“Sublimation” by South African artist, André Stead is currently on view at the Christopher Møller Gallery. The exhibition concludes 9 December.
“As an artist, I have always been fascinated with the human condition, partly due to my own experiences at a young age. Growing up with dyslexia in a government schooling system was very hard and I always seemed to be the outsider, somehow different from the other kids. This caused me to always wonder why and how I was so different from those around me. I started to observe other people more consciously in an attempt to unravel this mystery, thinking that if I could discover exactly how they thought of things and why they behaved the way they did, it would somehow enable me to overcome my dyslexia and be more accepted.
Over time, the observation of other people became a way for me to understand myself more intimately and to better relate my own experience of life to the world around me, and my reality. The observation of people became a study of the human race and ultimately led me to become a figurative artist whose work deals with the social, cultural and emotive qualities of human beings,” explains the artist.
“One of the first pieces I created for the sublimation series was “Sentient”, which is a female bust that explores the perceptual cognition of the human mind and our ability to feel and to assimilate people, ideas or culture.”
The African principle of Ubuntu – we are whom we are because of others – finds its cognate in the Western world through an ‘empathic revolution’. Against the pandemic of narcissism, a disease and a culture epitomised by the ‘Selfie’, artists such as Andre Stead are asking us to return to a more ‘sentient’, intuitive, compassionate worldview. Preoccupied with the ‘ability to feel and to assimilate people, ideas or culture’, writes Ashraf Jamal
WHAT: “Sublimation” by André Stead
WHEN: until 9th of December
WHEN: Christopher Moller Gallery 7 Kloofnek Road, Gardens, Cape Town 8001.
PHOTO: “Communion” – bronze – edition 1 of 1 – 58 x 46 x 22 cm
Parking: Secure parking available at the Jan van Riebeeck School grounds – opposite the gallery.
