Exposed Foundation ,1992
Provenance :
Exhibited : Everard Read Contemporary, Simon Stone (solo show), November 1992 to January 1993. The exhibition received a merit award at the Vita Art Now competition the following year. Standard Bank Art Gallery, Johannesburg, Simon Stone: A Retrospective Exhibition, 9 July to 14 September 2013.
Literature : Pollak, L. (2013). Simon Stone: Collected Works. Stellenbosch: SMAC Art Gallery, colour illustration on p.219.
Notes : Simon Stone’s Exposed Foundation was produced for inclusion in his 1992/1993 solo exhibition: Recent Works at the Everard Read Contemporary in Johannesburg, owned by Trent Read. This was to be the third exhibition hosted at this new space – the first dedicated gallery for contemporary art in South Africa at the time. A few months prior to the opening of the gallery, the conservative Parkwood Residents Association Tribunal threatened to close the gallery’s doors on grounds of infringement of building and municipal by-laws. This event caused great concern for the art community. It was also the same year that South Africans voted in favour of political reforms following the signing of the National Peace Accord in 1991 to end apartheid. A time of social and political transition followed – further disrupting the status quo, the country had been in recession for three years despite the lifting of United Nations sanctions. But most importantly, it was also the year after the birth of the artist’s daughter, Elizabeth Francesca. A typical Stone allegory, Exposed Foundation suggests a physiological state. The setting is dreamlike, saturated in atmosphere and mystery to convey a peculiar sense of timelessness. Three stacked motifs, set against a nondescript background, structures the composition. A gloomy desolate terrain, a mass of uncertainty, executed in energised brushwork dominates the picture plane. Is this the place where fear and doubt reside? An obelisk, literally referencing the totems at the gallery building site, for which he was commissioned to do mosaics, is embedded in this flux. Strong and solid, the foundation is made visible. At the top, an image of a young female figure appears, almost hovering on the structure. She is rendered angelic and innocent, supported and protected from the turmoil that lies beneath. Is she perhaps also a guiding and liberating force? Exposed Foundation is a scene of individual reflection. Confusion, meaning and beauty coalesce. The artist may allude to bearing the load of fatherhood, of feelings laid bare – vulnerability exposed amidst social chaos. It is the balance between artistic self-consciousness and visual expressiveness that makes this work powerful. Its essence is testament to the zeitgeist of the time and a significant moment in the artist’s life. Stone’s exhibition went on to receive the coveted Vita Art Now Quarterly Award. The Johannesburg Art Gallery also purchased a key work from this exhibition.
Marelize van Zyl
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