Focus on fine art in Knysna
KNYSNA Fine Art has exhibitions featuring a diverse range of genres and artists this month, which include Hannalie Taute’s Implanted Memories, portraits by Lionel Smit titled Extract, sewn work in Gently Does It by Paula Louw, and ceramics by Martin and Charmaine Haines titled The Owl and The Pussycat.
The exhibitions opened last week and will run over the Christmas season.
Taute primarily works with rubber and embroidery and explores universal issues such fairy tales and feminism. In her solo show, Implanted Memories, Taute has a large selection of works on display.
“For this exhibition, I have investigated memory and memory implantation where psychologists have developed techniques to implant false memories,” Taute says.
“These studies have proved how easy it is to distort memories of past events and to make people remember things that never occurred. It focuses on the debate about repressed memories and the possible danger of digging for lost memories.
“Imagining a false event makes it feel more familiar, and people mistake this feeling of familiarity for evidence that they have experienced the event.”
Primarily a painter and sculptor, Smit’s muses are often Cape Malay women, and his work generally centres on identity.
Louw has taken sewing, normally considered the preserve of women, to make a range of guns, giving these deadly weapons a curiously feminine energy.
“They have been rendered completely harmless and present to us as soft, even rather cuddly objects, like a soft toy or teddy bear,” Louw says of her work.
The husband and wife duo of Martin and Charmaine Haines will bring their ceramics in The Owl and The Pussycat.
The gallery is in Thesen House in Long Street and is open from 8.30am to 5pm on week days and from 9am to 1pm on Saturdays.
Further information from the gallery, (044) 382-5107, e-mail: gallery@finearts.co.za