On The Horizon

Words and Art

[shuilynwhite]

Unmake the Wild Light (2023) It is in a certain slip of light that time shifts itself from the clock. Becomes its immeasurable shifting self in shapes as fleeting as shadows. And sometimes, just sometimes possible to think of time as tidal, to feel adrift like living flotsam and jetsam upon its endless waves, rising and falling, ebbing and flowing. In this tidal time, all is caught in the web of ebb and flow, the current pulling forwards, tugging back, lifting clear, rinsing out. Places to anchor fall away beneath the waters. Time flows on, and we, the hapless traveler, go on with it, borne to destinations far beyond our own imaginings. The waters recede. The tide pulls out, leaving the memory of itself on a distant shore. Unique hand-finished monotype with mixed media and collage on Hahnemühle 300gsm etching paper - 106 x 78cm #art #artist #artwork #monotypie #monotype #printart #printmaker #printmaking #notebook #journal #abstractartist #abstractart #contemporaryprint #artonpaper #dessincontemporain #time #memory#estampecontemporaine#sketchbook #artcollector #contemporaryart #artlovers #kunst #kunstwerk #mixedmedia #mixedmediaartist #gallery #collage #dualité #dualityoflife https://www.instagram.com/p/CoKZewVKKS8/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[shuilynwhite]

Under a midnight sun (2023) Here’s where the waiting happens, almost unnoticed. It’s a gap. A pause. Interstitial. Here in the turning returning between each intake of breath. Imperceptible. Almost. Then the out-breath, slows, ends and there it is, the waiting. It’s there in the heat of the day, in the haze settling in across the mountains, in the high tinnitus buzz of cicadas, and the late afternoon burn. It’s there as I lean on the counter, watching the kettle. As I walk to the shop, or browse the books on the shelves. It’s there in the gap between footfalls, in the space between the pages paged, between each steady blink of the eye. It’s most obvious when I find myself staring into an open fridge, or discover that somehow I’ve actually stopped walking; when I find myself suspended, keys in hand, listening intently for the door to open. Listening as if I’d just heard someone call out my name. Obvious too when I catch myself staring at nothing in particular, or resistant to movement. Waiting waits. Mostly companionable, it lends an air of distraction so that it’s possible to seem always somewhere else. Waiting as a place, perhaps. A place where the rain falls equally under a midnight sun. Unique hand-finished monotype with mixed media on Hahnemühle 300gsm etching paper 78 x 106cm #art #artist #artwork #monotypie #monotype #printart #printmaker #printmaking #notebook #journal #abstractartist #abstractart #contemporaryprint #artonpaper #dessincontemporain #estampecontemporaine #hahnemühlepaper #VAAWorkingArtist #sketchbook #artcollector #contemporaryart #artlovers #kunst #kunstwerk #mixedmedia #mixedmediaartist #gallery #collage #arte #love https://www.instagram.com/p/CnWdUbcKBx9/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[shuilynwhite]

The Prince of Tides (2022) There are certain distances that remain. Distances that cannot be crossed, erased, shortened, or even avoided. There is a measure in our minds that knows distance. The distance of centimeters and inches to kilometers and miles. The distance of time. One second, one minute, one hour. The distance of weeks to months and months to years. And then there’s the distance between breathes, between thoughts, between glances, between words, between one heartbeat and the next. The language of distances, measured and metered. Cell deep. What part of the body does not understand distance in all its nuances? Distances opening, distances closing. Danger, intimacy. Chasms and hairline fractures. It’s possible to know them all and still be caught by surprise. By the one that cannot be crossed. The distance that is to walk in place, in the same moment, from where there’s no going. The distance of a heart from chamber to chamber, wall to wall. I have walked my heart. And all I have gained with the passage of time is not distance. Time will take me no where, and the geographical miles keep me suspended in an illusory dance. The dance of distances. The distance between one body and the next. And the future into which we cannot step alone. Unique hand-finished monotype with mixed media on Hahnemühle 300gsm etching paper 78 x 104cm Private Collection #monotypie #monotype #printart #printmaker #sketch #printmaking #painter #painting #abstractart #atelier #art #artist #artwork #espacetemps #tracesdutemps #abtractworld #dualité #dualityoflife #contemporaryprint #artonpaper #dessincontemporain #estampecontemporaine #VAAWorkingArtist #VisualArtistsAssociation #VAAartist #VAACreativeHabits #draw #drawing #sketchbook #artcollector https://www.instagram.com/p/CmB-uduq-PV/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[shuilynwhite]

