Pretoria - Sasol, together with the Arts Association of South Africa, have announced Maryke van Velden's work, "Pierneef goes Dulux" as the R60 000 first prize winner of this year's Sasol New Signatures art competition.

 
Van Velden, a student from Stellenbosch, used a colour-by-number line drawing of reproduction of a painting by JH Pierneef (Scene, 1925) and a list of Dulux paint names to create her entry. She then asked people to randomly select colours for the filling-in of the three-dimensional painting. By doing this, she explored not only the arbitrary relationship between words and colour, but by using an existing work, she destabilised the conventional notion of high-art.
 
"This year's high standard became obvious as soon as the regional selectors started reviewing the entries," says Franci Cronje, Sasol New Signatures Competition Chairperson, "All finalists were selected according to three strict critique guidelines; conceptuality, excellence of execution, and the emotional value of the specific piece of art. These are the same criteria we have always used. This year however, we noticed a significant increase in entry standards. The number of entries also increased, from 519 works in 2008 to 794 works in 2009."
 
The runner-up prize of R15 000 was awarded to Amita Makan from Pretoria for her hand-embroidered silk work, "Loose Ends: A story about my mother".
 
This work is about Makan's 68 year old mother who is in the final stages of Alzheimer's disease. By painstakingly recreating her through embroidery, Makan explored the universal law of the impermanence of life and the impact Alzheimer's has on the psyche of those who are affected by it.
 
Together with final judges; Thembinkosi Goniwe, Stompie Selibe, Johan Myburg and Teresa Lizamore, Cronje describes the 122 finalists as all having the very real potential to be winners.
 
"We faced a tough choice deciding on the final seven winners. One of the judges, in fact commented that art is so subjective that we would have made completely different choices if we were judging another day or time. However, we had to choose and the selected finalists not only challenge thought and execution, but also challenge that old adage: There is always something new under the sun!"
 
The judging panel's selection for the five merit awards of R5 000 went to:
 
1.   Poorvi Bhana, for the piece,
"Om asato ma sadgamaya, 
tamaso ma jyotirgamaya,
mrityorma amritamgamaya"
2.   Peter Mikael Campbell, for his cement sculpture, "For those who fall asleep during the day and awake to a setting sun, often it is mistaken as rising"
3.   Angela Vieira de Jesus for the installation, "In exchange: mis-en-counter."
4.   Abri Stephanus de Swardt for the video, "Melt."
5.   Jeanine Visser for the visual entry, "We come from the North; We belong to the South."
 
Over the last 20 years, the Sasol New Signatures art competition has provided a platform for young and upcoming artists aged 18 years and older to exhibit their works and enter the professional art world. Now in its 20th year, the competition is both the longest running and most prestigious competition for emerging artists in South Africa. The competition has played an important role in launching the careers of many of South Africa's established and respected contemporary artists.
 
The Sasol New Signatures Competition Exhibition runs from 27 August to 20 September 2009 at the Pretoria Art Museum. For more information on the competition and exhibition contact Nandi Hilliard on (012) 346 3100 or visit www.artsassociationpta.co.za or www.sasolsignatures.co.za
 
Ends.
 
Note to editors:
Sasol New Signatures Competition Exhibition, presented by the Association of Arts Pretoria
 
Date:   23 August to 20 September 2009
Venue:   Pretoria Art Museum, Cnr Schoeman and Wessels Streets
Contact number:   (012) 344-1807/8
Visiting hours:   Tuesday to Saturday: 10:00 to 17:00
                              Sunday: 10:00 to 17:00
                              Closed on Mondays and Public Holidays
 
Artist's statement: Maryke van Velden
"Pierneef goes Dulux"
Supa-wood, Dulux PVA
 
This three-dimensional landscape painting is a system-based work made according to a predetermined work-plan, exploring the arbitrary relationship between colour and language.
 
The creating process is based on a colour-by-number line drawing of a reproduction of a painting by JH Pierneef (Scene, 1925) and a list compiled of Dulux paint-names considered as being 'most arbitrary' to the colour it represents. The choices for the filling-in of colours were left to be done by others, at random. Thereafter the landscape drawing was transferred onto 12mm sheets of supawood and systematically carved up using a jigsaw and then painted one~ by-one according to the chosen colours.
 
By appropriating an existing work made by one of our country's most significant 20m century painters, the conventional high-art notion of landscape painting is destabilised. When the chosen colours then materialize into shapes that are equally amorphic, the variable pieces in themselves remind of the contours shaped by borderlines on geographical maps, which allows for one's own three-dimensional landscape to be put together. This interaction creates a rather exciting play in which the viewer also becomes a feeler by interacting with the work at a tactile level.
 
Artist's statement: Amita Makan
Loose Ends: A story about my mother
Hand embroidered with silk thread on silk with brocade, beads and crystals
"On the surface, an intelligible lie; underneath, the unintelligible truth." (Kundera 1999:62).
 
This hand-embroidered work is 'Bollywoodish', somewhat 'Kitsch', with its vibrant colours, beads, brocade and crystals. On inspection, the disintegrating halo and hanging threads intimate a somber reality. The work explores the Universal law of the Impermanence of Life. Youth and beauty embroidered with delicate silk threads on fragile silk canvas suggest Memento Mon and Tempus Fugit. There is tension in suspending "the magic of the stopped moment" with the inevitable decay associated with time. The Mahabharata, an ancient Indian scripture, states "When everything else sleeps, time is awake, time is hard to overcome" (Waterstone 1995:128).
 
This is a story of my sixty-eight year old Mother, Vasanti Makan who is in the final stages of Alzheimer's disease. It explores the impact of the disease on our psychic landscapes since the diagnosis was made twelve years ago. Alzheimer's disease is insidious and nearly impossible to diagnose. It manifests in plaques and tangles in the brain, causing progressive dementia as it gradually ravages the body and mind. There is no cure.
 
The title, "Loose Ends" signifies our journey's end. Attempting to preserve my mother and my memories of her, I painstakingly recreated her, stitch by stitch - a gradual process, mimicking the stealth of the disease. I was unable to portray her intact, as the disease steadily intrudes into our psyches. The reverse side of the work alludes to our entangled, frayed and interrupted lives.
 
References
 
Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Faber and Faber Unlimited, England, 1999.
Jacqueline Ruyak, "Katarina Zavarska: The Mysteries of Time" in Surface Design Journal, Fall, 2000.
David Shenk, the forgetting: Understanding Alzheimer's: A Biography of a Disease, Harper Collins Publishers, Great Britain, 2001.
Richard Waterstone, India, Duncan Baird Publisher, Great Britain, 1995.
 
Please Note: Interviews with finalists, Sasol and organisers as well as high-res images of all selected works can be organised by contacting:
Chris Verrijdt
Meropa Communications
(011) 506-7318
chrisv@meropa.co.za