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ART EXHIBIT
 "Kind
Pockets" by Richard Hart
Venue: Whatiftheworld, 208 Albert Rd, Woodstock. Tel:
(021) 448 1438.
Gallery Hours: Tue - Fri: 10:00am - 4:30pm, Sat 10:00am - 3:00pm
Duration: 25 Feb - 21 Mar 2009
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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. Kind Pockets
is an exploration of the concept of the marsupial girl, an imaginary
archetype.
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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.
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