Press release: Visual artist Wayne Vivier’s third solo exhibition entitled Out of the life aquatic with Steve Zissou will open at the Association of arts Pretoria. Vivier uses paint and film in his creative process to produce this body of work consisting out of nine paintings.

The exhibition opens 15 Feb 18h30 for 19h00 and closes 6 March 2013

In this exhibition Vivier draws from The life aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), a comedy-drama feature length film directed by Wes Anderson. As the genre suggests, it is a light-hearted exploration of a serious theme. One of the main themes in this film is the celebration of boyhood, that stage in a man’s life that is perhaps nostalgically looked back upon as a time of playful imagination and blissful simplicity. As one grows older one’s life inevitably becomes more complicated and the compelling pressures of life and survival in an environment of postmodern capitalism takes its toll. Thus, the film is a refreshing experience into the realm of the perhaps distant and sadly forgotten patterns and life-world of childhood.

According to Heidegger, for the most part, people passively find themselves in a state of inauthenticity, separated from reality. “Do I suffer this condition?” one might ask. How would one know if one was living in a state of inauthenticity? When one is inured in an artificial environment of the modernised city, it is all too easy to lose oneself and become unable to see beyond the complex of layer-upon-layer of commodification, mass media and false needs. Does a crazy person always know that she is crazy? How does one go about answering this question?

Perhaps one of art’s primary functions is to facilitate a cathartic process whereby one can come to terms with this condition. What is important to realise is that simply being aware of this situation makes for ample headway. This body of work attempts to facilitate this process by, at times, creating a sense of loss, thereby hopefully creating a desire to reach out and regain that which is lost.

For there to be real change in perception, there needs to be a shaking of foundations, which consist of one’s preconceived ideas, perhaps especially the often indoctrinated metanarratives of the West. This is not an easy thing to do as it means letting go of the things that made sense out of one’s existence and thus a journey such this can be a scary and traumatic experience of disorientation. If one decides to take this leap down the rabbit hole, as it were, how can one be sure that one will land on something more truthful, more ’real’? Is there perhaps something that could guide one through this process or is one forced to hand oneself over to randomness in this endeavour? Common sense will not serve here as it consists out of the very conventional patterns of thinking that need to be abandoned. In this situation one can perhaps turn to science for guidance, but science explains so little compared to what is out there. Could one turn to rigorous theoretical study? Or does one put one’s faith in the infinite wisdom of God? Or does one perhaps adopt a combination of the above? The choice of whether or not to embark on this journey and by what method is, of course, left to the individual.

Just as Out of the village (Vivier’s previous solo exhibition) was in part a call to simplicity in terms of social structure (a celebration of the village as apposed to the ultra-modern metropolis), this exhibition is also a call to simplicity, but this time in attitude. The encouragement here, and perhaps a start in the cathartic process, is to adopt a childlike attitude in order to position oneself in such a way as to have better access to the truth. Taking on a childlike attitude means letting go, at least momentarily, of preconceived ideas and submitting to and trusting this process of re-ordering. This can be a powerful process of the expansion on one’s horizons or one’s metaphysical enclosure, and an empowering process of realisation.