Digital rendition of the original drawing of UVEA (5522) – which featured in Enclosure Fathom – Part-1 Exhibition. https://artshowroom.org/2020/11/21/enclosure-fathom-part-2-limited-edition-5517-n-bentvueghels-antartica-uvea-snow/
During the greatest part of 2020, humanity had ample time to investigate pataphysics. It is sometimes seen as ”a branch of philosophy or science that examines imaginary phenomena that exist in a world beyond metaphysics; it is the science of imaginary solutions.” Christian Bök is an experimental Canadian poet who defines a clinamen as the unpredictable swerve of atoms …..” the smallest possible aberration that can make the greatest possible difference.” A statement I feel very comfortable with, taking into account the size of a virus and its effects.
The situation brought people who were marginally present in each others lives into close quarters with each other in an unexpected manner. It brought great challenges to many: forget shopping or food or going out. It presented old age questions to light such as; if we as a species still know the difference between doves and vultures and intimacy versus mere proximity.
I was working on the text of a book, while part 2 of my solo exhibition ”Enclosure Fathom – Part 2” got postponed in both Mallorca and Mtskheta in Georgia during 2020. I was struck by how the intimacy versus proximity presented itself in my life as a whole, as an antimony at times quite paradoxically.
I then decided to publish this chapter of my forthcoming book as part of the exhibition to compliment this work:
ARTIST NOTES:
Enclosure Fathom Part 2: The Book
Chapter ?: Irina and her husband
A GATE – Jovan’s Childhood – THE VOID
“To wisely live your life, you do not need to know much.
Just remember two main rules for the beginning:
You better starve, than eat whatever.
And better be alone, than with whoever.”
– Omar Khayyám, Rubaiyat –
The padlock around the front gate was rusted and the shiny particles that
glistened rolled up, and aged, showed up, the silver paint, like fools gold
which simply gave up their defense over a long period of time, like the rest.
The entrance revealed signs of the decided,
absence of an everyday life-force.
The dilapidated wooden gate at the rear exit to the workers property had
the tedious – used look
of an old, comfortable lover, present and functional but not cared for or
loved and or
not cared for in any other way. The little boy drove the gate on a daily basis,
dreaming about
the streets of London and liberation from the backwater small town, he the
only ‘significant other’ in
the gate’s life.
The boy was tall for his age and his shiny hair and the quiet, solemn calm
look in the depths of his
bright eyes always belied the burning effervescence effect in his heart
every time he climbed on top of the gate.
The two extremes that would haunt him all his life.
Sometimes he had been curious about how high he would have to take the
gate; before the rusted parts
would tear open at its screws and make him fly into the air to ‘fairyland’.
He could not see past the old Mostar bridge, but he always dreamed of a
land of gold only,
opposite it. He dreamed how he would leave one day. Jovan came from a
very rich family. Yet, yet
he regularly chose, rather to frequent the parts of the property that were
strictly speaking, enclosed, and set aside where only his father’s servants
were supposed to enter.
Even by modern standards, the Milkovich’s were stinking rich. Jovan’s
father had a hand in every,
possible cause or business throughout the country and was a politician on
top of that as well.
Late one evening the older Milkovich sat listening, as his son complained
about the women of the village and
what they did with their afternoons; instead of making more intelligent use
of their time. His father looked over the
circled, oily spectacle frames and grinned: ‘..and you think you are
intelligent, see yourself as justified and equipped
to rip people apart and still ask for your mother’s sympathy while you do
it?’
“Is it just your hobby or ” yes Jovan’s mother completed the rest of the
sentence for him …. ” he has a day job”.
”That of a silly, pumped full of hormones, 13 year old- still-fish-yet-flesh-
young man ”.
“Just zoom in a bit …… .. earth to Baba !!!!!’’ …….. ( The beautiful woman’s
face was brightly lit with barely concealed anger). ’’I can cry in a sop
bucket, he was just talking about the women who were once again
burningly curious, and full of empty gossip today; instead of being of good
and kind service to the community! ”.
Jovan’s father despised his wife for petting the boy like a baby – “you
Russians always stick together..he he! Sticky, always sticky, you Russians!”
“It’s what you get for lust working up between cabbage heads on a heat
wave – floating roof! Little Babuschka mommy-‘s-old-boy ……. ”
The boy felt great anger well up in him, so much so that he left the room
trembling like a chicken feather leaf in the red dusty wind rolling in from
above the mountain on view.
He hated his father. Had hated him for a long time, young as he was. Just
the gate and he knew how long already. It was the gate whom he spoke to,
with whom he escaped to a future on his magic carpet.
