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Two Trees | Rosie Mudge and Sitaara StodelA collaborative exhibition by Rosie Mudge and Sitaara Stodel

SMITH is excited to present Two Trees a collaborative exhibition by Rosie Mudge and Sitaara Stodel. Exploring sentiments seen in both their practices, this exhibition ruminates on loss, belonging, and a search for reality in a sea of unstable memories. The exhibition’s title is taken from Rosa Lyster's poem Another two trees which appeared in her 2016 anthology Modern Rasputin. By incorporating the poem into the structure and physical space of the show, the poem becomes a lens through which to read the works, speaking to the human condition of connection and isolation. The exhibition features individual works by the two artists as well as new collaborative works.

They try to keep up, the trees, but the river washes their voices away and it’s awkward to wail out your feelings at the top of your tree lungs. It’s hard. They are easily embarrassed:

they drop all their leaves at once, which is the tree way of blushing. They cannot stand to see each other naked like that so mostly they are content to be quiet and pretend it’s enough that the other one is only barely out of reach.

Excerpt from Another two trees, Modern Rasputin, Rosa Lyster

Two Trees opens on 11 June, 2019 at 17:30 and will run until 6 July. For further enquiries, please contact Jana Terblanche at [email protected]

The transit of Venus is an exceptionally rare and entirely predictable astrological phenomenon, an event which occurs when Venus passes directly between Earth and the sun. Watched from its sister planet, the transit of Venus is a tiny little black dot moving with determination and intent across the face of the sun. The tiny little black dot could either be leaving home or returning home, depending on what your definition of home is and how inclined you are to impose a sentimentally earthbound narrative onto the trajectory of celestial bodies.

Throughout its transit, Venus moves slowly and purposefully enough to make the whole thing appear plausible and inevitable. If you are fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time under the right conditions, you can just stand there for hours and watch the universe click into place for you. The moment it’s over, it seems outlandish to suggest that such a precarious act of alignment could have ever taken place, and even more so to point out matters will come to a head in exactly this manner again, even if you personally are not around to see it. Transits occur in pairs, eight years apart. There are two in December that repeat every 121.5 years, and two in June that repeat every 105.5 years. The last Venus transit any of us saw was on the 5th of June, 2012. The next one will take place in 2117, on the 10th of December.

In the 18th century, astronomers used the transit of Venus to calculate the distance of the earth from the sun. There is a story about a French astronomer called Guillaume Le Gentil, who left Paris in 1760 in order to arrive in what is now Puducherry by 1761, so that he could watch Venus toil its way across the face of the sun from that particular vantage point. Unfortunately, his journey to India was delayed by wars, unfavourable winds, and several further types of problems that seem thoroughly inscrutable from this distance, but which obviously presented a formidable challenge at the time. Le Gentil arrived at the appointed spot long after the moment had passed. His letters from that period have been lost, so there is no way to tell how he felt about any of this. It’s natural to assume that he was disappointed, but really who is to say what is going through the mind of an 18th century French astronomer? Who has the confidence, at this stage of the game, to make any kind of assumption about what another person is feeling or thinking, or what their particular definition of home is? We don’t know. What we do know is the course of action he determined upon: staying put for the next eight years and waiting to catch the next transit. You can maybe guess where this story is going. Despite Le Gentil being in the right place at the right time on the day of the transit, eight years later, the conditions were wrong: freakishly poor visibility, and nothing to be seen. The next transit, as Le Gentil knew, would not take place for another 105 years.

In The Transit of Venus, the Shirley Hazzard novel which is not about the insane-making life of Le Gentil but which uses it early on to make a heartbreakingly prophetic point about the illusion of control, two characters discuss the story. One of them sees it as an unmitigated disaster. The other one, who “honours the faith, not the failure” sees it as noble: successful not because of what Le Gentil lost but because of how close he came to getting it, and because of how hard he tried. Hazzard did not necessarily intend this to be read as a metaphor for the creative process, but that is beside the point. Everyone in the scene is affected by the Le Gentil story, even or especially the ones who don’t have the words to say how it makes them feel. The story charges the air in the room, reframes the conversation. Everyone, suddenly, is waiting for something to happen. Everything, suddenly, “had the threat or promise of meaning. Later on, there would be more and more memories, less and less memorable. It would take a bombshell, later, to clear the mental space for such a scene as this.


Sitaara StodelNone of the forks are clean, 2019Photomontage on linen40 x 30 cmFramed8,000.00 ZAR


Rosie MudgeWorld of my Own, X, 2019Automotive paint and glitter glue on canvas54 x 43 cm10,000.00 ZAR


Rosie MudgeFloating, I, 2019Automotive paint and glitter glue on canvas153 x 123 cm28,000.00 ZAR


Sitaara StodelDuck duck goose, 2019Photomontage and gold thread on linen40 x 30 cmFramed8,000.00 ZAR


Rosie MudgeThe Window, VII, 2019Automotive paint and glitter glue on canvas54 x 43 cm10,000.00 ZAR


Sitaara StodelFor Sale, 2019Photomontage on fabric30 x 30 cmFramed6,500.00 ZAR


Rosie MudgeRipple, I, 2019Automotive paint and glitter glue on canvas54 x 43 cm10,000.00 ZAR


