https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/28773 Tue, 12 May 2026 23:56:38 GMT 2026-05-12T23:56:38Z https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/32158 The Measure of Matter Miller, Gwenneth The travelling solo exhibition “The Measure of Matter” consists of 21 new works reimagining spines and objects to consider being bound by time and matter. The first installation was in the two front rooms of the Tina Skukan Gallery and the second installation took place at the White River Art Gallery, where the narrative flow was reconceptualised. The research was triggered by the physical problem of struggling to walk due to Spondylitis. In the months before the pending operation, the artist studied the anatomy and contemplated frailty. Images of the skeleton and the spine transmuted into an interest in the spines of old books, existential mapping devices and objects associated with mortality and the interrogation of what really matters. The artworks address a shared reality: we are all bound by time and matter and the anxieties of an uncertain future. The preliminary research considered how the artist could extend personal experiences into works that would resonate with the audience, bringing its own history and realities to the exhibition. The painting “Platteland” was a reworking of the brush art created the previous year, but here the artist added water to suggest a journey of the object as ‘body’ on the way elsewhere. It was the work that triggered the association and link with weathered bones. Drawing the past into the present, alchemic yellow tones were applied in works such as “Map to nowhere (becoming something)" and the darkly humorous dancing “Salome I” and “Salome II”. Interestingly, the Biblical Salome is vilified by Jung in his Red Book (2009), although he equates her with the soul. Initially anatomy was approached as a mechanistic system of levels until the body’s incredible ability to grow new bone was experienced, restructuring the old into something new. Bridgman’s (1972) “The human machine” introduced the artist to the atlas bone that supports the human skull. It is named after the titan Atlas, who, in Greek mythology, supported the world on his shoulders. The painting "Atlas" was accompanied by “Load Bearing", depicting an overloaded truck – begging the question of burden – albeit with some sense of humour. Bridgman’s images of the human spine reminded of weathered books kept intact by a network of stubborn threads, like tendons binding muscle and bone. These inspired the creation of “All that matters” and “The spine study” series. At Skukan Art Gallery, the series was positioned to form a dialogue with the permanent sculptural works that related to objects of labour, but the installation was reformatted and retitled at White River Art Gallery, to “A library of time from Göttingen”, as the space seemed to demand a different reading. In high-resolution photography the books were treated as if they were portraits, commemorating time with subtitles such as “Becoming wood” and “Dictionary of the disappearing”. Conceptually, weather mapping was considered to contemplate fresh winds blowing life into matter. The chronicle flow was a method to renew thinking about illness as a cyclical part of life. Visual associations were layered until the medium and material began to communicate meaningful new associations. Torn layers of paper and thickly applied charcoal evidenced awareness as embodied thinking. Much like the atlas bone, our spiritual compass decides what matters and what does not, and how we measure its bearing and influence. These works form an interdisciplinary conversation with reflections on psychology, new-material culture and research on ‘falling upwards' in life, to borrow Richard Rohr’s words. In this sense the work contributes to new understanding, bridging the above fields in visualisation. “The Measure of Matter” exhibitions and several walkabouts were well attended at both Tina Skukan Gallery and White River Art Gallery. Opportunities for academic talks were optimised as the audience attended the solo and the solo of Elfriede Dreyer, which were presented alongside each other but as separate research. Both spaces have a good following and are well-established institutions. Bridgman, GB. 1972. The human machine. New York: Dover. Jung, CG. 2009. The Red Book: Liber Novus. Edited by S. Shamdasani. New York: Norton. See the link to the artist's website at the top of this page Sat, 14 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMT https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/32158 2024-09-14T00:00:00Z https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/32067 Moment Dreyer, Elfriede The Moment project (2024) consists of ten new artworks, each paired with a unique sound composition, culminating in two solo exhibitions: one at Tina Skukan Gallery in Pretoria and another at White River Gallery in Mpumalanga. As an invited artist at both venues, I developed these works specifically for this exhibition, building on my exploration of sound initiated with The Piano at the beginning of 2024. Thematically, Moment investigates the processes of transmuting sound into word, image into sound, and word into image. I collaborated with Seoul-based experimental visual and sound artist Johan