Self Conscious Reflections

Catch the “Self Conscious Reflections” exhibition at the Barnard Gallery, on until 13 April only.

Featuring three extraordinary artists – Lyndi Sales, Pamela Stretton and Eris Silke – the exhibition showcases a collection of artworks from colourful abstract creations to images built up from pixilated digital ink-jet prints and sensitive paintings of dreams and fantasy. 

Entitled “Blur Zone”, the focus of Lyndi Sales’ work is on vision, perception and the imagination. An eye condition began her investigation into eyesight dilemmas and the perceptual associations occurring due to astigmatism. Conditions of blurring, double vision and visual illusions are created as abstract paper cutouts, drawings and a spirographic string installation.

The series by Pamela Stretton, who was born in South Africa and now lives in the U.K., focuses on the female body, and is to a large extent autobiographical.

Issues such as beauty ideals and the body’s relationship with popular culture, fashion, health and food come to the fore in her works, which take the form of pixilated digital inkjet prints. Each 20 x 20mm pixel contains iconography drawn from the food, fashion, consumerism and health and fitness industries, such that the viewer is forced to stand at a distance in order to make the image visually resolve.

Eris Silke, meanwhile, is a self-taught artist who works predominantly in black and white and in a style reminiscent of a Gothic fantasy. Her psychological insight is manifested in her work, particularly the influence of Jung and Freud, with her dreams and fantasies being transferred to the canvas.

Catch this showcase of the power of women in art at Cape Town’s Barnard Gallery until 13 April.

For more info on the exhibition or artists, visit www.barnardgallery.com.