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Accidentalist Weldings
Barend De Wet
Accidentalist Weldings features over 30 objects from across three decades, all united by an ultra-contemporary aesthetic. The visual appeal is heightened by an innovative use of colour, a focus of his later period. The shapes are ambiguous and unconventional, creating a clear tension between the rough edges of the material and the soft, floating forms. One could describe the exhibition as a poststructuralist playground that generates an uncanny sense of fun and the nonsensical. Time now allows a new perspective on his oeuvre. A clear, undeniable aesthetic emerges, contradicting the idea that his work was merely anti-aesthetic, unless we now accept anti-aesthetics as its own aesthetic. An otherworldly ‘je ne sais quoi’ permeates the room as the sculptures interact like living creatures. Each small work acts as a synecdoche, embodying the artist himself. To end with a cliché he would enjoy subverting: within these Accidentalist Weldings, the artist is powerfully present (apologies Marina Abramović).