A ‘project’ that roughly started in 2013. The title is lifted from the 1972 film but only acts to dramatise and to highlight the tendency towards the aquatic. I am also reminded of the futility demonstrated in the tale of Caligula’s war on Poseidon (Neptune) This Roman emperor had his soldiers march to the sea and ordered them to stab the water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Twitter’ is the latest exhibition by Luan Nel, at the Everard Read Gallery in Cape Town from 3 to 16 April 2013.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Twitter is the third and latest instalment in artist Luan Nel’s ongoing project dealing with birds, birdlife and the many possible interpretations and understanding of this subject matter. His first exhibition exploring this was Aviary in 2011. The exhibition consisted exclusively of watercolours of various birds, both indigenous and alien. Following on from Aviary, the second exhibition on this theme was titled Swallow, which was a two-man exhibition with Joachim Schonfeldt  in Johannesburg in 2012. The exhibition included four watercolours of swallows in flight. These were then also reproduced by the hundreds to be used in the installation piece Swallow. This exhibition also included Seisoen – a large lithograph of swallows in flight.

Twitter is the culmination of his ongoing fascination with this theme, and includes the Seisoen lithograph, the Swallow installation, as well as recent oil paintings of various birds and related imagery. James Tate’s poem ‘The Blue Booby’ functions as an entry-point to this whole body of work. In the poem, Tate adopts the language and voice of the wildlife narrator and initially the poem simply reads as such. On closer inspection though, it becomes clear that Tate is dealing with much larger issues than mere wildlife facts – the poem deals with issues of desire, possession and sublimation. In a similar way, Nel creates visual imagery that goes beyond mere ornithological study.  That is not to say that Nel is not a masterful painter capable of ornithological exactness (as evidenced by many of the works on show) but here he is more concerned with how we experience birds,  what they are doing as protagonists in a story and how that relates to us.  Moreover in some paintings there aren’t even any birds , but rather references to their behaviour, demeanour or habitat,  and thus our own. The titles of these works invariably hold a key or hint at multiple interpretations and meanings,  in Nel’s characteristically witty, yet poignant way.

Luan Nel was born in 1971, and matriculated from De Kruin Art School, Johannesburg. He received his BA (FA) in 1993 and his Higher Diploma in Education in 1994 from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Nel won the Judge’s Prize in the SASOL New Signatures Competition in 1993. In 1998 and 1999 he participated in an artist’s residency at the Rijks Academie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam and a research residency at the Dutch Institute in Rome in 1999. He has had many solo exhibitions and participated in various group shows. His work can be found in public collections in South Africa, Europe and the United States of America.

Twitter Exhibition

Die Burger

10 April 2013

Deur voëltjies te skilder, stel Nel hoë eise aan homself: alle illustrasies wat die lewende natuur betrek, kom met vereistes van akkuraatheid en identiteit. Een geveerde is nie presies soos die ander nie, verskille is betekenisvol. Maar Nel is… Read More.

 

 

Art Times

View the Art Times Facebook Gallery.

 

 

 

Pendock Uncorked

Luan scoops Gary.

 

 

Twitter Triumph.

 

 

 

Main Ingredient

Luan Nel’s exhibition at Everard Read.

 

 

 

Spill

Art, Poultry and Twitter – Luan Nel’s Exhibition.

 

 

 

 Black Swan’ was exhibited at Dawid’s Choice Gallery in Johannesburg in March 2013.

  

 The black swan theory or theory of black swan events is a metaphor that describes an event that is a surprise [to the observer], has a major effect, and after the fact is often inappropriately rationalized with the benefit of hindsight

A psychological thriller set in the world of New York City ballet

 

Entitled ‘SWALLOW’, Luan Nel’s most recent body of work presents the viewer with a ‘flock’ of prints of his watercolour birds. Painted with a lightness and brevity of hand, multiple impressionistic glimpses of the birds placed in organic rhythm conjure the idea of movement across space. This is further encouraged by the effective and rather quirky use of electric fans which cause the paper to literally flap in the breeze. The formal play of these elements in the work creates a graceful presentation suggestive of the lift and fall of wings of swallows in the configuration of their migratory flight. Conceptually the visual vocabulary and symbolic potential of the natural world is not a new departure point for Luan Nel. In his previous exhibition, ’Aviary’, the rituals and habits of birds allude to our own and we are nudged towards this understanding through his personalised titles. Here the migratory patterns of swallows can become a way of speaking about human migration as a condition of contemporary life. However, on a different scale the imagery of these penguinsuited birds and the dance they perform can subtly refer to more intimate patterns of social ritual.

