Deborah Margaret Bell (South African, Born 1957) ‘The Journey Home: Ulyss
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Exhibited : Exhibited London, Art First, The Journey Home, 2000. Literature P. Stein, Deborah Bell, (Johannesburg, 2004), illustrated p.10. This collage belongs to a series of works Bell executed between 1999 and 2000 entitled The Journey Home. The artist was inspired by a sentence she came across in a collection of writings by Max Beckmann, On my Painting: I am seeking for a bridge which leads from the visible to the invisible, like the famous cabalist who once said, ‹If you wish to get hold of the invisible you must penetrate as deeply as possible into the visible’. (Beckmann 1988: 12) Beckmann›s words resonated with Bell and her own quest for the ‘Self’. She too seeks to ‹penetrate› the material world and unearth the hidden truths through making art. For her, the creative process is ‹the journey home›, the route to truth and meaning. Bell has likened her work to alchemy, the protoscientific practice that was thought to transmute base metals into gold or a universal elixir. She is the base metal, and each image she creates is a transformation. In the words of Pippa Stein, Bell is «simultaneously the maker, the material and the made: in this dissolution of the self, the artist and the art become one». With each artwork, Bell takes another step on her journey to self-knowledge. Bibliography P. Stein, Deborah Bell, (Johannesburg, 2004), pp.7-11.
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