Exhibitions

A persistent theme in Liberty Battson's work has been the language of visual art. This latest body of work uses the iconic styles of major figures to engage with – and celebrate – modern art history.

Abstraction creates a gap between the viewer and the artist; the artist retreats behind the formalities of colour, texture and line and the viewer is left to decipher what they see. The experience of the viewer when looking at an abstract artwork could be a moment of complete enrapture, it could also be a moment of extreme infuriation. This is the space in which Battson begins to play.

An ethereal, rubber environment with threads and tendrils has entered the Absa building. This otherworldly, sensory circumstance, which perhaps in one moment is a kelp forest of seaweed and anemones, the next an umbilical cord searching for its ‘mother', or a hidden inner bodily microcosm. Is this unworldliness the sea, the land, a microscopic universe, an intestinal tract, inner or outer? What are these creatures – of body, of water, of earth? Are we enveloped in a hidden world – one we wish to look or walk away from, and pretend that it doesn't exist?

You say, "I don't get conceptual art", "it goes right over my head", I'm not artsy". It's ok. It's ok if you don't understand Abstract art and you don't know who Cézanne is. Or Mark Rothko. This show is inspired by Modernism, Abstract art, and most of all, YOU. Art (especially Abstract Art) can be intimidating to try interpret if you have never tried to interpret art before. These art pieces are here to help you experience the joy that comes from discovering the meaning (to you or to someone else) of a well-considered conceptual show. You might get it, you might not.
Either way, it's ok.

Inspired by the tongue in cheek and humorous approach in their reaction; I started a series dedicated to the Influence of the “laws of chance” that Hans Arp (founder of Dada) incorporated in his work 100 years to date. Arp instilled the necessity to challenge expectations, work spontaneously and according to chance. Here I shoot, paint, peal, paint, crush geometric ready-mades and explores the boundaries of colour theory; all still making it mathematically reflect 100, in celebration of this century of liberation.

Liberty Battson is inspired by Modernism and, in particular, Modernist theories around the role of abstraction in the pursuit of ‘truth’ and ‘true art’. The artist uses statistics as a numerical indicator of ‘the truth’. For almost two years, Battson has focused her research on Google, statistically the most used internet search engine, and tracked what users wanted to know about most.

The title is inspired by that moment you stand before something that inspires you and you wish you had done that, thought of that or did that first. In this case, you did. The viewer plays a massive role in the exhibition by being part of the searched results.