Of Symmetries and Oxymorons- The Knowledge Chambers 2008

FRITHA LANGERMAN

This exhibition takes as its starting point the Encyclopédie of Diderot and d’Alembert (1751-66). In a temporal conflation, their content structure, the ‘System of Human Knowledge’ has been subjected to a Google image search and the results subsequently translated into series of prints using the repetitive form of the rose window as a template. The apparent internal logic of the composite prints is denied when any sensible attempt is made at interpretation, alluding to the impossibility of a project that seeks to categorise all human knowledge when meaning is contingent and codes of textual and visual representation are fluid. The prints are mirrored by textual pieces. This is a visual pun, ‘reflecting’ both on the symmetrical construction of the prints and on the binary structure on which many knowledge systems are based. The exhibition of 2 and 3-dimensional works is divided into four conceptual groupings: the contents, the index, the library and the colophon.

Born in Cape Town, Fritha Langerman is a senior lecturer at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, where she lectures in printmaking. She has exhibited widely nationally and internationally and has won numerous awards including the 3rd Cape Town Public Sculpture Commission and ABSA Atelier and Sasol Wax merit awards. This is her first solo exhibition in Johannesburg.