NIROXprojects presents FORMS / S I W by Rodan Kane Hart. Following on from Structure (2013) & Pattern Language (2013), Forms / S I W (2014) marks Hart’s third solo showcase in 2 ye¬¬¬ars. The exhibition compromises an entirely new body of work consisting of sculpture, drawing, print & photography. These works follow on from previous points of enquiry regarding the constructed notion of the South African city. After a recent residency at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in England Hart has shifted his focus to more closely examining the influence of European architectural forms onto the urban fabric of South Africa.

Farshid Moussavi and Michael Kubo sum up the conceptual foundations of the exhibition as a whole in a book titled The Function of Ornament. A statement is made that succinctly deifies the relevance of architectural style and ornament, “Architecture needs mechanisms that allow it to become connected to culture”. Absorbing and capturing the forces that shape society achieve this cultural connection. These forces are then used as material components to work with, forming composite materiality. When two forces found within society, Invisible, meaning; Cultural, Political, and Temporal, and, Visible, meaning; Structural, Functional, and Physical, are brought together, it gives way to, a New Aesthetic Composition. Architectural style is not easily adjustable to the changes in culture and society. Modernists utilized transparency to represent architectural elements of space and structure; Post Modernists used Décor, whereas the Deconstructivists used geometrical collage to replace transparency all together. These concepts express the inextricable relationship between, Inside & Outside, Then & Now and Here & There.

Buildings make us consider previous tools for constructed expression, they embody past uses, functions, histories, and memories, they are sites of contestation or sites of remembrance, and within it’s style, it’s detailing, it’s stone, brick and tile pagination, it’s flooring, roof trusses, cracks and peeling paint, it can be read, becoming symbolic of the history that has informed it. The city is that of an agglomeration of individual and collective memories, forming a library of constructed materiality containing the secrets and truths of society.

Different architectural movements propose conflicting theories surrounding the appropriateness of Ornament & Style. According to Adolf Loos (an influential figure in European Modern Architecture) on the subject of opposing Ornament, He suggests that, “Ornament was used in traditional society as a means of differentiation”, he further states that, “Modern Society need not to emphasize individuality, but to suppress it”, therefore to Loos, Ornament had lost it’s societal function and had become unnecessary. Modern Architects no longer disguised function but rather exposed it in order to render the city and it’s buildings “immediately readable”. However Post Modernist theorists such as Robert Venturi & Denise Scott Brown objected to the Modernist paradigm, suggesting it cynical and dull. They saw the use of décor as a device to integrate buildings within the urban realm giving them meaning in the eyes of the public. This conflict produced the differentiation of buildings of function and buildings as representation. However the city will continually represent and reveal the psyche of societies, irrelevant of architectural style or theory. Prestige and poverty are stamped onto the city in the form of the grid, and when reading the city you can read the cultural, political, architectural and governmental ideologies that were influential at given moments in history.

Forms / S I W (S suggesting South = South Africa & W suggesting West = England) at NIROXprojects focuses on the formal influences of European Classism, Modernism and Post Modernism. An array of artistic medium has been utilized to present the historical and personal logic behind Hart’s formally abstracted works. Hart has intentionally incorporated more handcrafted methods with those of mechanical and digital processes, setting up a relationship between subject matter, time, theory and aesthetic.

Charcoal drawings & 35mm Black & White photographs inspired by architectural and natural forms found in the English cities of Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool & London, are presented alongside those depicting the South African cities of Johannesburg & Cape Town. These images explore the construction of spatial context by juxtaposing figurative representations with those of abstracted ones.

Being renowned for his life-sized steel sculptures Hart has taken a more intimate and crafted approach, by producing 4 smaller generative sculpture series consisting of 4 stages (each). Hart sees these sculptures as maquettes and studies for larger experiential projects, asserting the Russian Constructivists as an influence. Finally, a series of lithoprints presenting the progression of line to shape and subsequently to form over 4 stages will also be on display.

Line, Shape to Form 1 | Litho print | Edition of 5 | 294 x 420mm | 2014 R 2500.00 (unframed) | R 2900.00 (framed) (R 22 000 – for set of 12 unframed) (R 26 000.00 for set of 12 framed) (All prices excl VAT)

P R I N T S

Line, Shape to Form 2 | Litho print | Edition of 5 | 294 x 420mm | 2014 R 2500.00 (unframed) | R 2900.00 (framed) (R 22 000 – for set of 12 unframed) (R 26 000.00 for set of 12 framed) (All prices excl VAT)

Line, Shape to Form 3 | Litho print | Edition of 5 | 294 x 420mm | 2014 R 2500.00 (unframed) | R 2900.00 (framed) (R 22 000 – for set of 12 unframed) (R 26 000.00 for set of 12 framed) (All prices excl VAT)

