Oil paint and graphite on paper, 31.1 x 39.5 cm
Scrape is a work that conveys a sense of doom and the ceaseless wait for it. The artist struggles with feeling as if the world is on the brink of collapse, every round of breaking news seems to inch it closer. Waiting for that final world-ending event is what is depicted. The artist’s practice involves the exploration of embodied consciousness. Each mark becomes the body’s attempt to harshly dissect the swirl of thoughts attempting to diagnose what ‘the end’ could be. The paper has been saturated with multiple washes, whilst also being slashed and filing away the primer to reveal the fleshy raw paper beneath. Turpentine languished on the surface and allowed it to spread in such a way that the artist became a mere witness. Scrape conveys violence without the beings committing it. The assumption of forthcoming violence and the never-ending wait for it is the true violence committed here.
Deanne van Blerk is a South African, Pretoria-based artist born in 2004. She is a painter generating abstract works with a focus on markmaking. Pursuing her honors year studying Fine Arts at the University of Pretoria, she predominantly makes works with oil paint on paper. She often incorporates graphite into her works, allowing it to dissolve in turpentine as she builds layers through smearing various washes of paint. Her inspiration derives from graphology allowing her to explore how marks, reminiscent of handwriting, become vehicles of sincere bodily expression. Currently she is exploring themes of embodied consciousness and its role in markmaking.