Mixed media on Fabriano paper,
97 x 70 cm
Mixed media on Fabriano paper,
57.5 x 67.5 cm
Elzaby Laubscher lives and works in Paarl. She was born in KwaZulu Natal and studied at the University of Pretoria, the Ruth Prowse College of Art and The Cape Town School of Photography.
She started working as an artist in 1987 and has held several solo exhibitions in Cape Town: at the AVA-Metropolitan Gallery (“Fragments”), at the Lipschitz Gallery (“Do we hear them cry?”) and at the Bell-Roberts Gallery (”Letsels”). These exhibitions have been drawings, mixed media and a limited amount of installation work. The solo exhibitions often dealt with social issues such as crime, violence and child abuse.
Her first exhibition of photographic work was shown in November /December 2007 at the Abalone Gallery in Hermanus titled “Nature’s Sketchbook”. Drawing is her passion and of this direction in her art she says: “I started discovering the elements of the art of drawing in nature and experienced the feeling of having a peep at the line drawings of a very special sketchbook”. Through controlled movement of the camera the challenge was the unpredictable.
She has also participated in numerous group exhibitions in South Africa and abroad.
Her work on paper was shown in July 2008 at the Abalone Gallery in a joint exhibition with Judith Mason’s pencil drawings, and her exhibition "Street-Soul" is currently on view there until the end of December 2011.
Oil paint on suspended acrylic panels. Panel size: 80 x 40 cm
Mixed media, 91 x 91 x 6 cm
Mixed media on stainless steel, 121 x 100 cm
The idea for this exhibition germinated with my long time fascination with graffiti. For many years I have been photographing the drawings, writings, textures, splatters and random mark-makings of graffiti.
I see graffiti as “layered art”. Many individuals share the same surface, superimposing their ideas, reactions, comments and images. Disregarding all rules and laws, “artworks” overlay and sometimes obliterate what is underneath. Resembling archeology: imagery, commentary and information are sandwiched together into a layered history of ideas.
I like the idea of layering. I like the notion of erasing, partially covering, superimposing, dripping, scratching into, painting over and the freedom of “no rules”. In this exhibition I try to capture the undercurrent, the evasive, and the invisible – the soul of our streets.
With the graffiti works my personal stamp starts when I take my photographs and I “crop” the graffiti image into a new composition. Taking the cropped image out of context creates new dynamics and my own image starts to germinate. I work the images by either adding my own layer digitally or physically scratching into or drawing onto the image.
My “street fascination” extended to the crowds that fill and “invade” the space between buildings.
Forming part of a dense mass of humans, people remain in their private little cells, insulated and “alone”. Using images of figures and faces I try to capture the isolated soul of the masses. I use cast shadows in the hanging of the works to accentuate the intangible.
As the body of work progressed street names imposed themselves onto the creative process. By reading the names of streets one goes into a mine of history and information. Our past, our present, our diversity, our patriotism and our stories, all get layered into the names of our streets. Again I enjoyed the notion of layered information in the form of street names.
With graffiti one discovers the unexpected on the unpredictable.
I prefer not using traditional surfaces and materials and attempt to capture the above, amongst others, with stainless steel, metal, perspex, resin and wire.
– Elzaby Laubscher
Mixed media on Fabriano paper, 98 x 71 cm
Perspex, printing ink on boxed stainless steel. Panel size: 60 x 60 x 6 cm
Mixed media on Fabriano paper,
75.5 x 57.5 cm
