ARTEFACTS FROM THE ANTHROPOCENE
CIRCA GALLERY
1 – 25 November 2017
At first glance, the imagery of the paintings in the exhibition Artefacts from the Anthropocene appears so diverse that it seems difficult to see an underlying coherence in the works. How is it possible to view this body of work in a way which opens up the possibilities for connections and allows for meaning to be construed?
One possibility is to approach the exhibition in the same way that the artist approaches his subject matter and that is with the ability or desire to make lateral connections in order for meaning to emerge. Mullins says of this body of work:
“The exhibition is not a sober minded history lesson or critique of specific events. Each painting is a vehicle for contemplation, with its own references, and each work sits within a complex web of links; historical, ideological, conceptual or even just geographical. There are strong thematic threads and multiple interlinking sub-themes.”
In terms of these ‘strong thematic threads’, and to make a broad sweep, this body of work could be loosely categorised into three main areas of focus: leaders, mass gatherings and medals. What connections can be made between these?
Leaders or figureheads are representations (for us, looking back in time) of certain global eras or ages, for example Queen Victoria symbolising the Age of British Imperial Expansion, or political ideologies such as Communism as embodied by Chairman Mao, or perhaps liberation as exemplified by Fidel Castro (Cuban Revolution in 1959) and I Gusti Ngurah Rai (Indonesian War of Independence, 1945 – 49). These are eras and ideologies that detail the movements of the human march forward, along a timeline which stretches from Queen Nefertiti in 1370 BC to our present and which hold intimations of our future.
Mass gatherings can be seen as an expression of a populace’s relationship to their leader, whether this expression is one of support or of dissent – and the artist sees these gatherings as emblems of contemporary global existential states. The triumphal crowd at President Barack Obama’s inauguration, for example is in contrast with the Women’s March on Washington in 2017 which was part of a worldwide protest, mainly aimed at President Donald Trump for his views which were seen as an infringement on human and women’s rights. Mass gatherings and social media have provided us as citizens with a certain kind of global agency.
Mullins is fascinated by fetish objects as objects or ideas which provoke unquestioning reverence or as having magical potency and he regards paintings as potential fetish objects. We can equally see medals as fetish objects and as a hierarchical interface between leaders and the masses. The medals that the artist paints are army medals from all over the world and in this way not only speak about power and globalisation but also about military forces – the physical might that a leader may use to exert control. In visual similarity, but in ideological opposition to these military medals are the Lennon Walls of 1988 and 2014. The original Lennon Wall in Prague (literally a wall where young Czechs would write or draw out their frustrations in the 1980s) was the canvas of dissidents and students opposing the Communist regime and it was this wall which inspired the Lennon Wall of Post-it notes in Hong Kong during the Umbrella Uprising in 2014 with its messages of peace and hope for democracy and freedom.
To try to describe the scope of Artefacts from the Anthropocene by identifying the three interlinking areas of leaders, masses and medals is reductive, but it could be a starting point for the process of making lateral connections between these richly layered paintings through which we can make our own associations and look again at what we know of our past. This exhibition offers us particular details along the evolution of recent humanity: of how we got to be us, now.
Text courtesy Tanya Poole, 2017
(b. 1969 Grahamstown, South Africa)
WORK
Nigel Mullins’ work, from the Chaotic Region (2013) and beyond, aims to demystify the tropes and icons that have sustained the myths used to justify or validate Western Culture for the last several hundred years. Famous figures that have been up for ironic denigration include Elvis Presley, Lenin, Queen Elizabeth I and Yuri Gagarin (the first human in space). His attitude is often reflected in the titles as much as the images themselves: for example, Queen Elizabeth becomes An Obsolete Remnant of the Industrial Age and Yuri Gagarin’s image is entitled Your Bright Future Guarantee.
He applies the paint in thick slabs, drawing attention to itself and drawing our attention to the painting as an object – an artifact. Often the paint seems to climb out of the frame and melds with wire – breaking the division between the work or art and the world around it. Borders are overcome. Nothing is sacred or sacrosanct. It is only when we have reduced these often overwhelming and mythologized figure to their human scale and their proper place scan we see ourselves – past, present and future – clearly.
BIOGRAPHY
Nigel Mullins completed his Master of Fine Art degree with distinction at Rhodes University in 1993. Since graduating, he has had 15 solo exhibitions in South Africa, Scotland, England, and Germany and has taken part in some 45 group shows. His work has been represented on the Cape Town, Johannesburg, Frankfurt and London art fairs and on the Mumia International Underground Animation Festival.