A huge thank you to everyone who popped into the studio and made it such a success! Thank you for your enthusiasm and support, it makes being an artist all the more special. We are staying open for visits between 12-6pm - call and let us know. Our studio catalogue is available for email or WhatsApp #studio #openstudio #artcatalogue #artcollector #gallery #print #printmakers #printmaker #independentartist #contemporary #contemporaryart #contemporaryprintmaking #vortex #artist #artworksforchange #artworks @christiaandiedericksfineart https://www.instagram.com/p/CljDYPZq6NG/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[shuilynwhite]

You are invited to this very special Open Studio featuring the works of Shui-Lyn White and Christiaan Diedericks All info on the invitation #exhibitions #exhibition #artgallery #artist #artcollector #artcurator #artwork #artwatchers #gallery #openstudio #atelier #abstractart #artistexhibition #independentartist #dessin #arte #artcollector #fineart #artlovers #kunst #kunstwerk #artecontemporanea #print #printmaking #printmaking @christiaandiedericksfineart @juliensimery @tracey.roux https://www.instagram.com/p/CksnyCzq6wp/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[shuilynwhite]

Final touches on some special new works in readiness for the Open Studio with Christiaan Diedericks - it’s going to be a feast of amazing art! #exhibitions #exhibition #artgallery #artist #artcollector #artcurator #artwork #artwatchers #gallery #openstudio #atelier #abstractart #artistexhibition #independentartist #dessin #arte #artcollector #fineart #artlovers #kunst #kunstwerk #artecontemporanea #print #printmaking #printmaking @christiaandiedericksfineart https://www.instagram.com/p/CksnTHgqtFJ/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[shuilynwhite]

Across the Ocean (2021-22) : There are oceans whose names rise as waters rise, flooding the landscape. I feel myself islanded by oceans with names I dare not mention. Names I prefer to acknowledge in silence for fear that a whisper may give rise to a tsunami. It’s easy to imagine islands floating off in the expanse of an ocean. Or simply sinking. Oceans as familiar as love or loss. I’ve been treading water, islander that I am; noting at turns the various islands that make up the uninhabitable me. I don’t expect a drop in ocean levels anytime soon, but from one islander to another, I raise an arm in a cautious wave. Unique hand-finished monotype with collage on Hahnemühle 300gsm etching paper Plate 75x78cm Paper 86x78cm #art #artist #vaartists #contemporary #contemporaryart #boatlife #ocean #time #collageart #contemporaryprintmaking #contemporaryprint #abstractprint #abstractart #studio #atelier #monotypie #monotypeprint #arte #artonpaper #gallery https://www.instagram.com/p/CkVqOLsKHxq/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[shuilynwhite]

Maelstrom (2022) This day, arriving as it does every October, is the end. The end of the year. It’s the day all the other days are about arriving at, it’s the getting to this day. And after this day, it all starts over again. Another year, with its own irreducible remorselessness. Life and livving. And how we die. For the dying, and for death’s witnesses, for those that hold the hands that go slack, or listen to the breathe that ceases; for those who catch the sudden stilling of the chest, or the instant the eyes fade out, there is no way back into the world. There’s a crossing over into another kind of life, at times unfathomable; at times unimaginable. Some days I surprise myself by humming. Whistling even. By the unthought escape of laughter. Because here, joy is noted. Time surprises me most of all in the way it keeps on passing, accumulating into strange anniversaries that are not celebrations, but mark some stage in a journey for which there are no maps, no signposts, no compasses. Journeys that have a way of arriving back on themselves, so that there is only this crossing at this rubicon, again. Ways and days convoluted, wound round and round, so this moment remains. Life and living. And how we die. Always this. At the beginning of another year. Unique hand-finished monotype with collage Plate 85x71cm Paper94x85cm #monotypie #monotype #printart #printmaker #sketch #printmaking #painter #painting #abstractart #atelier #art #artist #collage #artwatchers #espacetemps #tracesdutemps #abtractworld #dualité #dualityoflife #zenart #contemporaryprint #artonpaper #estampe #hahnemühlepaper #living https://www.instagram.com/p/Cj79gkHKKEM/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[shuilynwhite]

