Walter Oltmann in the weave over three decades MyZA

In the Weave, an exhibition of works by Walter Oltmann, one of South Africa’s finest and most intriguing artists, opens at the Standard Bank Gallery on 29 January 2014.

Curated by Neil Dundas, In the Weave celebrates Oltmann’s output over the last three decades. It also explores his sources, inspirations and allusions to the exchange of concepts between cultures in southern Africa.

Although he is noted for his drawings, and also his prints, Oltmann is best known for his wire sculptures, for which he uses techniques which parallel handcrafts. Wire has long been his chosen medium. He was initially drawn to wire as a sculptural medium when he moved from Pietermaritzburg to Johannesburg to complete his postgraduate studies in fine arts. There he came across gabion structures – wire cages filled with rocks as a preventative measure against soil erosion – along mine dumps and embankments, which he considered as sculptural forms to explore. “The limitations of the weight of these forms,” he says, “soon directed me to using wire in itself as a medium.”

Oltmann’s sculptures, which may be understood as three-dimensional drawings using wire, are intricately worked in time-intensive and demanding processes related to weaving, basket-making, textiles and vessels. His wire sculptures explore, or relate to, African traditions in functional art, carpet- and rug-making in many cultures, or familiar domestic crafts often associated with the home, but with material and imagery that seem sometimes incongruous in relation to these activities.

Whether rendered with pencil and ink on paper, or made with wire, Oltmann’s exquisite works are a sensitive blend of finely observed natural forms and poetic social comment. His work reveals his fascination with the natural world, particularly seed-pods and insects, art history and its intersection with science, and, more recently, archaeology and unearthed human remains.

Oltmann’s imagery includes skulls, skeletons, cut flowers in vases, serpents, beetles, caterpillars, locusts, moths, silverfish and coelacanths. He has also produced work around the themes of ‘mother and child’, HIV/AIDS and hybridity, which accounts for his interest in the coelacanth, a fish with leg-like fins and said to be the common ancestor of all land animals. “I am intrigued,” says Oltmann, “by the mythology of surrounding the coelacanth as a ‘hybrid’ creature that has been claimed to represent an evolutionary transitional state between fish and land animal.”

Hybridity is also the theme of Oltmann’s “larva suits”, a series of sculptures and drawings that express his interest in the interface between human and insect, and which reflect on society’s preoccupation with defence. These works, which were initially derived from images of early European dress, are as much representations of abandoned pupae as uninhabited garments or suits of armour, and have been described as “humanoid protective exoskeletons”.

Many of Oltmann’s works are monumental and are scaled-up translations of small objects, such as insects. This startling distortion of scale that characterises much of his work renders the familiar unfamiliar, provoking the viewer to see these objects afresh.

In the Weave will offer new insights to those familiar with Oltmann’s work and is sure to serve as a rich source of inspiration for those who are yet to discover his powerful and intricate creations.

This exhibition runs until 29 March 2014, at the Standard Bank Gallery, corner of Simmonds and Frederick Streets, Johannesburg. The Gallery (Tel: 011 631 4467) is open Mondays to Fridays, 08:00-16:30; on Saturdays, 09:00-13:00; and is closed on Sundays and public holidays. Admission is free.