AT FEATURE: Carol-Anne Gainer’s exhibition Ground at Nel

Nel

www.nelart.co.za

In 2004 the artist excavated the earth of a suburban neighbourhood in Kwa-Zulu Natal for an installation entitled EmBedded, a symbolic way of inserting herself back into the soil of her hometown. The making of private space, a bedroom — our safest and most intimate of spaces — left uncovered, exposed, and revealing yet simultaneously reclaiming a very specific geographical territory. Through embodiment and ritual, she inserts herself to the world and more importantly, to nature.

Carol-Anne Gainer. Unveiling. 2021. Oil on Canvas. 75x100cm

To home. Moving forward 16 years: Ground, exhibited at Nel Gallery, Cape Town in 2021. The artist once again explores the deep connections we have to the earth and those that inhabit it. The connections – physical, spiritual, emotional, energetic – are invisible, yet profoundly impactful and influential to all beings. These works explore the earth; they depict and evoke the complexity of the ground we walk on.
They are visceral, emotional, layered artworks that force the viewer to look closer, to see deeper by lifting the veil. They conceal, while at the same time reveal. What at first glance appears to be the intertwined stems of twisted undergrowth reveal to be a hand, a limb; the gnarled root of a tree (both abstract and real) an exploration into the abstract reality we experience with the ever-spreading and deepening fracturing and fragility of our earth.
Our ground, that which we stand upon.

On the artist: Carol-Anne Gainer is a practicing contemporary artist and educator based in Cape Town South Africa. Gainer exhibits regularly and widely and has participated in numerous residencies as well as having worked in a number of collections. Working across various media, Gainer’s production deals with our fragile and ambiguous relationship to animals, nature and ourselves, her interests focus on the spiritual and fragile connections we have to our earth and how they are affected/reflected in our bodies. An ongoing investigation into our bio-spiritual ecology.

Carol-Anne Gainer. Under Growth. 2021. Oil on canvas. 50x150cm

Carol-Anne Gainer. Harness. 2021. Oil on canvas. 75x100cm (detail)

Carol-Anne Gainer. Outside Inside. 2021. Oil on canvas. 75x150cm