The End of the World Explored

On the 31 March 2010, 2012 opens at Artspace gallery's Rosebank space. The exhibition is a group show featuring the work of Colleen Alborough, Ricky Burnett Shane De Lange, Bronwyn Lace, Ian Marley and Rat Western.

The 2012 phenomenon is a present-day cultural meme proposing that cataclysmic or transformative events will occur in the year 2012.

The forecast is based primarily on what is claimed to be the end-date of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, which is presented as lasting 5,125 years and as terminating on December 21 or 23, 2012. Arguments supporting this dating are drawn from a mixture of amateur archaeoastronomy, alternative interpretations of mythology, numerological constructions, and alleged prophecies from extraterrestrial beings.

A New Age interpretation of this transition posits that, during this time, the planet and its inhabitants may undergo a positive physical or spiritual transformation, and that 2012 may mark the beginning of a new era. Conversely, some believe that the 2012 date marks the beginning of an apocalypse.

This exhibition asks artists to engage on man's fleeting presence on earth and step outside of the paradigm that places man at the centre of his world. Each artist explored their own response to this brief.

Colleen Alborough uses humour to highlight fears and paranoia that drive our media obsessed society in her drypoint and monotype prints.

"If we look back on past headlines, many predictions and expected consequences either never materialised or were grossly exaggerated. The 2012 phenomenon, to me, represents one such media hype, which feeds on fear. I take as a starting point an exploration of the relationship between real and imagined fear, and the extent to which paranoia manifests in such fears." Says Alborough, "With a spirit of mockery and laughter, I hope to highlight an element of the absurd present in the worlds of imagined fears."

Ricky Burnett's works are musings on paper investigating the less appealing sides of the Mayan culture. " I'm skeptical of prophets and mysticisms and all allied metaphysical paraphernalia. The works for this show comprise a series called 'pyramids of sacrifice.' There are 6 in all. The Mayans sacrificed young boys and girls, by slitting their throats, to appease the gods. Not my kind of prophets, not my kind of gods, not my kind of universe."

Shane de Lange presents a work in five parts that challenges the way that society has constructed notions of values and morals. "Since the Renaissance, value has been mangled from an innate sense of moral grounding towards a cold, cool system based on consumption and production, ownership and authority, power and wealth. This breaking-down of the moral-code is epitomized by every successive generation as a specific brand of 'the end of the world', likely published for wholesale production in order to construct an ever-fearful, neurotic, and therefore faithful, human population, as is the case with the current 2012 phenomenon. From this basis truth is made, and the capitalist conception of 'we' and 'us' is constructed. But who gets to say what constitutes such values?"

A fascination in physics and nature form the basis of Bronwyn Lace's work. "I have always felt inadequate in the face of mathematics and science. Intimidated by 'grand narratives', I'm after a way that presents, furthers and reveals my cognitive and emotional understanding of the physical world".

Scientific theories have a huge impact on how we understand things, Lace wants be able to open up spaces in which she can access these concepts.

Says Ian Marley of his work, "the works produced for this show are primarily concerned with the notion of salvation or the futility thereof. The concept of the biblical ark is referenced but the boat to a new beginning is now submerged and engulfed by past and current transgressions."

Rat Western's work, 'Re' is part of a larger series of works entitled 'Preserve' which considers abstract conditions in an incubator phase, a museum type space or catalogue of circumstances, emotions and contradictions.

Specifically 'Re' looks at intangibles that relate to an implied narrative of apocalypse. 'Redundant, Reprieve, Retroactive, Remains, Reconnaissance' allude to a story whose mythic resonance, as in the nature of the prefix 're-', is oft a repeat, a reoccurrence or a return.

The exhibition will be opened at 18h00 on 31 March 2010 by Richard Higgins, Facilitator for Family Constellation and Transpersonal Numerology and runs until 21 April 2010.
The exhibition opens at Artspace, 1 Chester Court, 142 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood.

Please join us for a glass of Creation wine and to meet the artists.

For more information about the exhibition:
Artspace
011 880 8802
Artspace@wol.co.za
www.artspace_jhb.co.za

For media information and images please contact:

Taryn Cohn
Media Liaison for Artspace Gallery
083 6715139
taryncohn@artsourcesouthafrica.co.za