KIM PIETERS
GESTURE, colour and line are at the core of Kim Pieters’ practice and her work ‘‘the clearing’’.
Pieters, a nonrepresentational painter, photographer, writer and filmmaker, did not want to be interviewed for this piece so information supplied by the gallery explains that her work brings together two bodies of work that reflect the dual strands of her practice: paintings (large works on board) and drawings (intimate works on paper).
‘‘ For Pieters, nonrepresentation al art does not present a simplified/reduced version of something that exists in our visual world (as with abstract art), but rather, it focuses on colour, shape, emotion and gesture.’’
So it contains four paintings from the series ‘‘Notes toward a Supreme Fiction’’ and eight drawings from the series ‘‘the clearing’’.
The presence of language within Pieters’ practice is fundamental to the way it operates. Titles, which are often drawn from philosophy, poetry or music, act as a supplement to the work itself — sitting independently but in conversation with the work.
‘‘Pieters’ work, whether on board or paper, starts with an empty field. A gesture is then made within this field; markmaking which informs each subsequent gesture — eventually building up the final composition.’’
She won the National Contemporary Art Award last year for her work The Meaning of
Ethics.
In the gallery space, Pieters presents each composition and the title to the viewer and asks them to draw on their own thoughts, ideas and experiences.