Paul Edmunds: Season

Season

Paul Edmunds

1.

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Season

Paul Edmunds

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STEVENSON JOHANNESBURG

4 July – 9 August 2013

There was nothing unworldly about my father’s death. It was a deeply corporeal

experience, a solid reminder that animals grow old, get ill and die, if they don’t first

meet a violent end; our tenure in human configuration is limited.

As that process unfolded, I found myself lured into a more intimate, sensory encounter

with the elements, plants and animals around me, and – in a broader sense – my

experience as a human animal, attracted to a large orb suspended in a near-vacuum,

sustained by a thin patina of suitable conditions, warmed there by a star.

Although the earliest work here – Moon – dates back to 1997 when I gave it to my

father, the objects, images and written observations here all emerge from this

heightened exchange with natural phenomena.

Texts by the artist

2.

Season

2013

Skateboard wheels, brass, cable

95 x 24.5 x 16cm

—

Two skateboard wheels, each covered in a knurl whose depth varies across its

surface, fix each other’s position and orientation.

—

4.

Pole, Model, Season, Axis, Sole

2013

Skateboard wheels, brass

6.7 x 4.8cm; 4.5 x 6.6cm; 6.6 x 4.6cm; 4.6 x 7.5cm; 6.7 x 4.9cm

—

A regular pattern – variously altered and arranged – is incised into polyurethane

skateboard wheels, exploring surface, gravity and orientation.

—

6.

Axis

7.

Sole

8.

Moon, Flip, Season, Sole

Installation view

10.

Sole

With pale underbellies, palms and soles captured by gravity, animals remain upright.

Pigment gathers on exposed backs and heads, shielding them from the sun, perhaps

as camouflage too. As a fisherman hauls a barbel up the bank of the Liesbeek, the

struggling fish exposes a murky white belly, and a little later, a freshly run-over

squirrel reveals the same thing.

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Stones

Polished by waves and brought to shore on tides caused by the moon’s gravitational

pull on the earth’s waters, these stones are a loyal facsimile of that heavenly body.

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Birds

White-necked ravens and red-winged starlings at the upper cable station at sunrise,

flourishing around human settlement. Unconstrained by walls and unfettered by gravity,

they chart the curve of the planet’s surface.

—

Held for an instant at the apex of her arc, the buzzard is turned, carried by the wind in a

lazy sweep – the start of another stitch – as she works her way downriver.

—

Acorn

The rolling acorn spits out a complex rhythm, forged of its shifting, eccentric load

and the irregular topography of the tarmac.

11.

Moon

1997

Stone, PVC-insulated copper wire

9 x 13 x 12.5cm

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The smooth form of an eroded stone is closely tracked by a weave the structure of which

recalls the accumulated, tumbling gestures that result in this spherical object.

—

12.

Season

2012


14 x 15.5 x 13cm

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As they follow its equator, wires woven onto a stone are arranged so that one

side of the object darkens.

—

13.

Sole

2012


12.5 x 14 x 16.8cm

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An array of wires proceeds from the equator towards the poles of a stone. As the

wires approach the upper pole, darker tones become prominent; towards the lower,

lighter tones dominate.

—

14.

Flip

2012


13 x 11.5 x 24cm

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A mostly black covering of wire follows a stone’s contours, interrupted only by a splash

of bright colour, its contrast revealing some of the weave’s characteristics.

—

15.

Shadow

In the wind, the tree’s largest branches yaw about centres on the trunk; smaller

branches have their centres on these, and this diminishing procession of arcs traced

by swaying boughs advances outwards to the leaves which swing and roll about

their anchor points.

Projected by the sun, the branches and leaves betray their position in space when

the wind sets them in motion. Shadow planes pass over one other, and they shift in

and out of focus, reconstructing an approximation of the stirring three-dimensional

structure above.

—

At first, the Tipuana shadow was cast on the wall opposite. Now it’s made its way across

the road in a series of passes, like high water marks tallying the sun’s seasonal ascent

in the sky behind.

—

Model

The sun’s first rays catch the topmost flanks, beginning a daily traverse which models

the mountain in light and shadow.

Towards dusk, the last light withdraws along a dry shrub’s outermost branches.

17.

Orbit

2012

Polypropylene mesh, cable ties; approx 80 x 230 x 130cm

Stone, PVC-insulated copper wire; approx 20 x 40 x 16cm

Detail on inside back cover

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Two objects – one large and porous, the other dense and impermeable – pit their heft

and volume against each other.

—

18.

Model

2013

Polystyrene

153 x 435cm

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Fixed to the wall, an array of regular polystyrene tiles, with facets changing in size and

incline, wraps around a series of corners, host to light’s play across the surface.

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20.

Surface

2013

Tyvek

177.5 x 101cm

Detail on inside front cover

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Several layers of closely registered triangular incisions articulate a surface

using tone and depth.

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22.

Shade 1, Shade 2

2013

Linoprints

191 x 110cm each

Editions of 10 + 2AP each

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Misregistered, shifting latticework initiates a complex play of light and dark,

surface and depth.

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24.

Shift

2013

Pencil wall drawing

178 x 199.5cm

Edition of 3 + 1AP

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Thousands of lines rest shadow-like on the wall, tracing a series of circles whose

centres shift on a curving trajectory.

—

27.

Shade 2, Shade 1, Surface, Shift

Installation view

28.

JOHANNESBURG

62 Juta Street

Braamfontein 2001

Postnet Suite 281

Private Bag x9

Melville 2109

T +27 (0)11 403 1055/1908

F +27 (0)86 275 1918

CAPE TOWN

Buchanan Building

160 Sir Lowry Road

Woodstock 7925

PO Box 616

Green Point 8051

T +27 (0)21 462 1500

F +27 (0)21 462 1501

[email protected]

www.stevenson.info

Catalogue 72

July 2013

© 2013 for works & texts by Paul Edmunds:

the artist

Front cover Model, 2013 (detail)

Inside front cover Surface, 2013 (detail)

Inside back cover Orbit, 2012 (detail)

Editor Sophie Perryer

Design Gabrielle Guy

Photography Anthea Pokroy,

Mario Todeschini

Printing Hansa Print, Cape Town

Paul Edmunds was born in 1970 in Johannesburg, and lives in Cape Town.

He graduated with an MAFA from the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, in

1995. Recent solo shows have taken place at Stevenson in 2011 and 2009; and

at RH Gallery, New York, in 2011; previously he exhibited at Bank Gallery, Durban;

Art on Paper, Johannesburg; João Ferreira Gallery, Cape Town; and the Mark

Coetzee Fine Art Cabinet, Cape Town. Group shows include The Rainbow Nation,

an exhibition of three generations of sculpture from South Africa, at Museum

Beelden aan Zee, The Hague, in 2012; Coming of Age: 21 Years of the Artist Proof

Studio at Johannesburg Art Gallery (2012); Impressions from South Africa at

the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2011); and Production Marks: Geometry,

Psychology and the Electronic Age at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown,

KZNSA Gallery in Durban and Goethe-Institut in Johannesburg (2007/8). He won

the Tollman Award in 2007, and in 2010 was awarded an Ampersand Foundation

residency in New York.

Paul Edmunds: Season

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