Gordon Froud
Artists
- Wim Botha
- Bob Cnoops
- Hugo Crosthwaite
- James de Villiers
- Sasha Fabris
Gordon Froud
- Rookeya Gardee
- David Hlynsky (Canada)
- Ashley Johnson
- Nkosinathi Khanyile
- Ania Krajewski
- Michael Matthews
- Nhlanhla Mbatha
- Rankadi Mosako
- Margi Scharff (USA)
- Diane Victor
DASART shows
Transmigrations - the show
Fokofo
Dasart Archives
Work Title: Reliquary for an Eggbeater.
The humble Eggbeater has, in this work, been elevated to the level of a sacred object like the body of a saint. It hangs in a protective box to be viewed and revered. The role of the eggbeater in the preparation of food is important and most cultures seem to use it in some form or another, from the simple wire and wood structures of rural Africa to the complexity of western Mixmaster or Kenwood chef type Blenders. Its function is to take ingredients and blend them into a homogeneous mixture from which food will result. This implies a sense of changing of substances through the beating and mixing processes.
The eggbeater itself symbolises, through its function and its feminine shape, the mother or nurturer of the home. She is often the force that brings about change and blends aspects of the home together to create a family. In this work she is large and powerful and is surrounded by eight smaller eggbeaters like children or satellites.
The colourful, plastic plates used to hold the spices are the same type used by street-hawkers in South Africa to display their goods. I have chosen them for their symbolic connection and the variety of their colours. This motif is picked up in the portholes or windows through which the object is seen. Here the plates have universally recognised symbols cut out of them to allow one to see through. The symbols serve as visual devices to reveal the work. They remind one of children's games where solid shapes are forced into cutout shapes to stimulate eye-hand co-ordination, again reminding us of the role of the mother.
The spices represent variety and sustenance and their smells permeate the area around the artwork. Each has its own texture, colour, size and purpose and as such symbolise the elements that make up a home, society or culture. On their own they have an individuality but with the help of a guiding force (mother / eggbeater), they can be mixed together to form something new (society / food).
The viewer is attracted to the box through the bright colours but has their vision obscured by the polycarbonate sheeting so that the revelation is the result of playful interaction. This allows the sacredness of the object to remain. The ritualistic domestic object is thus given new symbolic life through the involvement of the artist and the viewer.
Gordon Froud