Artist MARGOT HATTINGH, The Cape Gallery

MARGOT HATTINGH

Borderline
Every year The Cape Gallery hosts a themed exhibition set by the owner, Gail Dorje. Last year, 2010, Gail must have phoned me in about March to discuss the theme, the exhibition opening in June. The theme was 'Borders' The word immediately resonated, but I needed more, so started in my usual way of free associating lists of words as well as thumbnail cartoon sketches. 'Borderline' was my personal jackpot as I realised that my own life, the very way I choose to live and work could be conjured by that word. That seemingly simple word triggered a flood of mixed emotions, images, and metaphors that inter-relate on a conceptual level, but not necessarily directly on a visual one. First of all I know my creativity is rooted in that exquisite borderline, deliberately practiced, between dreaming and waking. This Theatre of Dreams is where, as the juggler or magician, I draw on myths, archetypes, human psychology and emotion as well as animal behaviour, to create new associations, or uncover unexpected pre-existing ones, hidden from my conscious mind. This borderline is where The Dreamer and her companions, Bird Man, the Elephant King, the spotted cat who forms the bridge from Here to There, the Time Birds as well as many others are materialised. Another aspect of Borderline is found in the series 'Where have I come from and where am I going to?'. It is the direct descendant of the thought that 'now - this very instant' is the eternally shifting borderline suspended between the already experienced past and a fundamentally unknowable future. The imagery uses the idea of maps and compasses, as well as sometimes a symbolic Janus type figure, that explores reality on many levels for spiritual and emotional pathfinding. There are many other aspects to Borderline as a concept that I have not even touched on here, that I already use and which will continue to inform my work in the future. Some of them are The borderline between you and me, my reality and yours The borderline between love and ownership, love and hate The borderline between passion and obsession The shifting borderline between sanity and the many headed other thing The borderline between Here and Now, Now and Then, Here and There The borderline between us and nature The borderline between untamed spirit and limited corporeality The borderline between day and night The borderline between lies and truth The borderline between the material and the spiritual The borderline between lost and found The borderline between flight and fall The borderline between surrender and defeat The borderline between use and abuse The borderline between win and lose The borderline between male and female The borderline between desire and fulfillment I can go on for ever. The borderline goes on forever, it is everywhere. The borderline lives in us, and we live in it ______________________________________________________________ CV: 1981 “Etosha” Life and Death on an African Plain (photographs and writing) – published by Struik S.A.and Collins, London 1983 “ Zululand ” an African Heritage (photographs and writing) – published by Struik S.A. and Collins, London 1996 Postcards from South Africa Exhibition– Axis Gallery , New York 1998 Christie's - London Wildlife Art Exhibition and Auction 2000 “Piecing Together the Past” short stories – District 6 Museum publication 2002 Innovative Threads Exhibition, Cape Town and France – Fibre Art SA Society of Artists Exhibition 2003 Vuleka Exhibition SA Society of Artists Exhibition Wildlife Exhibition – Cape Gallery 2004 Cape Gallery Exhibition – (2 person) SA Society of Artists Exhibition Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens Wildlife Exhibition – Cape Gallery Vuleka Exhibition Curator - group exhibition – The Muiz Art Studio Residency – Nek Chand Sculpture Garden , Chandigarh , India 2004 – 2005 “Strangers” Invitational International Printmaking exhibition , Canada , USA , New Zealand 2005 Spearhead Exhibition (2 person) “Absolut Magic” Exhibition - Association of Visual Arts Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens South African Society of Artists Exhibition Wildlife Exhibition, Cape Gallery 2006 Innovative Threads Exhibition, Cape Town Innovative Threads : A decade of Fibre Art - book by Liza Gillespie Positive Exhibition – Sun City “Art out of Dance” Group Exhibition – Cape Town and Franschoek “Absolut Secret” Exhibition - Association of Visual Arts Wildlife Exhibition – Cape Gallery Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens “Magic Tales” Solo Exhibition - The Baxter Gallery 2007 6th International Engraving Biennale of Ile de France, Paris Invited artist, Fibreworks ‘10' Exhibition – X Cape Festival Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens “& Beyond Encryption” Exhibition - Cape Gallery Ran a printmaking workshop – Kilkenny , Ireland Exhibition – Kilkinney Annual Arts Festival - Ireland Solo Exhibition – Masque Theatre Winter Festival Group Wildlife Exhibition – Cape Gallery Curator/manager – Masque Theatre ARTreach 2008 Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens group exhibition Gunjifa – international printmaking project, co-ordinated bv Chhaap Printmaking Workshop, Vadadora , India "Desire" Exhibition - Cape Gallery Showcase Gallery, Dubai 2009 "Blue" Exhibition - Christopher Moller Fine Art, Cape Town Annual Wildlife Exhibition - Cape Gallery 'My Country, My Land' Exhibition - Hyde Park Gallery, Johannesburg Gunjifa Exhibition - Impact 6 International Printmaking Forum, Bristol, England Gunjifa Exhibition - New Delhi, India 2010 8th International Printmaking Triennial, Chamalieres, France Finalist Vuleka 2010 Exhibition da Vinci Hotel commission - Legacy Group - Sandton 'Solstice' Exhibition - Cape Gallery World Cup 2010 Exhibition - Kirstenbosch 'Borders' - Wildlife Exhibition - Cape Gallery SPCA Function at Vinyard Hotel curated by Cape Gallery Gunjifa Printmaking Exhibition - Goa - India 2011 'Continuum' - Solstice Exhibition - Cape Gallery				Artist: MARGOT HATTINGH Title: Turning Point Size: 90 x 120 cm Media: Mixed Media Price: R 17 400 WAX ENCAUSTIC FAQ’s What is wax encaustic? It is a mixture of pigmented waxes (NOT candlewax) and resins, which are painted with while molten. Each layer is fused to the preceding one using a blow torch, heat gun or heat lamp. Is it a new medium?\| No, it’s a very ancient one. Exquisite funerary portraits were painted on mummy cases in Fayum, Egypt from 200BC. Famous contemporary artists who use it include Diego Riviera, Jasper Johns and Tony Scherman. Will it melt? Not under normal circumstances. The waxes used have a melting temperature of over 65 Deg C. If it melts in your house, you’ve got a bigger problem, it means your house is on fire! Exhibiting it behind glass in the direct sun is not a good idea, but no artwork of any medium should be exposed to that. Leaving it in the boot of a car parked in the sun on a hot day for a couple of hours will also do damage. Prolonged exposure to extreme cold, i.e. below freezing, is also not good. Treated with the reasonable care for any other artwork, wax encaustic may well outlast oil or even acrylic. The Fayum portraits are as vibrant today as they were over 2 000 years ago, with none of the cracking that oils are prone to. Wax encaustic paintings are also impervious to damp, even when used on paper, so are far more robust than watercolours. How do I look after a wax encaustic painting? Be careful not to scratch the surface, and perhaps buff gently once a year with a silk scarf. _________________________________________________ I developed a passion for drawing and painting at an early age, and while still very young decided that I wanted to become an artist. I have had some formal training, but am mostly self-taught. In my early 20's, instead of the planned move to Paris to further my art studies, I went on a safari and fell totally in love with the bush. An enduring fascination and passion for Africa, both as an idea as well as a place, was born. For the next 12 years, my partner and I permanently lived and traveled in the wild places of Southern Africa and what was then SWA. We photographed and wrote articles on wildlife as well as two books, 'Etosha´ and 'Zululand' published by Struik in the early 80's. Motherhood and a move to the Cape has expanded and deepened my perception and understanding of the underlying, mostly sub-conscious connection between humans and what we like to think of as ‘our’ world. In the same way that there is a heartbeats’ space between action and reaction, there is a gap – sometimes a chasm – between us and everything in our environment. In there, I believe we imbue people, animals, places and things with our ‘shadow selves’. This is where I find my work. On the surface the artworks may seem to range from highly realistic/figurative to abstract, but beneath that, they are all concerned with recording my explorations of an ever changing perception of reality – physical, emotional, mental, spiritual and of course mythical. Profoundly rooted in Africa but with an inevitable overlay of European culture and history I strive to develop a new reality where the two supposedly opposing cultures come together in a synthesis greater and more beautiful than the sum of its parts. I paint people and places, but return time and time again to what I call “Beasts” obsessed/possessed by certain animals and themes. I try to not only capture some physical likeness, some sense of ‘Presence’ but also to materialise the essentially invisible essence of the particular subject. Technically the images are worked with a variety of media – sometimes singly, more often mixed on paper, masonite, wood, canvas or perspex. I use pastels, both oil and chalk, watercolour, acrylic, oils, resin and wax encaustic. I enjoy printmaking, etching, collograph and monotype printing, as well as bronze sculpture, both relatively new directions for me. I continue to photograph subjects that interest me, including an ongoing project on dance, capturing movement and feeling rather than just the pose. I am currently exploring ways to incorporate my own wildlife photographic images with painting and drawing, as well as expanding my techniques in wax encaustic. By Margot Hattingh

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