Shows — Mark Rautenbach

Home

"... no matter how I feel, who I'm with, where I am, what I'm doing... I am home"

Solo exhibition at Everard Read Circa, Cape Town, 6 - 30 November 2024. Curator Emma van der Merwe

The show explores home as a way of being; belonging, being at ease socially, feeling grounded, at peace with the past, welcoming futures and comfortable in my own skin. Home also as an arrival after many journeys and adventures which unravelled social and cultural conditioning.

The show comes with a playlist

Photography: Mike Hall, Inka Kendzia

Mommy, where’s Home?: 2024, Ed. print /10, bundles of yarn made from education documents and children’s Alphabet poster, 15 × 21 cm

Zen [Logos, Mythos, Pathos / Role, Situation, Function]: 2024, Sculpture / installation, mixed media, 244 × 244 × 120 cm

Garden [Ad Hominem Series]: 2024, sewing thread and board, 128 × 137 cm

This town ain’t big enough for both of us (Gilty of what I am): 2024, gold mirror PVC 400 × 400 × 400 cm

Lake Mountains [Kissing the pink series / Shot series] diptych: 2024, sewing thread, paper, acrylic ink, board, 116.5 × 255 cm

Magic Mountain [Kissing the pink series / Shot series]: 2024, sewing thread, paper, acrylic ink, board, 127.5 × 119.5 cm

Most Loyal Companion [A weekly ritual using small, pertinent objects, to mark time and face Death]. 2023, Ed 1/7, glass dome, glass flasks, small brass safety pins, 42 × 30 × 30 cm

Mapping Moon-mountain Memories [Lunasphere, Worlding Series]: 2024, mixed media, 134.5 × 141 cm

From the One to the Many / From the Many to the One: Collaboration with Inka Kendzia and Mr Sakitumi, 2024, performance, video, installation, Ed/3, plasma screens, video, 155 × 174 × 20 cm

Hear and Their 5/5 [Somewhere / Very Long Landscape, Worlding series]: mixed media, 38 × 75 × 14 cm

Hear and Their 1/5 [Somewhere / Very Long Landscape, Worlding series]: mixed media, 38 × 101 × 14 cm

Leaving Home Installation / Thieves 29, 14 [ Shamiela and the Forty Thieves / Noonoo series]: sculpture, mixed media, 29: 25 × 13 × 15 cm. 14: 16 × 13 × 13 cm

Leaving Home Installation / Thieves 23, 36, 39, 38 [ Shamiela and the Forty Thieves / Noonoo series]: sculpture, mixed media, 23: 18 × 14 × 10 cm, 36: 24 × 18 × 11 cm, 39: 29 × 26 × 27 cm, 38: 13 × 10 × 10 cm

Leaving Home Installation / Thieves 37, 24,8, 2 [ Shamiela and the Forty Thieves / Noonoo series]: sculpture, mixed media, 37: 12 × 10 × 9 cm, 24: 38 × 17 15 cm, 8: 10 × 8 × 7 cm, 2: 21 × 18 × 15 cm

Distributing Ledgers 2222 [Worlding series]: 2024, tissue paper, gold leaf, acrylic paint, steel pins, thread, 111.5 × 94 cm

Distributing Ledgers 4444 [Worlding series]: 2024, tissue paper, gold leaf, acrylic paint, steel pins, thread, 106 × 99 cm

Distributing Ledgers 5555 [Worlding series]: 2024, tissue paper, gold leaf, acrylic paint, steel pins, thread, 107.5 × 109 cm

Shamiela / [Ma]t[ri]arch [Shamiela and the Forty Thieves series / Noonoo series]: 2024, mixed media, 124 × 78 × 76 cm

Landing Indigo [Ad Hominem series]: 2024, sewing thread, board, 127.5 × 88,5 cm

Indigoing Land [Ad Hominem series]: 2024, sewing thread, board, 127.5 × 88,5 cm

Land [Ad Hominem series]: 2024, sewing thread, board, 129 × 172 cm

Reaching Land [Ad Hominem series]: 2024, sewing thread, board, 127.5 × 88,5 cm

Reaching Water [Ad Hominem series]: 2024, sewing thread, board, 127 × 129,5 cm

Finding Water [Ad Hominem series]: 2024, sewing thread, board, 127 × 129,5 cm

Pigments of the Alchemists Imagination and the Non-dual

"What does an alchemist do?

First we should define what an alchemist is: one who seeks the philosopher's stone, who changes base metals into gold, who seeks a universal solvent, and finally who has the elixir for lasting life.

The philosopher's stone: the alchemist wants to develop inner values as much as possible, to grow as a human being, and thanks to this, to raise the level of consciousness and climb to other dimensions.

The elixir for everlasting life is a person who accepts life and lives everything as it is without self-annihilation.