van Huyssteen, composing sounds on my piano, which he then post-produced. In The Piano, my piano—both as an object and an instrument that survived the 2017 Knysna Great Fire—became a vehicle for exploring themes of loss and recollection. Selected works from that series were included in Moment, which further extends these inquiries by specifically examining the interplay between image, word, and sound. Each work is accompanied by a sound composition, accessible via QR codes displayed at the exhibitions.The visual language of Moment incorporates imagery of sound waves, comic-book conventions such as dialogue balloons, and mountain landscapes. A technique of layered polyphony—applied across physical and digital media—evokes a sense of consciousness extending across physical, mental, and virtual realms. The project also includes an online exhibition catalogue, three artist walkabouts, and international collaboration. The works remain permanently available for viewing at www.elfriededreyer.com/2024-moment. The newly produced works for this exhibition were inspired by my experimentation in 2024 with intermediality in my solo exhibition, The Piano. In Moment, I collaborated with Seoul-based experimental visual and sound artist Johan van Huyssteen to compose sounds on and within my piano, while he handled post-production after the paintings were completed. The Piano explored my instrument—my only possession to survive the 2017 Knysna Great Fire—not only as a sound-producing object but also in terms of themes of loss and remembrance.Twelve works from that series were selected to create sound compositions for and be included in the Moment exhibitions, to further extend the inquiry into the interplay between image, word, and sound. Initially, these works were presented without sound, but for Moment, they acquired a sonic dimension. Imagery of fire, sound waves, comic-book conventions such as dialogue balloons (Tonk, Moment, and Die trane die rol oor jou Bokkie), and mountain symbolism (Speak to the Mountain) are central to this body of work. A technique of layered polyphony—employed across physical and digital media in both image and sound—suggests consciousness extending across physical, mental, and virtual realms. Conceptually, this dialogical polyphony aligns with Heidegger’s ([1927] 1962) notion of Dasein, which describes the human condition as fundamentally situated within a world of relationality. Dasein is always Being-with-Others, an ontology of interconnectedness. Sound, with its vibrational materiality, embodies this interconnectivity, reinforcing the fluid boundaries between self and environment. Heidegger’s concept of Geworfenheit (being ‘thrown’ into existence) extends to all living beings, encompassing their relationship to temporality and death. In Moment, a pivotal work in the series, life is framed as an ephemeral instance—captured within a transparent dialogue balloon—expressing the existential condition of Being-in-Time. The new Moment works explore the connections of image and word to sound, and each work is accompanied by its own sound composition. The sounds are accessible via QR codes, shown during the exhibitions for the public to access. Some sounds simulate child-like simple consonant melodies and others are more dissonant and emotional, attempting to capture a particular existential moment. An existential scream materialises through image and sound in Ebony, narrating the trauma of the ebony tree’s felling—its wood repurposed into the black keys of the piano. In the moment of its ‘death,’ the inner heart of the wood reveals a vivid red, gradually darkening to black as it withers. Engaging in an intermedial idiom cultivates a dynamic interplay where meaning emerges through the interaction of media rather than within isolated forms. As Rajewsky (2005) posits, intermediality is a transformative process in which media actively reshape one another. The intermedial fusion of sound, word, and image in the exploration of fire and loss employs sensory layering, dissolving boundaries in a polyphonic dialogue. In works such as Fermata (‘Pause’), Saving Grace of Sound, and Boom! Ting!, physical burning was used as both process and metaphor, enacting a symbolic fusion of media. This intermedial approach operates through oscillation between forms, echoing the flickering nature of fire—a force that simultaneously consumes and creates. The inherent loss within fire’s destructive capacity extends beyond the visual into the sonic, contributing to what Voegelin (2010) describes as the “productive body of sound”, where sound is not merely an auditory phenomenon but a material force that shapes perception and meaning. In the Moment series intermediality becomes a methodology for articulating the existential condition of connectedness. These works exemplify the idea of ‘intermedia’, a space where traditional distinctions between artistic disciplines collapse, fostering new modalities of expression. Sources quoted Heidegger, M. [1927] 1962. Being and Time. Translated by John Macquarrie and Edward. Available: https://altair.pw/pub/lib/Martin%20Heidegger%20-%20Being%20and%20Time%20(translated%20by%20Macquarrie%20&%20Robinson).pdf. Accessed 3 September 2024. Rajewsky, IO. 2005. Intermediality, Intertextuality, and Remediation: A Literary Perspective on Intermediality. Intermédialités 6: 43–64. Available: https://doi.org/10.7202/1005505ar. Accessed 3 September 2024. Voegelin, S. 2010. Listening to Noise and Silence: Towards a Philosophy of Sound Art. New York: Bloomsbury Academic. Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/32067 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/30957 Song of the philosopher Dreyer, Elfriede The "Song of the philosopher" research project (2023) entailed 32 artworks and three solo exhibitions: A solo in the Western Cape at Rust-en-Vrede Gallery, Durbanville (11 March - 5 April 2023); a solo at Latuvu Gallery, Bages, France (25 May - 9 July 2023); and a solo at Trent Gallery, Pretoria (19 August - 2 September 2023). Respectively entitled "Lied van die filosoof"; "La chanson du philosophe"; and "Song of the philosopher" – produced in French, Afrikaans and English – they are similar in content. I was an invited artist at all three venues. The exhibitions included a printed and online exhibition catalogue; walkabouts; an international press review; an essay by Prof Stella Viljoen of Stellenbosch University; and a seminar presentation in French. The metonymic relationship between word and image was problematised in this project that falls within the theoretical ambit of semiotics and hermeneutics. Already argued by Horace (19 BCE) in his Ars Poetica, the interconnectivity of word and image cannot be reduced to total similarity (ut pictura poesis) or total difference (paragone). The research objective of the project was to investigate this complex relationship in which word and image complement each other while being connected through the idea. Hermeneutically such interdisciplinary relationships create new meaning in the amalgam. Each of the 28 artworks that were produced was accompanied by text dealing with ideas that range from 400 BCE to current writings. Such textual musings were then creatively transmuted to artworks. Philosophical constructions on identity (for instance in the work (M)Other); character of the world (in Uthiopia, Ships of Neurath); the cyborg (in Robot); the Anthropocene (in Anthropocene 1-4); people’s relationship with nature (in Rhizome) digital environments (in Zoo city 1-3); genetics; and memory (in Forgotten 1,2 and Aftermath/Sunset); and knowledge (in Plato’s cave) were problematised in terms of their commentary on existential being, the world, evolution and technological transmutation. My rhetorical methodology departed from the word as the unit of reference in the search for resemblances. Creatively the process entails “a flood of representations, straddled ravines, ruptures, discontinuities, … unnatural leaps and … unnecessary entities” (Didi-Huberman, G. 2016. Glimpses. Between Appearance and Disappearance. Zeitschrift Fuer Medien Und Kulturforschung (7):109-124). Didi-Huberman (2016:112) further argues that an image is a vehicle of non-knowledge, which is something to be imagined, thought or written. A deconstructive creative process happened through departure from the original, then deviating and applying my own frame of reference. New figurative expressions grew out of the metaphors created by language. Physical media intermingled with digital media, supplementing and erasing each other. This series of work follows on my previous explorations of time, place and world construction, but in the new works I chose to follow an alchemical aesthetic. Methodologically the process echoes the mingling of ideas latently embedded in metaphor and the distillation of a flow of meaning between word and image. The alchemical methodology used in concept, media and process extends the interconnectivity of word and image to notions of fermentation, refinement and conjunction. My colour scheme was related to the alchemical stadia in the transmutation of the prima materia to the philosopher’s stone of wisdom, the stadia being nigredo (melanosis) - black; albedo (leucosis) – white; citrinitas (xanthosis) – yellow/gold; and rubedo (iosis) – red. Nuances of alchemical grey and metal were used (as in Song of the Philosopher 1, 2) in reference to the seven planetary metals in alchemy – iron, lead, tin, silver, gold, mercury and copper – each of which refers to a planet as well as a human organ. Alchemical phosphorous green represents light and spirit, but in association it could also be read as representing utopian ideas of a good place. Where a nocturnal palette was used it referred to the darkness of primal chaos, but also to the dusk of the subconscious. In the context of visual arts production this research project produced new knowledge in semiotic and hermeneutic perspective through positing the hypothesis that the interconnection of idea and image enriches the purely theoretical comment on truth, wisdom and insight about humans’ relationship to their surroundings and other beings. It was demonstrated that the integration of text and visual image has a communicative power that neither text nor image singularly possesses. The Song of the philosopher research project (2023) entailed 28 artworks and three solo exhibitions: A solo in the Western Cape at Rust-en-Vrede Gallery, Durbanville (11 March - 5 April 2023); a solo at Latuvu Gallery, Bages, France (25 May - 9 July 2023); and a solo at Trent Gallery, Pretoria (19 August - 2 September 