Artist Review

Claire Beynon

Questions of Balance - 26 August to 13 September 2009

Claire Beynon has long been preoccupied with the relationship between apparent opposites. Ever since her first solo show in Johannesburg in 1985, one of her central motivations has been to articulate the dynamics between order and spontaneity, reason and intuition, the masculine and feminine, the concrete and the spiritual… 

“Today’s world is increasingly characterized by chaos, clamour and conflict. It seems to me that in our bid to make ourselves heard, we’re forgetting how to listen. There is much reason to protest, but I believe the way forward calls for a subtler approach; contemplation, poetry and pause are becoming widely appreciated as effective methods of engagement in world issues, rather than the old knee-jerk reactions of fear and aggression. History has proven time and again that violence, negativity and neglect only attract more of the same; we have to find new ways to say what needs to be said. One thing is certain: it behoves us to respond. We can no longer ignore the world’s lament.”

Questions of Balance is a visual/poetic response to our planet’s environmental, spiritual, political and ideological imbalances. It uses the dialectic between the builder’s level (with its enigmatic and ethereal spirit bubbles*) and the plumb bob (all weight and materiality) to evoke a dialogue between our physical and metaphysical worlds and to bring current global questions out into the open.

“The metaphorical implications of these tools are fairly obvious; the spirit level and plumb bob are essential instruments in every builder’s toolbox; without them, sound structures are unattainable, dependent as they are on right relationship between the absolute vertical and absolute horizontal. Truth might be relative, complex and multi-faceted, but there can be no arguing with the simple pronouncements of these two fundamentally reliable tools of measurement. For this reason, there is something inherently comforting about them.

I’m interested in the sacredness of everyday objects. My intention in this work is to highlight the symbolic potential of the builder’s level and plumb bob and to invite others to consider them in a wider context as metaphorical tools for balance and constructive change in the 21^stCentury. Placing these humble objects within familiar landscape composites and attributing them with both intimacy and monumentality allows them to take on a new, larger-than-life presence.  

Balance is an ideal that most of us aspires towards. A dynamic state, it calls for active participation on behalf of every one of us.”

*The glass spirit vials incorporated in the 3D pieces were manufactured by Geier & Bluhm, NY. In 2008, during my second research season in Antarctica, a selection of these – and other - vials were transported eighty feet below the sea ice of Explorers Cove. The primary purpose behind my sending them on this underwater journey was (i) to test their resilience in that extreme environment, (ii) to add a layer of history to what would otherwise remain plain, industrialized objects and (iii) to imbue them with metaphorical potency that would ultimately add ballast to this, and future series of sculptures.

       Dunedin, 15 August 2009