Prolific artist Diek Grobler is always creating and busy with different art projects, each of which feeds the other. DIANE DE BEER popped in to his studio for a visit to see what he’s up to and what is exciting him at the moment. It is never just one thing and it changes frequently:
Self-portrait 1 and 2.
When you visit artist Diek Grobler in his studio (now at his home), he is hard at play. And his current object of desire making demands on his time is his latest most precious piece of equipment called a pinscreen.
There are only a handful of these animation machines in the world, and for the longest time, Diek has been playing with the idea of being one of those exclusive artists who could work on what he calls the slowest animation tool in the world.
The artist at play on his latest animation tool, the pinscreen.
Being one of our most avid and successful animators (amongst all his other artistic accomplishments), he has been visiting different animation festivals around the world. It was at one of these where he first saw and lost his heart to the pinscreen. And he was really at the festival to pitch his most recent animation film Laaste Woord (Last Word).
It took quite a while for him to take action, but when it means you have to sell your studio to make that final move, that’s what it takes. And even though that sounds pretty drastic, that’s what artists do when they are driven to create.
This is how he explains this latest acquisition: “It’s a screen with 100 000 pin-sized holes with very thin needles stuck into them. The screen is lit from a particular angle and the needles throw shadows. They are manipulated by the artist from the back and front of the screen to ‘paint’ a picture.”
(Here’s Wikipedia’s explanation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinscreen_animation#The_animation_technique)
Pinscreen images: Human volcano (left) and Three domesticated foxes on a field trip.
It’s painstakingly slow but quite magnificent to watch the picture emerge. And what intrigued this particular animator is that it has taught him to draw in a new and different way. You can see his eyes light up as he explains to someone with no clue how the contraption works.
But I can see the results, both in the artist and on the pinscreen. And as he is mostly teaching himself, learning by trial and error, he is going to develop new techniques and applications for years to come. I have long been a Grobler fan and can’t wait to see how it is going to influence his work.
Already with his upcoming exhibition at the Association of Arts Pretoria on October 7, he will be showing some of the stills he has made.
And while it seems to be all-consuming at the moment, don’t think this is it. Another endeavour that keeps him busy is genius because it serves many purposes. For quite some time now, Diek has found a novel yet artistic way to make money which he then uses to finance bigger ventures.
He makes an artwork every day, postcard size and quite exquisite. These he sells online to the first bidder, each one for R500. It sounds easy, I know, until you have to do it. Come up with a particular concept, execute it and have it be good enough to send into the world. This current series is titled Stories of Sunlight and Shadow. What he enjoys is the immediacy, the spontaneity and even the reimagining from other work.
Diek says he has put some out there that he personally didn’t like, yet sent them anyway and someone loved them. Even artists don’t always like what they produce, which doesn’t mean that there’s no artistic merit. I have watched longingly as these tiny nuggets appear and are snapped up before I can react. And when something hasn’t sold, he might always rework or repurpose it at another stage.
But back to the exhibition, which is titled Déjà Vu, and the name suggests everything about the intent of the artist. “It came very easily,” says Diek who buys into the thinking that there’s nothing new in the world that hasn’t been done somewhere else or even by yourself.
And yet in quite novel fashion he was inspired to paint in more colourful fashion by a particular need. “I still had paint left, but in the brightest colours I don’t often use. I decided to use these before I went out to purchase even more,” he explains.
As I looked at the work, I knew there was something different but couldn’t put my finger on it … immediately. The style was perhaps a touch busier than usual, the stories more layered and then there’s this shock of colour. Diek notes that he’s always been an admirer of the German painter Max Beckmann, described as a draughtsman, printmaker, sculptor and writer.
It is especially his compositions that intrigued him. “He positions people, for example, where they shouldn’t be,” says Diek and when you see his latest work, you will see what he means.
He is also an MA supervisor at the Open Window University in Zambia, which he enjoys and then, because of his travels to various animation festivals, he has become a popular speaker specifically on South African animation across the world. He has a particular soft spot for a festival in Zagreb (Capital of Croatia) and a Chinese visitor who attended a talk of his, has invited him to speak at a festival in China at the end of October .
Clockwise: Chorus line: Harbour guard; Flotilla.
In the meantime, he is also spending two months (November and December) at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris where the Association of Arts, Pretoria has two apartments. His new toy will not be traveling along so Diek will be practising and working with the concept palimpsest (something reused or reworked but still bearing traces of its earlier self) for the next Venice Biennale in April 2024.
Take a breath, and let’s return to Déjà Vu which is first on the agenda. “It was all about taking stock of all the things I’ve worked on,” he says. And that’s quite something but if you know his work, you will recognise that distinctive Diek Grobler touch – yet with a new edge. And that’s exactly what artists do. They find a way of changing and developing while always holding on to their very particular style.
Diek Grobler is no different and I love it!
Diek Grobler – Déjà Vu
6 October to 28 October 2023
Association of Arts Pretoria
173 Mackie Street
Nieuw Muckleneuk
Tel: 012 346 3100 | artspta@mweb.co.za | www.artspta.co.za
Gallery Hours
Tuesday to Friday: 09:00 to 17:00
Saturday: 09:00 to 13:00
De Beer Necessities 