Rodan Kane Hart

"Western Death Mask(s)’ is an ongoing series of figurative inspired stainless steel sculptures. Although figurative in their origin the works are abstract in their final representation. Made out of mirror polished stainless steel, each work has been moulded from mass produced pedagogical classical Roman busts found at art stores in Shanghai, China. A main focus in my practice revolves around ideological traces within physical context, notably prevalent in colonial city planning and architecture. And through these physical structures one is able to read the history of contextual transformation. I found interest in the plaster of paris busts as they seemingly reinforce western traditions of formalism within contemporary Chinese art education. The works seek to explore the proliferation of the European convention of portrayal and aesthetics, exposing the constructed implications of colonialism and European dominance in places such as South Africa and China. The title ‘Western Death Mask’ alludes to the emblematic dismantling, distortion and failures of the western canon of depiction and representation. In a sense ‘Western Death Mask(s)’ lay to rest the trauma of the past by memorialising the symbolic death of the west, and with the use of reflection the viewer is unwittingly implicated as an active participant in the construction and remembrance of history." (Rodan Kane Hart)

"In exploring Shanghai one of the first objects I found was a plaster of Paris reproduction of a classical bust. This Western object within the Eastern context spoke to me, especially coming from a post colonial country such as South Africa. I coupled this bust with a very thin stainless steel and created a series of what I called Western Death Mask(s). The title alludes to the abstracted and disfigured representation of aesthetics, creating an almost death mask of previous conventions of beauty, ideology and representation. The trace I left at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel was in fact the first iteraction of what would become the display at the Venice Biennale." (Rodan Kane Hart)