Archipelago (2022) The tide is low this morning and already the day slides out. The rubbish collection - paper and organic waste today - is later than usual, the trolley stopping quietly by the gate and then trundling off again. The conveyor belt of tourists has yet to stutter to a start, and the workmen fixing the altana next door are sawing wood, languidly. Life is tidal here in the lagoon city. The morning is muted. The light carries a winter slant, and the air is cool. I note, how my senses are attuned: each morning smells different. Sounds different too. The water tunes everything as it moves: the rhythm of energies, the rhythm of thoughts, the movement of limbs and bodies; the weight of the air, the lightness of light, the stretch of sound - all drifting in and out on the tide. I have become a tidal creature, rising and falling. Falling and rising. Quietly adrift. There is no real destination in this place of tides; this archipelago that constantly moves and shifts. Its places are simply arrived at and then, departed from, each step dropping into light then shade, momentarily caught in a glimmer of reflection. Quietly adrift. Walking along the canals, the other side accompanies - inaccessible yet so near. Sometimes it is possible to cross over, and often it is not. For some canals bear no bridges. The calle turns away and there is no where to go but on. In this tidal life, there’s an acceptance of the continuity in ebb and flow as the tide turns and draws itself out and away. Resistance relinquished. I cannot, it seems, control the tides. I cross over, without really registering, into another island and await a different kind of return among the familiar and the unknown. Hand-finished unique monotype and mixed media on Hahnemühle 300gsm paper 79x94cm #monotypie #monotype #printart #printmaker #sketch #printmaking #painter #painting #mixedmediaart #mixedmediaartist #abstractart #atelier #art #artist #collage #espacetemps #tracesdutemps #abtractworld #dualité #dualityoflife #zenart #time #contemporaryprint #artonpaper #dessincontemporain #estampecontemporaine #hahnemühlepaper #VAAWorkingArtist #VisualArtistsAssociation #VAAartist https://www.instagram.com/p/CjaC9ccKUuW/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[shuilynwhite]

Infinity to the Power of Women: Victoria Alice Kinloch There are many reasons why this particular project means so much to me as an artist and a human being. Not only in addressing the imbalanced way we as a species have recorded our story, but in restoring to our consciousness those who have been erased, ignored, forgotten. I am so grateful for the collaboration with Christiaan to create these memorable work and the enthusiasm of the Nelson Mandela Foundation to exhibit the work for all to see. This work remains my favourite because there is only one surviving image of Kinloch. In spite of her amazing efforts for human rights, especially the rights of miners in South Africa in the early 1900’s, Kinloch remains the forgotten mother of pan-Africanism. I hope one day to open a history book and see her name where it rightfully belongs. Art work by [Vortex] Christiaan Diedericks & Shui-Lyn White (unique monotype with mixed media, collage and archival pigment print on Hahnemühle paper) In Association with The Nelson Mandela Foundation At the Centre of Memory, Johannesburg, South Africa until February 2023 #monotypie #monotype #printart #printmaker #printmaking #painter #painting #mixedmediaart #mixedmediaartist #abstractart #atelier #art #artist #collage #womeninhistory #womenempowerment #woman #womanpower #womenpower #southafrican #southafricanwomen #nelsonmandelafoundation #womenshistory https://www.instagram.com/p/CifJPTDKVPX/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[shuilynwhite]

