INTERVIEW
Making Music with Sculptures
I
spent a rainy Easter morning with Uwe Pfaff at Studio 77,
his chic new Hout St loft studio, eating croissants and
chatting about his latest exhibition "2003"
Unlike most artists, Pfaff
works in a variety of media. His studio walls are adorned
with vividly coloured silk screens and stark, black and
grey metal cut outs. The bare wood floor is covered in a
variety of human metal sculptures - some stainless steel,
some nickel-plated and some richly painted mild steel. The
contrast is extreme. "I like working in colour", Pfaff
says over croissants and coffee (no sugar, it dilutes the
taste), "but also enjoy the simplicity of steel and the
way light at different times of the day creates a third
dimension you don't get with paintings."
Pfaff guides me through some
of his life sized sculptures, and it almost feels like
walking through a room of people frozen in motion. Seeming
rather out of place, is a wooden carving of a bent human
leg from the knee down. "That's Uncle Herman's leg" He
says, "He lost it in the war…" Pfaff wonders whether the
energy in the leg had been lost with the leg, or if it had
been reabsorbed into the body? And if the energy had been
lost, where did it go? Was there a heaven for missing
limbs? He muses.
2003 includes work from the
past two years as well as new ceramics, silk-screens and
Uwe's newest departure: "acoustic" sculptures. These
sculptures are outlines of human heads and bodies with
intricate tendrils on the inside. Most are life-sized or
even larger, and can all be played like musical
instruments, each with its own unique sound. Pfaff says he
discovered this quality when he dropped one of the
sculptures by mistake. "It screamed. I screamed. We
screamed together" He laughs.
Pfaff demonstrates on two
sculptures, hitting different parts of the tendrils with
his pliers. One sculpture produces heavy, church bell-like
sounds, the other light, oriental sounds. Pfaff also
believes that art must be more than something to look at.
“It must almost be like a pet – when you walk past it you
must want to touch it”, He says. I ask him how heavy the
life-sized sculptures are and he replies, "Pick it up,
it's the only way you'll find out." I do, or at least, I
try. My chiropractor's bill is in the mail.
Pfaff’s nickel-plated
silhouettes are of a more manageable weight and only about
a metre high. These shiny figures hold small serving
platters, which could be very trendy, albeit expensive,
business card or pamphlet holders. The sculptures bases
are also built in such a fashion that the sculptures can
be tipped at crazy angles without falling over.
Pfaff’s work will be on
display at Studio 77 until the 17th of May and enquiries
can be made on 434 1210. Prices vary, ranging from R1500
to R14000.
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