Installation view of SWALLOWS:

‘Seisoen’ Lithograph, edition of 20, 82.5cm x 112cm (framed):

Installation view of original watercolours for SWALLOWS:

‘Verdwyn‘ & ‘They left without saying a word’, Original watercolours, 37cm x 49cm (framed);

 

‘Voltar’ & ‘Ontsnap’, Original watercolours, 37cm x 49cm (framed);

 

View the exhibition PDF.

‘Aviary’ was the first solo-exhibition where Luan dealt with the theme and subject of birds and birdlife.
James Tates poem ‘The Blue Booby’ provides an entry to this ongoing body of work. In it he uses the language and style of the wildlife narrator to talk about this bird of the Galapagos. Initially it seems to nothing more than data and observations on this bird. Towards the last stanza it however becomes apparent that he uses this ‘mask’ to talk about much larger issues than simply the bird. He deals with desire, posession and sublimation. In a similiar way Luan attempt to use his  ‘studies’ or ‘observations’ on birds and birdlife to speak about larger and sometimes deeply personal issues.

‘The Parrots’:

‘Reier’ (Whooping Crane):

‘Perched’:

‘Neighbourhood’:

‘Flock’:

‘Stoutgat’ (naughty-ass):

 

In 2010 Nel participated in a three person exhibition ‘Juncture’ along with Nigel Mullins and Tanya Poole.

In this exhibition Nel furthered his investigation of colonial furniture in the form of watercolours and oils. He did not do any Murals as was the case in his solo exhibition ‘Silent Exit‘.

 

 

 

 

The genesis of Luan Nel’s latest exhibition at Art on Paper Gallery is a couple of one gallon tins of wall paint dating from the 1950s that he chanced upon in one of the many second hand furniture shops that dot the long Street, “Blikkiesdorp”, or Albertville in Johannesburg. The faded label, with its Van Riebeeck trademark, not only prominently displays the well-known portrait of the 17th century Dutch colonist found in virtually every History school textbook, but also proudly declares Van Riebeeck paint as the “noblest paint of them all”. For Nel this was more than a serendipitous found object: he tested the paint and was delighted to discover that the high lead content preserved the paint inside the tins. He decided that the paint was not ‘found object’ per se, but rather ‘found medium’. With this new/old medium he executed three murals at Art on Paper Gallery: wall paint eminently suitable for the artist’s site specific artwork!

A name such as ‘Van Riebeeck wall paint’ can hardly be called a coincidence in the early 1950s, the time of the country-wide tri-centenary celebrations of the colonization of a private enterprise (the Dutch East India Company) by its emissary, Jan van Riebeeck. Van Riebeeck paint was a prosaic, albeit banal, spin-off of a mid-twentieth century reinvention of a South African colonial past. The reaffirmation of this past was even more controversial in the early 1930s with Jan Juta’s mural of Jan van Riebeeck in South Africa House, Trafalgar Square, London. The original central panel showed Van Riebeeck having landed, with his ships off the coast, and a group of his followers kneeling under a large cross, which dominates the painting. Afrikaner nationalists objected to what was perceived as a representation that encouraged a view of Van Riebeeck as a Catholic. After much resistance from Charles te Water, the High Commissioner, the mural was duly replaced with a less contentious rendition of the Dutch landing.

What was generally overlooked during this debacle was the wooden furniture in the ‘voorkamer’ of South Africa House, notably an excellent collection of 17th and 18th century Cape chairs. Not surprisingly, the chair became the central motif in Luan Nel’s new body of work. His chairs, however, are empty, de-contextualized, depicting only a minimal sense of front, back and side elevations of the chairs. Nel harnesses his usual interest in proportion – minute miniature water colours and oil paintings of chairs, to life size depictions of these chairs in the murals – to great effect.

