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Home Details - Christine Gittins

makersguildinwales.org.uk

Event 

Title:
Christine Gittins
When:
Thu 02 Sep 2010 - Sun 31 Oct 2010
Category:
Past Exhibitions

Description

TransformationsPot_two_cylinders_with_quil.jpg

This profile exhibition shows work that Christine has done in the past few years after visiting some Rock Art sites in South Africa.  Remote mountainous areas throughout Southern Africa abounds with sites where the San people,  more commonly known as the Bushman, left a treasure of rare and beautiful rock art .

The very transient nature of the work, the wonderful perception of these primitive hunter gatherers and the sheer artistry of the imagery all contributed to inspire Christine to create paintings and ceramics based on these images. This vast, ancient, unique and fragile heritage is slowly disappearing mostly through natural weathering.
 
The basis of her Christine’s two dimensional work is based on the similarities between the surfaces of her ceramic vessels and the surfaces of the rock on which the Bushman painted. She uses digitally enhanced close-up photographs of her vessels to create a canvas for her mixed media paintings. She combines digital printing, watercolour, and conté on paper or canvas.  Both the ceramics and the paintings features images derived from Christine’s photographs.

Shape and form in the vessels suggests objects from the everyday lives of the Bushman. The vessel with quills symbolises the hunter’s quiver and arrow. The rounded forms echoes the gourd as container of water or the womb symbolising life.

The title of the exhibition refers to the beliefs and rituals of the Bushman where the “transformation from human to animal” takes place during trance. It also implies the transformation of surface effects that takes place during the firing of the ceramic vessels.
 

Artist Talk: On Saturday 25th September at 2pm, Christine will be giving a talk about her recent work. A free event held in the conference room at Craft in the Bay. Booking not required.