A Flesh Coloured Mess (Excerpts from a solo exhibition Part 1)

In my previous post I introduced myself and showcased a small selection of work from my sophomore solo held in Johannesburg earlier this year. The post seemed to be received relatively well so I thought I would showcase another selection of pieces from the show. If you haven't read my introductory piece here is the link.

I think it might be beneficial to include the rationale for my show as it may help people to interpret the underlying themes:

A Flesh Coloured Mess explores themes of existentialism, messiness, interpretation and horror. The title of the exhibition is a reference to the passing semblance of humanity in the face of an indifferent abstract cosmos; a smear on a timeline. The themes in this exhibition draw inspiration from Lovecraftian ideas of cosmic horror. The hallmark of Lovecraft's horror is essentially the sense that ordinary life is a thin shell over a reality that is so alien and abstract that the mere contemplation of it would damage the sanity of any person. This exhibition reflects these ideas in a more intimate and personal manner: essentially the messy, abstract nature of our own lives and the way in which we construct ourselves by assigning meaning. The fact that our lives can be viewed as abstract messes means that our hopes of connecting with others and even ourselves are left to the mercy of the narratives we construct as we stab in the dark between our hopelessly mismatched experiences. Even if we do transcend the messy, abstract incoherence of our lives through our assigned meaning we may still be stuck in our own terrible and faulty interpretations. Our trials, tribulations and even our joys are of our own making. Many pieces show tortured figures surrounded by abstract shapes and symbols. These symbols are representations of the vague and inscrutable horror we are faced with given the story we create for ourselves.The techniques of Venter are based on the taming of inherently messy mediums such as ink and charcoal. Each artwork is an attempt to create order from messy, purposefully accidental panels filled with unrelated marks which ultimately translates back to reflect the main themes of this exhibition.

In total I created almost 38 pieces for the show. Here is another selection of these pieces:

Title: A Flesh Coloured Mess
Year: 2017
Medium: Ink, Gouache, Pastel, Acrylic, Disillusion
Size: 90 x 64 cm

Title: I became a human wasteland to grow all this nothing
Year: 2017
Medium: Ink, Gouache, Acrylic, Desolation
Size: 90 x 64 cm

Title: You are your own mess to deal with
Year: 2017
Medium: Ink, Gouache, Acrylic, Oil Pastels, Desolation
Size: 90 x 64 cm

Title: A body is not the home I would have asked for
Year: 2017
Medium: Ink, Gouache, Acrylic, Regret
Size: 90 x 64 cm

Title: I gave a little bit away that turned out to be quite a lot
Year: 2017
Medium: Ink, Gouache, Acrylic, Charcoal, Helplessness
Size: 90 x 64 cm

Title: I used to understand the world but now it knows me better than I know myself
Year: 2017
Medium: Ink, Gouache, Acrylic, Charcoal, Apprehension
Size: 45 x 32 cm

As always I appreciate any comments or support! You can follow me on instagram to see any new works and progress:
https://www.instagram.com/velvetventer/.

Part 2 can be found here

Photo Credits: Bernard Brand