RESERVOIR
09.02 - 29.03.2024
As I step into RESERVOIR, the metal studs embellishing Anna Van Der Ploeg’s creations glint in the late afternoon sun. A bright yellow band of text snakes around the gallery’s left wall, leading one into the larger exhibition space, which holds most of the wood carvings and sculptures. For Van Der Ploeg, the text functions as the central piece of her show, Shorter this time. It features answers by seven writers—Bongani Kona, Margie Orford, Keely Shinners, Zayaan Khan, Karin Schimke, Thulile Gamedze, and Lucienne Bestall—to questions set out by the artist. These questions, ranging from general prompts such as ‘When did you first write?’ to abstract inquiries like ‘How does language move?’ create a sense of intimacy, inviting the viewer into the worlds of the artist and the writers. Van Der Ploeg revisits this approach with an additional instruction: “Shorter this time.” As a result, some answers, initially a few lines long and almost poetic in their prose, condense into just a few words, such as “to stop time,” or even one-word answers like “delusion.” This process of condensation creates a dynamic interplay between simplicity and depth. The text enables a discourse that transcends the conventional boundaries of authorship often attached to exhibition texts as the ‘authoritative voice’ that contextualizes artworks.
Although Van Der Ploeg does not consider herself a writer, her interest in language is evident throughout the show. Many of her titles reference books that inspired her or phrases related to personal experiences. For example, in one of her sculptures, suddenly all his five teeth laugh. The laugh slams out of him and is gone; she borrows from Anne Carson’s short story, ‘1=1’ and wine dark seas; blue for Homer references a common description in ‘The Iliad’. While Homer’s Iliad contains many sea epics, the mythological reference in Van Der Ploeg’s work concerns the book’s linguistic nature rather than its tales. She reflects on the various translations and reifications of the ancient text over the years and how this has shaped our understanding of it.
Through the use of non-traditional materials such as plywood, metal, and ink, Van Der Ploeg draws the viewer into the space. wine dark seas; blue for Homer, made from a curved piece of plywood and stained with ink in its carved grooves, undulates like the flag of a ship. Its engraved marks resemble the calligraphed letters of a dead language. Many works evoke stretches of the open ocean, with wispy, mermaid-like inky figures dancing across the plywood. Small grooves cut around them mirror brushstrokes or the soft rippling of water, while metal studs arranged in swells glisten like wet skin on a bright day. Van Der Ploeg skilfully makes these hard, unforgiving materials look soft and delicate. The sculptures are quite unusual in design, as their edges curve inwards towards the viewer. She described the process of creating these shapes as one that requires patience, as boiling water must be poured over the wood which is then carefully bent into place.
Considering Van Der Ploeg’s work, scholar Colin Foster comes to mind. Foster examined the similarities between sculpture and language in detail, positing that sculptures are, first and foremost, objects whose primary function is to be seen and through this act of seeing, convey a message to the viewer. While language may use sounds or markings on paper, sculpture uses shape and form, line, direction, measure, scale, and geometry. Foster argued that understanding sculpture requires a different mode of perception and interpretation compared to understanding verbal language, emphasizing the importance of engaging with the physicality and spatial dynamics of sculptural works. Similarly, Van Der Ploeg’s sculptures demand a unique method of interpretation. Through their intriguing use of materials, they establish their own grammar. These distinctive carvings convey the artist’s fascination with shaping perception through visual motifs. Their abstract nature invites viewers to interpret the work independently. What may resemble an ocean teeming with creatures and glittering lights to one observer could appear as a curved piece of yellowed paper adorned with blue lettering to another. This fluid movement between visual and textual elements in Shorter this time encourages the exploration of language and its relationship to internal perception.