HAVE FUN BEFORE IT ENDS
During Cameron Platter's recent occupation of Durban's KZNSA Gallery, Brenton Maart asked him some clever questions
In a reversal of usual migratory patterns, you moved from Cape Town to KwaZulu-Natal. Why?
I moved for love - my fiancée refused to budge. Living in KZN has given me the space to return to basics, concentrate expand, and the luxury of distance from distractions. I can also indulge myself in working eight to ten hours a day and then swim in a warm sea to unwind.
Do you consider yourself to be working on the periphery?
No. The periphery and centre are where choose to place them. I've found I work best on the edge, in an in-between space off, the beaten track. Shaka's Rock is my space.
The difference between the Durban and Cape Town art worlds?
I can wear shorts and flip-flops all year round
What's the concept behind your exhibition Studio?
I don’t have a studio big enough to work, assemble and install these sculptures, the KNSA does. So I had an idea: why not move my studio to the gallery for this show? People can connect with how I work, rather than merely viewing the final dressed-up artwork. I also loved the idea of letting a roaring chainsaw loose in a nice clean gallery space.
You've titled the group of carved wooden works Sculptures for New Living and called them "madmaxian objets de survival?"
I felt rather pretentious calling them that, but that's what they are. They range from a larger than life-size car (a mélange of a Ferrari, 4 x 4, and cash-in-transit van) to a jetski/coffin/beer chest. There are also everyday man-made things - cooler boxes, dustbins, plastic chairs, weapons - hand-carved from avocado and jacaranda. They're about a back-to-basics, hands-on, DIY approach, making what you need from what's around you. They're sculptures for a world where everything is uncertain, where survival is paramount, and where one better have fun before it ends.
One of the works is a carved ATM with a custom fitted mirrored mini-bar as well as a powerful car sound-system. Why merge these seemingly disparate things?
With the stock markets down, and my shares not doing too well, I thought it best to combine a number of desirable things, in order to give me, viewers and collectors value for money. A number of these works are functional in an extremely offbeat way. I wanted works that I could use in my everyday life, if they didn’t sell immediately. For example, the jetski sculpture opens - with hydraulics - to become a fridge, and when the beer has run out, a coffin.
Earlier this year you presented a solo show in Vienna with Hilger Contemporary. Was the work similar to what you are showing here?
The major difference is Studio isn't in Europe, but on my back veranda. In Vienna I ended off a body of work - and killed my main protagonist, the crocodile. Studio is a start of a new direction, built from past explorations, but more mature, raw, relaxed, simple, direct, and perhaps assured.
Your imagery mirrors contemporary society - blood, money, intensity, excess and greed. But there's also a moral tale of "doing the right thing", something you share with your artist-hero John Muafangejo.
I do greatly admire Muafangejo. I think he was great because he told these everyday stories, which reflected what was going on around him politically and socially, globally and locally. You could tell exactly what he thought and quite often his was a voice of an old-fashioned, upstanding gentleman. He produced very complex works, which got their messages across very simply and powerfully. Although my work revels in the perversity of everyday goings-on, I try to make my stance clear. Perhaps you could call me a political satirist.
Last word?
Brenton Maart
Extract from: Maart, Brenton. “Have Fun Before it Ends.” Art South Africa, Vol 07, Issue 02, Summer, 2008, Page 37
