DIY Wall. 2016. Stainless Steel.

There are two aspects to the sculptural installation, the first part is the already assembled floor to ceiling wall with an entrance/exit which exists in the middle of an exhibition space. On the other side there are separate pieces which the audience is invited to build with.

The physical wall installation is visually permeable and made up of hundreds of triangles bolted together. The wall is a manifestation of the artists’ ongoing fascination with controlled access to spaces and security precautions in South Africa.

The interactive “do it yourself” (DIY) part of the sculpture is audience focused. The sculpture concept responds to the global capitalistic framework by appropriating some of its most deploring devices, namely assembly line production and mass production.

The sculptural pieces do not come with any obvious instructions (some ambiguous ones are provided), and the viewer can build their own sculptures with the shapes provided. The viewer is the most important player in this artwork because they are the creators of it. The myth of artist as genius is destabilised and enables the audience to adopt the role of maker

The way the pieces have been designed is such that the viewer can construct either furniture and functional, familiar pieces, or alternatively abstract sculptural forms. It is ultimately up to the individual. There is potential to build horizontally, vertically as well as diagonally.

The potential familiarity and or indistinctness of the objects created produce a dialogue between art and design, allowing the one to construct the other and vice versa. The impermanence of the sculptures mirrors the socio-political impermanent of South Africa. One audience will be able to deconstruct the previous audience’s creation in order to create their own, in doing so they become participants in a performance that reflects the socio-political condition. This constant change and impermanence ruminates on the notion of value, between what is seen to be informal and formal and in the same way, either temporary or fixed.