'Snake Man' - a memorial exhibition by David Brits

Thu, November 19, 2015 to Sat, January 9, 2016
  • Skin Abstract I - Gaboon Viper, 2015, Indian Ink on Fabriano Rosaspina, 100 x 70cm
  • Skin Abstract III - Gila Monster, 2015, Indian Ink on Fabriano Rosaspina, 100 x 70cm
  • Snakes and Ladders, 2015, Indian Ink on Fabriano Rosaspina, 100 x 70cm
  • The Handler IX, 2015, Indian Ink on Fabriano Rosaspina, 100 x 70cm
  • The Proprietor, 2015, Indian Ink on Fabriano Rosaspina, 100 x 70cm
  • Snake Abstract 3.5, 2015, Linocut on Zerkall Litho, 76 x 55cm, Edition 6 + 1AP
  • Snake Abstract 4.2, 2015, Linocut on Zerkall Litho, 110 x 76cm, Edition 6 + 1AP
  • Sloughs I, 2015, Offset Lithograph on Archival, 100 x 68cm, Edition 6 + 1AP

Snake Man commemorates the life of John Wood, David Brits’ late maternal grandfather. Wood was one of South Africa’s most prominent reptile experts, snake catchers and snake show- men. Over a period of sixty years he caught thousands of snakes, spiders, scorpions, lizards and frogs for both medical research and the development of snake and spider antivenoms. Wood was a prolific poet, photographer and filmmaker, and shared his great passion for reptiles through these mediums as well as with his traveling snake show, which toured the country from the 1950-70s.
Brits’ takes his inspiration from the large archive of photographs, films, newspaper cuttings, letters, poems, and priceless books which he inherited. Working across a wide range of media including drawing, linocuts and lithographic prints, in Snake Man, Brits contemplates the life of his grandfather, his legacy, and the perennial power of the snake.

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