Mikhael Subotzky; South African 1981-; Wye Film Still 14
Provenance :
Exhibited : Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, WYE, 2 March to 1 April 2017, another example from the edition exhibited.
Literature :
Notes : The present lot comes from WYE, Subotzky's first fictional film installation commissioned by the Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation (Sydney) and premiered there in March 2016. "The overarching structural and conceptual framework of Subotzky's film installation derives from the letter Y (the phonetically-spelt Old English 'wye' of the title), whose shape has traditionally lent itself to a variety of practical applications, from railroad construction to mechanical and electrical engineering. Adapting it for artistic purposes, Subotzky envisages an imaginary cartographic triangle enveloping the United Kingdom, and two of its former colonies, South Africa and Australia, its exterior sides etched by the migration of people over centuries. In drafting a Y shape into the middle of this triangle and elevating it into a third dimension, the artist admits the imaginary space for a new fictional narrative in which these three countries converge across time and space. A narrative structure for WYE is thus harnessed which spans three temporalities - historical, contemporary and futuristic - and three disparate colonial experiences: English, Australian and South African."1 1. (an edited excerpt from Vibrations in the Landscape: The Imaginary Divinations of Mikhael Subotzky's WYE by Nina Miall. The full version on SCAF's Mikhael Subotzky: WYE exhibition catalogue.)
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