Another Life Reimagined (2022) There is a question I have been asking myself, as I rise to meet the morning and take those first hesitant steps into a new day in a new place. Why leave all that is is known and home and comfortable to be in a foreign city? And the answer is that life can change everything at once so that what was known becomes unknown, a home ceases to be home and the comfortable no longer comforts. It is easier to be a stranger in a foreign city than a stranger at home. Memories escape me here; the streets hold no familiar ghosts; no stories from my past, crowded as they are with the past lives of others. And there is comfort in this. Comfort in the unknown corner, the street whose name I will forget, the shop I will never find again. Comfort in the kindness of strangers and strangeness, in the sounds of words to which I can attach no meaning, weaving the endless stories of the timeless past. In a city of ghosts, I am not haunted. Here, I can lay my ghosts down. I can perhaps return to this other life, in the place I call home, lighter. In the unknown is a map of the heart. The undiscoverable heart. The heart that endures even as the world around stutters and stops. In this heart is another self, a half-recognised shadow of someone once known in a half-remembered dream. It feels real enough, this. I want to fall in love. Fall in love with life again. Without going, there’s no returning. Hand-finished unique monotype on Hahnemühle etching paper 300gsm - Paper 78cm x 106 cm. #monotypie #monotype #printmaker #printmaking #painter #mixedmediaart #abstractart #atelier #art #artist #draw #drawing #sketchbook #sketch #tracesdutemps #abtractworld #dualité #dualityoflife #zenart #time #contemporaryprint #artonpaper #estampecontemporaine #hahnemühlepaper #vaaworkingartist #visualartistsassociation #vaaartist #vaacreativehabits https://www.instagram.com/p/CiFmb7KKTGk/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[shuilynwhite]

An Invitation to Infinity to the Power of Women: the exhibition at The Nelson Mandela Foundation. This wonderful project began as a discussion on how to contribute to returning women to their rightful place in our story. The story of Homo sapiens sapiens. The story of us. It is a crucial restoration to the story of humankind because without it, it might be easy to believe that women are less talented, less contributing, less important, less deserving; that women are less. It is an imbalance that needs attention; for the human species to flourish, we need everyone to be able to contribute of their presence, equally. And so it seemed only natural to start with the women who dedicated their lives to establishing a democracy in South Africa. Women who sacrificed, who fought, who shifted the tides of history. To them and to all those who brought their powers to bear to help forge a more humane world for us, there will always be someone to remember with gratitude. #exhibition #exhibitions #artexhibitions #arte #johannesburg #artjohannesburg #anstractart #collaboration #artcollector #artcollectors #artcollaboration #democracy #womeninhistory #womeninhistorymonth #womenempowerment #womenpower #womenequality #humanrights #equality #thenelsonmandelafoundation #nelsonmandela #betterworldforall #betterworld #savetheplanet https://www.instagram.com/p/Cg1M_RaqUUR/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[shuilynwhite]

In a Parallel Universe (2022) I am holding my world tightly. Too tightly. I am afraid I will suffocate it. The birds chattering at the water bottle hanging from the tree outside the kitchen window; the bricks of the house; the frangipani blossoms scattered by the wind; the avocado trees laden with fruit; the motley collection of rescued succulents; the chilli plant bursting red; the orchids ready to bloom on the window sill. I am holding all this dear. The fat cat lounging in the morning’s sunspot; the sofa with a torn corner; the carpet going threadbare and bleached of colour where the sun catches it at noon; the table under which a dog once slept. The books on the shelves, organized by themes and love, dog-ear resistant, friendly, spines unbroken, waiting to be read and re-read. I could go on, one chipped mug at a time; an inventory of life’s solitudes, as gently the shadows rise and fall, and the world shrugs and shifts. I see it all in its fragility, its uncertainties. And look, I am holding on. Tightly. Tightly. As it slips away…into another season. - Hand-finished unique monotype with mixed media, drawing, and collage on Fabriano Rosapina paper 70x110cm - #monotypie #montype #printart #printmaker #printmaking #painter #painting #mixedmediaart #mixedmediaartist #abstractart #atelier #art #artist #collage #espacetemps #tracesdutemps #abtractworld #dualité #dualityoflife #time #seasons #contemporaryprint #artonpaper #dessincontemporain #estampecontemporaine #draw #drawing #VAAWorkingArtist #fabrianopaper #marcelproust https://www.instagram.com/p/CgrAjvMqff5/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[shuilynwhite]

