Brent Meistre at NSA
by Camilla Copley
Despite the earnest title of the exhibition - 'Sans: Desire for a Beginning /
Dread of One Single End' - I think what permeates the whole show on at the
NSA is humour. The show consists of a number of black and white photographs
arranged to form composite pieces consisting of series of twos and threes (sometimes
four) and one series (Untitled (Gates)) consisting of 60 images separately
framed but hung two deep in a tight horizontal line.
There is also an installation in the media room which includes two beds placed centrally with springs exposed. The beds face the wall opposite the viewer where a video of three juxtaposed grainy black-and-white images of journeys is projected. These separate frames within the whole tell small stories concurrently and out of sync.
Meistre's title reveals his awareness of the discourse surrounding photography. A French word co-opted into the English language, 'Sans' refers to absence, or the lack of something. Photographs are primarily records of what is not present now, and hence there is always a nostalgia which suffuses any photograph. Meistre plays on this absence/ presence idea.
The exhibition lends its title to the bed and video installation. This appears to reference psychological journeys which we all take where we long for stability and meaning in our lives, but paradoxically are terrified of the commitment and limitations incurred if we try to anchor. The same installation has a droning sound component which emanates from speakers attached to the springs of the beds whose exposed springs offer no respite. Even the neatly folded blankets speak of the absence of a place to rest - a blanket with no mattress is still untenable.
The absence/presence thread is one which runs through all the works. Untitled (Matches) presents one burned match stick, and then in the next image two burned match sticks. What is present is evidence of the matches' previous luminous life. The single burned match has a curiously forlorn feeling. The second image which presents two matches is a relief, as the loneliness of the single burned match is relieved by a second.
An aesthetic choice which recurs in Meistre's work is the placement of everyday objects on a velvety black ground. Many of his works consist of portraits or series of portraits of prosaic objects. This rich black nothingness suspends the once familiar object in time and space and allows the object to have more fluid meaning. The lack of context allows one to project one's fantasies and notions onto the objects. The everyday is transformed into something mysterious and precious.
The sacred in the everyday is consistently alluded and is borne out by four images of paper plates. Against a velvety back ground a paper plate, ordinarily associated with a hot humid picnic, is transformed into a cool moon. Viewing Meistre's series of four paper plates variously folded introduces a mini narrative which is at once funny and poignant.
A powerful record of absence is presented in the large composite work called Graves. Forty A5 framed images of unmarked graves tower above you as you enter the gallery space. An obvious twofold absence is highlighted in this rather poignant piece; the people are there and absent, the graves are unmarked and thus reinforce the absence of those who are dead. The vertical presentation of the work alludes to a large gravestone.
Layers of meaning materialise in Meistre's work. His careful and deliberate choice of subject matter allows both heroic and pathetic reflections to surface in the viewer's mind.
Closed: February 14
NSA Gallery
166 Bulwer Road, Glenwood
Durban, 4001
Tel: (031) 202 3686
Fax: (031) 201 8051
Email: curator@nsagallery.co.za
www.nsagallery.co.za
Hours: Tue-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat 10am-4pm, Sun 11am-3pm
