Grasp includes new and recent works by South African artist Johan Thom, exploring the material relationship between the tactile, time, and (negative) space. The exhibition is structured in two parts, split across two venues. Held in NIROX’s residency workshop, part one includes a recent installation — Time after Time (2023) — in which an automated brick and bronze skull constantly rotate, narrowly missing each other. Across the road, at the Kromdraai Impact Hub, Thom presents three new works: Will you still be mine? (The weight of body in ice), a large photograph documenting his performance at Casa Wabi, Mexico, earlier this year; Dwell (the weight of my body as a brick), produced in collaboration with Angus Taylor and Dionysus Sculpture Works; and LH+RH+LHRH (Grasp), a major installation of over a thousand individual clay forms.

Dwell is a large replica of a red building brick, such is commonly used for the construction of homes, shelters, and buildings in South Africa. Made to the weight of the artist, it is a deceptively complex minimalist gesture in which the body is shown to be a contested, uneasy home — at once a space of ‘dwelling’ (of knowing and being) whilst also forming part of the skewed spatio-political and economic organisation of the contemporary South African landscape.   In turn, LH+RH+LHRH (Grasp) (2024) is a site-specific installation that gives three-dimensional form to the negative space generated by ‘grasping’ a lump of clay. The result is an overwhelming number of near alien, bone-like fragments, arranged in three minimalist, 10 x 3m rectangular grids. 

In keeping with the context of the Cradle of Humankind, this arrangement is reminiscent of the anthropological/archeological sites nearby. Here, the act of grasping becomes a metaphor for that which remains unknown or undiscovered, suggesting that the tactile and material remain largely dormant, fecund repositories for rethinking our partial knowledge of the world.

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The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication, with essays by Dr Sikho Siyotula (Research Associate, UP), Dr. Wayne Binitie (Associate Lecturer, Camberwell College of Art, London) and Sven Christian (Curator, NIROX), published by the Villa-Legodi Center for Sculpture in partnership with  UJ Press. Also included in the exhibition is “Grasp (Fragment),” an educational kit developed for the tactile exploration and teaching of sculpture, in collaboration with Prof. Jenni Louwrens (Associate Professor in Visual Studies, School of the Arts,  UP), The student Gallery at the Javett UP, the Claire & Edoardo Villa Will Trust and the Villa-Legodi Center for Sculpture. The artworks on exhibition have been generously supported by a number of organisations: NIROX Foundation; Villa-Legodi Center for Sculpture; Modern Art Projects South Africa; Casa Wabi, Mexico; The National Research Foundation of South Africa; The School of the Arts, University of Pretoria; Kalashnikovv Gallery