Wayne Vivier

"I have been using repetition as a device lately. It highlights the subtle differences between the copies and the contingency within the artmaking process. When taken together, I wonder if these repetitions reveal the truth more? Is this a way of seeing in more dimensions? Do I get a better sense of what is real?"

"The pervasive vertical pattern on the surface is like a text that speaks some unknown language. It speaks of a language that precedes and shapes our thought. This meta language, that functions mainly beyond our consciousness, precedes and shapes our reality. This pattern on the surface speaks of a text that makes all other text possible."

Wayne Vivier's work consists out of paintings inspired by exotic images from film and local images from his more immediate environment. The exotic and local images that he perceives are all mediated to some extent, and thus he believes that he often unknowingly labours in an ocean of untruth and uncertainty by the accumulated effects over time of this process. The act of painting is an ironic attempt at the redemption of the false content, or the 'broken images' that have formed.

The process of creating a film image or a photograph is very mechanical while the process of painting is very human and Vivier hopes that by translating the mechanical image into a human hand-made painting that some redemption may take place, and that some grain of truth will become embodied in the work as he invests his human-ness into it, and as he consciously or unconsciously finds pattern in the seemingly senseless experience of modern life. He hopes that the painting will take on something more than just the spreaded paint and that there will be a transformation into something that can be perceived as valuable

Wayne Vivier is an award winning artist practising in Pretoria, South Africa. He was born in 1976 in Welkom and raised in Pretoria. After obtaining a B. Sc Computer Science at UNISA and working as a software developer for six years in Johannesburg, he returned to Pretoria to continue his art studies at Tshwane University of Technology where he obtained his M. Tech Fine Arts in March 2011. He has held Nine solo/2-person exhibitions, participated in numerous curated exhibitions and national art competitions including, Sasol new signatures, ABSA l'Atelier, Thami Mnyele and State of the art gallery. He was awarded runner-up in the 'For the love of art' competition presented by Longstreet Art Lovers 1932 gallery in 2016. His work forms part of many public, private and corporate collections.

'Pareidolia' is recognising pattern in random arrangements. For example, seeing a face in a cloud. This is a very modern, or scientific approach. It is good example of how science secularises, 'sanitises' or 'sterilises' our perception. Is it a good or bad thing? I don't know. Probably both.

Wayne Vivier
"Local image #19"
2019

Initially painted from a photograph of the sky, this painting has taken on the appearance and reflection of a rippling pond. Its surface is like a mirror and it invites me to pass through into a different world that is more wonderous, larger and more solid than our modern world.

Acrylic on box-mounted board
60cm x 60cm
R 3 960
Click here for purchase enquiry

Wayne Vivier
"Film image #39"
2019

In a cold snowy and desolate landscape, a struggling shepherd herds his sheep uphill and from right-to-left across the bottom of the painting, indicating a process that is traumatic, effortful and going against the flow. This dramatic content is attenuated by the use of consoling blues and a rythmic texture. I find that this form resonates with me. In an article he wrote about Baudelaire, TS Eliot refers to a struggle from the natural to the spiritual that should be undertaken.

Acrylic on box-mounted board
30cm x 30cm
R 990
Click here for purchase enquiry

Wayne Vivier
"Film image #32" or 'Good boy'
2018

Words of affirmation from a higher being come at a rush for this good ram. His passion is under control for now. His startled heart is responding gaily and beating obediently. All his emotion compressed and concentrated to the bottom frame by the weight of what lies above. A world of significance and grounding purpose lies in the short distance between the giving mouth and his receiving ear.

Acrylic on block-mounted board
30cm x 30cm
R 990
Click here for purchase enquiry

Wayne Vivier
"Film image #1"
2013

The viewer is positioned on the outside looking in. Two trees on either side seem to threaten the idea of entering the gates. The mansion beyond the coutyard seems like a desirable place to be, since it is cold and snowy out. A sense of longing is created and the idea of its satisfaction. A mansion speaks of things like rich aristocratic families and of inheritance. Does this mansion belong to the viewer? Is he or she part of this family? Has he or she finally come home from a long and wearisome adventure?

Acrylic on block-mounted board
23cm x 41cm
R 990
Click here for purchase enquiry

Wayne Vivier
"Film image #21"
2017

I chose a square format here to evoke a sense of womb-like comfort. And in this space we encounter a woman holding something, a mysterious object, 'the unfathomable'. It indicates her role to undermine what appears as 'reality'. While her presence can be traumatic, without her, there is no hope of seeing beyond falsity that has become 'naturalized' and seen as the truth.

Acrylic on block-mounted board
50cm x 50cm
R 2 750
Click here for purchase enquiry