THE FLAT FILE

THOMAS BARRY

October 15, 1993

 

An exhibition of mixed‑media drawings by Thomas Barry was the first official exhibition at the FLAT. Barry, who had studied Fine Art in Pretoria, had come to Durban after an invitation by Andries Botha in 1992. He met and became affiliated with artists and students at the sculpture department through the Technikon Bronze Foundry, where he worked. After Hermanides completed his critique and an interest began to swell to continue exhibitions at the space, Barry expressed his desire to exhibit work that he had recently made in Pretoria. Within a week, an opening date was set, posters were made and distributed, and work was installed. Barry’s sister, Hedwig, a Johannesburg-based artist at that time, was by coincidence visiting Durban and agreed to formally open the exhibition. This was the inaugural event for the now ‘officially’ named FLAT gallery. The show opened, and an alternative space in Durban was born.
Barry exhibited a collection of drawings and matchboxes. However, the presentation of these 2-D and 3-D elements was anything but conventional. Amoung the charcoal drawings were some works executed on large sections of an industrial fabric and some on ‘found’ roll paper. These hung free-floating, like banners, both horizontally and vertically. One panel, extended across the entire width of the main wall for a total length of about 5 meters, and on another wall hung strips from what had been a continuous drawing on a long roll of paper 20 cm wide.

Barry and Gainer 'installing' his exhibition at the FLAT 1993

THOMAS BARRY
Drawing installation
1993

Reminiscent of Surrealist work, in particular the cadavre exquis (exquisite corpse), the images were created through strange combinations of contradictory elements. Though the result of a single artist’s hand and not the multiple efforts of those who produced an exquisite corpse, the power of these collage-like images was also in part due to their ‘disjointed’ effect. The large scale of the drawings provided a vehicle for what appeared to be very spontaneous and direct, notebook-like drawings. Unframed, with the curled edges and the weight of the material evident, this rather casual presentation of these drawings asserted them as ‘objects’. Images included an absurd landscape, where monstrous figures cavorted in a scene full of violence and humor. Like shreds of some larger body of work, samples from a visual diary, it was as if the brain had connected directly to the hand to express itself in a language that was obsessive, complex and layered.

Along with the charcoal drawings, were a matchbox collection displayed along the upper skirting‑board and a series of playing cards gathered at random from the street. The matchboxes, numbering over 500, were placed end to end to create a frieze around the perimeter of the entire room. Like Duchamp’s famous ‘ready-mades’, the artworks were made by the simple choosing of an ordinary object and the changing of its context. The gesture in making the work began with a gathering and bringing of these items from the world into a gallery space, but their significance was not limited to mere re-contextualization. It was Barry’s habit to pick up discarded playing cards and matchboxes, and many in this collection showed evidence of markings and notes from their unknown previous owners. There was indeed an almost ‘performative’ component, where these items on display operated like archival evidence of a ‘throw-away’ history.

THOMAS BARRY
Installation with charcoal on fabric and found match-boxes.
1993

Also on exhibit were photographs documenting an installation of a work by Barry with cohorts near the Warwick Avenue Train Station earlier that year. These images emphasized the performative aspect of the project over mere documentation of the piece. Shot by Rensha Bouwer with harsh flash, the photos capture the guerrilla style, ‘hit-and-run’ character of the work. Indeed this clandestine activity was also recorded by a busload of American tourists who happened to be passing at that time. The images show the hanging of a banner over a concrete overpass in front of the railway station, and as with Barry’s found object collections displayed in the gallery, operated through a strategy of shifting context. In other words, the banner was a ‘found’ object, a Technikon Natal sign complete with name and coat of arms. A kind of ‘intervention’ occurred not only through the alteration of the existing text, which was ‘fudged’ to read, “What is Your Response?” [1]; but also through the shifting of the defaced banner to another public site. Upon what
would be a chance encounter outside any expectation of viewing ‘art’, a viewer might be unsure of the identity or purpose of the displaced banner. The transformation also included a broom attached
and a rope ladder hanging down from the bottom.

It is also worth noting that with this first exhibition a precedent began where exhibitors were not required to contribute cash to the general operating costs of the FLAT. This was the sole responsibility of the FLAT occupants. In an effort to offset the expenses, we attempted to sell alcohol at the first opening, but this endeavor proved to be unfruitful. (The ‘I-owe-you’s’ on the list outnumbered the art works!) The rental for the three-room apartment, at this time, was paid for by Moe, Jonker and myself.