Barnard Gallery is pleased to present Sarah Biggs debut solo exhibition Further afield.
The Field. Open to interpretation, yet marked by distance, this space thrives on the unanswered. It is a point of departure and for some, a return. It is over there. The natural environment of natural environmentalists. The great outdoors. Your observation station.
Have located site for survey. Somewhat further afield, but shows potential for extensive sampling. The terrain, although foreign, holds promise. Conditions seem favourable. May need more string.
At its simplest, distance marks the length of space between two points. It speaks of time and place and the intervals between. A little deeper and it separates further; becomes the condition of being far off. It turns to detachment, and enters into the realm of objectivity and scientific observation – a chosen breadth to measure and record; a point of reference; a wetted width. How long?
Yet that human presence remains enduringly hard to shake. The engrossing task at hand needs and necessitates its surroundings. To measure is to ascribe value. It is an activity that fills gaps. It is an intervention and an act of determination. To quantify is to provide significance to the smallest of acts. It’s in the details. The same could be said for painting. A space to be measured; to measure oneself by.
Sarah Biggs graduated (with distinction) from the Michaelis School of Fine Art in 2013 where she received the Judy Steinberg Award for painting. In 2015 she won the TASA Award. Presented by the Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg and the Sylt Foundation this award takes the form of a two-month residency at the Sylt Foundation’s headquarters on the island of Sylt, Germany and is awarded annually to an emerging artist living in South Africa.
The artist’s work has been included in a number of group exhibitions to date including Picture & Paper (Barnard Gallery, 2015); Then & Now: Conversations in Time (Barnard Gallery, 2015); Surface: Emerging Painters (Barnard Gallery, Cape Town, 2015); The Claims of the Land (Association for Visual Arts, Cape Town, 2014); Golden Haze (Salon91, Cape Town, 2014); Paint Matters (Barnard Gallery, Cape Town, 2014); Distance (Salon91, Cape Town, 2014) and Greatest Hits 2013 (Association for Visual Arts, Cape Town, 2014). Her work was presented by Barnard Gallery at the 2015 Cape Town Art Fair and also featured in the 2015 Sydney Contemporary, one of Australasia’s leading art fairs.