2023). Respectively entitled Lied van die filosoof; La chanson du philosophe; and Song of the philosopher – produced in French, Afrikaans and English – they are similar in content. I was an invited artist at all three venues. The exhibitions included a printed and online exhibition catalogue; walkabouts; an international press review; an essay by Prof Stella Viljoen of Stellenbosch University; and a seminar presentation in French. The metonymic relationship between word and image was problematised in this project that falls within the theoretical ambit of semiotics and hermeneutics. Already argued by Horace (19 BCE) in his "Ars Poetica", the interconnectivity of word and image cannot be reduced to total similarity ("ut pictura poesis") or total difference ("paragone"). The research objective of the project was to investigate this complex relationship in which word and image complement each other while being connected through the idea. Hermeneutically such interdisciplinary relationships create new meaning in the amalgam. Each of the 28 artworks that were produced for the three solo exhibitions was accompanied by text dealing with ideas that range from 400 BCE to current writings. Such textual musings were then creatively transmuted to artworks. Philosophical constructions on identity (for instance in the work "(M)Other"); character of the world (in "Uthiopia", "Ships of Neurath"); the cyborg (in "Robot"); the Anthropocene (in "Anthropocene" 1-4); people’s relationship with nature (in "Rhizome") digital environments (in "Zoo city" 1-3); genetics; and memory (in "Forgotten" 1,2 and "Aftermath/Sunset"); and knowledge (in "Plato’s cave") were problematised in terms of their comment on existential being, the world, evolution and technological transmutation. My rhetorical methodology of applying metaphor departed from the word as the unit of reference in the search for resemblances. Creatively the process entails “a flood of representations, straddled ravines, ruptures, discontinuities, … unnatural leaps and … unnecessary entities” (Didi-Huberman, G. 2016. Glimpses. Between Appearance and Disappearance. "Zeitschrift Fuer Medien Und Kulturforschung" (7):109-124). Didi-Huberman (2016:112) further argues that an image is a vehicle of non-knowledge, which is something to be imagined, thought or written. A deconstructive creative process happened through departure from the original, then deviating and applying my own frame of reference. New figurative expressions grew out of the metaphors created by language. Physical media intermingled with digital media, supplementing and erasing each other. This series of work follows on my previous explorations of time, place and world construction, but in the new works I chose to follow an alchemical aesthetic. Methodologically the process echoes the mingling of ideas latently embedded in metaphor and the distillation of a flow of meaning between word and image. The alchemical methodology used in concept, media and process extends the interconnectivity of word and image to notions of fermentation, refinement and conjunction. My colour scheme was related to the alchemical stadia in the transmutation of the "prima materia" to the philosopher’s stone of wisdom, the stadia being "nigredo" (melanosis) - black; "albedo" (leucosis) – white; "citrinitas" (xanthosis) – yellow/gold; and "rubedo" (iosis) – red. Nuances of alchemical grey and metal were used (as in "Song of the Philosopher "1, 2) in reference to the seven planetary metals in alchemy – iron, lead, tin, silver, gold, mercury and copper – each of which refers to a planet as well as a human organ. Alchemical phosphorous green represents light and spirit, but in association it could also be read as representing utopian ideas of a good place. Where a nocturnal palette was used it referred to the darkness of primal chaos, but also to the dusk of the subconscious. In the context of visual arts production this research project produced new knowledge in semiotic and hermeneutic perspective through positing the hypothesis that the interconnection of idea and image enriches the purely theoretical comment on truth, wisdom and insight about humans’ relationship to their surroundings and other beings. It was demonstrated that the integration of text and visual image has a communicative power that neither text nor image singularly possesses. The Song of the philosopher research project (2023) entailed three solo exhibitions with a similar research theme: A solo in the Western Cape at Rust-en-Vrede Gallery, Durbanville (11 March - 5 April 2023); a solo at Latuvu Gallery, Bages, France (25 May - 9 July 2023); and a solo at Trent Gallery, Pretoria (19 August - 2 September 2023). I was an invited artist at all three venues. The exhibitions included a printed and online exhibition catalogue; several walkabouts; an international review; an essay by a colleague; and a seminar presentation. The catalogue and texts were produced in three languages: French, Afrikaans and English: La chanson du philosophe; Lied van die filosoof; and Song of the philosopher. The metonymic relationship between word and image was problematised in this project that falls within the theoretical ambit of semiotics and hermeneutics. The research objective of the project was to investigate this complex relationship