One day he would go away by himself and own his own tour company, one
that can visit previous centuries so that he can miss everything in his family
he hated and fix what needed fixing and find the woman of his dreams.
The boy’s mother just stood up and said with downcast eyes – ” be careful
not to drown in the vodka, even ‘cabbage heads’ know when they are
looking at a drowning rotten piece of ‘castle’.
His father was a dream thief. His ignorance /is /was encyclopedic.
– Abba Eban –
Dedicated with everlasting love to – Jovan Izakov Milkovich –
”One day you shall remember”
The entire world shall be populous with that action which saves one soul
from despair.
– Omar Khayyam –
Copyrighted: 2001 – Sharmaine T. Pretorius
P.S. To me the work is a practical example of how wrong we can get things in our collective families. We can vulture off the beautiful smells of mother’s cooking and father’s money or a child’s brilliance or looks, but we have to learn to discern how intimacy and proximity really relate to each other in real time and the clinamenic effect of every unloving or unkind word spoken in jest or on purpose. I have found that out of all things, love is the greatest, but love with healthy sound boundaries which inevitably leads to intimacy versus mere proximity.
Artist statement
SHARMAINE THÉRÈSA PRETORIUS [SHARM. T. P]
The artist was born, on 16 November 1963, in the Republic of South Africa. She has been residing in the Sultanate of Oman since 2010. Her penname is ‘Ilza’.A prodigy with the gift ‘to see in the spiritual realm’ without any formal art training.https://facesoman.com/the-essence-of-an-extraordinary-gifted-mind/A synesthete trying to incorporate her experiences in order to live as normal a life as possible.https://lifeasahuman.com/2018/arts-culture/art/holographic-memories-visualised-in-art/She counts ancestors from Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.The artist has been drawing for the past thirteen and a half years.Skilled in neurological psychology, medical and forensic science, aviation mechanics, and management as well as multi-cultural mediation, negotiation, and adaptability, holding more than 600 continuing education credits, spread over safety and security, health, and emergency service fields.The artist is CEO of her own company, specializing in research (data science) across various subject matter, mostly in cyberspace, as a service to a confidential client base.This allows her to work flexible hours, as she has to continuously consider her health situation. https://theweek.co.om/?p=2344She sells her art by invitation only.She completed one public exhibition in February 2018: ‘Enclosure Fathom Part 1’ and, Enclosure Fathom Part 2 – will follow in December 2019 and 2020, across three different countries: Nizwa, Sultanate of Oman, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUaTiHtf8bs Mallorca, Spain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmdafYD2YyY and Mtskheta, Georgia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfllgjdMSX8 .She recently completed an exhibition of two of her works, namely, ‘’I Wanna be A Star Walker (2008)” & ”The Rose Revisited: The Floating Matrix (2006)” as part of the ”Contemporary Landscape 2019” group exhibition at Cica Museum from 01/11/2019 to 17/11/2019. https://artshowroom.org/2019/11/12/contemporary-landscape-2019-cica-museum-11-1-11-17-2019/She signs her work on the bottom of each picture or photograph as well as at the back, and adds one blue rose to the end product – see (5520) A.A holographic security patch sticker is affixed to each work upon its sale, unique to the artist, and securely coded.ARTIST STATEMENT:
The artist is fascinated by the codes which program us biologically. Her work is a personal interpretation of Vanitas, using Chladni style vibrational sound waves collected directly from the spiritual realm.A touch of Edward Collier exhibits another layer of the artistic, inspirational spectrum. She sees herself as merely an interpreter, an observer of what ‘simply is’, seeing her work as a puzzle, a map and a musical composition.Most of the works in this collection, are of A4 size, created with a combination of coloring pens, wool, and fine calligraphy pens, and watercolor paint.She creates drawings and later photograph them and rework them to reflect what she really sees. Her drawings are just postage stamps, ’emoticons’ / blueprints of what she actually experiences on a much bigger scale.She has 40 collections on backlog, which she has completed over the years.The artist worked on the collections while in the Republic of South Korea, and has continued working on it throughout her travels which have included Japan, the Republic of South Africa, Hong Kong, New Delhi in India, & Shanghai – Zulijiao in the Republic of China, Sultanate of Oman, Russia, Georgia, Turkey, Armenia etc.
Dwell Time 
3 thoughts on “Enclosure Fathom Part 2: Limited Edition: 5517 N – Bentvueghels Antartica – Uvea Snow by Sharmaine Thérèsa Pretorius”