Cape Town-based artist Geena Wilkinson will show a selection of artworks at the Boschendal Norval Foundation Art Gallery in early March.
Her work uses traditional fine-art mediums, often with food as the subject. In this exhibition, Wilkinson features a series of sculptural pieces, using a range of media; hand-cast resin, ceramic and oil on cement.
Exploring ideas of domesticity, preservation, utopia and reality, here Wilkinson explores concepts of desire and beauty through the lens of hunger. Focused on the duality of hunger and satisfaction, wanting and restriction, Wilkinson uses sweets to engage with ideas of consumption and addiction.
Large hand-cast resin Gummy Bears fill the space, alongside familiar Liquorice Allsorts, Fizz Pops, Lovehearts, biscuits and candy. Viewers are invited to connect with personal memories around these sweets, perhaps nostalgic recollections that evoke a sense of home and contentment.
The enlargement of these sweets heightens our fantasy to touch and taste each piece, stirring a longing and desire in the viewer. Exhibited together, these works invoke a saccharine fantasy, evoking ideas of gluttony and over-consumption. In this, Wilkinson points to our bodily hunger and questions if what we desire is truly satiable. She questions our lust for foods that cannot nourish us and provide only a perpetual longing for the next taste.
Wilkinson suspends the viewer in a state of hunger, longing but never consuming.
Hunger is available to view at the Boschendal Manor House Gallery from 1 March to 13 April 2023. Entrance to the exhibition is free. Artworks are available for sale at the gallery, please enquire via gallery@boschendal.co.za for more information.