The universal solvent is a person who has developed divine love in his heart. Love is what dissolves all resistances." Alejandro Jodorowsky, Psychomagic

8 - 31 December 2022, Everard Read Circa, Cape Town

Photography: Mia Thom & Mike Hall

GREYL: 2022, 106 x 85 cm, mixed media

POST [POST TRAGIC / LUNETTA POEMS]: 2016 - 2022, 15 x 22.5 [44 open] x 3 cm, box, 17.5 cm x 73 cm x 60 cm, 144 page hand bound book, 99 black ball point pens

FECUND I & II: 2022, 133.5 x 94.5 cm each, sewing thread

INITIATE & THE WAIT OF WISDOM: 2022, 134.5 x 83.5 x 13 cm each, mixed media

HEART MATTER / HEART CENTRE 2022, 75 x 69 x 47 cm, mixed media

INITIATION; MAIDEN, MOTHER, CRONE: 2022, 129 x 90 cm each, sewing thread

AM ORE: 2022, 68 x 68 cm each, mixed media

CHROMATIC ABERATIONS: 2022, 133.5 x 94.5 cm, sewing thread

ZINC & TITANIUM: 2022, 133.5 x 176 cm, sewing thread

NUIT I & II: 2022 , 86 x 76.5 cm each, mixed media

PSYCHIC TV III: 2022, 69 x 36 x 27 cm, mixed media

OVERFLOWING EMPTINESS: diptych, 2022, 133.5 x 94.5 cm each, mixed media

TENDERISING DESIRE & DESING TENDERNESS: 2022, 97.5 x 67.5 cm each, mixed media

Ariadne's Thread

Ariadne’s Thread

By Mark Rautenbach

Curated by Emma Van Der Merwe

Cubicle Series, Circa, Everard Read Cape Town

3 - 24 January 2022

Performance-installation in three parts:

Knitting, installing [making a labyrinth], unravelling [making a ball of yarn]

The artwork uses the infrastructure of the building of the gallery, as a device. The balustrade, of the balcony outside the gallery room, is turned into a knitting loom. On this loom pieces of knitted fabric [roughly 3m x 4 m] are produced. The actual gallery room space is then used as a picture plane. The knitted pieces are suspended from the lighting infrastructure beams within the room. These suspended planes of fabric form a loose labyrinth pathway in and out of the room.

The thread that produces the knitting is drawn from about 200 sewing-cotton threads. This thread is continuous and runs through each individual piece of fabric, IE it is never cut. The knitting takes roughly a day to make, and gets suspended on the following day. This process will continue for 14 days. Over the last 7 days a single fabric is unravelled daily, and bound into a single growing ball of yarn.

The work honours and draws inspiration from two Goddesses and three women in Ancient Greek Mythology. Athene, who presides over the arts and handicraft, and Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty. These deities are called upon to express themselves and be honoured through the work. The three women are Arachne, Ariadne and Penelope.

The Ancient Greeks took Genius as an attribute and quality that emanated from the gods. It was something that flowed through humans, but did not belong to nor come from the human who was ‘possessed by it’ as it were. Arachne was an exceptionally talented and gifted weaver. Athene took offence at Arachne claiming the weaving talent as her own. For her hubris, Athene cursed Arachne and her descendants to be forever hideously ugly [turning her into a spider], yet spin beautiful fabrics.

Theseus was sent as a decoy-ambush ploy along with the 20 sacrificial youths, to slay the Minotaur that lived within the labyrinth in Knossos on Crete. Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, the king of Athens, fell in love with Theseus. Ariadne made a deal with Theseus that if he would marry her, she would help him find his way back out of the labyrinth. She supplied him with a ball of thread which he secured on the outside of the labyrinth and unravelled on the way in. He was thus able to find his way out, but never fulfilled his promise.

Penelope spent decades waiting for her husband, Odysseus, to return from the Trojan War. Claiming that Odysseus was dead, Penelope was plagued by many suitors for her hand in marriage. Penelope refused to believe that Odysseus was dead. One of her crafty plans to delay marrying any of them, was to consent to marriage only once she had completed the funeral shroud she was weaving for her presumed dead Odysseus. Every evening she would unravel the handiwork she had done during the day, so that the work was never completed. Odysseus did eventually return to his Beloved.

I dedicate this work to the thread of love, through life, which humbles me, connects me, provides me with a path when I get lost and which, in the end, unravels me.

Blog

Photography: Inka Kendzia, Sara C F de Gouveia

Ariadne's Thread Contextile submission.jpg

Ariadne's Thread Performance video

Ariadne's Thread, final binding

Ariadne's Thread, final unraveling

Ariadne's Thread, binding indigo

Ariadne's Thread, binding

Ariadne's Thread, unraveling

Ariadne's Thread, the labyrinth

Ariadne's Thread, knitting loom

Ariadne's Thread, knitting indigo

World Worlding

World Worlding a solo show comprising of 14 works spanning 16 years of making. The exhibition asks; Can I change the world by changing myself? The 14 works embody practices which help me be a better person.

