Crossing Over - a Master of Visual Arts exhibition 2007
Exhibition launched at Adelaide Central School of Art
Opened by Nobel Laurette, Author, John M Coetzee
Exhibition launched at Adelaide Central School of Art
Opened by Nobel Laurette, Author, John M Coetzee
Crossing Over exhibition - work created as part of a Master's in Visual Arts Program, soon after arriving in Australia
Transcript of Nobel laureate author,
John Coetzee’s opening address:
As Rod [Taylor, Head of the Adelaide Central School of Art] mentioned, Lauryn Arnott and I are from the same part of the world, Southern Africa. It is a little eerie to be opening an exhibition of hers here in South Australia, half a world away from our origins, a little eerie but a pleasure none the less. Not only are we are we from the same part of the world we are, I discovered from the same institution. In the 1980’s Lauryn did her Post-graduate work at the Michealis School of Art, which is attached to the University of Cape Town. This was a time that I was teaching at that university. Our paths did not cross then as far as I know but I am very happy that they have crossed now. I first saw Lauryn’s work here in Adelaide as part of a competition called younger artist’s from Australia and New Zealand, and her work really stood out in fact it took a first prize. It stood out for its’ inherent quality. It also stood out in my eyes because it also suddenly, and with such a jolt, transported me back to Africa.
The work in question, the entry for the competition, was called Journey Home. It is a charcoal drawing of a woman sitting very erect with a card board box on her head one leg crossed over the other, one hand on her hip. Waiting or resting, or both waiting and resting. I was struck by the monumentality of the image also by the strength and the patience and resolution that it gave off, also by its’ Africaness, the bare foot sole, the closed impassive look on the face. I can see something of Henry Moore in its conception. I am thinking of the sketches from his wartime London Underground studies, but this has been taken over and reconceptualized in Africa. The rest of the work on this show this afternoon is new to me. The work strikes me as strong and very disturbing. I am not sure that I have seen anything quite like it in Australia in the five years that I have been here. I am sure that you know that Lauryn Arnott came here to South Australia as a refugee from Zimbabwe, where she and her husband had been farming and where they had become one of the targets of the so-called ‘war veterans’ who implement land ‘take overs’ on behalf of the Mugabe government. I have the sense that she was more than a little traumatised when she arrived here. But I also have a sense that like a true artist she has succeeded in turning personal pain into art, at least that is the way in which I read a work like Clay Pigeon which is somewhere over there, as part of today’s exhibition.
I am convinced that the city of Adelaide and the country in general has done well in offering a home to a gifted artist who has much that is new and strange to say to us. It is a pleasure and a privilege to open this first exhibition of hers on Australian soil.
Thank you.
Transcript of Nobel laureate author,
John Coetzee’s opening address:
As Rod [Taylor, Head of the Adelaide Central School of Art] mentioned, Lauryn Arnott and I are from the same part of the world, Southern Africa. It is a little eerie to be opening an exhibition of hers here in South Australia, half a world away from our origins, a little eerie but a pleasure none the less. Not only are we are we from the same part of the world we are, I discovered from the same institution. In the 1980’s Lauryn did her Post-graduate work at the Michealis School of Art, which is attached to the University of Cape Town. This was a time that I was teaching at that university. Our paths did not cross then as far as I know but I am very happy that they have crossed now. I first saw Lauryn’s work here in Adelaide as part of a competition called younger artist’s from Australia and New Zealand, and her work really stood out in fact it took a first prize. It stood out for its’ inherent quality. It also stood out in my eyes because it also suddenly, and with such a jolt, transported me back to Africa.
The work in question, the entry for the competition, was called Journey Home. It is a charcoal drawing of a woman sitting very erect with a card board box on her head one leg crossed over the other, one hand on her hip. Waiting or resting, or both waiting and resting. I was struck by the monumentality of the image also by the strength and the patience and resolution that it gave off, also by its’ Africaness, the bare foot sole, the closed impassive look on the face. I can see something of Henry Moore in its conception. I am thinking of the sketches from his wartime London Underground studies, but this has been taken over and reconceptualized in Africa. The rest of the work on this show this afternoon is new to me. The work strikes me as strong and very disturbing. I am not sure that I have seen anything quite like it in Australia in the five years that I have been here. I am sure that you know that Lauryn Arnott came here to South Australia as a refugee from Zimbabwe, where she and her husband had been farming and where they had become one of the targets of the so-called ‘war veterans’ who implement land ‘take overs’ on behalf of the Mugabe government. I have the sense that she was more than a little traumatised when she arrived here. But I also have a sense that like a true artist she has succeeded in turning personal pain into art, at least that is the way in which I read a work like Clay Pigeon which is somewhere over there, as part of today’s exhibition.
I am convinced that the city of Adelaide and the country in general has done well in offering a home to a gifted artist who has much that is new and strange to say to us. It is a pleasure and a privilege to open this first exhibition of hers on Australian soil.
Thank you.
