SATURN RETURN | A solo exhibition by KIRSTEN SIMS
21 June (18:30) – 29 July 2017
at Salon Ninety One, 91 Kloof Street, Gardens, Cape Town
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Fathoms | Linsey Levendall & Paul Senyol
17 May (18:30) – 17 June 2017
at Salon Ninety One, 91 Kloof Street, Gardens, Cape Town
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SATURN RETURN | A solo exhibition by KIRSTEN SIMS
Kirsten Sims’s solo shows are an expression of where she is in her life. At the time of her first solo show, Middle of Nowhere, she had graduated from her Honours degree and left Stellenbosch to move to Cape Town. With her first solo show behind her, You Are Here marked a period of making a home in Cape Town and becoming more established in her career. Like every four years in our calendar, Leap Year was a deviation from the norm existing as an online exhibition at a time she felt an urge to experiment with exhibition formats. In the year she turns 30, Kirsten presents Saturn Return.
The planet Saturn takes 29,5 years to orbit the sun and return to the place in the sky that it occupied at the time of one’s birth. The Saturn Return is the astrological period that occurs in a person’s late twenties as they move into full adulthood in their thirties. It’s known to be a time of tumultuous transition and self-reflection. The show Saturn Return is inspired by this phenomenon and characterises a progression in Kirsten’s art and process. The body of work stems from a place of self-knowing, and materialises with a confidence to test new techniques and colours; to make marks boldy. As a whole the works are bigger. Kirsten plays with scale both in terms of canvas size and the subjects within the frame: a giant rug is hung from a wall looming over a string of tiny people that walk beneath it; people at an art exhibition are engulfed in flecks of abstract red paint that have left the frame.
As ever in Kirsten’s paintings, place is significant in Saturn Return: both recognisable (a European cafe scene, a public swimming pool in Sea Point) and imagined. In some works natural landscapes show an absence or hint of human activity and in other works her signature characters fill the scene in a flurry of interaction and fashion at a soiree or garden party. Each gives the distinct feeling that you have been here, or felt this, before.
Words by Alix-Rose Cowie
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Fathoms | Linsey Levendall & Paul Senyol
“This body of work represents a poignant look at an introspective journey of yearning and a coming to terms with the absence of the familiar. With Fathoms I’m trying to create a tangible extension of the emotive fluctuations that ensue when detached from one’s roots. Having relocated six years ago to the remote and isolated belly of icy Saskatchewan in Western Canada, it has undoubtedly imbued an intense longing for “my African home”. Subsequently, Fathoms is an attempt to recollect memories of familiar faces synonymous with home, experiences whilst growing up and manifesting those pertinent feelings closely related to a deep-rooted and inherent infatuation with South Africa. I’ve always taken a great interest in portraiture centered around African women and in this instance these images function as the subjects for the expression of my own personal sentiments. Emotion is carried through the series in the myriad of colours and the loose spontaneity of brushstrokes. The paintings carry within them the pain of loneliness and loss, but equally seek to convey strength, beauty and perseverance, inadvertently functioning as a personal catharsis.” – Linsey Levendall, 2017
“Themes of loss and joy, and particularly, finding these in one another, form the basis of the thought and processes behind the works produced for Fathoms. Floral motifs, patterns and abstractions become the dominant references and departure points for each of the paintings. These are then remixed into each work, moving from one painting to the next, working several canvases at once. As time passes, each work reveals another layer on the journey. Flowers at once represent beauty and fragility. A cut flower, for instance, will only last a brief while before fading. The use of the flower as subject and dominant motif within this series of paintings functions as a metaphor for the passing of time and of life in general. Flowers are given and received at times of both joy and sadness, as signs of celebration, symbolising new hope and life, as well as gestures of compassion and remembrance. Fathoms explores the opposite ends of these situations and circumstances. This is a very personal body of work, close to heart and home, and very self-reflective. In some senses the paintings act as a form of meditation and narrative during a time of reflection, exploring the heights and depths of this season.” – Paul Senyol, 2017
