Rina Stutzer
Talented young South African artist Rina Strutzer is exploring the medium of sculpture for her upcoming exhibition at The Everard Read Gallery Johannesburg, as well as exhibiting some of her fascinating and technically masterful paintings.
Her exhibition is, in her own words, “an emotive response to personal socio-political observations”. She explores her understanding of her environment as a conflicting hybrid state grappling with the conflicting notions of the alluring and threatening, repulsive and attractive.
The work on exhibit includes a variation of different media; oil on canvas, cast bronze and manufactured stainless steel sculpture. In addition to that, there is an interdisciplinary series of work, which are ‘patinated’ cast bronze canvasses and rolled copper plates. Furthermore, in accordance with her great interest in taxidermy, one work consists of preserved animal parts.
Stutzer says that, “The patina paintings excite me tremendously since this specific application of the medium has been rarely explored in a contemporary fine arts arena.” Patina grows in an array of colours through the application and manipulation of oxidation processes onto metal. The selection of chemicals that she uses to manipulate the oxidation process are the following; ferric nitrate, cupric nitrate, ammonium sulphide and sulphate, titanium dioxide and bismuth oxinitrate. A chemical solution is applied to the surface of the metal and the process of oxidation is accelerated by heating the metal with a gas flame. After application of the solution to the metal surface, the oxidation process will continue and the rust (patina) will continue to grow naturally. The manner in which the patina will form depends on the atmosphere in which it is placed. Certain areas on the picture plane have been sealed with wax and will therefore grow slower whilst the uncovered areas will react much faster with the environment. Certain areas on the picture plane have been sealed with wax and will therefore grow slower whilst the uncovered areas will react much faster with the environment.
She explores the inevitability of change in her work and feels that this medium reinforces her concept. “In my work, the process of change is accelerated and the change is intentional and visible.” The work also reflects the impact of the environment and context of the forms of change that take place.
Stutzer further elucidates by saying that “due to the constant history of migration, our country, like most others, is a hybrid collective which encompasses an ever-changing mixture of variations and conflicts of social structures and practices. This constant state of flux requires adaptation, compromise and negotiation. These ideas figure in my work through the construct of the crow and the continent as vessel. The crow embodies the idea of global migration, adaptation, hybridising and domination.” This is also strongly represented through her use of landscape.
