Bait al-Hikma

t
Jaco van Schalkwyk
...............................
Bait al-Hikma
( House of Wisdom )
t
GALLERY AOP
2 - 30 April 2011
The Bait al-Hikma was a library and translation institute in Abassid-era Baghdad founded in the 9th
century. It is considered to be the intellectual center of the Islamic Golden Age. Having obtained the secret
o f pa pe r m a k i n g f r om C hi n e se pr i son e r s t ak en at t h e B at t l e o f Tal as ( 7 5 1 A D ) , t h e l ibr ar y f l o ur is h ed, s uppor te d b y sta ti on er y s h o p s s el l ing t h o us ands o f b o o k s p er day .
Re n ow n e d a s a g r e a t ce n te r of le a r n i n g, s c h o l ar s f r o m ar o und t h e w o r l d w er e b r o ugh t t o t h e l ib r ar y , p r ese r v i n g a n d tr a n sla ti n g G r e e k, In d i a n and Per s ian t ex t s inc l uding t h e w o r k o f P l at o , A r is t o t l e, H ip p ocr a te s, Eu clid, Gal en, A r y bh at a and B r ah m agup t a.
Pe r h a p s i t s g r e a t e s t r e s i d e n t s c h o l a r w a s A l - K h a w a r i z m i , t h e f a t h e r o f a l g e b r a .
I t i s s a i d t h a t w h e n t h e l i b r a r y w a s r a n s a c k e d d u r i n g t h e M o n g o l i n v a s i o n o f 1 2 5 8 , t h e r i v e r Ti g r i s r a n
b l a c k w i t h i n k f o r s i x m o n t h s f r o m t h e l a r g e n u m b e r s o f b o o k s f l u n g i n t o t h e r i v e r. T h e l i b r a r y w a s a g a i n
r a n sa ck e d d u r i n g the Ame r i c an invas io n o f 2 0 0 3 , and r em ains p ar t l y des t r o y ed.
t
IN T R OD U C T ION
Wilhelm van Rensburg
…
Jaco van Schalkwyk’s black ink drawings involuntarily invoke two types of enterprise: explaining
the meaning of the abstract works, or discovering their meaning by examining the formal elements.
The former approach references, in literary theory, poetics, and the latter, hermeneutics. Van
Schalkwyk’s drawings are undoubtedly lyrical and poetical in their aesthetic sensib ility, but considering the cumulative, compounding meaning that emanates from the forms created in black printer’s
ink, the latter seems to be the more satisfactory option in dealing with the compelling enquiry that
his work invites.
The materiality of the ink inadvertently draws attention to itself. Its viscous nature
determines the abstract forms: it seems to flow and congeal according to its own
liquidity. The heavy black ink in Van Schalkwyk’s drawings does not necessarily
anchor the picture plane, and e ven sometimes prefers to defy gravity when it drips
and flows freely from left to right over the paper. Eva Hesse said:
“If a material is liquid …I can control it but I don’t really want to change it. I don’t want to add color
or make it thicker or thinner…I don’t want to keep any rules; I want to sometimes change the rules.
But in that sense, process, the materials, become important and I do so little with them, which is, I
guess, the absurdity. Sometimes the materials look like they are so important to the process because I
do so little else with the form. I keep it very simple.”
In exploring the uncontrollable nature of his medium and process, Van Schalkwyk
deliberately lures the ink into ‘battle’ by blasting it from an industrial spray gun,
forcing him to attempt to ‘contain’ the ink to pre vent it from covering up the delicate marks already laid down.
2
3
Van Schalkwyk’s chosen material – ink – transgresses into a surprising solidity when
The meaning of Van Schalkwyk’s abstract drawings resides in a comparison with
applied liberally. In this sense his drawings are reminiscent of those of Richard
Kazimir Male vich’s Black Suprematist Square of 1914: simply a medium on a surface.
