Berni Searle at the Michael Stevenson
by Kim Gurney
In 'About to Forget' at the Michael Stevenson Contemporary Gallery, artist Berni Searle uses the simple materials of water and red crépe paper to create a series of images that reference memory, a sense of return and a sense of loss. Although 'About to Forget' brings together many of Searle's previous artistic concerns, the artist�s body is for the first time entirely absent from the work.
Searle says 'About to Forget' grew from two previous projects. The first was her 2000 Fresh residency at the South African National Gallery, where she explored the significance of being from Cape Town in work that included aspects of heritage and family. The second was an HIV/AIDS charity project called 'Thank You', which Searle undertook last year in her first web-based project. In the latter, she experimented in her bath with streamers, which became organic and translucent in hot water as the colour started to run.
For the new work, Searle experimented for three months at home with red crépe paper and hot water in a bath tub. Finally, working with a film crew with cameras placed immediately above a tub, Searle directed the filming of the immersion and bleeding of the cutout red crépe silhouettes to produce a three-channel film shot on 35mm cinemascope film of three minutes' duration, as well as a series of stills.
Searle based the work on images from family photographs belonging to her mother, who was rejected by her grandmother when she married a non-Muslim. One remaining connection with the split family was a bundle of black-and-white photographs. Searle told exhibition viewers on a walkabout: �I am looking at a sense of loss and a sense of trying to recover what I am obviously connected to but have been separated from.�
The exhibition hinges on the video, About to Forget, which begins with three distinct groups of figures cut out in silhouette from red crépe paper, against a white background. As water begins to flow across the forms, the colour starts to bleed in swirling mists that powerfully evoke both beauty and violence.
Paradoxically, the fragile crépe figures retain their shape while the colour bleeds out into the environment. The figures take on a noble, almost monumental stature, although they are all the while threatened by the elements. We hear the swirling of the water as the plug is pulled and the menacing drip of the tap as the process unfolds and the colour leaches from the figures. The process repeats on a continuous loop.
Whether the figures are waiting and what they witness during their lookout is all a mystery. But they endure the transformations around them and leave their indelible mark behind, onto which future generations can project their own interpretations.
The photographs on exhibition complement the video. Some are coupled in bold versions and lighter versions (traces), which echo the process of memory and forgetting.
The repeated keyhole effect in images such as Under the tree shifts the viewer into the role of an intruder or of one perhaps looking in on some other secret world. The image fades, as if over time, into Under the tree (traces).
There is an appealing contrast between the advanced technology Searle uses and the somewhat prehistoric, ancient quality of the results. On either side (traces) is a distillation of a family photograph of elderly folk seated along a wall at a function, a photo included in the exhibition catalogue. The particulars of the original photograph have been transformed in ink into a haunting silhouette.
One of the most intriguing aspects of 'About to forget' is the way in which Searle has taken her own source material, reduced it to an essence, and re-presented it with a general access point. It is also perhaps an apt comment on how memories � family and otherwise � are created. Certain mythical narratives are recycled until they become accepted fact, losing detail in favour of a generally agreed 'truth' about the past.
Technically, 'About to Forget' might be a one-trick show with a visual tendency towards repetition. But thematically, in an exhibition that references memory, it is difficult to object too loudly. It is an interesting new direction for Searle, who is this month [June] taking her artistic skills to Venice for the 51st Biennale.
Opens: May 4
Closes: June 4
Michael Stevenson Contemporary Gallery
Hill House, De Smidt Street, Green Point
Tel: (021) 421 2575
Fax: (021) 421 2578
www.michaelstevenson.com
