Visitor
David Krut Projects is pleased to announce the publication of five new etchings created by Cape Town based artist Anna van der Ploeg. In January 2021 during her visit to Johannesburg, Van der Ploeg collaborated with the David Krut Workshop team and printer Roxy Kaczmarek on new editions in a short-term residency.
Aside from her skills as a painter and sculptor, Van der Ploeg is also an accomplished printmaker and is currently doing her Masters at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK), Ghent, Belgium.
Title_The Negotiators
Date_2021
Medium_Liftground and spitbite aquatint etching with drypoint on Hahnemühle Natural 300gsm
Size_65,4 x 101,4cm
Edition size_15
In this series, Anna explores the concept of hidden human interactions, how words and body language can interpret human behavior – how small truths play out in social interactions.
The Negotiators
Van der Ploeg, aside from her skills as a painter and sculptor, is an accomplished printmaker. She studied printmaking in her degree and subsequently participated in residencies in France, India and Japan where she worked with Mokuhanga, a water-based woodblock printmaking technique. This ancient technique lends itself to building up many layers of colour, creating depth while maintaining subtlety. The experience as a whole was illuminating and humbling: sowing seeds that will hopefully grow as her practice moves forwards.
Still Point of a
Turning World
Title_Still Point of a Turning World
Date_2021
Medium_Liftground and spitbite aquatint on Kitakata 30gsm chine collé adhered to Hahnemühle Natural 300gsm
Size_50,3 x 67,8cm
Edition size_15
This image shows De Pakhuys Pass, in the Northern Cederberg. It is a view looking across the saddle of a mountain, with valleys on either side. Anna describes having a weird sensory experience, when the air is super still and you can hear noises from very far away.
1. A visitor at your own dinner hour, in your own affair.
2. A visitor who got caught in the cross wind. Who arrived filthy, left with a curdled mind.
3. A visitor in the out-of-town sense, visiting only because they’ve left the real destination.
4 & 5. A visitor who invited herself first for dinner, then to stay over, made you cry, then asked to borrow money before leaving. She messages a week later “Hey, want to hang out?”
6 to 9. The visitor who wanted to meet, then talked in evasions. We were ghosts before it was even over.
I’m standing on the visitors mat, in a visiting mood.
Title_Everywhere There’s a Wind, There’s a Name for That Wind
Date_2021
Medium_Liftground and spitbite with drypoint
Size_34.8 x 102.6 cm
Edition size_15
Everywhere There’s a Wind, There’s a
Name for that Wind
Anna began referencing washing lines at the beginning of lockdown in 2019. She would carve into long and narrow woodblocks from left to right in a procession manner to reflect the movement in time. The character that follows the washing line imagery goes to perform and comes back to do menial domestic tasks like laundry.
Visiting hours_
7:30 – 8:30: true friends only, do something outside, talk little, maybe end with coffee. Goodbyes no fuss and quick.
10:30 – 11:45: Morning tea. Beverage, in fact, not totally necessary then, so the visit is at the convenience of the other. Arrive early to try to get something for this impending deadline. Clean up a little. It goes on longer than expected and when they leave you have to deal with a lunchbreak, looking at you expectantly, loyal as a dog.
13:00: In fact, the ideal visitation hour, an opportunity almost never used. Unless a friend from out of town is visiting and then you leave your little territory and meet somewhere.
15:30: Coffee. Things can go either way after this.
19:30: great as long as you’re not the cook.
21:00: well this was spontaneous.
Who Invited This Guy?
Title_Who Invited This Guy?
Date_2021
Medium_Drypoint with Kitakata 30gsm chine collé on Hahnemühle Natural 300gsm
Size_40,5 x 36,4 cm
Edition size_10
Rude Guest
Title_Rude Guest
Date_2021
Medium_Drypoint with Kitakata 30gsm chine collé on Hahnemühle Natural 300gsm
Size_40,5 x 36,4 cm
Edition size_10
The new editions featured in van der Ploeg’s first solo exhibition in Johannesburg entitled VISITOR at David Krut Gallery, 142 Jan Smuts Ave, Parkwood.
“Van der Ploeg is interested in the sincere, in proximity to discomfort and nature, in the space between the universal and specific. Using diverse materials – paper, wood, ink, metal, rust, wax – she approaches these questions from multiple angles (still no answers though). She is influenced by poetry, podcasts, symbiotic relationships and cycles of all kinds”
Installation images of Anna van der Ploeg’s first solo exhibition in Johannesburg entitled VISITOR at David Krut Gallery, 142 Jan Smuts Ave, Parkwood in June 2021 can be seen in the gallery below. Click on the images to enlarge.
Speaking into my ear
Title_ Speaking into my ear
Date_ 2020
Medium_ Oil on cotton
Size_ 160 x 110 cm
Title_Useful boogeyman Date_ 2020 Medium_ Oil on cotton Size_ 108 x 95 cm
Van Der Ploeg completed her Bachelor in Fine Arts with Honours at the University of Cape Town in 2015 and is currently doing her Masters in Belgium at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK), School of Arts of University College Ghent.
