“I’m trying to explore the tensions between people. The work is meant to interrupt people’s space and their normal daily lives and to investigate their reactions to out-of-the-ordinary things.”
“I’m trying to explore the tensions between people. The work is meant to interrupt people’s space and their normal daily lives and to investigate their reactions to out-of-the-ordinary things.”
Heidi Salzwedel, a fourth year fine art student, has had her sculptures of relatively well-known local people on display in various public spaces around town and you might be forgiven for doing the invariable double-take.
The three life-size casts of Gary Quinton (otherwise known as Gary Grocott) Zimkitha the car guard and Andrew, who can be seen busking on his guitar outside UPB, were displayed for three days each during different times of the year, and Salzwedel said she enjoyed gauging people’s reactions to the strange impersonator.
“I wanted to put something completely foreign in a public space and see what people do with it. We treat each other according to our roles and this has been about trying to see how people respond differently to a replica of somebody rather than to the actual person,” she said. Salzwedel said she enjoyed the different emotions the sculptures evoked, which ranged from delight to confusion. Join the fourth year fine art students for an exhibition of their work on 20 November at 5pm. Phone 046 603 8192 for details.
