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Minnette Vári / Revenant / 2012

21 April - 19 May 2012
Goodman Gallery, Cape Town

Minnette Vári’s new body of multimedia work, on show at Goodman Gallery Cape in an exhibition titled Revenant, is built around the concept of the uncanny return – of repressed sexualities, identities, returns to earth from beyond it, and returns from beyond death itself, in a new cycle of work that features vibrant departures into relatively unfamiliar media for the artist.

Building on a recent showing of drawings that explored ancient depictions of pre-pagan female deities around the world, Vári depicts the goddess ‘Baubo’ as a narrative presence pulling the strands of the show together, weaving weirdly in and out of various landscapes, situations, objects and interactions. Dating from at least the 5th Century BC. Baubo became one of the first “sacred fools” and her image of a jesting, sexually liberated, wise woman has informed the identities and practices of many subsequent cults of worship. Baubo has been celebrated as a positive force of female sexuality and the healing power of laughter, which is why the series of drawings featuring the figure is named ‘apotrope’: a ritual or object to ward off bad luck. One origin story of the Baubo has it exposing its genitals to provoke the laughter of the inappropriate response, as she causes the goddess Demeter to stop mourning her daughter Persephone and to laugh instead. The unbidden nakedness that attracts immediately the unavoidable gaze is, in short, an uncanny response.

The Baubo figures certainly immediately strike one as absurd, the absurdity of a violated body. Their legs lead one’s gaze upwards, to the decorous suggestion of a vulva, indistinguishable from a slight cleft in – a chin? And then up to a face. Much larger than the legs it sits atop, the face is variously screaming, laughing, in repose… but where is the middle? A closer look changes the feeling of absurdity to one of unease at this absent middle. Physically impossible, it demands an explanation, a palliative analysis.

Artworks

Ink on paper
70 x 50 cm
Unavailable
Ink on paper
70 x 50 cm
Unavailable
Ink on paper
50 x 70 cm
Unavailable
Pigment ink on archival paper
32 x 22cm
Unavailable
Ink on paper
50 x 70 cm
Unavailable
Pigment ink on archival paper
32 x 22cm
Unavailable
Pigment ink on archival paper
32 x 22cm
Unavailable
Ink on paper
70 x 50 cm
Unavailable
Ink on paper
70 x 50 cm
Unavailable
Copper
Approx. 20 x 5 x 3 cm
Unavailable
Pigment ink on archival paper
32 x 22 cm
Unavailable
Pigment ink on archival paper
32 x 22cm
Unavailable
Ink and oil on paper
152 x 135 cm
Unavailable
Pigment ink on archival paper
32 x 22 cm
Unavailable
7 channel digital video installation
Unavailable
Pigment ink on archival paper
32 x 22cm
Unavailable
Oil, ink and pastel on paper
55 x 70 cm
Unavailable
Ink on paper
50 x 70 cm
Unavailable
Ink and pastel on paper
50 x 70 cm
Unavailable
Pigment ink on archival paper
32 x 22cm
Unavailable
Fine gold and chalcopyrite
Approx. 20 x 3 x 2 cm
Unavailable
Sterling silver
Approx. 20 x 3 x 3 cm
Unavailable
Ink on paper
70 x 50 cm
Unavailable
Ink on paper
70 x 50 cm
Unavailable
Pigment ink on archival paper
32 x 22cm
Unavailable
Ink and oil on paper
Work: 152 x 135 cm
Unavailable
Iron and steel
Approx. 20 x 6 x 3 cm
Unavailable
Mercury, sterling silver and mixed materials
Approx. 21 x 3 x 3 cm
Unavailable