Theo Kleynhans: Fragment
In this body of work, Theo Kleynhans explores the inter-relatedness of our shared experience on this planet by presenting fragments on the picture plane. These visual clues are placed using formalist techniques – line, colour, texture, shape – to ensure pictorial balance. Ambiguity and mapping underscore these fragments that stand as remainders of an otherwise lost or destroyed whole. Each artwork cross-references each other artwork, communicating via fragments of known existing art works – much the same way as we communicate with each other using bits and pieces of our experience of the world that has developed as we wander through it.
“Living in an environment in which we are constantly bombarded with data I find solace in the images that have always re-assured me – perhaps just because they are known, but also because they mark certain developmental stages in my fine art career. I use text throughout in the form of old handwritten letters of which only fragments remain visible. These fragments communicate the essence of loss and the creation of new memories” (Kleynhans, October 2009).
