In Line, an exhibition of paintings and charcoal drawings by Rhodes University Fine Art Masters student, Mark Farmer, will open at the Albany History Museum Alumni Gallery at 5.30pm today [subs Friday 3 Feb].
In Line, an exhibition of paintings and charcoal drawings by Rhodes University Fine Art Masters student, Mark Farmer, will open at the Albany History Museum Alumni Gallery at 5.30pm today [subs Friday 3 Feb].
Besides being a Masters student, Farmer is also a ‘stooge’ (a student assistant who works at a school in exchange for board and lodging) at Kingswood College in Grahamstown. This has allowed him to become critically engaged in looking at the systems of discipline, self-policing and hierarchy in the school, of which he is part, and Farmer has produced three series of work which hold together and read off of each other to comprise the italIn Line/ital exhibition.
In Line (the smaller series which gives its title to the exhibition as a whole) is a series of seven small, to-scale paintings of school ties being worn by pupils. The faces are cropped off so that our only clue to the wearer’s individuality is the manner in which the tie is worn. The medium is handled tightly, and every detail strictly noted.
In direct contrast to italIn Line/ital is italLeap/ital; seven large scale paintings of uniformed bodies in what appears to be mid-leap. The medium here is handled with a fluidity and freedom. While most of these images seem to indicate a bunking out leap towards freedom, there also exists an ambiguity in the reading; at least one of the bodies seems to be dangling rather than jumping.
Farmer does not only work with the boys themselves as uniformed beings. In his third series, italBelongings/ital, a set of charcoal drawings on Fabriano paper, he has taken note, in their identical cubicles, of the possessions of the boys which become stand-ins for their bodies: a precariously balanced bag, a tight-locked metal trunk, a dog-eared pile of books. These are moving and quietly observed moments, and careful counterpoints to the images in the two oil paint series.
italIn Line/ital presents us with questions not only about the efficacy of institutional regulation, but about the nature of community versus individuality. It appears that it is in direct proportion that as much as we need to control, we seek to transgress.
Prof Dominic Thorburn will introduce Farmer's Masters submission on Friday, 3 February and the exhibition will stay open for the next week, until Saturday, 3 March between 10am and 4pm. There will be two walkabout tours given by the artist on Thursday, 9 February and Friday, 10 February at 3pm.