Serra. The themes in Serra’s black, melted paintstick drawings are mass, density,
Male vich’s black square was painted on canvas, not quite regular, slightly tilted,
volume. The melted paintsticks are spread over a large area, over which a window
pitch black, its bituminous surface badly crackled: the most famous black in the
screen mesh is laid. On top of this is put down a large sheet of paper, which ab-
history of modern art. Contesting the concept of the image in abstract art denies
sorbs the black paint, attracting it like a magnet, to settle en masse on the surface.
many of the possibilities of interpretation offered by figurative images. Instead
it demands an effort of the imagination, a creative response. We need to respond
“Black is a property, not a quality. In terms of weight, black is heavier, creates a larger volume, holds
directly to the dynamic relation between its visible elements of colour, texture
itself in a more compressed field. It is comparable to forging. To use black is the clearest way of mark-
and form. In an astonishing moment of intuition Male vich had seen in that image
ing against a white field,” according to Serra.
the energetic origin for a wholly ne w way of painting. He had realized its mythic
potential as a painted sign for a ne w beginning, the signifying progenitor of any
Whether fluid or solid, Van Schalkwyk’s heavy use of industrial printing ink seems
number of created forms whose dynamic relations would take place in the imaged
to cover up, and by the same process re veal that which is hidden. The seemingly
space of the painting rather than the imaginary space of a picture.
random ink m a rks a nd surf a ces are lik e words on a page. The y need to be read.
The craquelure of Male vich’s Black Suprematist Square is indicative of th e fact that the
“Material is Metaphor”, says Anni Albers: “How do we choose our specific material, our means
surface is not solid or static, but fluid, alive. It is almost as if the material engages
of communication? ‘Accidentally’, something speaks to us, a sound, a touch, hardness or softness, it
with itself. Male vich had to restore the work soon after it was completed, and he
catches us and asks us to be formed. We are finding our language. Ideas flow from it to us and though
often had to apply fresh coats of black paint. The work thus became a repeated ges-
we feel to be the creator we are in a dia logue with our medium. The more subtly we are tuned to our
ture, signaling gestural art and becoming an artistic act, or a performance.
medium, the more inventive our actions will become. What I am trying to get across is that material
4
is a means of communication. That listening to it, not dominating it, makes us truly active, that is:
The act in Van Schalkwyk’s drawings is paramount. The ink, intended for printing
to be active, be passive. The finer tuned we are to it, the closer we come to art.”
newspapers or books, is applied by painterly and by sculptural means in order to »
5
» make the marks and surfaces of his drawings: he uses chefs’ knives to apply the
Van Sc hal kwyk’s drawin gs are in for m ed by the il l ustr ious l egac y of abstract expres-
ink thickly on the paper; he drips the ink on the paper like a Jackson Pollack would
sionism, tachisme, Art Informel, Art Autre (strands of gestural painting embodied in
drip oil paint onto a canvas; he sprays the ink off the surface of the paper with a
the work of Michel Tapié), and the work of the Gutai-group in Japan. The latter
power tool and leaves it to run down the paper and congeal in its own time. Layer-
straddles the divide between abstract gestural painting and performance and is es-
ing the ink in this way not only gives his drawings a painterly quality; the surface
sentially a dialectic between material and spirit. Jiro Yoshihara, its leader said:
also becomes sculptural. The paper becomes an arena in which to act. What is to go
on it is not a picture but an e vent unfolding in time.
“In Gutai art the human spirit and the material reach out their hands to each other, even though they
are otherwise opposed to each other. The material is not absorbed by the spirit. The spirit does not
The tension between surface and depth is what gives Van Schalkwyk’s drawings their
force the material into submission. If one leaves the material, then it starts to tell us something and
edge. Like an archaeologist, the vie wer has to peel off one layer of material after
speaks with a mighty voice. Keeping the life of the material alive also means bringing the spirit alive,
another, uncovering e ver more e vidence in an attempt to see what lies underneath.
and lifting up the spirit means leading the material up to the height of the spirit.”
Conversely, coming up ‘for air’ to the surface of the drawing, one is confronted
with its compression, torsion and surface tension, giving it a ‘vulcanized’ appearance. At times the surface is pebbled with soft glossy peaks, and occasionally, with
Van Schalkwyk’s drawings connect the gestural with the material and integrate both
flat puckered patches. Underneath all this and partly covered or e ven obliterated,
visual and tactile perception, allowing the vie wer to experience a dense intensified
lies delicate drawings in graphite and pen and ink. Almost decorative in their sim-
space in relation to materialized time.
plicity, they invoke a different sensibility, a different culture. Emblematic of Arabic
interlace, they connote an intricate mathematical construct or geometric pattern.
