Important South African & International Art, Decorative Arts & Jewellery

Live Auction, 14 March 2016

Session 4
  • David Brown; Thomas and the Boneyard


Lot Estimate
ZAR 120 000 - 160 000

About this Item

South African 1951-2016
Thomas and the Boneyard
bronze casting, stainless steel, copper, brass, wood, glass and found objects
approximately 450 by 260 by 140cm

Notes

In Thomas and the Boneyard David Brown likewise encourages playful exploration, but closer examination of the work exposes sinister undertones. Toy trains reminiscent of childhood innocence contrast with references to the trains that carried the condemned to concentration camps. Chilling reverberations of the holocaust raise the spectre of apartheid in South Africa and its devastating impact. Through a range of autobiographical investigations the artist prompts a voyage of discovery that leads one alternately through evocative associations of everyday life and the darkest moments of the twentieth century. Employing construction, welding, bronze casting, carving, and found objects, this work embodies a history of contemporary sculptural processes.

Exhibited

The 1st Spier Outdoor Sculpture Biennial, 2001/2002.

Literature

Paul Edmunds. (ed.) (2001/2002) Spier Outdoor Sculpture Biennial, Stellenbosch: Spier. Illustrated in colour on a double-page spread, unpaginated.

Emma Bedford. 'Common Ground: The Case for Public Art' in Edmunds. Ibid, unpaginated:

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