aaaah to own a piece by Kirsten Sims. that is my dream. Kirsten’s solo shows are an expression of where she is in her life. this year she turns 30, so her new show is called Saturn Return – an ode to the astrological period that occurs in a person’s late 20s as they move into full adulthood in their 30s.
The planet Saturn takes 29,5 years to orbit the sun and return to the place in the sky that it occupied at the time of one’s birth. The Saturn Return is known to be a time of tumultuous transition and self-reflection. The show is inspired by this phenomenon and characterises a progression in Kirsten’s art and process. The body of work stems from a place of self-knowing, and materialises with a confidence to test new techniques and colours; to make marks boldy. As a whole the works are bigger. Kirsten plays with scale both in terms of canvas size and the subjects within the frame: a giant rug is hung from a wall looming over a string of tiny people that walk beneath it; people at an art exhibition are engulfed in flecks of abstract red paint that have left the frame. As ever in Kirsten’s paintings, place is significant in Saturn Return: both recognisable (a European cafe scene, a public swimming pool in Sea Point) and imagined. In some works natural landscapes show an absence or hint of human activity and in other works her signature characters fill the scene in a flurry of interaction and fashion at a soiree or garden party. Each gives the distinct feeling that you have been here, or felt this, before.
debuting at Cape Town gallery Salon 91 today, here are some of my favourite pieces – to see the rest you will have to visit the gallery! and if you want to own one of these beauties you’d better act fast, because they sell out like hot cakes… the pieces really are very big, most of these are 1,2m in length.