Notes Archives - Page 2 of 22

A Package in the mail

Today a brown paper wrapped package showed up with a manuscript inside. A message from a woman who translated and wrote down stories of other women. As I peel off the paper I imagine the trapped voices inside ready to vapor fill my room. The first paragraph starts….”These stories are maps for the interior journey. The journey that reveals that which is most feared, the journey that demands always going forward, many times alone to recover lost pieces of soul as the resources of the inner feminine are found and claimed. ~ Irene Sullivan”….and I am gone, drifting through these pages. Ready to listen to these tales.

By Anja Marais|2017-05-02T12:52:20-04:00October 13th, 2015|

I am just making.

The following story was recorded in a Japanese teaching:

Once there were three people who took a walk in the country. They happened to see a man standing on a hill. One of them said, “I guess he is standing on the hill to search for lost cattle“. “No“, the second said, “I think he is trying to find a friend who has wandered off somewhere“. Whereas the third said, “No, he is simply enjoying the summer breeze“. As there was no definite conclusion, they went up the hill and asked him. “Are you searching for strayed cattle?” “No“, he replied. “Are you looking for your friend?” “No,” again. “Are you enjoying the cool breeze?” “No“, yet again. “Then why are you standing on the hill?” “I am just standing“, was the answer.

Sometimes I am just making. To make in the moment without the trappings of doctrines.

By Anja Marais|2017-07-12T13:01:37-04:00October 12th, 2015|

It is 5am.

My favorite hour in my studio. No phone. No bugging. No voices pulling me from my task.

Just me and the dancing lies in my head. It is easier to slaughter the lie in the morning before it has time to camouflage itself during the day.

The shortcomings in your art shows up in the morning light. Rosacea over canvas. No excuses, fix it.

By Anja Marais|2017-07-12T13:01:37-04:00October 10th, 2015|

To deepen your art practice.

The idea that art is simply a way to exhibit and to be seen leaves my chest empty.

The idea that art creates a safe haven to connect with something in you that is greater than yourself makes me hopeful.

To create something that aspire silences rather than buzz. To hold the ideas of the ancient in my right hand and ideas of the contemporary in my left.

Evergreen art is few and far apart. The charming, loud and trendy have long winters ahead of them.

There is so much to learn and respect. Not enough time.

So be in your studio more than you are at the bar, attend to your studio practice more than you do your tv, work in your studio more than your job.

Only then will the waters become clear and the fish will appear.

By Anja Marais|2017-07-12T13:01:37-04:00October 9th, 2015|

The Berth (Ballast Nº 2) – Solo Exhibition

The Berth (Ballast Nº2), Solo Exhibition by Anja Marais
30th September – 20th November
Artist’s reception: Wednesday, September 30 from 4 – 6 pm
Guggenheim Hall / Mariani Gallery
1819 8th ave, Greeley, Colorado

The Mariani Gallery is proud to present the solo exhibition of multidisciplinary contemporary South African artist Anja Marais entitled “The Berth (Ballast Nº2 )” at the School of Art and Design, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, Colorado.

Anja Marais will take over the Mariani Gallery with her installation “The Berth (Ballast Nº2)” The installation will create an environment that questions the experience of change, stagnation, and our ability to embrace surrender. Anja’s work builds an intricate visual poem into the space that brings forth a feeling of contemplation and longing.

The elements of this installation can be broken down into moving images, sculpture work, and photographic mixed media. The moving image work is a sepia stop animation created and filmed in St. Petersburg Russia and follows a female that through acceptance of her burden, surrenders herself over to nature.

Through the sheer projection of the stop animation you will be aware of a sculpture in the space, a women that is caught mid state between flight and stagnation, her head a ship ready to sail but her body anchored by rocks.

On the walls of the gallery we have photographic mixed media that is transformed still images of the stop animation work. We are given an intimate look at our female that moves through states of fluidity (water) and stagnation (stone). Among these wall works is an installation of found antique oval frames encasing broken down fragments of the texture of water.

Water as subject has been a frequently recurring theme in Anja Marais’ work, functioning as an object of philosophical inquiry, a proxy towards reflection.

Considering herself a storyteller, Anja Marais’ work goes beyond the linear prediction of events by delving into her own consciousness to bring about a new perspective on subjectivity and our relationship to how the rest of the world experience itself. As the viewer moves through the installation, the boundaries of the dream world and reality dissolves with the interplay of moving image, painted surfaces, and sculptural object.

The imagery of stone and water in “The Berth (Ballast Nº2)”, creates a dense web of visual, literary and philosophical relationships which investigate issues of change, surrender and acceptance through the space of multidisciplinary installation. The exhibition will close on November 20th.

Anja Marais’ work is included in the permanent collections of the Miami Museum of Contemporary Art, The Washi Museum in Japan, the Kronstadt History museum of St Petersburg Russia among others. She currently works from her studio in Miami, Florida.

By Anja Marais|2017-07-11T00:08:17-04:00September 25th, 2015|