Show ran from, 21 December 2020 until 21 February 2021. Hosted by Open 24 hrs and Ebony/Curated, Cape Town

World Worlding walkabout

Photography: Nina Leski, Jan Ras

Putting Myself back Together [back]: 2018, 250 cm x 250 cm. Paper, roof paint, small gold safety pins, paper tape, aluminium

Putting Myself back Together [back detail]

Lunasphere : 2020, 147 cm x 147 cm. Found linoleum, corrugated cardboard, acrylic paint, ink and varnish, glue, paper, small silver safety pins

Worlding Noonoos: 2020, 66 cm x 52 cm x 36 cm ø, 47 cm ø, 28 cm ø, 20 cm & 19 cm ø. Art production detritus, sewing thread, corrugated cardboard

[Somew]hear / Very Long Landscape : 2020, 37 cm x 522 cm. Paper, acrylic paint and varnish, corrugated cardboard, pages from an Atlas, sewing thread, glue

010 5 Somew hear, Very Long Landscape.jpg

010 03 Somew hear, Very Long Landscape.jpg

010 02 Somew hear, Very Long Landscape.jpg

010 01 Somew hear, Very Long Landscape.jpg

My Ching / Standing Up: 2020, 244 cm x 54 cm x 104 cm. Plywood, acrylic paint, cotton cloth, graphite, sewing thread

Putting Myself back Together [front]: 2018, 250 cm x 250 cm. Paper, roof paint, small gold safety pins, paper tape, aluminium

Putting Myself back Together [front detail]

Event Horizon : 2020, 88 cm x 115 cm. Sewing thread, mdf board, glue, acrylic paint

Coming Together / Pulling Myself Together: 2018, 30 cm x 210 cm x 210 cm. Reincarnated artwork, paper, acrylic paint, polyester thread

Ocean of Emptiness : 2020, 75 cm x 98.5 cm. Sewing thread, mdf board, glue, acrylic paint

Global Acupuncture: 2018, 76.5 cm x 76.5 cm. Found-flattened world globe, small gold safety pins

The Map and the Terrior: 2020, 244 cm x 244 cm. Acrylic paint, tissue paper, sewing thread, gold leaf, food can tin, brass screws

Purple Rain : 2020, 110 cm x 196 cm. Compact disc covers, sewing thread, pins, wood glue, fabric, acrylic paint, small gold safety pins, MDF board

End of Time: 2018, 76 cm diameter. 6 000 small silver safety pins, cardboard boxes, spool of clothing-size-label-tape, acrylic paint, paper, sewing thread

Black Moon Lilith II : 2020, 120 cm ø. Sewing thread, compact discs, safety pins, mdf board, acrylic paint

Foamborne : 2018, 144 cm x 81 cm. Sewing thread, pins, corrugated cardboard, graphite, wood glue, paper, acrylic paint, plastic conical studs

Underpinnings

The body of work looks at unseen forces [tensions] inside, beneath, behind and between visible things. Invisible conditions necessary for visible structures to be. Materially this is expressed by securing, stretching and suspending fine, colourful hand-knitted circular fabrics. These knitted fabrics are fashioned from sewing thread. Small gold safety pins attach the fabrics to threads which have been glued onto slick circular frames.

As a material, sewing thread is usually matched to the colour of the fabric of a garment in order to create invisible seams. In these works it is used as a fine material to hold vivid tonal gradations of colour. Hand knitting is associated with the domestic, and is usually done at home in private. Something done by Grandma and not particularly spectacular. Small gold safety pins hold things together temporarily and are not missed when lost. These materials and actions go largely unnoticed and don’t in themselves hold much value. Yet when combined in such a manner, they give form to something striking, vital and compelling.

Photography: Jan Ras

Underpinnings by Mark Rautenbach

Compilation of the various techniques and processes used for the production of 11 art works for my solo exhibition 'Underpinnings', Ebony Curated, Franschoek, October 2019.

Taum - Ruby Red - Mars: Ø 120 cm, 2019. Polyester sewing thread, small gold safety pins, paper, acrylic ink, acrylic paint

Burnt Indigo - Saturn: Ø 110 cm, 2019. Polyester sewing thread, small gold safety pins, paper, acrylic ink, acrylic paint

Green Tara - Mercury: Ø 80 cm, 2019. Polyester sewing thread, small gold safety pins, paper, acrylic ink, acrylic paint

Blue Sunshine, Jupiter: Ø 130 cm, 2019. Polyester sewing thread, small gold safety pins

Cobaltic - Neptune: Ø 70 cm, 2019. Polyester sewing thread, small gold safety pins, paper, acrylic ink, acrylic paint

Emerald Rutile - Venus: Ø 90 cm, 2019. Polyester sewing thread, small gold safety pins, paper, acrylic ink, acrylic paint

Britney Pinkter - Lady Burning Sky - Fly Eagleman Fly - Uranus: Ø 120 cm, 2019. Polyester sewing thread, small gold safety pins, paper, acrylic ink, acrylic paint