The Mountain Without a Shadow [exhibition]

Location: BRIDGE RED
Address: 12425 NE 13TH AVE, North Miami, FL 33161
Dates: Friday, April 8, 2018 | 4 pm – 7 pm

Exhibition Ends May 27th

In “The Mountain Without a Shadow” themes of displacement and cultural heritage permeate Anja Marais’ work. Often using photography combined with found objects, her work is imbued with a ritualistic quality. Central to Marais’ work is the disintegration of material, creating apt metaphors for the human condition, geography, and memory.

Born in South Africa and now living in Miami, Marais’ work challenges the viewer to rethink the meaning of systematic conditioning. Photography forms the basis of much of her mixed media work, but she also employs more archaic materials like maize, soil, rust, etc to realize her works.

Whilst Marais’ work subtly alludes to the impact of racism in South Africa – a country immersed in political and social turmoil during her upbringing – her themes have a universal appeal. Marais reinforces this:

‘…. I am interested in interpreting direct experiences that contradict our conditioning. With first-hand experience we don’t see things as they are, but how we see them as we are. An opportunity to discover dissonance between what we know and what we are born with ‘

The exhibition comprises nine of Marais’ most telling works from multiple projects around ‘the sins of the fathers’. In ‘The Transparency of Rocks‘, one of the larger pieces in the exhibition, Marais combines images of a child merging with rocks, a reflection on carrying the transgressions of our forefathers.

In ‘A Poem for the Sharpevilles‘, she uses press images from traumatic events in history and washes them away to recede and merge into the landscape, an attempt to memorialize landscape as a mute witness to the actions of man.

Also featured are recent sculpture works. These include found objects enmeshed with Maize. Corn is a staple food in Africa as in many other countries and is used in rituals of the ancestors.

“Libation for the Lineage of the Unlived.” is a video work that combines ritual and ethnopoetics bringing the outside and ‘other’ world into the space of the gallery.

By Anja Marais|2018-04-05T06:50:57-04:00April 4th, 2018|

Libation for the Lineage of the Unlived [video art]

The Mountain Without a Shadow, or, Unfinished Business

I once walked past your front yard.

You waved me in.

Something appeared on the horizon when you looked out your living room window that day.

You had to show me.

A mountain, overnight, bricked itself in the firmament, cemented tight by cloud.

“Look!” you say.

“I did not see that yesterday, but when I woke up today, there it was!”

I felt the boulder stack more than I could see it, but yes,

it was there.

The way you can see a brain tumor in faltered speech.

You poured us each clear spirits in Mason jars and invited me to sit

outside on lawn chairs.

Together we watched the sun compete with stone.

The sun did not appreciate this new roadblock, it lamented.

“What do you think you are doing here? Can’t you see, I have

somewhere to be?”

The mountain sat mute.

The sun tried its work, this way and that, up, down, but was in a cul-de-sac.

It was then that we realized that mountain did not cast a shadow.

Its weight, without shade. Its demeanor, soundless.

But deep inside a fissure in its craggy side, we heard an old voice sing.

It was so familiar, I could smell my Mother,

It was so innate to my bones, I could feel my Grandfather move under the ground.

A song of displacement.

Of fallen soldiers,

grieving children,

wounded women,

caged animals,

and decapitated forests.

Most of all, it sang about its persistent thirst.

Parched and filled with yester-dust.

A silo throat devoid of unharvested maize.

This song of yearning urged us to get up and emptied our Mason jars.

Pouring the clear spirits onto the soil, seeping away.

As the mountain drank from our jars and right before it faded, we stood for a tick in its newborn shadow.

All that remained was the backside of the sun on its way.

By Anja Marais|2019-06-24T14:55:35-04:00April 2nd, 2018|

FOLD: Exhibit combines unique disciplines through art [write-up]

Exhibit combines unique disciplines through art
by NANCY MOYER

Marais’ bold images reflect the inner psyche bleeding through external reality. She describes her work as a chronicle of the undertaken journey to wander between the two worlds while being a mirror to both. Her surfaces resemble roughly weathered posters, survivors of life’s events, yet still alive and vital.

Believing that all life is a story, “I cut out bits and fragments of this epic tale,” Marais declared in her statement, “and piece them back together searching for coherence and sense; this mutilation creates a new world.”

The powerful work, “Up Flight of the Wingless Bird,” predicts the ultimate transformation. The feminine image, slightly larger than life, rises up above a panel suggesting a nervous system, bone structure, or maybe brambles, into a figurative form. Continuing this path, a light from above changes the physical features into a deadly visage.

FOLD is a women exhibition at the International Museum of Art and Science in Texas curated by Raheleh Filsoofi.

Read the full article HERE

Up flight of the wingless bird, Photomontage Mixed Media on Found Fabrics, 2015, 85 IN x 79 IN

By Anja Marais|2018-02-28T12:16:55-05:00February 28th, 2018|

Between transformation and disintegration – Art Salon [Art Talk]

Memorial Landscapes between transformation and disintegration: Photography as a Textural Approach

by Anja Marais

Elle Schorr’s Art Salon – South Florida has become a vibrant center for art and artists, and ART SALONS at the ARMORY ART CENTER in West Palm Beach are a gathering place for artists from throughout in the region. Each month from October to May, Art Salons offer presentations by influential professional artists whose artwork is being shown in museums and galleries in South Florida. Presenters show their work, talk about their influences, and explore the work of artists showing in museums and galleries, followed by stimulating discussions between all who attend. Our discussions cover the gamut of contemporary art themes, including conceptual, cultural, socio/political, environmental, race and gender-focused and aesthetic practices, the materials and techniques used to convey these ideas, and where we fit into the world of contemporary conceptual art. Art Salons also offer the opportunity to explore the practical side of being an artist, enhance professional development, share useful resources, and network with other artists.

By Anja Marais|2018-02-28T12:04:03-05:00February 13th, 2018|

FOLD a women exhibition at IMAS, Texas

FOLD is an exhibition of contemporary works by thirteen female artists who explore the concept of the fold in terms of form and conceptual metaphor in both stationary and time-based art media. The fold is simple and complex at the same time – it is a physical act, a state of material, and a way to explain things that happen in other realms. The fold challenges space and even time, and as a symbolic paradigm, it offers an ever-expanding impulse for creativity. The exhibition will be held in conjunction with the annual FESTIBA event, which will focus on the theme of borders in a way that offers opportunities to compare theoretical constructs with concrete realities. Along with the exhibition, seven scholars from different disciplines; Philosophy, Psychology, Social History, the History of Art and Literature, and Women’s Studies will explore the concept of FOLD in their respective areas. The exhibition, with its speakers and the panel discussions, provides a unique opportunity for to engage with the many voices and perspectives of notable, contemporary artists and demonstrates the way that art can offer inspirational insight into current societal issues and trends.

*For more information about additional FOLD locations and events, please click here.

By Anja Marais|2018-01-23T09:28:05-05:00January 23rd, 2018|