The Voyager ,1993
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Note : Karel Nel is unusual in the South African contemporary art landscape, in that he has parallel careers in curation, academia and the hard sciences which inform his own practice throughout. On top of this he is well known as a collector of African traditional and modern artefacts. While he trained in sculpture, his own major output is in drawing, often using a range of unusual materials upon which to make marks. His practice ranges widely over an anthropological interest in the cultures of Africa and Oceania in particular, coupled with his position as resident artist of the COSMOS team of scientists investigating the mapping of the universe.This work evokes exactly this complex relationship Nel has between the languages of art and science, although it was made long some time before his COSMOS appointment, and in its scale, as well as its use of rare bark cloth made from the ficus ficus tree, it is a more abstract example of his work in depicting environments and atmospheres from his extensive travels. The interwoven discourses that make up Nel’s oeuvre are demonstrated in this compelling work, which evokes not only a physical set of journeys, but a spiritual one too, in search of a rich admixture of cultures and symbols.
James Sey
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