Rosie MudgeDarker Days, IV, 2019Automotive paint and glitter glue on canvas73 x 63 cm14,000.00 ZAR


Sitaara StodelWould you like a 2nd helping?, 2019Photomontage and gold thread on fabric30 x 30 cmFramed6,500.00 ZAR


Rosie MudgeDarker Days, III, 2019Automotive paint and glitter glue on canvas73 x 63 cm14,000.00 ZAR


Rosie MudgeWorld of my Own, XI, 2019Automotive paint and glitter glue on canvas54 x 43 cm10,000.00 ZAR


Sitaara StodelJenga, 2019Photomontage on fabric30 x 30 cmFramed6,500.00 ZAR


Rosie MudgeLooking Glass, I, 2019Automotive paint and glitter glue on canvas54 x 43 cm10,000.00 ZAR


Sitaara StodelDid you lock the door behind you?, 2019Photomontage on linen105 x 52 cmFramed22,000.00 ZAR


Rosie Mudge and Sitaara StodelRemembered: Yard, 2019Inkjet transfer print on muslin with automotive paint and glitter glue82 x 67 cm9,500.00 ZAR


Rosie MudgeReflection, I, 2019Automotive paint and glitter glue on canvas54 x 43 cm10,000.00 ZAR


Rosie MudgeWorld of my Own, IX, 2019Automotive paint and glitter glue on canvas54 x 43 cm10,000.00 ZAR


Sitaara StodelFamily Portrait, 2019Photomontage and gold thread on linen40 x 30 cmFramed8,000.00 ZAR


Rosie Mudge and Sitaara StodelRemembered: Driveway, 2019Inkjet transfer print on muslin with automotive paint and glitter glue82 x 67 cm9,500.00 ZAR


Rosie Mudge and Sitaara StodelRemembered: Lounge, 2019Inkjet transfer print on muslin with automotive pint and glitter glue82 x 67 cm9,500.00 ZAR


Sitaara StodelGarage Sale, 2019Photomontage on linen40 x 30 cmFramed8,000.00 ZAR


Rosie MudgeMissed, IV, 2019Automotive paint and glitter glue on canvas54 x 43 cm10,000.00 ZAR


Rosie MudgeCloser, V, 2019Automotive paint and glitter glue on canvas43 x 33 cm8,000.00 ZAR


Rosie MudgeFloating, II, 2019Automotive paint and glitter glue on canvas153 x 123 cm28,000.00 ZAR


Rosie Mudge and Sitaara StodelRemembered: Flowers, 2019Inkjet transfer print on muslin with automotive pint and glitter glue82 x 67 cm9,500.00 ZAR


Sitaara StodelBits and pieces, 2019Photomontage and gold thread on linen40 x 30 cmFramed8,000.00 ZAR


Sitaara StodelRoad trip, 2019Photomontage and gold thread on linen40 x 30 cmFramed8,000.00 ZAR


Rosie MudgeMissed, V, 2019Automotive paint and glitter glue on canvas73 x 63 cm14,000.00 ZAR


Rosie MudgeReflection, II, 2019Automotive paint and glitter glue on canvas54 x 43 cm10,000.00 ZAR


Sitaara StodelFragments, 2019Photomontage on linen40 x 30 cmFramed8,000.00 ZAR


Rosie Mudge and Sitaara StodelRemembered: You, 2019Inkjet transfer print on muslin with automotive paint and glitter glue82 x 67 cm9,500.00 ZAR


Rosie MudgeGap, at the back of my Mind, II, 2019Automotive paint and glitter glue on canvas43 x 33 cm8,000.00 ZAR


Rosie MudgeWindow, at the back of my Mind, II, 2019Automotive paint and glitter glue on canvas43 x 33 cm8,000.00 ZAR


Rosie MudgeDoor, at the back of my Mind, II, 2019Automotive paint and glitter glue on canvas43 x 54 cm10,000.00 ZAR


Rosie MudgeTwo Skies, V, 2019Automotive paint and glitter Belgian linen20 x 20 cm4,500.00 ZAR


Sitaara StodelHouse and Garden, 2019Photomontage on linen115 x 64 cmFramed25,000.00 ZAR


Rosie MudgeCloser, Still, IV, 2019Automotive paint and glitter glue on canvas54 x 43 cm10,000.00 ZAR


Rosie MudgeCloser, Still, V, 2019Automotive paint and glitter glue on canvas54 x 43 cm10,000.00 ZAR


Rosie MudgeCloser, IV, 2019Automotive paint and glitter glue on canvas54 x 43 cm10,000.00 ZAR


Rosie MudgeMissed, VI, 2019Automotive paint and glitter glue on canvas73 x 63 cm14,000.00 ZAR


Rosie MudgeMissed, VII, 2019Automotive paint and glitter glue on canvas73 x 63 cm14,000.00 ZAR


Sitaara StodelStray, 2019Photomontage and gold thread on linen40 x 30 cmFramed8,000.00 ZAR

56 Church Street, Cape Town +27 (0)21 422 0814

[email protected]://www.smithstudio.co.za

http://www.smithstudio.co.za

!llpricesexclude6!4 · the transit of venus is an exceptionally rare and entirely predictable...

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