structure of eight steps enclosed in a wire cage, with a glass door at the rear. "The stairs refer to the way we use material - the potential for movenent upwards and downwards. In structuring material, man attempts to enclose, but nature resists that ·"

Before that:

For the District Six Sculpture Project last year, Hartzenberg muffled the bell of St Mark's Church with sacks of salt, symbolising the silencing of the district when the people who once lived there were forced to move out. Salt is a favoured material for Hartzenberg for its many associations - rubbing salt in the wound is painful, but also cleansing.

Next up:

Participation in an exhibition by staff members at the Cape Technikon on the theme of garden gnomes!

CV

Randolph Hartzenberg is a graduate of the Michaelis School of Fine Art, Cape Town, and lectures at the Cape Technikon. He has participated in a number of overseas exhibitions, and is represented in the South African National Gallery collection. He was one of the nine artists to install work in the Visitors' Block on Robben Island of the 1997 exhibition, 'Thirty Minutes', and also showed on 'Faultlines' at the Cape Town Castle in 1996.