Bernice Stott, Litmus Skin
Durban artist Bernice Stott will be opening her exhibition titled Litmus Skin at Gallery on Leviseur, Bloemfontein in association with Art Source South Africa. The exhibition will open on the 13th of May at 18h30 and run until the 2nd of June 2014.
Stott’s career has been centred on the human narrative and her intrigue with the female body in contemporary South Africa. Stott’s primary media are sculpture and painting, although Stott says that “photography has led me to into the media of video and performance art”.
Bernice has created a series of paintings based on photographs titled Litmus Skin. The body of work evokes a childhood that is mixed with horror and delight. The motif of a circle in Litmus Skin indicates a symbol of protection: the circle a child draws around her/himself and the circle of protective love a caring mother traces around her children. A circle can also refer to a cycle, in this context a cycle of deprivation, which can be disrupted and replaced with roundness and fullness of being. The cycle of deprivation can be broken by an individual becoming conscious – loving, enacting new behaviours and ritualising new events – and through a supportive community.
In Litmus Skin red is primary colour, a symbol of violence, blood, passion, victimhood and wounding. When discussing her work Stott quotes respected Durban based art critic, Peter Machen, “Stripped of our skin, we are all the same colour underneath. Adrenalin tastes the same to everyone. Whiteness might be pinkness but pink is not whiteness”.
Bernice Stott has completed a post graduate degree in Drama which was followed by a Masters in Fine Arts at Durban University of Technology. She has been teaching in the Drama and Performance Studies Department (UKZN) for several years. Stott says that “Art making feeds my soul: it is a place of meditation yet it provides me with an engagement of both my internal and external life”.
Opening speaker of Stott’s exhibition and director of Art Source South Africa Les Cohn says that, although the work deals with incredibly difficult and painful subject matter, Stott has created works that are sensitive, evocative and intimate. Art Source South Africa an art project consultancy is working in association with Gallery on Leviseur to present Bernice Stott’s body of work this May. “Art Source South Africa is excited to work in association with Bloemfontein’s first contemporary art gallery and bring Bernice Stott’s work to a national platform.” Cohn.
Les Cohn will be delivering the opening remarks on the 13th of May at 18h30. Furthermore in collaboration with Stott’s exhibition there will be a performance, directed by Mark Dobson on the 14th of May at 19h00.
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