PRESS RELEASE
MARK RAUTENBACH: Pigments of The Alchemist’s Imagination and The Non-Dual
Dec 8 – Dec 31, 2022
“What does an alchemist do?”
In his latest solo exhibition at Everard Read Cape Town ‘Pigments of the Alchemist’s Imagination & the Non-Dual’, Rautenbach seeks to answer this question through his multi-disciplinary practice. Here he brings together multiple series of works, developed over a number of years. Each body of work is characterised by explorations into specific themes and techniques – as well as Rautenbach’s commitment to self-discovery through the alchemical process of creating art.
Surrealist film-maker Alejandro Jodorowsky also endeavours to understand what it means to be alchemist:
“First we should define what an alchemist is: one who seeks the philosopher’s stone, who changes base metals into gold, who seeks a universal solvent, and finally who has the elixir for lasting life.
The philosopher’s stone: the alchemist wants to develop inner values as much as possible, to grow as a human being, and thanks to this, to raise the level of consciousness and climb to other dimensions.
The elixir for lasting life is a person who accepts life and lives everything as it is without self-annihilation.
The universal solvent is a person who has developed divine love in his heart. Love is what dissolves all resistances.” - Psychomagic, (2004)
For Rautenbach, matter is the means he uses to express memory and meaning. He looks at the unseen forces and tensions which are inside and in between visible material things. The textural languages he uses guide his creative procedures by inviting consideration of their inherent potential and associations. Through ritualistic repetition – drawing on the arcane and everyday, the collective and personal – Rautenbach uses his meditative works to embody psychological and cultural patterns, giving form to invisible spaces. Physical conglomerations – whether of thread, steel safety pins or glass – symbolise emotional connections.
By renegotiating found objects and materials from shops, recycle bins, gifts and disassembled artworks, Rautenbach manifests forms which exhibit his alchemical journey: his commitment to be present with all things even when they are uncomfortable. To delve into, uncover, bind and cocoon his being – to transform into something beyond expectations.
Mark Rautenbach is a Cape Town artist who has also worked as Mark Splendid, Mark Maria and Splendid Miriam. He works in a variety of media, often with material which is considered waste matter, as well as textiles and paper. Rautenbach’s practice is often process-based, and draws on traditional craft techniques.
Rautenbach lectured Design for a number of years at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology [CPUT], and education recurs as a theme in his work, along with identities born out of narratives – represented through yarn. Rautenbach has exhibited at the Iziko South African National Gallery, Everard Read, Open 24 Hrs, Spier, David Krut Projects and Ebony/Curated.
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Installation images by Mike Hall
