DANIELLE ALEXANDER Solo exhibition, Running Through Sand Eclectica Contemporary CT www.eclecticacontemporary.co.za
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unning Through Sand is the debut solo Show by Danielle Zelna Alexander with Eclectica Contemporary. It is a body of work layered both physically and metaphorically. It is a wondering through identity - what is seen, what is assumed, what is fixed and what needs fixing. Duality and double meaning ring through the exhibition, as Alexander sets up visual questions and moments for pause and reflection. It is within this pause that the viewer may find a sense of safety, security and calm masking a set of ideas and thoughts which are slightly more tense, vulnerable and in some cases, sinister. Resonating through the work is a soft subtleness which is both nostalgic and dystopic Danielle Alexander is an artist who works within the mediums of painting and installation using traditional means like oil paint alongside building materials and textures, as seen in her plaster pieces. Growing up in Cape Town, she watched her father work across various fields, from selling flowers, to sorting diamonds - away at sea for months at a time, to working in construction and many more. The idea of physical labour, dust, stone and brick building up changing and tearing down are all elements which have influenced her practice in the form of building tools and materials involved in the making process, especially in contrast to the softness of flowers and the extravagance of diamonds. Another common symbol found in her work is that of drapery and cloth, with which she remembers being taught by her grandmother to sew and mend clothing. This interest in textures, tones and form grew through her research into the visual dynamics of drapery found in the canon of art history paintings and the way in which tension and drama are depicted through fabric. Anecdotes and mundane imagery from her life become embellished and immortalised in her paintings through her use of traditionalreferencing treatment of paint, with form and chiascuro. There is a feeling of running through sand throughout the exhibition – from the tones and textures, to the images; where the ground
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Above: The Dunes 2, 2019 crete stone on board 90 x 110. Right: Hold Your Own Hand, 2019 oil on canvas 60 x 85cm
is soft and warm and comforting and yet all the more challenging to get through quickly. It is a challenge in self-discovery and questions complexities of identity – its vagueness, imposed or undefined. It is a test of willpower in in moving beyond questions and personal insecurities. The process of creating this body of work was accompanied by the sounds of contemporary alternative music and low-fi beats with melodic phrases. The heightened emotive components of such accompaniment accentuated the thinking through metaphor, which is present in this body of work. Most significantly, this can be observed in the symbolisms used, as seen in the use of the blue crane as a motif. The blue crane is significant in its status as both a national symbol and as being “vulnerable” as a
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