He is also no stranger to the exploration of the mural in his art. Nel used the mosaic murals at the Forno Italico, Rome, originally known as the Forno Mussolini, the giant sports complex of the 1930s, conceived as a temple to the Fascist cult of athleticism, portraying virile sportsmen in various stages of undress, in two light box works entitled, The Pool at the Studio Dei Marmi (1999/2000). In the same manner in which these light boxes invoke an oppressive past permanently inscribed on the wall, the new work on this exhibition comment on an iniquitous local past. Nel strips history of all external trappings and shows us an empty chair in its place. The title of this exhibition, Silent Exit, captures a shameful retreat if not a form of penitence. What is left is an empty seat: a seat perhaps to be occupied by a new leader.

The Cape chair Nel depicts on this exhibition has even more metaphorical connotations than that of a seat of power. It symbolizes a form of cultural hybridity as well. The 17th century Dutch chair has undergone many subtle changes in the ensuing three centuries on South African soil. So had the people in the country. The chair is an apt metaphor for hybridity – mutual changes that take place inadvertently when different cultures come into contact or clash with one another. New hybrid forms include such chairs as the cot or corner chair, the ‘burgomeester’ or wheel chair, and the ‘Tulbagh’ chair. (Atmore, 1974. Cape Furniture). Woodhouse laments in his book, The Interior of the Cape House (1982) that “it is a great pity that we have nothing but a very inadequate inventory of descriptions to guide us”. Nel provides an alternative inventory on this exhibition.

‘Muse’. A group exhibition of portraits. Artisits were asked to do a portrait of somebody in the South African ‘artworld’.

The exhibition was held at The Klein Karoo Arts Festival – Oudtshoorn and later at Brundyn+Gonsalves Gallery – Cape Town.

I have chosen to do a portrait of Alet Voster, a gallerist and friend. (When briefed that it should be a contemporary within the artworld – Alet as subject just made sense). One problem….. you will battle to find a more self-effacing personality in this our ‘artworld’. Alet does not enjoy having her image taken and the prospect of a full portrait was simply not on. This created a bit of a dilemma for me the artist. I remembered that Alet told me she was going to New York and on this trip she might be able to purchase the one and only colour lipstick that she wears – basically her whole adult life – Christian Dior nr. 763, Rouge Mysore/Indian Red. It is no longer available in South Africa. Having arrived in New York she tried to get the colour there, it was discontinued. This ‘colourfield’ is an attempt to capture that colour, just one receptacle of an amazing identity. Alet had to change to a new lipcolour. She remains amazing.” – Luan Nel

 

 

 

 

 

Johannesburg-based Luan Nel’s first solo exhibition in KwaZulu Natal entitled ‘Smallville SA’, met with great acclaim. Nel bases his works on the notion of dioramas, like those typically used in museum display. Nel replaces and re-contextualises miniature figurines from model trainsets by setting them on large, mostly unaltered canvas backgrounds. In this way, he explores the construction of male identity and deals with issues of control, escape, obsession and secrecy.

The scale and positioning of Nel’s miniscule figures forces the viewer to interact with them up close. Attaching the figures to the canvas by their feet, Nel constructs the scenes on the walls as if seen from above, inevitably making the viewer feel like Gulliver in the Land of Lilliput. The figures Nel chooses are sometimes grouped, other times alone; some are dressed in business suits, while others recline in bathing suits apparently on a beach. Harsh top lighting causes the figures to throw long shadows, much larger than themselves. So effective is this lighting that the glue used to adhere the figures to the canvas is visible in the shadows, detracting to some degree from the impact of the scenarios Nel constructs from these readymades.

Scale is inarguably central to the works’ interpretation, and Nel explores this further in a series of prints. In these he takes photographs of the figurines in works such as Heroes Officers, Heroes Firemen enlarges these and prints them on vinyl. This shifts the relationship between artwork and viewer significantly and one is now forced to look up at the images. The prints are also accompanied by a series of detailed watercolour portraits of some of the figures, demonstrating his characteristic remarkable skill and attention to detail, leaving one wishing that he could have applied such precision to the rest of the exhibition.