Misplaced Nostalgia & Embryonic Forms On A Jo'burg Third Floor

South Africa Sat 24-01-2009

Misplaced Nostalgia & Embryonic Forms On A Jo'burg Third Floor
By Caroline Kaminju

Photo Credits: Marco's Portrait and the Orbit Series - Caroline Kaminju/AfricanColours.net. Projected Development, Transit Dance, Sum of Us and the Steel sculpture in Tshwane - Pictures courtesy of Marco Cianfanelli.

Marco Cianfanelli

At first I thought I was lost but looking at the directions, I knew I was at the right place; the building that houses Marco Cianfanelli's studio is situated in the industrial part of Johannesburg but on a third floor of an industrial area building?

This daring yet cautious artist has a lot going for him and maybe this is one of the reasons why his works are very much sought after. When I do ask about the location, Marco tells me he actually grew up in an industrial area where his parents were printers.

"I love being in the industrial part of Johannesburg," he says. "I wouldn't like to be in an arty environment. I like that I have a great relationship with people around here who have always been supportive. I like to be buried amongst such people."

Marco, along with other artists, has just completed some sculptures for the Chris Hani Baragwanath Taxi Rank commissioned by the Johannesburg Development Authority. He explains his art as an attempt to "create contexts and a situation where it hovers between a physical location like a landscape and psychology to play out a fractured narrative".

He is a man who, perhaps logically, employs a lot of industrial processes in his art, using metals wood, steel, concrete, mosaic and digital works.

I look around at some of the works on display and I notice some from a previous exhibition he held not so long ago at the Goethe Institute. I request an explanation of the pieces because they look so plain unlike many artworks that I have seen.

All the sculptures and the frames are plain white or bleached out - as it were, evoking the sense of absence or reconstruction, perhaps simplicity, neutrality or restraint and vagueness or simply incompleteness of the work itself.

What he's talking about is conveyed through the sculptural relief generated by creating contours. The contours have a reference to landscapes or geographical or geological sites. Some of the imagery has reference to embryonic forms. Because of the layering, when you look at these works for the first time, they look like contour mappings. But on a second look, different scenarios start to appear, becoming fossils, becoming embryos.

'The Sum of Us All, The Cradle of Humankind'

"The works become more dramatic when displayed in the right space that has either natural or artificial lighting" Marco explains. "That way you get the shadow play which in turn creates intensity in the work."

In 1997, he was involved in designing and constructing consultation cubicles for 'Inyangas' or herbalists at Faraday Station in Johannesburg. He formalised the public space making it easier for their customers to pop in for a consultation in privacy.

Marco has had several exhibitions over time but the most memorable was in 2005 at Gallery Momo with the theme, Projected Development. It was declared one of the best shows in Gauteng at that time. He says: "It was a watershed and growth spurt for me and I used the experience of having our first child who was by then over a year old to look at development on a broader level, how we relate to ourselves and family history."

Projected Development

Projected Development came at a time when Marco was looking for different ways in which to engage in the public domain and helped him see the convergence or synergy between public work and his own work. "It is difficult for an artist to work in a public space as opposed to showing their works in a gallery".

That made me wonder whether an artist's creativity is somehow narrowed down when producing works for the public. But as Marco explains, there is a "certain criteria that shifts the context like given budgets, timelines of production which can either be specific or vague and appropriateness of content, wear and tear as well as maintenance".

Although most of the commissioned jobs have small budgets Marco views it as an honor to be part of urban rejuvenation. Judging from the sentiments of the mostly low-income community that daily uses the Baragwanath Taxi Rank, it seems like they welcomed the idea of beautifying their space. But Marco says that while some copied the sculptural work, others were less enthused, preferring the money to go into low cost housing rather than art.

Although the taxi rank was poorly built, the artworks formalised the space by giving the vendors more permanent structures to sell their wares. After more than eleven years working in public spaces, he has been called the artist who 'romanticises his space and its inverse'.

When I ask him to elaborate on that, he says it probably refers to a series of works that he produced in 2000. What was first a digital photograph taken in the middle of the Karoo was altered by erasing some of the landmarks that put the picture to a specific time line on the picture and the color as well.

This transformed the image into some misplaced nostalgia of a journey and a broad time in South Africa geographically. Below the image was a two dimensional cut-out of a spring Bok skin in which the legs and head have been cut off to denote exploitation.

Untitled

He lets exploration and instincts guide his art work. That way he makes something seem better or more appealing than it might in actuality be. Maybe that is why he doesn't like to describe his work in only a word.

"I like to put various ideas, methods and materials and processes together. I am interested in the relationship between things" he says, explaining that when he produces work, he creates certain parameters that are of interest to him which can either be iconic or distinct then he juxtaposes with other things.

Next he shows me one of the works which can pass for an excavation of early hominid in central Africa or genetic inheritance carried from the past.

Another one can be interpreted as cavity, a tumor or a depression. One of the pieces made out of steel shaped like an egg had interesting text that formed part of the emails he exchanged with his wife when he was living in Paris.

Orbit series is much simpler and it speaks of physiological or the emotional states of a person, showing the baggage that people carry around. His works are definitely interesting narratives which are played out to the eye and give a kind of synopsis of the current or historical messages. To achieve accuracy and detail in his work, Marco uses laser cutting process.

Last year he did a commemorative mosaic and sculpture for the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy. There was emphasis on the involvement of the local community and it had to have an educational aspect to it. He was assisted by unskilled members of the community who gained the much needed skills.

Marco is first a generation South African born in 1970 to an Italian father and German mother. He grew up in Johannesburg and went to high school in Cape Town and returned to Johannesburg to study fine art at the University of Witwatersrand in 1989.

After the recession in the late 80's the family moved into the building that now houses his studio. He rented one of the rooms whilst at the university in 2005 and he has been there since.

Ideally the building doesn't seem suitable since his studio is situated on the third floor but that doesn't seem to worry Marco.

He is careful not to single out his biggest influence but candidly says, "I don't have a heritage of artist or mentors since everything is an influence to me".

He is currently working on a improving a sculpture he contributed for the Projected Development exhibition for the Nirox Foundation. The foundation will hold an artist residency in March 2009 to promote 'cross pollination between local and international artists'.

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