Line, Shape to Form 4 | Litho print | Edition of 5 | 294 x 420mm | 2014 R 2500.00 (unframed) | R 2900.00 (framed) (R 22 000 – for set of 12 unframed) (R 26 000.00 for set of 12 framed) (All prices excl VAT)

Line, Shape to Form 5 | Litho print | Edition of 5 | 294 x 420mm | 2014 R 2500.00 (unframed) | R 2900.00 (framed) (R 22 000 – for set of 12 unframed) (R 26 000.00 for set of 12 framed) (All prices excl VAT)

Line, Shape to Form 6 | Litho print | Edition of 5 | 294 x 420mm | 2014 R 2500.00 (unframed) | R 2900.00 (framed) (R 22 000 – for set of 12 unframed) (R 26 000.00 for set of 12 framed) (All prices excl VAT)

Line, Shape to Form 7 | Litho print | Edition of 5 | 294 x 420mm | 2014 R 2500.00 (unframed) | R 2900.00 (framed) (R 22 000 – for set of 12 unframed) (R 26 000.00 for set of 12 framed) (All prices excl VAT)

Line, Shape to Form 8 | Litho print | Edition of 5 | 294 x 420mm | 2014 R 2500.00 (unframed) | R 2900.00 (framed) (R 22 000 – for set of 12 unframed) (R 26 000.00 for set of 12 framed) (All prices excl VAT)

Line, Shape to Form 9 | Litho print | Edition of 5 | 294 x 420mm | 2014 R 2500.00 (unframed) | R 2900.00 (framed) (R 22 000 – for set of 12 unframed) (R 26 000.00 for set of 12 framed) (All prices excl VAT)

Line, Shape to Form 10 | Litho print | Edition of 5 | 294 x 420mm | 2014 R 2500.00 (unframed) | R 2900.00 (framed) (R 22 000 – for set of 12 unframed) (R 26 000.00 for set of 12 framed) (All prices excl VAT)

Line, Shape to Form 11 | Litho print | Edition of 5 | 294 x 420mm | 2014 R 2500.00 (unframed) | R 2900.00 (framed) (R 22 000 – for set of 12 unframed) (R 26 000.00 for set of 12 framed) (All prices excl VAT)

Line, Shape to Form 12 | Litho print | Edition of 5 | 294 x 420mm | 2014 R 2500.00 (unframed) | R 2900.00 (framed) (R 22 000 – for set of 12 unframed) (R 26 000.00 for set of 12 framed) (All prices excl VAT)

Installation view | Line, Shape to Form | Litho prints | full set

Installation view | Line, Shape to Form | Litho prints | full set

P H O TO G R A P H S

ENG. Sandstone Texture | Edition of 5 | 35mm b&w photograph, digital lithograph on 300gsm archival | 594 x 420mm | 2013-14 R3200.00 (unframed) R3800.00 (framed) (All prices excl VAT)

ENG. Column, Wall and Shadow | Edition of 5 | 35mm b&w photograph, digital lithograph on 300gsm archival | 594 x 420mm | 2013-14 R3200.00 (unframed) R3800.00 (framed) (All prices excl VAT)

ENG. Shadow on Stairs | Edition of 5 | 35mm b&w photograph, digital lithograph on 300gsm archival | 594 x 420mm | 2013-14 R3200.00 (unframed) R3800.00 (framed) (All prices excl VAT)

ENG. Shadow on Gravel | Edition of 5 | 35mm b&w photograph, digital lithograph on 300gsm archival | 594 x 420mm | 2013-14 R3200.00 (unframed) R3800.00 (framed) (All prices excl VAT)

ENG. Column, Capital and Arch | Edition of 5 | 35mm b&w photograph, digital lithograph on 300gsm archival | 594 x 420mm | 2013-14 R3200.00 (unframed) R3800.00 (framed) (All prices excl VAT)

ENG. Reflection on Granite | Edition of 5 | 35mm b&w photograph, digital lithograph on 300gsm archival | 594 x 420mm | 2013-14 R3200.00 (unframed) R3800.00 (framed) (All prices excl VAT)

RSA. Shadow on Pavers | Edition of 5 | 35mm b&w photograph, digital lithograph on 300gsm archival | 594 x 420mm | 2013-14 R3200.00 (unframed) R3800.00 (framed) (All prices excl VAT)

RSA. Concrete Facade | Edition of 5 | 35mm b&w photograph, digital lithograph on 300gsm archival | 594 x 420mm | 2013-14 R3200.00 (unframed) R3800.00 (framed) (All prices excl VAT)

RSA. Sandstone Church Wall | Edition of 5 | 35mm b&w photograph, digital lithograph on 300gsm archival | 594 x 420mm | 2013-14 R3200.00 (unframed) R3800.00 (framed) (All prices excl VAT)

RSA. Concrete and Steel | Edition of 5 | 35mm b&w photograph, digital lithograph on 300gsm archival | 594 x 420mm | 2013-14 R3200.00 (unframed) R3800.00 (framed) (All prices excl VAT)