†
These drawings seem to hold as much information as the narrative of a story. At
the same time the y could well hide the chaos behind or be yond the picture plane:
a memory of an e vent not captured on the paper itself.
6
7
H OU SES OF K N OW L ED GE
Jaco van Schalkwyk
…
“All these neat, little houses and all these nice, little streets... It’s hard to believe that something’s
I used synthetic printing ink, which I can obtain in large quantities. It is the same
wrong with some of those little houses.”
petrochemical ink used to print ne wspapers. The ink allows me to create expanses
that spread independently of my will. To apply the ink I used a spray gun power
-Dustin Hoffman as Carl Bernstein in All the President’s Men (1976)
tool. It is averse to detail and variation. With pen, I dre w individual lines and
collective patterns. The y don’t stand a chance, but some pre vail. While drawing, I
think of the social contract. Initially, I imagined the social contract as a series of
extinct narratives. I imagined dismay at the immeasurable loss of knowledge that
surely must coincide with those points of extinction- when great ri vers run black
for months on end.
Is there any government today that may claim to represent its people? Is it not our task as citizens to
arbitrarily ransack that which we were born into? To rescind the collections which have been amassed
for our classification? Should we not, as a matter of conscience, discard into the river these innate
filaments, these neat little houses on these neat little streets, in which we find ourselves arranged?
What purpose do they serve but to stand as the ruins of an already extinct agreement?
Gradually, as I learnt to control the spray gun, I began to find pertinence and
sense in the extinctions: the social contract cannot return as a rele vant narrative,
without having first ceded priority to an indiscriminate loss of knowledge. After
the point of extinction– when only the ramifications of the e vent are allowed to
drip down the page– it becomes clear that our suffrage was not secured in 50 or
400 years. The flow of our liberty encompasses thousands and thousands of years.
And yet, we are by no means free of the tyranny of men.
Finally, colour returns: there is so much joy in the world, so much stuff we may
employ to stymie disillusionment.
Pretoria, March 24th, 2011
8
9
D R AW IN GS
Part I
10
11
B a i t a l - H i k m a , Pa r t I _ 0 1 . E t c h i n g i n k , a c r y l i c , p e n a n d i n k o n p a p e r. 1 0 0 0 x 6 6 0 m m , 2 0 1 1 .
12
B a i t a l - H i k m a , Pa r t I _ 0 2 . E t c h i n g i n k , p e n a n d i n k , g ra p h i t e l e a d o n p a p e r. 1 0 0 0 x 6 6 0 m m , 2 0 1 1 .
13
B a i t a l - H i k m a , Pa r t I _ 0 3 . E t c h i n g i n k , p e n a n d i n k o n p a p e r. 1 0 0 0 x 6 6 0 m m , 2 0 1 1 .
14
B a i t a l - H i k m a , Pa r t I _ 0 4 . E t c h i n g i n k , p e n a n d i n k o n p a p e r. 1 0 0 0 x 6 6 0 m m , 2 0 1 1 .
15
B a i t a l - H i k m a , Pa r t I _ 0 5 . E t c h i n g i n k , p e n a n d i n k o n p a p e r. 1 0 0 0 x 6 6 0 m m , 2 0 1 1 .
16
B a i t a l - H i k m a , Pa r t I _ 0 6 . E t c h i n g i n k , p e n a n d i n k o n p a p e r. 1 0 0 0 x 6 6 0 m m , 2 0 1 1 .
17
B a i t a l - H i k m a , Pa r t I _ 0 7. E t c h i n g i n k , p e n a n d i n k o n p a p e r. 7 7 0 x 5 6 6 , 2 0 1 1 .
18
B a i t a l - H i k m a , Pa r t I _ 0 8 . E t c h i n g i n k , p e n a n d i n k , g ra p h i t e l e a d o n p a p e r. 7 7 0 x 5 6 6 m m , 2 0 1 1 .
