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The Skin Game: Skin Skies & Land 301 x 500 pixels, 33 Kb
Slegs Vir Almal: Oppenheimer Fountain 984 x 500 pixels, 93 Kb
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I wrote an introduction to the catalogue that explained what I was trying to do. From the full text (which appears in Works/Texts to 1974) I quote the introductory paragraphs: SLEGS VIR ALMAL is the wording of the notice that need not exist, need never be put up; the un-notice. The European or Englishman in the streets of a South African town sees notices of exclusion new to him; on benches, buses and post office counters. I come from no perfect country: the rich in England are privileged still and a part of the kingdom is torn with old hatreds; poor cloven Ireland with its unforgiving factions. However, throughout my country, that penniless eccentric of Europe, I see the absent sign ... FOR EVERYONE ONLY. I visited South Africa in December 1973 and, not immune to beauty, was stunned by the magnificence of the landscape and the feel of a great continent with a single identity more impressive than its parts. I stood at the Cape and watched two oceans meet: behind me to beyond the Sahara was one thing with a single ancient name. To judge is an impertinence on the part of the short-term visitor. The artist has one role: to see on behalf of other people. Each tries to make small steps forward in seeing for he is the one whose brain and eye should be in union and accord, just as it is the musician whose intellect is married to his ear. In these new works I have tried to use slogan, image and text in ironic juxtaposition, that their combination might speak for itself, might sing, if overtones and harmonics are right, or not. |