06 Mar Greg Stock – Interval – 01/04 – 24/04 2016
“hand –machine-between”
Rossouw Modern SPACE
Hermanus 01/04 – 24/04 2016
Opening – 1 April 2016 at 5.30 pm
Interval consists of seven drawing machines complemented with several completed drawings made by each and two realistic pencil drawings.
From Harmonographs to Topographic machines, this exhibition may remind one of the studios of inventors like Leonardo da Vinci and Archimedes of Syracuse.
Interval, meaning a pause or break in activity, stems from Greg’s previous sold out exhibition titled “A space between” at Gallery 99 Loop in 2015, which focused on the transitional object and the transitional space which one enters into while engaging with these objects.
Making art and art objects has always been something that has placed Greg into this space. For a while after his previous exhibition he tried working from eight to five and attempting to make art at the same time. This didn’t work out for him and the therapeutic act of making art became a time of resentment, tiring instead of exciting and new.
“This time spent attempting to balance making art and working full time became my “interval”, a break in activity of making art; a period where I didn’t have time to do what I loved and felt good doing, which eventually lead me to where I am now, another transitional period between being a full time artist and the end of a short- lived professional career. A time which taught me more about what I wanted in life than my four years at university. This interval has lead me to broadening my activity into investigating passion versus obsession in practicing art” says Greg.
“As a curator it is very exciting to view Greg’s works and especially the machines he builds. Most art I encounter has a definite order to it, even if produced with some artistic license and freedom in its application. In Greg’s works there is a randomness in the outcome with which my more primitive and youthful spirit finds a healthy reconnection. As ordered and precise as the machines may be, so completely opposed is the unique and random outcome of the artworks ” – Jozua Rossouw –
More about the artist:
Greg Stock was born on 4 July 1991 and grew up in Hermanus. He spent some years in Cape Town where he studied art at the University of Cape Town’s academy, Michaelis and attained his degree in 2014. Before he realized that art was his passion he found comfort in making objects and scenes for his toys. He would also take them apart and put them back together with motors – creating more exciting toys. These became the transitional objects of his toddler years and he believes playing with and constructing these toys and objects placed him into the transitional space. These were replaced several times during his early and late teenage years by things such as sports and social activities. However, the desire to make objects remained with him through out those years. At Michaelis he specialized in new media art, but ended with designing drawing machines.
He is inspired by a number of artists – mostly those who seek to make something new and different every time they make a new artwork. Artists like Sol Lewitt, Frank Stella, Reuben Margolin.
William Kentridge and many other South African artists as well as the many talented people that he studied with at Michaelis and here in Hermanus have also provided him with a fair share of inspiration drawn from the beautiful and art-filled places that they are.
He says: “I now find myself in yet another state of transition – moving out of my previous comfort zone of university. The studio, facilities and the all-day creative hub of university are no longer a part of my life and I feel a need for the support they offered to be replaced by something new. It will again be in the form of art but will this time draw on the mediums that I explored as a child, re-imagining those transitional objects and spaces into artworks.”