Margot Hattingh brings the magic of Carnivale to The Cape Gallery in a solo exhibition opening on Sunday 24 November, 2013. Margot has been exhibiting at The Cape Gallery since 2003. Her process of freely associating lists of words with her thumbnail sketches produces work that is both conceptually powerful and visually intriguing.
“Like many creative people I discovered early on that I could create, and inhabit – sometimes for days at a time – a preferred, limitless world of my own imagination.
When I was young, I went to the circus. The huge, old fashioned, politically incorrect Boswell Wilkie circus, with its lions, tigers, elephants and most astonishing of all – its trapeze and tightrope artists of the 1950’s. The feral, dangerous smell, the glitter, the high drama and the mystery utterly entranced me. I was hooked for life.
Instantly, well probably the next day, I announced to the world that I was either going to be an artist when I grew up or run away and join the circus, to become a tightrope walker and trapeze artist. I started practicing for both careers immediately, and in a way, I can see I never stopped. If anything, my concept of circus has expanded to include the whole world as well as the idea of Carnivale.
Carnivale, with its echoes of masked balls, feasting and freak shows, smoke and mirrors, rollercoaster rides and love tunnels, has joined the circus trick riders and lion tamers, fire dancers and trapeze artists, to create a grand arena of a metaphor for understanding and celebrating life.
Each painting is a little theatre, a fictional circus or arena, where reality can be mirrored, distorted and magically re-arranged to create a different perspective on an underlying truth. Who has not felt like a tightrope walker balancing over a pool of snapping crocodiles?
And what about the clowns? Where are they? I think I am the clown, and maybe you are too. I can scare even myself with the possibilities for tragedy or humour in everyday life. The Carnivale I paint is not just mine; it belongs to all of us. My paintings are a reminder that we can choose our masks, tame our inner lions and fly despite the baggage.” – Margot Hattingh
Margot’s notable exhibitions include “Strangers”, an invitational international printmaking exhibition in Canada, USA and New Zealand in 2004, an exhibition at the Kilkinney Annual Arts Festival, Ireland in 2007 and the 8th International Printmaking Triennial, Chamalieres, France in 2010.
WHEN: Opening Sunday, 24 November 2013, 4.30pm; 25 November – 14 December 2013; Mon to Fri 09h30 – 17h00, Sat 10h00 – 14h00
WHERE: The Cape Gallery, 60 Church Street, Cape Town 8001
INFO: Tel 021 422 2762 or visit
