GUY SIMPSON: Jacaranda

Jacaranda, a solo exhibition by Guy Simpson.

Opening reception: Wednesday 11th September - 6pm

Walkabout: Saturday 28th September - 11am

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An artist originally from Johannesburg, Guy Simpson creates a portrait of suburban Johannesburg in his latest solo, Jacaranda, grounded by themes of change through the lives of walls. Walls that, over time, tend to fade in colour, chip away, peel, crack, rust and fall – a poignant metaphor that touches upon our human frailty.

With this new body of work, Simpson continues to explore these various modes of transformation by manipulating the traditional methods of working with paint on canvas. Unstretched canvas is carefully layered, cut, collaged and painted to resemble real walls from the artist's old suburbs of Orange Grove and Sydenham in Johannesburg. Working mostly from Google Street View images, Simpson mentions that the walls may not exist as captured anymore. Though already changed, on the internet they are memorialised this way until that image eventually gets replaced. They are just memories of moments in time

The show's title work, Jacaranda, is an installation of hand-painted individually cut purple jacaranda flowers that cover the gallery floor. Meant to situate the audience immediately in suburban Johannesburg, it also functions as a prompt for us to consider the fragility of a wall for its own beauty in the same way we consider the fallen jacaranda flowers that line the streets of the city in spring. 

Each work on show is an example of how walls reveal their history to us by shedding the various layers that have been applied to them. In the work Crack, for example, we see the patterned fabric of an old tablecloth through the layered canvas. This work reveals a personal history peeking through the cracks of the walls. 

“It is only in the decaying walls,” Simpson explains, “that we can see the histories and lives that have passed through their boundaries.”

GUY SIMPSON

(b.1994 Johannesburg, South Africa)

Guy Simpson’s practice consists of drawing, painting and sculpture. Simpson finds influence form his childhood home, everyday objects, domestic surfaces and materials as starting points to investigate his background of where and how he grew up. His practice and interests pursue divergent themes but ultimately there is a pursuit of truth and simplicity. Overall, he is trying to find small truths from within the giant-ness of changing life. 

Guy lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa, as a visual artist and co-founder of Under Projects.

Installation images by Michael Hall