Textile Art - Communal Landscape 1 x Renée Rossouw

The first work produced in the series by Rossouw, titled Communal Landscape 1 – which launched on its own at Candice Berman Gallery’s new space, 223 Jan Smuts Ave earlier in the year – tries to capture the unseen natural cycle and the microcosms and stories that once quietly circulated within the materials that we take for granted. Based on a wood carving, this and a sister work were recreated on top of what Rossouw calls “failed” self-portraits. These shapes that began as a woman’s body came to represent a mycelium root network – a fungal colony that is believed to communicate with other mushrooms through underground electrical impulses. After seeing Communal Landscape 1 as a wood carving, Botes had an idea to recreate the curved edges, wall-relief and three dimensionality of the original work in tufted wool. This new adaptation is a painstakingly produced and stunning reconsideration of the piece’s initial reference to the thread-like structures that expand to form a mycelium network, carrying the cryptic messages and stories of little, unknown lives.

PRODUCT INFO

EDITION: of 3 + 1 AP

FABRICATION: 100 % wool, tufted soft sculpture

COLOURS: Multiple

SIZE/S: Large (on display) is 200 x 284cm with floating dot of 31 x 34cm. Medium is 150 x 213cm with floating dot of 23 x 25cm.