in which word and image complement each other while being connected through the idea. My rhetorical methodology of applying metaphor departed from the word as the unit of reference in the search for resemblances. A deconstructive creative process happened through departure from the original, then deviating and applying my own frame of reference. An alchemical process was used that echoes the mingling of ideas latently embedded in metaphor and the distillation of a flow of meaning between word and image. Sun, 01 Jan 2023 00:00:00 GMT https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/30957 2023-01-01T00:00:00Z https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/30195 Under the Surface Miller, Gwenneth; Miller, Gwenneth The project “Under the surface” consisted of 22 new works in a range of media. The installations were interactions between specific ‘ecologies’ of people and places. I used three group exhibitions as an emergent method of tacit thinking, applying each structured platform as another step in the process to assemble ideas. The golden thread running through the research project was that communal relationships are core to both human culture and substrates in nature. In April (2022), new sketches were exhibited (together with older work) in the group exhibition “MESH, the fabric of friends”. My research asked questions about the interrelatedness woven between stuff and living communities, contemplating the underlying connections between people and materials. Whilst the works extended a previous theme of fungi as a metaphor for tangible and intangible bonds, I explored specific links between forest, kinship and mediative practice. An example of the concept was the series of twelve ink paintings of bells displayed on a glass table. I have been collecting small hand-held bells over many years, bought at places visited with family, or gifted by friends. Bells summon people to gather for beginnings or for endings, and the act of ringing facilitates knowledge of place and people. Rendering the bells became a scrutiny of their properties, evoking their materiality that contributes to the specific sound. I was struck by the thought that the vitality that artists radiate, also becomes evidence of the ‘stuff’ we are made off. Another example was the assemblage “Sounding” (2022), where I created the resonance between the seemingly disparate subject matter – bells and mushrooms. Apart from the shape of the bell resembling a mushroom, the vibrating sounds of bells also acts as a source of energy. In this work, bracket fungi collected from artist friend’s wild garden were dried, sealed and reconfigured beneath cut-out images of bells, suggesting an echo of repetitive forms. A formal reciprocity was thus applied to the two groups in relation to each other and influenced by theories of intermediality. in September (2022), the second phase of the project was shown at White River Art Gallery, consolidating the theme of “Under the Surface”. In the artist’s statement, I referred to Haraway’s (2016) well-known phrase of “stories that gather stories”, which is relevant to presentations of real and imagined ecologies. In eight new works I reconsidered images in terms of “matter” in landscapes. My experience of the bushveld contains both melancholy and aversion. The research into Hares foot inkcap mushrooms reminded me of sooty stalked puffball fungi from childhood and it sparked the narrative in two encaustic paintings about living with your demons and shedding old skin. The works touched both personal stories and ‘ecological’ understanding of symbiosis in communities. The October (2022) participation in “Looking into…and seeing beyond” at Unisa Art Gallery offered an opportunity for the most experimental part of the theme. The earlier processes planned in MESH were reconstructed in assemblages, providing renewed agency: • two assemblages from “MESH” were extended to “Sounding II” and “This too shall pass II”, where materials, concept and composition were reworked with beeswax, spore dust and additional objects. • three new digital compositions reflected on a story that the substance of a bell became the world, • and an installation “Falling into your own shadow I” were created. This included an interspecies ‘collaboration’ with fungi: objects were placed on the young growths, and they became partially or entirely unified with the bracket mushrooms throughout the year. The mixed media “Falling into your shadow II” was a third larger reinvention of the original small sketch shown at MESH. The time lapse from the first to the third presentation offered opportunity for gestation - a term favoured by writers on the nature of tacit knowledge (Barrett and Bolt 2014). As a contribution to critically thinking about practice-led research, I considered that a solo exhibition offers the artist a singular distance to reflect, here the unfolding research in three group exhibitions with artists from different stages of my life, allowed intermittent contemplation. All works are on the websites of the galleries and was published in SA Art Times See link to artist's website at the top of this page for more information. Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMT https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/30195 2022-01-01T00:00:00Z