RSA. Pediment and Arch | Edition of 5 | 35mm b&w photograph, digital lithograph on 300gsm archival | 594 x 420mm | 2013-14 R3200.00 (unframed) R3800.00 (framed) (All prices excl VAT)

RSA. Stairs, Column, Building | Edition of 5 | 35mm b&w photograph, digital lithograph on 300gsm archival | 594 x 420mm | 2013-14 R3200.00 (unframed) R3800.00 (framed) (All prices excl VAT)

RSA. Stairs and Pavers | Edition of 5 | 35mm b&w photograph, digital lithograph on 300gsm archival | 594 x 420mm | 2013-14 R3200.00 (unframed) R3800.00 (framed) (All prices excl VAT)

D R AW I N G S

RSA. Construction on Building | charcoal on paper | 594 x 420mm | 2014 | R10 000.00 (Excl VAT)

RSA. Building on Hout Street | charcoal on paper | 594 x 420mm | 2014 | R10 000.00 (Excl VAT)

RSA. View of the City | charcoal on paper | 594 x 420mm | 2014 | R10 000.00 (Excl VAT)

ENG. Bridge in Yorkshire | charcoal on paper | 594 x 420mm | 2014 | R10 000.00 (Excl VAT)

ENG. Building on Regent Street | charcoal on paper | 594 x 420mm | 2014 | R10 000.00 (Excl VAT)

RSA. Balcony with foliage, 594 x 420mm 2014, charcoal on paper R10 000.00 (excl VAT)

S C U L P T U R E SS h a p e t o F o r m S e r i e s

Spiral | powder coated mild steel and copper brazing rods | Edition of 3 | 300 x 300 x 200mm, 2014, R8 000.00 (Excl VAT) SOLD

Triangle | powder coated mild steel and copper brazing rods | Edition of 3 | 300 x 300 x 200mm, 2014, R8 000.00 (Excl VAT)

Circle | powder coated mild steel and copper brazing rods | Edition of 3 | 300 x 300 x 200mm, 2014, R8 000.00 (Excl VAT)

Hexagon | powder coated mild steel and copper brazing rods | Edition of 3 | 300 x 300 x 200mm, 2014, R8 000.00 (Excl VAT) SOLD

Tr i a n g u l a t i o n S e r i e s1 | Powder coated mild steel | 300 x 300 x 300mm | 2014 | R8 000.00 (Excl VAT) SOLD

1 | Powder coated mild steel | 300 x 300 x 300mm | 2014 | R8 000.00 (Excl VAT) SOLD

2 | Powder coated mild steel | 300 x 300 x 300mm | 2014 | R10 000.00 (Excl VAT) SOLD

2 | Powder coated mild steel | 300 x 300 x 300mm | 2014 | R10 000.00 (Excl VAT) SOLD

3 | Powder coated mild steel | 300 x 300 x 300mm | 2014 | R11 000.00 (Excl VAT) SOLD

3 | Powder coated mild steel | 300 x 300 x 300mm | 2014 | R11 000.00 (Excl VAT) SOLD

4 | Powder coated mild steel | 300 x 300 x 300mm | 2014 | R12 000.00 (Excl VAT) SOLD

4 | Powder coated mild steel | 300 x 300 x 300mm | 2014 | R12 000.00 (Excl VAT) SOLD

C o l l e c t i o n o f F o r m s S e r i e sRound Bar Collection | Powder coated mild steel | 300 x 300 x 500mm | 2014 | R13 000.00 (Excl VAT) SOLD

Round Bar Collection | Powder coated mild steel | 300 x 300 x 500mm | 2014 | R13 000.00 (Excl VAT) SOLD

Flat Bar Collection | Powder coated mild steel | 300 x 300 x 500mm | 2014 | R13 000.00 (Excl VAT)

Flat Bar Collection | Powder coated mild steel | 300 x 300 x 500mm | 2014 | R13 000.00 (Excl VAT)

Square Bar Collection | Powder coated mild steel | 300 x 300 x 500mm | 2014 | R13 000.00 (Excl VAT)

Square Bar Collection | Powder coated mild steel | 300 x 300 x 500mm | 2014 | R13 000.00 (Excl VAT)

Miscellaneous Collection | Powder coated mild steel | 300 x 300 x 500mm | 2014 | R13 000.00 (Excl VAT)

Miscellaneous Collection | Powder coated mild steel | 300 x 300 x 500mm | 2014 | R13 000.00 (Excl VAT)

Installation view | FORMS / S | W | NIROXprojects

Installation view | FORMS / S | W | NIROXprojects

Installation view | FORMS / S | W | NIROXprojects

Catalogue layout and design by Neil Nieuwoudt

NIROXprojects | 264 Fox Street | Arts on Main | MABONENG PRECINCT | Johannesburg CBD | www.niroxarts.com