Kind Pockets, Richard Hart’s debut solo exhibition opens at Whatiftheworld in Cape Town this February during the week of Design Indaba. Hart is best known as the creative force behind Disturbance, the highly acclaimed Durban based design studio that was recently featured on the cover of the international design journal, I.D Magazine (and often on MarkLives!). Kind Pockets is an exploration of the concept of the marsupial girl, an imaginary archetype. Aesthetically the work references the visual vernacular of popular youth culture, bringing to mind the work of artists such as Rita Ackermann, Aya Takano and Yoshitomo Nara. At surface level the work seems to deal with the ephemeral – themes such as beauty, fashion, innocence and adolescence. But on closer inspection the girls and their animal companions populate a disquieting world where the fragile present threatens to shatter into something more sinister. The images seem to capture the moment just before the event, and are filled with an unnerving anticipation. The inhabitants occupy an ambiguous space, heightening the overall sense of disquiet – the dialogue between girl and animal often seems to be an uneasy one.
KIND POCKETS
A SOLO EXHIBITION BY RICHARD HART
OPENED WEDNESDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2009
Source: Whatiftheworld
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