Please join us for the opening of Under Construction, a solo exhibition by Chrisél Van Der Merwe on Thursday 5 July 2018 at 6pm at 153 Smit St, Braamfontein.
Under Construction is an exhibition that takes shape in the form of experimental printmaking, sculpture and installation. In this exhibition, Chrisél investigates her relationship to the city of Johannesburg as a young female artist, a fairly new resident of the city and person moving through the socially constructed spaces of the city.
With new development, and decay of the old, the city is in constant flux, its boundaries are forever mutating. Once bounded and shaped, this socially constructed space, in turn, also influences social relations. The city is socially produced and is socially reproducing.
Chrisél uses the medium of printmaking to create an archive of her exploration of the city. Her copper plates are engraved by the forces applied to them on construction sites – spaces that show the changing nature of the city. Almost as innocent bystanders, the plates capture the energy, memory and history of the city in a specific place and time. In this fluid urban context, renewal and erosion are the concurrent themes in the prints, sculptures and installations on display.
In turn, Chrisél uses installation as the embodiment of the in-flux spaces of Johannesburg. The installation pieces on the show include pieces of wall from demolished buildings and materials found at the sites she frequents in her explorations. For the duration of the show, she will keep nurturing and engaging with these materials as she continuously refines, re-polishes and reassembles them. She embraces the masculine materiality and space associated with construction-sites and reforms them with her own female view, subtly referencing the gender politics of urban space.
Dates: 5 – 28 July 2018
Venue: 153 Smit Street, Braamfontein
