Notes

‘Diamond Diamond Shinin’ Shinin’ was originally painted for my show at Solo Projects, Basel 2011. For me, it is a particularly successful work because of its interplay between abstraction and figuration, creating a definite sense of space and depth through loose painterly marks upon solid black. When viewed from up close, the work dissolves into abstraction, but take a step back and the figuration comes to the fore. I also loved painting the reflections as they allowed me to further extend this back-and-forth.

The blackness creates a timeless, liminal space; it is not quite a night scene due to the illumination of the figures. As a result of the garden location, the work creates the impression of an Eden-like setting. The scene is in fact set in Cape Town’s Company Gardens, a place I spent a lot of my childhood in and which evokes some of my earliest childhood memories. I think that there is an element of the innocence of these memories, which somehow transmits through the work.’

Matthew Hindley

Provenance

Stephan Welz & Co, Cape Town, 1 October 2013, lot 395.

Exhibited

The Solo Project, Basel, Matthew Hindley, 2011.

iArt, Cape Town, An Everlasting Once, 23 February to 23 March 2011.