Rodan Kane Hart

Listings(s)

'Structure'

Rodan Kane Hart at NiROX PROJECTS at Arts on Main

This January, NIROX and NIROXprojects will host an exhibition of sculptures as well as the unveiling of a new permanent experiential structure in the Nirox Sculpture Park, both by Rodan Kane Hart. Hart explores the subject of spatial perception within the complex and changing structures of the South African city. Having lived in both Johannesburg and Cape Town, he began to investigate the physical & historical context of these two spaces. He has adopted a series of architectural and urban design approaches in order to read and understand these urban localities. Previous projects have often attempted to identify, expose and subsequently ‘unpack’ noteworthy ideological constructs underpinning urban forms within these particular South African cities.

Hart’s most recent series of steel sculptures/structures and drawings investigate what is revealed when manufacturing tectonic forms and how an understanding of this affects its very constructed ‘nature’. The Sculpture Exhibition and the Nirox Pavilion seeks to elicit the audience’s awareness of themselves within the space around them.

‘I am interested in attempting to reconcile formal abstraction with seemingly incongruous subjects from personal experiences. The works attempt to set up physical and visual parameters to mediate, spaces and patterns to contemplate, processes and experiences to cogitate and reflections and refractions to ruminate’.

13 January 2013 - 26 January 2013

'Pattern Language'

Rodan Kane Hart at Whatiftheworld / Gallery

Whatiftheworld presents ‘Pattern Language’ by Rodan Kane Hart, an exhibition of new sculpture, sculptural inlays, and installation.   
 
In this exhibition Hart continues to explore experiential structures and sculptures. Inspired by architectural forms found in the urban environments of his native Johannesburg and Cape Town, his recent series of steel sculptures explore the notion of generative shape, pattern and form in relation to the viewers’ experience. These works attempt to stimulate a heightened emotional response through their illusionistic and fragmented forms.  
 
Referencing Christopher Alexander’s architectural, urban design and community livability book titled 'A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction', published in 1977, 'Pattern Language' attempts to identify, expose and ‘unpack’ the ideological constructs that underpin numerous urban forms found within these contemporary South African cities.
 
Hart’s most recent solo exhibition titled 'Structure' (2013) presented a series of minimal steel sculptures, drawings & books investigating the ideological impulses that are revealed when manufacturing tectonic forms and how a better understanding of these impulses allows a more complex reading of these built environments. Using sculpture as a lens through which to view historical and spatial contexts, Hart creates shifts in context, which in turn become generators of experience. Activated by the movement viewer the shape and form of the work unfolds as time and motion proceeds.
 
Referencing the theory outlined in pattern language Hart focuses on the notion of pattern in a broad sense. Within a sculptural and visual paradigm pattern is deployed to track problem solving in a context of design as well as social transformation and urban environments .The underlying theory manifests in layout, city grids, paths of desire and built form, social interaction, human inhabitancy, connectivity and conversation.

'A Pattern Language' details how individuals could be empowered and equipped with the tools and language responsible for the design and construction of communities that reflected both their interests and those of the broader public. The book attempts to expose the function of language within design, the authors mention that in designing environments people will enviably always rely on certain visual ‘languages’ that allowing them to coherently articulate and communicate an infinite variety of designs within a formal system.

05 June 2013 - 06 July 2013

'Forms ( S / W)'

Rodan Kane Hart at NiROX PROJECTS at Arts on Main

NIROXprojects presents 'FORMS / S I W' by Rodan Kane Hart. Following on from 'Structure' (2013) & 'Pattern Language' (2013), 'Forms / S I W' (2014) marks Hart’s third solo showcase in 2 years. The exhibition compromises an entirely new body of work consisting of sculpture, drawing, print & photography. These works follow on from previous points of enquiry regarding the constructed notion of the South African city. After a recent residency at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in England Hart has shifted his focus to more closely examining the influence of European architectural forms onto the urban fabric of South Africa. 

Farshid Moussavi and Michael Kubo sum up the conceptual foundations of the exhibition as a whole in a book titled The Function of Ornament. A statement is made that succinctly deifies the relevance of architectural style and ornament, “Architecture needs mechanisms that allow it to become connected to culture”. Absorbing and capturing the forces that shape society achieve this cultural connection. These forces are then used as material components to work with, forming composite materiality. When two forces found within society, Invisible, meaning; Cultural, Political, and Temporal, and, Visible, meaning; Structural, Functional, and Physical, are brought together, it gives way to, a New Aesthetic Composition. Architectural style is not easily adjustable to the changes in culture and society. Modernists utilized transparency to represent architectural elements of space and structure; Post Modernists used Décor, whereas the Deconstructivists used geometrical collage to replace transparency all together. These concepts express the inextricable relationship between, Inside & Outside, Then & Now and Here & There.

'Forms / S I W'  (S suggesting South = South Africa & W suggesting West = England) at NIROXprojects focuses on the formal influences of European Classism, Modernism and Post Modernism. An array of artistic medium has been utilized to present the historical and personal logic behind Hart’s formally abstracted works. Hart has intentionally incorporated more handcrafted methods with those of mechanical and digital processes, setting up a relationship between subject matter, time, theory and aesthetic. 

Charcoal drawings & 35mm Black & White photographs inspired by architectural and natural forms found in the English cities of Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool & London, are presented alongside those depicting the South African cities of Johannesburg & Cape Town. These images explore the construction of spatial context by juxtaposing figurative representations with those of abstracted ones. 

Being renowned for his life-sized steel sculptures Hart has taken a more intimate and crafted approach, by producing 4 smaller generative sculpture series consisting of 4 stages (each). Hart sees these sculptures as maquettes and studies for larger experiential projects, asserting the Russian Constructivists as an influence. Finally, a series of lithoprints presenting the progression of line to shape and subsequently to form over 4 stages will also be on display.

12 March 2014 - 31 March 2014

'Reflection: (Strips)'

Rodan Kane Hart at blank projects

Rodan Kane Hart will temporarily activate the exterior of blank projects from
the 5th to the 21st of July 2012. A recurring theme in Hart’s work is
spatial transformation and perception. His previous projects have often
attempted to identify, expose and subsequently ‘unpack’ noteworthy
ideological constructs underpinning urban forms within many contemporary
South African Cities. By using blank project’s closed roller shutter
door as a location for his project Reflection: (Strips), Hart will employ a strategy of site specific intervention consisting of an installation of over 200 (1m long by 50mm high) strips of recycled mirror. These strips will be installed  into the groves of two roller shutter doors spanning a total distance of 8 meters and a height of 3 meters.

He states; “This ephemeral work seeks to stimulate a heightened
emotional response through a distorted reflected experience of the urban
life of Woodstock Main Road. It is my hope that this intervention will
draw one’s attention to the actions that are responsible for manufacturing space & place”.

Presenting a fragmented representation of the surrounding context is a gesture that activates an otherwise non-traditional exhibition space in unexpected ways: the city is no longer just a subject for representation, but now becomes a strategic medium for reflection.

05 July 2012 - 21 July 2012