There’s something immensely gratifying about a book that’s a catalogue that’s an exhibition. It’s the solid presence. Something to hold and page through that speaks of all the amazing people, all the energies, the inspiration and the love that goes into making a project live. And this exhibition is one of those projects, for which I will be ever grateful. (More details on this exhibition soon!) #exhibition #artcatalogue #artcataloguedesign #artbook #gallery #contemporaryart #abstractart #exhibitioncatalogue #atelier #design #bookdesign https://www.instagram.com/p/CgcG-g3qpO7/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[shuilynwhite]

Whispers from the Surface (2022) A heart can only take so much loss. It sinks as a stone sinks with the body in a doorway, fully dressed, boots on and the dog waiting by its side. Or with the coat on a grass verge, gathered into itself, draped into a human form, sagging beneath its own weight, indifferent to the sun blue sky. Or with the glare of a bare foot emerging from beneath the smoothed edges of a skirt. The foot of a woman, her face turned away and disappearing out of view. The heart sinks into the stillness of the moment irretrievably lost. The moment of the body by the bicycle, by the suitcase, by the dog - all held close, held dear. There are no strangers here. It’s a possibility that the body in the doorway will get up and dust itself off; the other will get back onto the bicycle, pedal away; and the foot will find its shoe. But the moment has passed. Irretrievably. Into stillness. Like a stone. - Hand-finished unique monotype with mixed media and collage on Hahnemühle cotton etching paper 78x106xm - on show at RK Contemporary in Breathe Into, Blow Upon. #monotypie #montype #printart #printmaker #printmaking #painter #painting #mixedmediaart #mixedmediaartist #abstractart #atelier #art #artist #warphotography #collageart #arte #espacetemps #tracesdutemps #abtractworld #dualité #dualityoflife #contemporaryprint #artonpaper #journal #notebook #dessincontemporain #estampecontemporaine #hahnemühlepaper https://www.instagram.com/p/Cf6KtruKLkG/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[shuilynwhite]

King for a Day (2022) I have watched time slow and extend. Minutes lean into hours, hours slip into days… and into years. And then, the reverse. Time’s concertina pressing years into the day before yesterday. Last week, last year. Time jumbled in on itself. I struggle to place things in time like I used to - I’ve lost the order of things. What is far away can feel close; and the close, far away. And some things just do not return but continue to recede. I am at a loss to bring them back. I want to drag something of the world I knew back, for everyone. For day. I imagine it. The carefreeness of it, the lightness. The world before. Because there is a before…for everyone. Hand finished unique monotype and mixed media on Hahnemühle 300gsm etching paper 73.5cmx91.5cm #monotypie #monotype #printart #printmaker #studio #printmaking #painter #painting #mixedmesiaart #mixedmediaartist #abstractart #atelier #collage #abstractartist #abstract https://www.instagram.com/p/CeYT9VPqaSO/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[shuilynwhite]

Whispers from the surface (2022) Today, I find myself suspended between worlds. The morning light is adrift with motes of dust, messages from the invisible, inscribed with the patterns of life and death, the poetry of a language borne on whispers. The past rises out of everything I touch, and the present barely exists, it is so thin. I follow the drift of shadow into light along the worn stones below, ancient echoes, footsteps and voices, finding my way into a present that has no past, a past that has no present. Here, the past and the present are of one light. And for a moment, I am lost. In the chill courtyard of the dead, there are no angry ghosts. No argument proffered by the centuries. Who would argue with a city afloat on the will to endure? By ghosts holding tight this fragile skein of light, and by us, solid in the flesh of the present. In the old mortuary, life endures. And for a brief moment, so do I. *Campiello Novo O Dei Morti was made into a courtyard, blocking the original canal, to prevent the bodies in the mortuary from floating away during the acqua alta. Hand-finished unique monotype and mixed media on Fabriano Rosapina paper 70cm x 102cm Title inspiration from album: Out of the Dust by Hior Chronik #venice #travel #travellife #notebook #journal #inspiration #monotypie #montype #printart #printmaker #printmaking #painter #painting #mixedmesiaart #mixedmediaartist #abstractart #hiorchronik https://www.instagram.com/p/CeI4SLEqUoZ/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=