June 18, 2022 - July 30, 2022
492 Fehrsen Street, Brooklyn, Pretoria, South Africa
On
Saturday 18 June 2022, the exhibition titled “We are all in this together”
opens at StLorient: The Viewing Room Art Gallery in Brooklyn, Pretoria at 11:00
am.
The
two Gauteng artists, Hannelie Coetzee and John Moore, have independently, but
collectively, created artworks with a strong environmental theme. Both are
passionate conservationists who create their art through a very individual and
unique thought process.
John
interacts with living things that he encounters in the environment and imagines
conversations with the animals, resulting in surreal interpretations in his
etchings of what the wildlife communicates with him.
Hannelie
creates by spending time interacting with the environment while allowing nature
to also become part of the creative processes, allowing the wind to blow life
and movement into her drawings and observing and capturing the movement of the
wildlife in her sculptures.
StLorient:
The Viewing Room Art Gallery looks forward to welcoming the public to the
opening of this very exciting and topical exhibition on 18 June at 11:00 am,
492 Fehrsen Street, Brooklyn, Pretoria.
The
Dalai Lama once said: “Because we all share this planet Earth. We have to learn
to live in harmony and peace with each other and with nature. This is not just
a dream, but a necessity.”
We are all in this together.
Artists' Statements:
Hannelie Coeztee: New creature sculptures have emerged from an ‘en plein car’ drawing session in Kruger National Park in late 2021. I prepared a mobile drawing set-up where I could safely sit in my car and draw the wild animals while they move around my vehicle. The drawings session with open windows welcomed eye contact with the animals and spontaneity of nature to collaborate in the drawing such as a gust of wind blowing through the car, flipping the wet ink on paper. The intent of the drawing was to try and capture movement of animals, while they move, the ink moves, and the wind brings a surprise element to the work. I concentrated on their skeletal movement, thinking of my own recent spinal trauma earlier in 2021. I looked mainly for hyena, an ongoing series but then to my own surprise, the Wildebeest moments were just captured more contentedly during these drawing sessions. These moments inspired the Wildebeest Creature series of sculptures made from reclaimed mild steel from the platinum industry.
John Moore: John's work is both hyper-real and surreal at the same time. He either works in black and white, silver and gold, or vivid color, depending on the story and animal portrayed in his work. John is also an accomplished Charcoal, Pencil and Pastel artist and uses a variety of media to bring his visions into reality through his unique imagery. John communicates on a mystical level with nature and allows the animal/s he is using in his images to open a dialogue with him, expressing information needed to be shared with the human world. John works with myths, legends and archetypes to act as a bridge between man and nature. (see https://johnmoore.co.za/about/ )