19
B a i t a l - H i k m a , Pa r t I _ 0 9 . E t c h i n g i n k , p e n a n d i n k , g r a p h i t e l e a d o n p a p e r. 7 7 0 x 5 6 6 , 2 0 1 1 .
20
B a i t a l - H i k m a , Pa r t I _ 1 0 . E t c h i n g i n k , p e n a n d i n k , g ra p h i t e l e a d o n p a p e r. 7 7 0 x 5 6 6 m m , 2 0 1 1 .
21
D R AW IN GS
Part II
B a i t a l - H i k m a , Pa r t I _ 1 1 . E t c h i n g i n k , p e n a n d i n k o n p a p e r. 1 0 0 0 x 6 6 0 m m , 2 0 1 1 .
22
23
B a i t a l - H i k m a , Pa r t I I _ 0 1 . E t c h i n g i n k , p e n a n d i n k o n p a p e r. 1 0 0 0 x 6 6 0 m m , 2 0 1 1 .
24
B a i t a l - H i k m a , Pa r t I I _ 0 2 . E t c h i n g i n k , p e n a n d i n k , d r y p a s t e l i n Pa ra l o i d B 7 2 s o l u t i o n o n p a p e r. 7 7 0 x 5 6 6 m m , 2 0 1 1 .
25
B a i t a l - H i k m a , Pa r t I I _ 0 3 . E t c h i n g i n k , p e n a n d i n k , d r y p a s t e l i n Pa r a l o i d B 7 2 s o l u t i o n o n p a p e r. 7 7 0 x 5 6 6 m m , 2 0 1 1 .
26
B a i t a l - H i k m a , Pa r t I I _ 0 4 . E t c h i n g i n k , p e n a n d i n k , d r y p a s t e l i n Pa ra l o i d B 7 2 s o l u t i o n o n p a p e r. 7 7 0 x 5 6 6 m m , 2 0 1 1 .
27
B a i t a l - H i k m a , Pa r t I I _ 0 5 . E t c h i n g i n k , p e n a n d i n k , d r y p a s t e l i n Pa r a l o i d B 7 2 s o l u t i o n o n p a p e r. 1 0 0 0 x 6 6 0 m m , 2 0 1 1 .
28
B a i t a l - H i k m a , Pa r t I I _ 0 6 . E t c h i n g i n k , p e n a n d i n k , d r y p a s t e l i n Pa ra l o i d B 7 2 s o l u t i o n o n p a p e r. 1 0 0 0 x 6 6 0 m m , 2 0 1 1 .
29
B a i t a l - H i k m a , Pr o o f _ 0 1 . E t c h i n g i n k , p e n a n d i n k , g r a p h i t e , d r y p a s t e l i n Pa r a l o i d B 7 2 s o l u t i o n o n p a p e r. 7 7 0 x 5 6 6 m m , 2 0 1 1 .
30
B a i t a l - H i k m a , Pr o o f _ 0 2 . E t c h i n g i n k , g ra p h i t e o n p a p e r. 7 7 0 x 5 6 6 m m , 2 0 1 1 .
31
B a i t a l - H i k m a , Pr o o f _ 0 3 . E t c h i n g i n k , p e n a n d i n k o n p a p e r. 7 7 0 x 5 6 6 m m , 2 0 1 1 .
32
B a i t a l - H i k m a , Pr o o f _ 0 4 . E t c h i n g i n k , g ra p h i t e o n p a p e r. 7 7 0 x 5 6 6 m m , 2 0 1 1 .
33
t
Jaco van Schalkwyk
...............................
Bait al-Hikma
( House of Wisdom )
t
GALLERY AOP
2 - 30 April 2011
© G A L L E RY A O P
[email protected]
w w w. g a l l e r y a o p . c o m
Drawings © Jaco van Schalkwyk
Te x t © W i l h e l m v a n R e n s b u r g a n d J a c o v a n S c h a l k w y k 2 0 1 1
All rights reserved
Design by Jaco van Schalkwyk
Photographed by John Hodgkiss