An exhibition of unspeakable chaos – and a possible silver lining

DANNY SHORKEND

The artists explore the impact of history, political corruption, economic disparity and the power inherent in nature – in terms of its weightiness and, often, its violence. What’s most effective is the technical variety of the works on exhibition. Although the artists explore similar themes, they use different modalities to do so.

Gavronsky’s series with pastel on TNT spun fibre looks deceptively simple. On closer examination, one senses the burden of colonialism and the madness and monstrosity of social upheaval as the artist deftly combines the animal with the human world. Her drawings allude both to the weightiness of existence and to the possibility of a state of post-history, wherein the ills of the past are surmounted.

Shakinovsky’s ink jet prints on Hahnemühle paper are well executed. They speak of the dislocation wrought by war and by the terrifying power of nature. There’s beauty in the way she depicts things being torn asunder, as if an explosion may yet rebirth a new world.

The idea of a destructive force preceding a new order is expressed by the artist’s use of muted colours, geometric shapes and linear precision, which result in artworks that draw the eye in like a spider’s web. Other prints conjure up images of the aftermath of an atomic bomb – or could they be images of cellular life?

The title of the exhibition suggests that these apparently abstract forms and studies of colour have rendered the artists mute and dumbfounded by the insanity of crime, anarchy and aggression that characterise their respective worlds.

I particularly enjoyed Gavronsky’s “Miscalibrated – the sixth extinction”, where a mathematician stands, resigned, against a blackboard with all his equations. He seems to be confronted by monsters in an inexplicable reality. This is akin to the revolutions that arose from the Enlightenment, or even to the Western notion of the so-called free world, where values may be enshrined in codes of conduct and policies, in laws and intellectual systems of thought, yet the primal inhumanity of humankind and the unpredictable potency of nature may still result in monstrous consequences.

As one enters the gallery, Shakinovsky’s assemblage, inspired by the Supremitism art movement based on abstract geometric forms, portends of things to come: a disjointed, unrepresentational and unspeakable reality, one that recoils into aesthetic reductionism.

Is there no hope? Nietzsche once remarked that chaos within gives birth to a dancing star. While the philosopher may not be fully believed – poor Nietzsche suffered from insanity – it does at least suggest that the terror of the night will give way. The artists highlight the plight of humanity after the industrial revolution, yet their works seem to offer a smidgeon of hope that a paradigm shift may be imminent – and that, for those who oppose basic decency, their days be numbered.

• RosenClaire’s Speechless is on at the Goodman Gallery in Cape Town until April 7.