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'For a while now I have resolved to work only with the art materials I had to hand – including older works - rather than bringing more stuff into the world. I wavered in lockdown. As strict rules eased, I visited the art shop and bought two swathes of fine Belgian linen, just the right size to fit on my apartment floor. The medium acts differently on unstretched canvas that lies flat on the floor - there is no ‘give’ to direct the flow of matter. But there is always gravity that pulls one way or another even when we cannot know the exact dynamics. And then there is the weather, which was hot, and affects the drying of the glue.
What emerged in these conditions could only really come to light after lockdown restrictions were lifted and I could go back to my large Michaelis studio. Here, I hung up the canvas swathes to see, in vertical relation, how they prompted me to act. And so oil paint joined the fray.'
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Penny Siopis is a multidiscipinary artist and an honorary professor at the Michaelis School of Fine Art.
Her diverse practice encompasses body politics, migration, history and memory, grief and shame, climate change and the relations between the human and non-human, with all her explorations characterised by her interest in what she calls the ‘poetics of vulnerability’.
Solo exhibitions include Moving Stories and Travelling Rhythms: Penny Siopis and the many journeys of Skokiaan, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Bulawayo (2019); ‘This is a True Story’: Six Films (1997-2017), Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town (2018); Penny Siopis: Films, Erg Gallery, Brussels (2016); Incarnations, ICA Indian Ocean, Mauritius (2016); Time and Again: A Retrospective Exhibition, South African National Gallery and Wits Art Museum (2014-15) and Three Essays on Shame, Freud Museum, London (2005).
Shadow Shame Again, her new film commissioned by Birkbeck, University of London, is currently screening online until 21 May. Her previous film, She Breathes Water, can also be viewed online as part of Galleries Curate: RHE.
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Photography: Mario Todeschini; Marc Barben
Studios: Penny Siopis | Cape Town
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