Unrest a solo exhibition of abstract paintings by Hedwig Barryquestions how we make meaning from the visual
By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor
The brush strokes are bold on both the small size and big size art works on display on the intimate gallery’s walls. The story itself is abstract, meaning that one can make their own meaning out of this exhibition. Well, I was attracted to one particular painting and I made my own story out of it. Rather I saw what my eyes and my mind told me what the story is.
As I kept on going back to the same painting tilted To the North, I started seeing more figures that seemed to slowly reveal themselves before my eyes. Curiously I did not see these figures the first time, even the send time I settled my eyes on this piece. ON the third attempt, however, I saw logs of what appeared to be broken tree trunks that seem to be floating along a river, being dragged along by a flowing river.
But also as I looked at the same abstract painting more intentional this time around, to see if I could see any hint of more figures, and possibly more grasp a more discernable meaning out of this piece, I saw a figure of a human being, female and hanging precariously up on one of the floating tree trunks. In fact this was after investing more great deal of time in my investigation of what this abstract painting means to me. This is the thing with abstract art –there is no one story that one can discern by looking at the art works on exhibition.
In fact two people may not see the same thing on one art piece. Even when they look at it at the same time. This is the complexity around abstract art. But also on the other hand, this is the beauty of it. The artist might have an idea about what story she wants to tell or even the emotions she or he may want to induce in a viewer, but the result in both cases, is often different to the outcome the artist expects as far as the interpretation by a viewer is concerned.
This complexity around abstract art is well captured in Hedwig Barry’s solo exhibition titled Unrest, which opened on Saturday, September 30, 2023, at Guns &Rain Gallery in Parkhurst, 5 3rd Avenue.
However as far as this exhibition is concerned, at least at my level of understanding it, the floating figures precariously riding on the broken logs seem to indicate the artist’s personal circumstances of not being at one place either physically or in terms of her shifting mindscape, demonstrating state of being constantly on various mental planes and physical locations.
Tex by the curators of this exhibition of beautiful paintings by the artist at least gives us a hint of what this is all about.
“Barry’s abstract visual language is characterised by restless yet careful marks, a striking sense of movement, and a strong commitment to colour. The overwhelming surfaces of her works seduce the eye while disintegrating the figure-ground convention which is so embedded in our ways of reading the visual. In Western art history, the relationship between figure and ground, or the subject and the background, dominates the narrative of painting. According to this logic, the background is always subordinate to, and in service of, the subject, or the “main” content of the painting. This same history has been monopolised by male artists, critics and patrons, and, moreover, by a particularly aggressive way of relating to materials.
Barry’s work undercuts this combative approach to painting, choosing instead to coax forms out of dense, forest-like painterly environments, and to give space to excess. Instead of reiterating hierarchies in which a foreground subject diminishes the background, Barry creates all-over paintings in which the ground is at once everywhere and nowhere. The related metaphors of “grounding” and “groundlessness” have preoccupied her practice since she started her Masters in Fine Arts in 2019, and connect her work to nature, the earth and our tools for orienting ourselves in relation to place.
Barry situates her practice as part of a rich and underrated tradition of women painting. Recalling the work of artists such as Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell, Lynda Benglis, Cecily Brown and Rachel Jones, Barry’s paintings explore the relationships between form and formlessness, precision and freedom. Wholly immersed in a painting process that balances intuition, expression, calculation and meticulous calibration, she questions what painting is and does today, how we make meaning from the visual, and what is at stake for those who exist precariously, whether by choice or necessity,” the curators write.
If still confused the following line will perhaps assist.
“Unrest, Hedwig Barry’s first solo exhibition with the gallery was produced during an ongoing period of physical itinerancy, this exhibition of paintings traces connections between place, feeling, nature and the political. In an entirely new body of work made in several locations around South Africa, Barry continues an exploration of what she calls “compulsive surfacing”, the building up of painted surfaces until the relationship between figure and ground becomes obscured ,”the curators state.
.Well if still curious about the exhibition why not make your way to the exhibition while it is still on at 5 3rd Avenue, Parkhurst and am pretty sure you will make your own meaning out of Unrest. You can book to visit the exhibition through julie@gunsandrain.com