BIOGRAPHY:
Currently living and working in Johannesburg Beth Diane was born in South African in 1985. In 2010, she completed, with distinction, her Masters of Fine Art at Rhodes University. Rhodes bought her BFA exhibition, Hibernation, for their permanent collection. Armstrong has partaken in several solo exhibitions, a number of group shows and projects locally and internationally, as well as being included is various private and public collections. Some recent highlighted commissions include the completion of a large permanent public artwork Flag in Oostvoorne, in the Netherlands, commissioned by the Kern Kunst Westvoorne Foundation and her most recent Page for National English Literary Museum, a 10-ton outdoor sculpture, in Grahamstown, South Africa. Armstrong was awarded the prestigious Standard Bank Young Artist Award 2017- Visual Arts in South Africa for 2017.
Artist Statement
Beth Diane Armstrong
(b. 1985 Nelspruit, South Africa)
Sculpture, for me, is a space to explore the feeling of one’s body in relation to an object. Functional objects quite obviously explore this relationship. What is functional or non-functional is debatable especially in this strange-expanding-spacescape of life. I believe there should always be room for the obvious and non-obvious in all things.
I am always looking. I read mathematical, philosophical, scientific and medical books that go over my head. Seeking the big, grand, rushing feeling of grasping-and-not-grasping. Pushing always into the unknown. Whatever I am looking for, a fascination with density and looseness is the lens through which I see the world. It’s about how I physically and mentally feel on this earth: things are intense and then blunt, real and then unreal, meaningful and then meaningless. I am in this dynamic tension with my materials too. There is a give and take, a push and pull, an expansion and contraction – a density and looseness to working with steel. It takes a lot as it is a very demanding material: it’s heavy; it’s hot; it’s hard; it behaves unpredictably; it exhausts me. But it gives me so much back, in its permanence and reliability.
Beth Diane Armstrong 2017
Images and Information Sourced From:
https://www.everard-read-capetown.co.za
My Thoughts:
It seems I have trees on my mind this week. Perhaps because I have my neighbors tree roots that have collapsed my boundry wall and it seems to be of little urgency to him. So, make shift planks and wedges to stop the dogs from getting to each other.
Yes. Trees, tree roots and amazing tree sculptures
Beth's approach to the same subject as my previous post is different though. Nic uses bronze, silver and painstakingly colours the sculptures to create essentially a 'copy' of the real thing.
Beth uses hard steel and welding, contrasting the fine welded wire of the trees and roots. Contrasting organic shapes with strong architectural forms.
Some of her sculptures are small dainty while other tower high above your head.
Some are sculpture for the sake of artistic sculpture, while others are functional pieces.
Contrast within contrast. Realism and abstract.
It's the greatest thing about art. Two or a dozen artists can be working on the same subject and yet they can have such different approaches.
Both skilled.
Both beautiful.
There is no end to the humans imagination and it's this imagination that creates variety, ingenuity, invention and artist lead the way, so the rest of the world can follow. Artists bring the message and the rest of the world find a way to solve the issues artists put before them. They may not always feel that their message is being heard, but it is...we are listening...aren't we?
Contact Beth Diane Armstrong
Cell: 071 689 0561
Email: bethdiane.armstrong@gmail.com
Website: www.bethdianearmstrong.com