CARYN SCRIMGEOUR
(b. 1970, Johannesburg, South Africa)
Caryn Scrimgeour was born in Johannesburg in 1970 and has lived in Cape Town since 1972. In 1991 she graduated from the University of Stellenbosch with a B.A in Fine Art.
Scrimgeour’s subject matter is chosen from commonplace objects that surround her. Delicate chinaware, glassware and insects are combined with common trinkets and knick-knacks and portrayed against a backdrop of richly patterned fabric in a way that is reminiscent of 17th century Dutch still life painting.
Objects that are fragile and precious are juxtaposed with mundane items, which in turn are elevated to the same level of importance. Her works are filled with symbolism, and the place settings consequently ‘become representative of major events which have impacted my life over the past ten years, but which are also events that most women will experience in the course of their lives, in one form or another.’ The objects in these paintings are easily recognisable, familiar and often nostalgic, making the images highly accessible to the viewer. Even the use of symbols and images drawn from other cultures and societies serve to entice rather than alienate the viewer
Caryn explains, ‘The constantly changing positions of the knives and forks are indicative of the inconsistency and fluctuation of what we see as sacred or fundamental to our core beliefs…For instance, an empty place setting, symbolises a loss of self, emptiness and missed opportunities.’
The images are elevated from that of traditional still-life by the use of aerial perspective which forces a shift in our viewpoint and the way in which we interpret the objects. At the same time it creates an almost abstract interplay between the objects and the patterns, creating a contemporary context for a very traditional genre.
Caryn Scrimgeour’s paintings are obsessively immaculate. Few artists can boast the fanatical attention to detail that she exhibits and the extraordinary command of her palette that enables her to wring out a crystal clear luminosity from tubes of oil paint. It is these qualities, coupled with her flair for fabric design and eye for curious bric-a-brac, that enable her to transform seemingly banal table settings into sweeping, post-modern, epic dramas that play out through the domestic debris of our lives. The absence of humans , aside from the odd reflection in a knife (of the artist peering down), makes these works all the more poignant, as do the unlikely protagonists: the harlequin collection of single pieces of china and cutlery ( the last remnants of grandma’s proud collection); the lavishly painted cigarette butt; the burnt match; the half full glass of wine; the cocktail umbrella; the Disney paper serviette… These are Vanitas paintings , but not in the Catholic, finger-wagging manner of the 16th and 17th centuries, but rather in a way that seems apt for our age: they hint gently at the fragility and transitoriness of the human construct. Similarly the fragments recorded are mini-monuments to the human desire to endure in the face of futility, and, the foolhardiness of trying.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2017
Flotsam, Solo Exhibition CIRCA Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
FLOTSAM
CIRCA GALLERY
1- 25 November 2017
This exhibition is an exploration into our inclination to collect and arrange miscellaneous objects and trinkets in an attempt to imbue them with significance and meaning. The process of arranging or classifying objects forces us to view them in an entirely different context, one defined by what surrounds them.
Collections (groups of objects arranged as a whole), are usually classified in terms of a single unifying factor which imposes a sense of order on what would otherwise be a hotch potch of seemingly unrelated odds and ends.
On the one hand, collecting objects is a way of coldly documenting and preserving information deemed valuable and relevant (in museums and archives for instance), while on the other hand collecting can become a self-destructive, pathological compulsion.
Somewhere in between these two extremes lie numerous collections of ‘found’ objects grouped together by some sort of unifying factor or commonality. A collection of otherwise unrelated objects grouped together by colour for instance, can be just as rewarding as a prized collection of rare and valuable china.
Our desire to collect is often an attempt to salvage and preserve objects and their associated memories. By presenting a physical representation of our past experiences for future perusal, we create a sense of continuity between the past and the future. Because we tend to collect objects that are significant to us as individuals, these collections become extensions of our identity serving as memory banks and legacies of the lives that we’ve lived.
Scrimgeour’s subject matter is chosen from commonplace objects that surround her. Delicate chinaware, glassware and insects are combined with common trinkets and knick-knacks and portrayed against a backdrop of richly patterned fabric in a way that is reminiscent of 17th century Dutch still life painting.
2016
Solo Exhibition Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
2014
Breaking Point, Solo Exhibition Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
2012
Conundrum, Solo Exhibition, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa
2008
Fragile, Fertile Deceptions Solo Exhibition, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
2006
Solo Exhibition, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITION
2016
Opening Gallery Exhibition, CIRCA Gallery, London, UK
Cape Town Art Fair, Everard Read Gallery Booth, Cape Town, South Africa
2015
Homage, Group Exhibition Everard Read,, Cape Town, South Africa
Winter, Group Exhibition Everard Read,, Cape Town, South Africa
2014
Summer Season Group Exhibition, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
2013
100, Group Exhibition Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
2013
Centenary Group Exhibition, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa
Possessed Group Exhibition, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
Sydney Art Fair Group Exhibition With Everard Read, Johannesburg, Sydney, Australia
2012
Johannesburg Art Fair Group Exhibition With Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa
Winter Group Exhibition, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
Small Works Group Exhibition, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
India Art Fair Group Exhibition With Everard Read, Johannesburg, New Delhi, India
2011
Johannesburg Art Fair Group Exhibition With Everard Read, Johannesburg
15th Anniversary Group Exhibition, Everard Read, Cape Town
Self Portrait Group Exhibition, Rust En Vrede, Durbanville
2010
Summer Group Exhibition, Everard Read, Cape Town
View From The South, Group Exhibition, Everard Read, Cape Town
2009
Sex, Power, Money Group Exhibition, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
Summer Group Exhibition, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
2008
The City Group Exhibition, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
2007
Artwords II Group Exhibition, Rust En Vrede, Durbanville, South Africa
2006
Seven Deadly Sins Group Exhibition, Rust En Vrede, Durbanville, South Africa
2004
Women’s Day Group Exhibition, Rust En Vrede, Durbanville, South Africa
The Oriental Ceramic Society of Southern Africa 