Berni Searle
Past Exhibitions exhibition
Press release
Peres Projects is pleased to present its inaugural exhibition with the California premiere of works by renowned South African artist Berni Searle.
Searle utilizes video and large-scale digital photographic prints and combines them with spices and found objects in creating her compelling installations. Using her own body as subject and point of departure, Searle experiments with the surface of her skin, allowing it to be clad in layers of colored and aromatic spices, leaving her bodily imprint on drifts of spices on the floor, or staining certain areas of her body with various substances, suggesting a variety of situations including transformation, religious experience, rebirth, trauma, sensuality, all the while tantalizing viewers with her stark nakedness and forcing them to confront issues related to gender and race/ethnicity.
Searle's point of departure for the use of spices in her works reference the 17th century spice trade which brought together the different people that make up South Africa and the history that stemmed from those contacts. By directly confronting her country's history and its obsession with racial classification, Searle has developed a complex vocabulary that describes a society, which much like the rest of the world, must be viewed beyond the surface and constantly re-examined. Her imagery further resonates with many of our experiences by highlighting the idea that identity is constantly in a state of flux.
Searle's debut at peres projects features a large photographic print installation entitled Still based on her video Snow White which was featured at the 49th Venice Biennale exhibition entitled Authentic/Ex-centric: Africa in and out of Africa curated by Salah Hassan and Olu Oguibe, as well as an installation of digital photographic prints from her Discoloured Series entitled Lifelines. This show is in collaboration with Axis Gallery, NY.
Berni Searle's exhibition will be on view at Peres Projects, San Francisco (1800 Bryant Street, Suite 210, San Francisco, California 94110) through August 30, 2002. Hours: Wednesday through Saturday, from 12:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M and by appointment.