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Attempting to understand one's own artistic practice is a process, which is both frustrating, and as an investigation into an ever evolving practice also offers no closure. However, Michael Linders felt the need to approach this self evaluation by taking stock of a particular period in his life during the late 80’s when he and his family emigrated to South Africa, and in doing so examine the birth of his visual language. Exploring the recollected visual signs of that time inadvertently lead to a counter-nostalgic experience or a visual divination of the impact that these childhood visions had on his consequent modes of visual interpretation and production.
These symbols of everyday experience become imbued with a historical context that has a particular emotional connotation to Michael. Most symbols are seen as myths or metaphors for cultural, monetary and political environs that informed Michael’s understanding of the country that he found himself transplanted into. It is from these symbols of the past, a neighbourhood watch sign, an Inkomazi milk carton or the Sun City logo that Linders begins to create his own visual language.
Advertising in posters, pamphlets and signage mediums form the structural starting point for the formal elements of Michael’s work and his material process is based on the idea of articulating the printing process through painting, folding of paper, crunching up paper or utilizing a standardized poster size for the majority of the paintings. The CMYK colour profile used in the modern printing process is articulated through using only these four colours in varying combinations to create the full colour spectrum. Michael uses layers of cyan, magenta and yellow to create colour fields over which he employs black to render the graphic elements.
This technique has taken Linders a number of years to perfect. ‘EXILE’ is the coming together of all these element and comprises a body of work that incorporates not only the distinct ‘Linders’ language but a number of light based sculptural works that create the haze through which the show can be viewed.
‘EXILE’ runs from 17th February 2016 to 12th March 2016 at SMITH, 56 Church Street, Cape Town.