Rina Stutzer’s new exhibition continues her exploration of the transience of things: of people, of land and animals, of heaven and earth. Her work returns consistently to the dualities of existence. There is light but also darkness; grace but also gravity; intimacy but also distance; free movement but also boundaries and limitations. Her work is deeply personal but it is also inflected with the complexities of living in Africa: a continent characterised by constant movement and change. It is a place in which the concept of “home” is inseparable from the anxieties of being without a home – sometimes because one is forced from one’s home, for whatever reasons. If Africa is a land of promise, its fabric is also continuously ripped apart by violence. There is nothing certain about living in Africa. But then the world today is an uncertain place. There are light and dark sides to being in flux and to the feelings of unease that this may cause; Stutzer’s work always engages thoughtfully, attentively and poetically with their intertwinement. For her dwelling means settlement but also point of departure: a beginning, an end, and a beginning again.

Opening : 1 September 2016 at 6pm

mpefm SOUTH AFRICA art press release