In previous iterations of Duo, Susana and Candice would alternate selecting two works of art and writing about the pair. In this iteration, Candice chose one work and Susana, in response, the other- a painting by Foibe Amundaba and a work on paper by Peter Clarke. They then sat down and discussed these pieces; Candice’s initial choice, Susana’s response, and, discoveries about how each work resonates differently for each of them and how the feeling the works evoke share a commonality.
Foibe Amundaba’s painting, Wrapped, was in our Cape Town studio for some time and Candice spent a lot of time looking at the work while working on an upcoming exhibition. The feeling the work evoked for her is one of shelter; the muted, planar blocks of colour that shape a background seem a deliberate but sensitive choice, as if a wall against which a much more complicated choice of brushwork lines lie. The ‘body’ of the figure is built up by a clustered arrangement of haphazard lines and these lines come to form a cloak of some kind- a cocoon- in which the figure is shrouded. We imagine that there is a body beneath this cloak, and the figure’s expression is seemingly serene and calm without freely giving away the intention of their expression. One has to search for what the combination of lines and expression might mean. The obscured figure felt like an enigma- a mystery and a push to keep looking.
Peter Clarke’s work, Memories of you, was chosen by Susana as a response because it shared with the painting a feeling of comfort. The Clarke is to Susana a moment captured, as if the viewer has taken a step backwards and photographed a scene. They are somehow strongly linked to this moment and to capture it fulfils that feeling- perhaps captured for an approaching nostalgia. Interestingly, the Clarke evoked a very different feeling for Candice; a feeling of isolation and distance, confusion between whether the pram is on the inside of a wall or the outside of the wall and so a discussion about what a sense of safety and ‘comfort’ might mean ensued.
Over the next two weeks we will be sharing bits of this discussion about these two works of art on our social media pages, so follow us there if you have not yet done so!
Paintings
Paintings