| fried contemporary | EXHIBITION |
|
Majak Bredell 2 Decades +
12 May - 2 June 2007 |
|
Spinners book
Majak Bredell is exhibiting at Fried Contemporary Art gallery & Studio after she lived and worked in New York City 23 years. She exhibited in Johannesburg and Pretoria as Majak Lewis until 1981, the year she emigrated with her family to New York City. After 23 years of living and working there as art director/graphic designer, art instructor, and artist she returned to South Africa in 2004 to live and work in Kampersrus in the Lowveld.
Her early South African work was a personal reflection of her own subjective experiences as a daughter of the patriarchy. At first, she portrayed female figures as eroticized and crucified objects. Then, as though to anesthetize the terror of this reality, the paintings that followed were pale images of the figure blending into the domestic environment, the housewife neatly pasted down with the wallpaper, or hanging with the laundry to dry. However the American move would change her focus from the intensely personal to a symbolist, mythological vision that questioned notions of belief and scripture in relation to feminist spiritual thinking.
Male effigies and imaginings of a pre-patriarchal masculinity informed much of her early New York work. She wrote poetry in her mother tongue, Afrikaans, to still the longing for the Africa that formed her. Her writing and images were incorporated in limited edition artists’ books, while her drawing and painting explored the images and ideas around a primordial mother goddess. The exploration of her subject is the product of a feminist consciousness brought about by the interaction between reading, writing, and the making of her art. In time the idea of the divine female became central to her American work, and the focus shifted from being mostly emblematic to becoming mostly figurative and is anchored with a point of view both in terms of method and content. ------------------- Majak Bredell stal by Fried Contemporary uit nadat sy vir drie-en-twintig jaar in New York gewoon en gewerk het. Sy het in Johannesburg en Pretoria uitgestal onder die naam Majak Lewis tot en met 1981, waarna sy saam met haar gesin na New York emigreer. Na 23 jaar as kunsregisseur en grafiese ontwerper, keer sy terug na Suid-Afrika in 2004 en woon en werk sy in Kampersrus in die Laeveld. Haar vroeëre Suid-Afrikaanse werk is ‘n persoonlike weerspieëling van haar eie ondervinding as dogter van die patriargie. In die begin het sy vroulike figure weerspieël as erotiese en gekruisigde voorwerpe. Later, om as’t ware die vrees van die realiteit te verdoof, volg vae beelde van die figuur saamgesmelt met die huishoudelike omgewing, waar die huisvrou netjies saam met die muurpapier geplak is, of saam met die wasgoed hang om droog te word. Die skuif na Amerika verander egter haar fokus van intens persoonlik na ‘n simboliese, mitologiese siening wat vrae vra rondom die konsepte van geloof en geestelike manuskripte in verhouding met feministiese geestelike denke. Manlike figure en verbeeldingsvlugte van ‘n pre-patriargale manlikheid inspireer haar vroeëre New York werk. Daar skryf sy ook poësie in haar moedertaal, Afrikaans, om die verlange te verminder na die Afrika wat haar geskep het. Haar skryfwerk en beelde is saamgevat in ‘n beperkte uitgawe kunstenaarsboek, terwyl haar sketse en skilderye die idee rondom die voorhistoriese moedergodin ondersoek. Die ondersoek na haar onderwerp is die uitkoms van ‘n feministiese denkpatroon, aangemoedig deur lees, skryf en die skep van haar kuns. Met tyd word die idee van die heilige vrouefiguur sentraal tot haar Amerikaanse werk, en die fokus skuif van meestal emblematiese werk na figuratiewe werk wat geanker word deur ‘n uitkykpunt in terme van metode en inhoud. |
|
|
|
Moederdeur II (1992- 1995) |
|
|
|
Treedentity (1995)
Sacret Grove (Heilige Bos) |
|
Lied van die Spinners/Song of the Spinners |
|
|
