Anatums lend its Abode for the development of work by the U.S streetartist Sirus Fountain
2 weeks into the process the show opened like a shrine would open up for visitors
people came and stayed, absorbing works that went beyond the visual but provided a setting to engage with the content matter, the place of their creation and the person whos care and vision brought all of this to reality, a reality spent for the next 72 hours
Anatums reluctancy to exhibit murials lead to the artist ex-tracting surfaces that inspired him.
– our rooftop,our secret and guilty skip and the neighbouring environment bore the now remodelled treasures. Sheets of metal and woods of all variations, chipped colours from decades and recent history Sirus deployed them as backdrops for his paintings and came to produce one three dimensional tableaux after the other.
while each is crafted from found material and fitted carefully into the space the content matter of each drawing points to the universal questions and faiths. faces of struggle and lines indicating the rawness of life and its roughness were formulised in bold strokes. they looked at us from the walls :
2 to 3 perspectives of a face in one. six eyes. 3 mouths and angles for the appearance of psychological depth. when asked who these people were Sirus said its travellers and homeless people. the hommage to those he met is hung along angels and figurative sculptures, arranged as if to protect us and them.
walking through the narrow corridors and turning left once more, crossing the garden, past the sauna into the yard before the emporium- the atmosphere was described like being in a church. a hall of greatness. green colours greeted below the black sky, seated on the concrete floor some simply remained : looking, listening, allowing time to pass out there.
the emporium was lit in reds and oranges, strikingly marking the passage. car lights shone through the sitetex wall and allowed the centerpiece to hold attention- now eyes were looking up and eyes were looking straight at you.
in the garden Lee Fükke’s piece kept glowing. once these forms were holding fire, reload wood ! burning away in the night, marking an important assembly point these volumpteaus shapes of metal wiring provide warmth and light.
the sizzeling formed an acoustic backdrop for mondane talk : as a longterm witness reported ! Beatrix Blaise was in the sauna at the time the fire burned. her body painted on by Sirus boasted eyes in striking white, her skin wore a silky faketan – call it bronze. she moved and froze to stillness surrounded by her installation : rusty metal on white hung in the sauna. Having embarked on a longdurational performance she felt like being the creep in the background, as she mused afterwards. people talked and stood and sat around the fire, the creep moved at times but mostly remained still. with painted eyes on places, she was breathing the night in its own right, pointing out presence in the performance’ subtlety.
the following days people returned, photos were taken. then Sirus work was taken down and moved. for once a street artist’s work could move.
and one frame remained. it is beautiful without the wheat pastings, its a three dimensional object assembled from different parts and its missing nothing. it speaks Sirus, who by now has started buidling a house out of wood on Anatum’s rooftop. And when you come inside the gallery the glass front hosts his scratching, leaving a shadow migrating with the sun.
