SMITH is delighted to present the third solo exhibition of Marsi van de Heuvel’s mesmerising ink works.
Her previous two solo shows at SMITH, 2015’s ‘Entanglement’ and 2016’s ‘Ceremony’, received critical acclaim, featuring in various publications including Vice, House & Leisure and VISI magazine. In 2017, Van de Heuvel’s work was selected to show in four group shows at SMITH as well as at the gallery’s booth at both the FNB Joburg Art Fair and the Cape Town Art Fair. In 2016 her work appeared at the AKAA Contemporary Art and Design Fair in Paris.
For ‘Transition’, the artist has retained her now signature method of repeating one-directional lines with fineliner ink on fabriano paper. This painstaking approach means that larger works can take two months and 100 pens to complete.
This time, Van de Heuvel delves into the suspense and ‘inbetweenness’ of transitional spaces and instances – and their inherent sense of freedom and possibility.
Spending hours in the mountains in and around Cape Town as well as the Outeniqua range near George while researching this show, van de Heuvel found on reviewing her snapshots that she had repeatedly been drawn to tunnels, gaps in foliage or other compositions suggestive of some passage from one space to another.
Her fascination with these transitional spaces resonated with her reverence for the most poignant of all – the birth canal – and took on more figurative meaning in the sense of a developmental metamorphosis or movement from one emotional state to another.
Sparked by a visit to a particularly dreary hospital and with a view to a future collaboration with the institution in question, Van de Heuvel further explores the transformative and healing capability of beauty and nature.
“There is power in aesthetics. It can be transformative. I am interested in nature and beauty as a facilitator for the healing process, and art as therapy. I believe that being in a natural space or by engaging with an image of a natural space, one can project oneself into it and that can be beneficial to the healing process. Some of our public care spaces feel quite depressing and could do with some more care and attention to benefit the patients, the visitors and the people who work there.
I have hiked through several of our nature reserves collecting references. Spending countless quiet hours in our forests, velds and mountains and have found that studying the light, textures and harmony of colours has been deeply therapeutic for me. My intention is to attempt to share my experience by giving time and energy to convey the healing essence of nature though making new artworks for this specific purpose.”
‘Transition’ opens on 30 August 2018. For press enquiries or to request further material, please contact Jana Terblanche at jana@smithstudio.co.za.
Please join us for the opening of Transition on Thursday 30 August at 17h30 at 56 Church Street, Cape Town.
(Text courtesy of SMITH Gallery)
