APOCALYPTICALLY PROLIFIC

Occupying the extensive interiors of the KZNSA Gallery can be an intimidating task for any artist. But not for Cameron Platter, the charismatic, quixotic young talent whose arsenal of new work in the form of the exhibition entitled “Studio” takes up the Main, Mezzanine and Electric galleries of the complex. Platter's effusive, inexhaustible artistic output veers vertiginously from the whimsical to the profound and the playful to the serious in an exploding kaleidoscope of colour, chaos and craziness.

In the Main Gallery is a recreated working sculpture studio in which the public is encouraged to participate. In this space Platter and a team of sculptors will work on, assemble, chop up and customise a large sculptural installation of carved wooden objects, collectively entitled Sculptures for New Living. Ranging from a car (a melange of a Ferrari, 4x4 and cash-in-transit van) to a jetski/coffin/cooler box and a minibar/ ATM/ sound system, as well as other post-apocalyptic “madmaxian objets de survival” (pots, dustbins, sticks, gasoline cans, helmets and the like), the sculptures are a work in progress, with the evolving installation supplemented, pared and retooled to suit its next venue. Instead of the usual opening night the real action will take place at a celebration on November 7 when the ATM/mini-bar will be DJed, the jetski/cooler box stocked with drinks and hors d'oeuvres served from ceramic works.

In the Mezzanine and Electric galleries Platter reveals new experimental drawing, video, ceramic and print works. In his dialectic, artistic vision, artistic rigour, childlike simplicity, off-the-wall humour and deadly serious social critique all jockey for position. In this body of work he decodes stranger-than-fiction realities drawn from contemporary living with his irreverent take on the world featuring sex, politics, irony, satire, mortality, adulthood, economics and French champagne.

Alex Sudheim

Extract from: Sudheim, Alex. “Apocalyptically Prolific.” Mail&Guardian, Friday, October 17 to 23 2008, Page 8 (Listings – KZN)