By Marize Language
When one enters the NWU Art Gallery, you are immediately dragged into an adventure of colour and texture. Right next to the foyer of the gallery the magical work of Dr Colette Lotz unfolds before your eyes. Lotz is a local artist and academic in the Graphic Design subject group at the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University (NWU), and her work is truly extraordinary.
Her exhibition, Cumulonimbus, is part of this year’s Momentum Investments Aardklop, and Lotz’s art draws the viewer into a world of wonder and self-reflection. She uses her work to build a bridge between the physical and the metaphysical.
The title of her exhibition refers to the storm clouds gathering above us, an image Lotz captures in her photography and photographic digital manipulation in a masterful manner. Through various landscape images, taken on her smallholding just outside Potchefstroom, she creates dreamy, surrealistic landscapes that invite the viewer into a dream world. These scenes emphasise the central theme of contrasts in our existence – light and dark, reality and dreams, the spiritual and the natural. Each work of art offers a rich visual experience that invites the viewer to explore the different spaces and layers of nature and the psyche.
The composition of her works is also inspired by Rorschach ink-blot tests, encouraging viewers to not only observe the artwork, but also to reflect on their world of ideas, life, spirituality and reactions. Lotz’s aim with the works involves more than capturing an other-worldly visual experience; she also encourages a process of introspection. “I want the viewer to reflect on why they see what they do see,” she explains.
Cumulonimbus offers the art lover a spatial game of introspection and discovery, encouraging the viewer to reflect on life, the self and our place in nature. Lotz’s work asks the viewer – in her words – to “build your own story”.
Cumulonimbus has been nominated for Best Exhibition of this year’s Momentum Investments Aardklop Art Festival. The winners will be announced in November.
