There is an underlying violence within the beauty of the works by Sanell Aggenbach, Pierre Fouché and Morné Visagie. This violence of bias, nature, memory and loss, is hidden by the intimate and careful application of their distinctly different and mastered practices: oil painting, lacemaking and printmaking.
Sanell Aggenbach has removed an oil painting, a landscape scene in melancholic greens and aquatic blues, from its frame, draped against the gallery wall, and pierced by bronze-cast arrows, anchoring the painting. The work considers our inherent representation of nature studies, ideals of nature, balance and harmony - through the lens of science fiction and ensued chaos.
Pierre Fouché’s abstract dark blue woven work cascades down from the wall, spilling onto the floor. This work involves an investigation between two techniques, macramé and lace. Comparatively speaking, macramé shares affinities with rope-work and nautical knotting, skills typically associated with male power, whereas women were overwhelmingly involved in the production of lace, their inventive labours inadequately rewarded or historically recorded.
Morné Visagie continues with his obsession of printmaking, through a methodology associated with the technique, process and repetition, to create fan-like works, using recycled Champagne bottle top foils. In these most recent works, Visagie has decided to use matt black foils, that has been reworked with charcoal and graphite. The foils are the residue of a popped bottle of champagne – the remnants of events passed, alluding to celebratory occasions and thus form part of the illusion, ideal of happiness and romance.