In 2014 he exhibited Chaotic Region at Oliewenhuis Art Museum in Bloemfontein, South Africa. Mullins was the winner of the first prize at the Royal Overseas League 14th Annual Open Exhibition in London in 1997, Mullins was a nominee for the Daimler Chrysler Award for Contemporary South African Art in 2000 and recipient of a merit prize at the ABSA Atelier in the same year.
His work is included in such public and corporate collections as: Rhodes University, ABSA, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum, South African Association, SASOL, TELKOM, Rand Merchant Bank, Hollard, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital Collection, Pretoria Art Museum, Sanlam, Nandos UK, Spier and KPMG.
Nigel Mullins lives and works in Grahamstown with his wife Tanya Poole and daughter Sophie.
CV
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2017
Artefacts from the Anthropocene, CIRCA Gallery, Johannesburg
2016
21st Century Talismans, Everard Read, London, UK
Retrogressive Propaganda, Everard Read, Cape Town
Reality Check, Group exhibition, Everard Read, Cape Town
2015
The Obsolete Remnants of the Industrial age. Fried Contemporary, Pretoria, South Africa
2014
Buy You Time, Equus Gallery, Western Cape, South Africa
Chaotic Region, Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa
2013
Chaotic Region, curated by Tanya Poole, Rhodes University Alumni Gallery and Standard Bank Gallery, South Africa
Chaotic Region, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2008
Caveman Spaceman, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2006
Earthlings, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2005
Ends and Escapes, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2004
Pacifier, ABSA Bank Gallery, Johannesburg. South Africa
2003
Fix, Rhodes University Alumni Gallery, Albany Museum, Grahamstown Arts Festival, South Africa
2001
Hopeful Monsters, Hanel Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Superhuman, ROSL, London and Edinburgh, UK
Hopeful Monsters, Hanel Gallery, Wiesbaden, Germany
Hopeful Monsters, Lithographs in Collaboration with Fine Line Press
2000
New Work, Dorp street Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa
1999
Superhuman, Hanel Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
1998
ROSL Prizewinner Exhibition, Continuum, Landings Gallery, Edinburgh, UK
Continuum, Lamont Gallery, London, UK
Momentum, Grahamstown Arts Festival and Association of Arts, Pretoria, South Africa
1994
Window into the South African Landscape, Grosvenor St, Mayfair, London, UK
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2016
Title to be confirmed- CIRCA Gallery Group exhibition, London ,UK
2015
1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, CIRCA Gallery Booth, London, UK
FNB Jo burg Art Fair, Everard Read Gallery Booth, Johannesburg, South Africa
Cape Town Art Fair 2015, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Empire , Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
Winter, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
2014
Cape Town Art Fair 2014, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Johannesburg Art Fair 2014, Johans Borman Fine Art, Johannesburg, South Africa
Everard Read Winter Exhibition, Cape Town, South Africa
2013
Tom Waits For No Man, curated by Gordon Froud, Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees, Oudtshoorn, South Africa
Weerberig, Curated by Luan Nel, Aardklop, South Africa
Kunstfees, Potchefstroom, South Africa
Johannesburg Art Fair, Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2011
MullinsPoole, The Bettendorffsche Gallery, Germany
2010
View From The South, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
On Colour, Colour a Colloquium. Albany Museum, Grahamstown, South Africa
8th MUMIA – Underground World Animation Festival 2010. Brazil
Juncture.Painting from South Africa. Nigel Mullins, Tanya Poole, Luan Nel. artSPACE, Berlin, Germany
International Festival of Animated Film of Fortaleza,. Brazil
2009
Johannesburg Art Fair, Johannesburg, South Africa
X2, Albany Museum, Grahamstown National Arts Festival, South Africa
Hang in There, Dorp Street Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa
2008
Johannesburg Art Fai, Johannesburg, South Africa
Between Meaning and Matter, Bell-Roberts, Cape Town, South Africa
SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
ABSA, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum
Ann Bryant Art Museum
Deloites and Touche
Ernst and Young
Hollard Insurance
Ken Logan Art Collection, USA
KPMG
Nandos UK
Oliewenhuis Art Museum
Old MutuaL Bank
Pretoria Art Museum, Sanlam
Rhodes University Collection
South African Association
Spier Art Collection
SAB
SASOL
Telkom, Rand Merchant Bank
Westminster and Chelsea Hospital Collection, London , UK
ZENECA
SELECTED AWARDS
1997
First Prize, Royal Overseas League 14th Annual Exhibition. London.
1999
Nominee for the Daimler Chrysler Award for Contemporary South African Art
2000
Merit Prize, ABSA Atelier
Biography Courtesy Everard Read Gallery
The Oriental Ceramic Society of Southern Africa 